“You ever see anything like it?”
Candy shakes her head.
“Never.”
I take it over to Kasabian.
“How about you? You recognize it?”
“No, but I can look around online if it’ll get him out of here quicker. He gives me the creeps.”
“I’m with you there.”
“I think he’s kind of sad,” says Candy.
“Shit.”
“What?”
“I should have taken notes or something. I’m never going to remember everything he said.”
Candy holds up her phone.
“Welcome to the twenty-first century, Huck Finn. I recorded the whole thing.”
“Nice job.”
“I know.”
“Why don’t you forward that to Julie? You’ll make her day.”
“I’m on it,” she says, punching numbers into her phone.
I heft the knife in my hand. It has good weight and balance. With enough strength you could easily ram this through someone’s ribs and pull out whatever the hell you wanted.
“I’m going to put this away upstairs. You still want that drink?”
“Hell yes, Agent Scully.”
“Wait. I thought Scully was the woman.”
“Stop being so heteronormative. You’d look good in a dress.”
“I don’t know what one of those words means, but okay.”
“I really do have to drag you into this century.”
“Drag away. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Not without me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Will you two please go the fuck away?” says Kasabian. “You’re giving me diabetes over here.”
We go upstairs and don’t come down for a long time. My phone rings. It’s Julie. I let her go to voice mail. Who’s Huck Finn now?
I CALL JULIE back an hour later. We set up a time for the next day when she’ll come by and see Sleeping Beauty. She says she might already have a line on another case and will call me when she’s sure. I guess this is how things are from now on. Business calls and meetings with clients. Jobs we get and jobs we lose. Time to shine my shoes and carry my lunch in a brown paper bag. Soon it will be heart-healthy egg salad on vitamin-enriched organic free-range whole-wheat bread.