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him.
    â€œI’m an angel. I reached out and there you were, so I walked to where I found you.”
    â€œWhere did you walk from?” says Candy.
    â€œI don’t know. There was a concrete structure. Not quite a building, but like it once was. It was covered with painted words and images. There were trees and scrub. It was dry and warm there. And stone stairs. Yes. I had to walk up a long stairway. After that, I walked for a long time down a highway and then through the city. That’s where I found you.”
    He’s looking at me and I don’t want to believe any of it, but he’s such a whipped dog I can’t throw him out yet.
    â€œI’m tired again. You are right about the brew. It took the pain away,” he says.
    â€œOkay. You get some more rest. But we’re going to talk again later.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAnd you’re going to take a goddamn shower. Today.”
    â€œYes. Thank you,” he says, and lies down. “Would you turn the light off, please?”
    â€œThere’s just one more thing before we go.”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œI’d appreciate it if you never mentioned anything about Candy’s face or name again.”
    â€œAs you wish.”
    Candy turns off the light and we go back outside. It’s good to be out of the room and the dead man’s stink. I turn the knife over in my hands.
    â€œYou ever see anything like it?”
    Candy shakes her head.
    â€œNever.”
    I take it over to Kasabian.
    â€œHow about you? You recognize it?”
    â€œNo, but I can look around online if it’ll get him out of here quicker. He gives me the creeps.”
    â€œI’m with you there.”
    â€œI think he’s kind of sad,” says Candy.
    â€œShit.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI should have taken notes or something. I’m never going to remember everything he said.”
    Candy holds up her phone.
    â€œWelcome to the twenty-­first century, Huck Finn. I recorded the whole thing.”
    â€œNice job.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWhy don’t you forward that to Julie? You’ll make her day.”
    â€œI’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.
    â€œI’m going to put this away upstairs. You still want that drink?”
    â€œHell yes, Agent Scully.”
    â€œWait. I thought Scully was the woman.”
    â€œStop being so heteronormative. You’d look good in a dress.”
    â€œI don’t know what one of those words means, but okay.”
    â€œI really do have to drag you into this century.”
    â€œDrag away. I’m not going anywhere.”
    â€œNot without me.”
    â€œI wouldn’t dream of it.”
    â€œWill 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 J ULIE 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.
    I’m so doomed.
    Here’s the thing: once upon a time I ran Hell. I didn’t break the place, but I didn’t exactly spruce it up. I don’t have a good track record with nine-­to-­five responsibilities.
    I wonder how long it will take for me to fuck up so badly that Julie gives my job to