“How are the kids?” she says.
“I should have bound and gagged them before we left.”
“You’re such a good dad.”
I watch her with the camera, playing with the angles, popping the zoom in and out. She’s having too much fun, like she thinks she’s David Hemmings in Blow-Up.
“Since when are you a photographer?”
She snaps away.
“Since today. Julie gave me a Vigil point-and-shoot. It does the work and I make the art.”
“Why didn’t I get one?”
She moves the camera just low enough that I can see her eyes.
“Julie says you break things.”
I don’t reply, just let her shoot. It’s distracting her from turning the music up again.
“So, some old lady thinks her neighbors are dealers,” Candy says.
“That’s what Julie told me. We’re supposed to get hard photographic proof of their evil ways.”
“I’ve hardly seen anyone go by. They must be lousy dealers.”
“Ours isn’t to judge. Ours is to show up and collect a paycheck for the night.”
“Why didn’t the old lady just call the cops?”
“Apparently, she did. They sent a couple of patrol cars to do roll-bys, but they didn’t see anything. I guess she wants proof before she calls back again.”
Candy rolls down her window and takes some shots of a coyote running up the winding street.
“She must have money to throw around to pay for an all-nighter.”
“God favors the wellborn and the well connected.”
“That sounds like something Vidocq would say.”
“I stole it from him.”
A couple in matching tracksuits strolls by, walking their dog.
“Julie says there’s no statute of limitations on Lurkers.”
Candy nods, checks some of her shots in the LED screen on the back of the camera.
“Yeah,” she says. “I really blew it, didn’t I?”
“You didn’t blow it. Mason blew things up when he dosed you. He could have killed you, but he knew ruining your life would be more fun.”
“I didn’t even know the guy.”
“That made it even more fun. Dragging you into his random craziness.”
“But it wasn’t random, was it? Before, he fucked with Alice because she was with you, and then he came after me.”