City of Night

Chapter 39

From City Park, Carson drove to the Garden District to cruise the streets around the Helios residence.

They were not yet ready to shoot their way into the mansion and go on a Frankenstein hunt, but they needed to scope the territory and lay out escape routes in the-unlikely-event that they were able not only to kill Victor but also to get out of his house alive.

En route, she said to Michael, “Those people in the white Mercury Mountaineer, back there in the park — did they look familiar to you?”

“No. But he waved.”

“I think I’ve seen them before.”

“Where?”

“I can’t quite remember.”

“What are you saying? Did they seem dubious to you?”

Checking the rearview mirror, Carson said, “I didn’t like his smile.”

“We don’t shoot people in New Orleans for having an insincere smile.”

“What were they doing on the service road? That’s only for the use of park personnel, and that wasn’t a park vehicle.”

“We aren’t park personnel, either. Under the circumstances, it’s easy to get paranoid.”

“It’s stupid not to be paranoid,” she said.

“You want to go back, find them, and shoot them?”

“I might feel better,” she said, checking the mirror again. “You want to call Deucalion, set up a meet?”

“I’m trying to picture how the original Frankenstein monster applies for a cell phone.”

“It belongs to Jelly Biggs, the carny who lives at the Luxe, the friend of the guy who left the theater to Deucalion.”

“Who names their kid Jelly Biggs? They doomed him to fathood.”

“It’s not his real name. It’s his carny name, from his days in the freakshow.”

“But he still uses it.”

“Seems like if they’re in the carnival long enough, their carny monikers become more comfortable than their real names.”

“What was Deucalion’s freakshow name?” Michael asked.

“The Monster.”

“That had to be before political correctness. The Monster — what a self-esteem quasher. These days they’d call him the Different One.”

“Still too stigmatizing.”

“Yeah. He’d be called the Unusual Beauty. You have his number?”

She recited it while Michael keyed the digits in his phone.

He waited, listened, and then said, “Hey, this is Michael. We need to meet.” He left his number and terminated the call. “Monsters — they’re all so irresponsible. He doesn’t have his phone on. I got voice mail.”