The Spinoza Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page B

accident.”
    Roy nodded. He unconsciously reached for his wrists but stop himself. He said, “That’s only partially true. They were found in a car, burned to death.”
    “Go on.”
    “ Veronica would kill me for telling you this, but I have a feeling you’re not going to go away unless you know the truth.”
    “ Good thinking.”
    I might have a gut, I might be a royal mess, and I might be a recovering alcoholic with serious issues, but I could fight my way out of anywhere, and I was packing heat, too. There were very few things that made my blood run cold, and Slim Jim here with his crazy eyebrows wasn’t one of them.
    He said, “They were having a picnic in Echo Park, near Dodger Stadium. It had been late. Too late, obviously. The way Veronica describes it, a man suddenly appeared. A man with a long, winding dragon tattoo up and down his right arm. Veronica, who had been throwing away their garbage and was off on a side trail, had heard screaming and shouting. She ran toward her parents and watched just as the man was in the process of tearing out her father’s throat, like a fucking lion. He did the same to Veronica’s mother. Both attacks happened within seconds. Veronica didn’t even have time to scream, which was probably a good thing. She would have been next.”
    Roy fished a cigarette out of his pocket. “You mind?”
    “Kill yourself all you want,” I said.
    He grinned weakly and lit up. He exhaled a long, slightly erratic plume.
    He went on. “Her parents were dead instantly. I have no clue what she must have felt watching this animal attacking her parents, but it must have been horrible. Worse, she watched from the woods as he huddled over both bodies, drinking deeply from them. Sometimes he would look up, glance around, sniff the air, and then bury his face back into their torn necks.”
    Roy shook his head some more, and I wondered idly what drugs the man was on. Probably one or two, although he didn’t seem high. Still, he seemed skittish as hell. Paranoia? Good old-fashioned weed? Or was he just scared of me?
    He went on, “And what the man did next is really no surprise. She watched from the woods as he proceeded to drag her parents across a grassy area to their nearby car. He then used their lighter fluid to set fire to the car and the immediate area.
    “ Veronica had scrambled away, higher into the hills, in shock and horror, no doubt. She told me the last thing she saw was her parents’ bodies blackening in the burning car.”
    Roy finished the cigarette and seemed to debate having another. Apparently, he decided against it. He went on, “In twenty minutes, this girl went from having a normal life with happy, loving parents, to watching their corpses burn into charcoal.”
    He stopped talking and his words hung in the air. The room smelled now of cigarette smoke. It had smelled of something else, too. Something coppery. And if I had to guess, I would say the smell was blood. Old blood.
    But that could have just been my imagination.
    “Who else have you told this story to?” I asked.
    “ No one, you’re the first. Well, the first outside our group of friends.”
    “ I’m honored,” I said. “So how long did it take you to make up that bullshit?”
    Roy’s eyebrows knitted together irritably, the uni-brow making its grand re-reappearance. “It’s the truth, man.”
    “Fine. When did this happen?”
    “ Three years ago,” he said.
    “ I’m going to look this story up, Roy. Something like this would have made the news, and if I discover you’ve been lying to me, or have played any part in Veronica’s disappearance, I’m coming back for you.”
    His eyes never wavered. “Look it up, man. Three years ago. Echo Park.”
    “Fine. Where is she now?”
    He looked down. Always a sign of deception.
    “Tell me, motherfucker.”
    “ Look. I don’t know, okay? All I know was that she wasn’t...successful down here, and so she’s up north.”
    “ What the unholy fuck does