Carnival Read online

  “Wife?” Lou asked, leveling him with a stare.

  “Only family is allowed to access medical information and make decisions on your behalf.”

  “Couldn’t you just hack into their systems?” It hurt to talk. Not only because her neck throbbed but because her mouth was incredibly dry.

  “I wanted to be in the room with you.” He placed his face in his hands.

  Lou closed her eyes. The morphine was pressing at the edges of her brain, making her eyes heavy. She wanted to go back to sleep.

  Konstantine’s deep voice drew her to consciousness again.

  “Do you know how painfully slow an airplane ride feels when the woman you love is dying?”

  “I’ve never been in love with a woman. And I don’t fly.”

  His lips twitched. He settled against the back of the chair and sighed. “Would you like to know about Fish or the shopkeeper first?”

  “She has a name.”

  “I know,” he said. “But it is difficult for me to say.”

  “Melandra.”

  “Yes, but I meant without cursing it. She nearly killed you.”

  “It was an accident.”

  “Which is why she is alive and well. King needed only a little help making sure that there was no evidence against her.”

  Something in Lou’s chest relaxed. It was either relief or the morphine was working nicely.

  Konstantine continued, unaware.

  “Fish has been arrested and charged for murder. He confessed after two days of interrogation. King called this normal, saying he is a megomaniac.”

  “Megalomaniac.” Lou’s tongue raked over her dry lips. “Can I have some water?”

  Konstantine called out in Italian, and Stefano’s face appeared in the hospital door.

  “Acqua, per favore.”

  Stefano disappeared again.

  “He loves to do your bidding,” Lou said.

  Konstantine’s lips quirked. “For a very high price.”

  “How high?” Lou asked. “Because I can fetch water too.”

  Each sarcastic quip seemed to loosen Konstantine’s shoulders, forcing them back down away from his ears.

  “His case is going to court, and the families now have a chance at peace. King says this was your objective. So, congratulations.” Konstantine adjusted the watch on his wrist. “What happened with the woman?”

  “Diana?”

  “Yes.”

  “She told me that she’s a hunter like me.”

  “Is she?” Konstantine rubbed his chin. “This isn’t surprising. I can’t imagine you’re the only woman like this in the world. She must be jealous of your gifts.”

  “She doesn’t know about them.”

  “I would keep it that way.”

  Lou tried to find the best position for her head, but no matter how she turned it, she was uncomfortable. “What about Mel’s husband?”

  “In prison, and the divorce is in process.”

  The door slid open and Stefano appeared with a Styrofoam cup of water. He delivered it to Konstantine.

  Konstantine scooted his chair closer to the bed, angling the straw so Lou could drink.

  She scowled at him.

  “If you try to hold it yourself you may drop it.”

  With a stifled cry, she leaned forward and accepted the water.

  “You look like you’re in a lot of pain. I see it in your eyes.”

  “You’re observant,” she murmured between drinks.

  He frowned. “Is there anything I can get you? Is there anything you want?”

  Lou snorted. “I want to fuck you.”

  Definitely the drugs talking, she thought distantly.

  Stefano exited the room with his eyebrows raised and closed the door behind him.

  “I recommend we wait until you’re healed.”

  “You’re no fun. Maybe I like the pain.”

  He cocked his head. “You could have done it before. I made that perfectly clear.”

  “I didn’t want you to fall in love with me.”

  He laughed. “I love how honest you are when you’re high.”

  She leaned back with a grimace. It was very hard to get comfortable, and she’d begun to itch. Nowhere specific, but all over. Her scalp. Her chest. Her flesh crawled.

  “It’s too late, you know,” he said after trying to help her adjust the pillows. “I’m already in love with you.”

  “Don’t.” She scowled. This was not helping her discomfort. “People in love want to get married, they want kids. I don’t want any of that.”

  “Would you believe me if I said I only want to love you? I’m not asking for anything else.”

  Lou said nothing.

  “Is it really so hard to believe? Or do you think you’re incapable of love?” he asked, unable to let it go.

  “People like me—like Fish—we don’t love.”

  He frowned. “You aren’t like the men you kill, amore mio. You loved your father, your mother, your aunt. You love your friends.”

  Lou grimaced, scratching at her chest with the unbound hand. “Maybe not my mother.”

  He sat back and crossed one knee over the other. “If you don’t love me, that’s fine. But that doesn’t mean you can’t love.”

  Love them while you can. They’ll outlive you.

  Lou closed her eyes. It was impossible to keep them open anymore. She tried to remember what Lucy was wearing in the dream, but it was fading, and fading fast. Had her feet been in the water? Had it been nighttime? Was the pool lit from within? Lou thought so.

  “You scared me,” Konstantine whispered.

  “I’ll keep scaring you,” she said, without opening her eyes.

  “I’m sure you will.”

  39

  King lifted the paczki from its brown pastry box, delighting in the way the dough gave softly under his touch. When he bit into it, warm raspberry jelly oozed out onto his tongue, and powdered sugar coated his lips. He was in heaven. He moaned with happiness.

  Piper snorted beside him, leaning over the black wrought-iron railing. “That good, huh?”

  “You want to split one?” Dani asked, looking up from the box.

  King wanted to object and claim the entire dozen for his own, but that hardly seemed like appropriate Fat Tuesday spirit. And he hadn’t bought the donuts. Mel had.

  The four of them were waiting on the balcony, watching the crowds jostle below in anticipation of the upcoming parade.

  “Yeah, I’ll split one,” Piper said, grinning at her. “You pick.”

  Dani tucked her hair behind her ear. “They all look so good.”

  “Yes, they do,” Mel agreed, crossing and uncrossing her legs from her chair. She readjusted the rectangular card on her clipboard. It was The Devil, in progress. Most of the lean man’s face was hidden beneath a tipped hat, but Mel had given him a ghost of a smile.

  “It’s coming along,” Piper said, peering over Mel’s shoulder. “It’s going to be cool as hell when you add color.”

  “Cool as hell,” Dani snorted, finally selecting a paczki from the box. “Was that an intentional pun?”

  She was about to bite into her selected paczki when she frowned, leaning over the balcony. “Someone’s here.”

  Everyone turned.

  A black car rolled up to the curb. The driver’s side door opened first, and Konstantine stepped out into the throng of people, politely excusing himself as he pushed through. The doors on either side of the backseat opened, and two men stepped out onto the street.

  They formed a buffer of space around the passenger side door, but it was Konstantine who opened it.

  Piper choked on her bite. “Shit, it’s Lou.”

  “I’ll get her,” Mel said, rising from her seat.

  But Piper, red-faced, was waving her back down. She was through the doors and out of sight before anyone could object.

  “That’s a Maserati,” Dani said, and whistled.

  Mel barely looked up from the car
d as she bent closer to add another line to the devil’s hat.

  Konstantine and Lou had disappeared beneath the balcony. The two men climbed into the front seat and drove away.

  Mel pulled back, frowning at the card. “Give me one of those,” she said, motioning for the donut box.

  King pushed the box toward her, only after taking a second donut for himself.

  “Look who it is!” Piper called, throwing open the balcony door so that Lou could step through. “Our indestructible heroine!”

  The color was back in her face, which pleased King. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been white as a ghost. Her arm was still wrapped tight to her body and her leather jacket was draped over that shoulder. But she was up and moving.

  “When I saw you get out of a car I thought you’d lost your powers,” Piper said.

  Konstantine pulled out a chair for Lou. “There wasn’t an easier way to transport us both here without hurting her.”

  “My shoulder is…tender.” Lou pushed her sunglasses up on her head with her good hand before accepting the chair.

  “So no piggybacking for a while.” King sucked the raspberry jelly off his fingers. “I hope you’ll rest.”

  Lou shot him a warning look.

  “That was a nice car you rolled up in,” Piper said, and King caught the tonal shift.

  “Thank you,” Konstantine replied, simply unaware.

  “Is it yours or…?” she searched.

  “While I am in the city, yes.”

  Piper pursed her lips. “Cool, cool.”

  Dani grabbed her hand tenderly and pulled her close. “Finish this.”

  Piper reluctantly took the half-eaten paczki and stuffed it into her mouth. She gave Dani a suspicious look.

  A handful of purple beads flew through the air past their balcony.

  “Damn, we forgot beads!” Piper cried. “Be right back.”

  Lou looked very placid in her seat, watching the crowds below.

  King couldn’t tell if it was the pain in her shoulder that was subduing her or if something else was on her mind.

  Then he remembered something. “I forgot to tell you. We got an ID on the woman whose body you found in the woods—the one we hadn’t been expecting.”

  Lou turned toward him finally, leveling him with her gaze.

  “Her name was Christine Haslett.”

  Lou started as if slapped.

  King frowned. “You know her?”

  “Did you ever say that name to me before?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe in the hospital while you were visiting me? Maybe someone else said it?”

  King shifted his weight. “No, I don’t think so. Why?”

  Her scowl deepened. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “By the sound of it, Christine was an impulse kill. She’d been walking home from a friend’s house when he picked her up. He’d never met her and didn’t have any connections to her. It’s the kind of murder he would’ve never gotten caught for. But thanks to you breaking this wide open, her family will get closure. Did you see the families on the news?”

  * * *

  “Yes,” Lou said, shifting her body to alleviate the dull throb at the base of her neck. It was her jacket. Why did it feel so heavy? But she didn’t want to remove it, given the cold. “I saw the news.”

  Lou had seen the story break while she was in the hospital. She’d had little else to do in the days before she was allowed to go home. Konstantine had read to her, and when he’d gotten tired they’d turned on the television. A tearful woman had stood at a podium and given her statement to the press. I’ll never get my baby girl back, but it helps my heart to know that this monster will pay for what he’s done. There’s still justice in this world.

  Lou had felt something as she watched each mother, father, sister, brother come to the microphone and say their piece about Jeffrey Fish. The photographs taken from his home had let them know which of the missing girls to account for even though not all of their graves had been found.

  Lou also knew there was a strong possibility that Fish had not photographed all of his kills. So she might occupy her painful, sleepless nights directing her compass to those unmarked graves. She’d take Dani along. Maybe Piper. Together they would figure out how to let the police know about the graves.

  “I saw the news,” she said.

  “I told you closure is important,” King said. His attempt at solemnity was dampened by the powder on his lips and raspberry jelly on his face. “You should be proud of yourself for making that possible.”

  Will they really get closure? Lou wondered. She thought of her father and her mother, whose deaths had been unexpected. She thought of Aunt Lucy, whose death had been expected. There had been no closure in either case.

  Not really.

  But she let King speak his mind, aware that he was assessing her the way her father used to. She’d scared him. She understood that. Seeing her bleed out on the pavilion’s stones had shaken him, and part of his mind was still wrapping around the idea that she was here.

  They’ll all outlive you, Lucy had said.

  “And when I die?” Lou asked, turning toward him. “How will you find closure then?”

  “Who’s gonna die?” Piper squeaked. “Not you! I told you. You’re indestructible, man.”

  She felt Konstantine shift in her periphery. Until that moment, he’d been politely engaging Melandra in conversation, asking about Carnival and its role in the city as well as complimenting the tarot card she was sketching.

  He punctuated his sentences with affectionate scratches behind Lady’s ears, whose tail thumped against the balcony’s wooden planks.

  Lou knew better. When she’d asked the question, his hand had faltered. His back had stiffened.

  Lou pretended not to notice, keeping her eyes trained on King.

  “I’m seventy-one years old,” King said, wiping jelly from the corner of his lips. “I should be asking you that question.”

  “Do the men in your family die in their seventies?” Lou asked with a smile. She was doing her best to keep her tone light, teasing. But her shoulder had begun to throb again, shooting up the side of her neck into her skull.

  “My dad kicked off at eighty-six. His dad went at eighty-two. So I’ve probably got ten to fifteen years if I take care of myself.”

  “As long as we keep the gun out of Mel’s hands, you should be fine,” Piper said around a mouthful of donut, sugar falling from her lips.

  “No need.” Mel covered her face with her hands. “I’ll never touch another gun as long as I live.”

  Piper scoffed. “Never say never. That’s how fate gets you.”

  “How do you feel?” Melandra asked Lou, settling down in the empty chair beside her. She pulled her clipboard to her chest and grimaced as if she were the one in pain.

  Lou forced a smile for her benefit. “You’re not the first person to shoot me. Not even the tenth.”

  “You almost died.”

  “Often,” Lou said, turning up the wattage on her smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not bad.”

  “I think she likes it,” Piper said, pointing a donut at Lou’s mouth, forcing Lou to open up and take a bite. “If she doesn’t almost die once a week, she’s bored to tears.”

  Piper took a bite of donut herself.

  “You know,” she said around her mouthful, “while you’re resting we should do something fun. Like, for spring break we should do a road trip.”

  “A road trip!” Dani cried, kneeling down on Lady’s other side. The dog now had two admirers, and her thumping tail suggested that was just fine.

  “I’ve never been on a road trip,” Lou admitted.

  Dani and Piper gave each other big, excited grins. “We’re doing this.”

  “We need a playlist.”

  “And snacks.”

  “I have the car,” Dani said. “And gas money.”

  “We’ll split that. What do you think about Clearwater? Miami?�
��

  “Las Vegas? Or the PCH?”

  “Whoa. Go big or go home. I love it.” Piper chewed her lip, thinking. “But how much time can we actually get off work?”

  “Lou could just—”

  “No, we have to drive! That’s the point!”

  “I just meant one way—”

  Lou’s shoulder seized up, and she squeezed her eyes closed against it.

  Then Konstantine was there with a glass of water and two large pain pills. “I think it’s time for these,” he said, pressing them into her hand.

  She took them both, tipping back the water glass until it was empty. When she handed the glass over, she caught Mel’s fraught gaze.

  Melandra reached her hand across the table, palm up in question. “Please forgive me.”

  Lou hesitated, regarding the half-finished devil on the clipboard. He bore a striking resemblance to Mel’s ex-husband. At last she took the woman’s smooth, dry hand. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

  “No way!” Piper scoffed. “Doritos are way better than Pringles.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Dani rolled her eyes. “Next you’ll be telling me Reese’s Pieces are better than M&Ms.”

  Piper squealed. “Way better.”

  “I am sorry,” Mel said, pushing her hair back from her face. “So, so sorry.”

  “I’m sorry too,” Lou said with a mischievous smile.

  Mel’s gaze darkened. “For what?”

  “For what I’m going to do to your ex-husband the first chance I get.”

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  Terrence Lamott lay in his cell, staring at the ceiling. Someone had scratched suck my big white dick into the concrete and drawn a crude phallus beside it that looked nothing like, in Terry’s opinion, an actual dick. A balloon animal, maybe.

  When the nights were long like this and sleep wouldn’t come, he liked to count the ways he was going to hurt Melandra Durand. It was his favorite game. He imagined tying her up and pulling all her fingernails off one by one with rusty pliers. He imagined holding her head under water in a shit-filled toilet. He dreamed of branding his name onto her tits with a red-hot poker.