"Pfff! I was here at home. How should I know what happened?"
"I have at least one eyewitness who is prepared to swear on oath that it was you who came into that restaurant, and that it was you who personally blew Junior Abraham's head off. I'm talking to other eyewitnesses, too."
"You're crazy. I saw it on the news. Everybody said that Junior was shot by a man—a man who looked like a waiter."
"Sure they did. But that was before I asked a very special somebody to jog their memory. A very special somebody who saw you clearer than anybody else."
"Is that so? I don't suppose you're going to tell me who that very special somebody is."
280
"For sure. The best witness of all. Junior Abraham himself. You tricked everybody else into thinking that they saw a waiter, didn't you? But there was one person you wanted to show yourself to, and that was Junior. Just so he was absolutely clear why his brains were going to be splattered all over the wall."
"Ha! Since when did the Richmond City police detectives confer with the dead?"
"Since we found out just how powerful your magic is, Queen Ache. Since we learned what tricks you can play with people's perception. I've learned a whole lot about Santeria these past few days, and I have to say that I've developed a very healthy respect for it. A religion that can call on every force of nature. Wind, fire, lightning, you name it. You can walk through solid walls if you know how to do it. You can walk through a crowded room and nobody can see you. You can change the way that people look at you, so that they think you're somebody else."
"Do you seriously think that anybody is going to believe you?"
"Oh yes. Because me and Sergeant Hicks here, we've been prepared to approach this investigation with a very open mind. That means we've been talking to people that other detectives would never think of talking to. Like dead people. Like people who can tell us how you did what you did. Like santeros."
"You can't convict me with the words of a headless corpse. Obbara osa. You're crazy."
"You want to know how crazy I am? I'm also arresting you for the murder of Catherine Meredith Meade."
Queen Ache dismissively waved her hand. "Catherine who? I don't even know who this person is."
"Oh, I think you do, Your Majesty. Catherine Meredith Meade was my partner during that time a couple of years
281
ago when I was investigating your various enterprises with illegal substances and property scams. I was called out in the middle of the night to investigate a suspicious drowning. As soon as I was gone, you came to my apartment—you, personally—and you blew that poor girl's brains out. Now do you know who she is?"
Queen Ache said, "I am not going to speak to you anymore. This is insanity."
Decker held up a small plastic evidence bag containing two beads. "Yours, I think. You left them at the crime scene."
"What do two beads amount to?"
"Murderers have been convicted on a damn sight less. We nailed one guy when we found a single grain of gunpowder in his coat pocket, practically invisible to the naked eye."
"I was never at your apartment and I can prove that I was never there. You're wasting my time."
"Ah, but somebody saw you there. Somebody heard you speak."
"I was never there. Never. You are a fool, Lieutenant."
Decker looked at her with his eyebrows raised, saying nothing. Then he turned to Hicks and said, "Sergeant . . . you want to give me a moment alone with Queen Ache here?"
Hicks didn't look very happy about it, but he said, "Whatever you say, sir," and left the room. Decker called out, "Close the doors, would you, sport?"
He went over to Queen Ache's shrine, with all its steadily burning candles. "Who's your personal orisha, Your Majesty?"
"Yemaya, the goddess of the sea waters, and of the moon."
"Powerful, is she, Yemaya? I would guess so."
282
"She is the mother to everyone. Her children are as numerous as the fish."
"Powerful as Chango, say?"
"Hmm. That shows how little you know of Santeria, Lieutenant. I said that Yemaya is the mother to everyone. She is also Chango's adoptive mother, and perhaps more than that. When Chango returned home after many years away, he did not recognize Yemaya, and fell in love with her."
"So . . . Yemaya could have some influence over Chango? I mean, if Chango was causing trouble, Yemaya could tell him to, like, cool it?"
"Why are you asking me this? I thought you were more interested in proving that I am a killer."
"I know you're a killer, Queen Ache."
"Oh yes, I forgot your evidence. Your two beads, produced years after your girlfriend was murdered."
"Not just beads, but several small hairs, which I've sent for DNA matching. And something else. Another eyewitness account."
Queen Ache stood up. "I don't have the time for these fantasies, Lieutenant. I have to get back to my asiento."
"You just wait up," Decker cautioned her. "When Cathy's killer entered my apartment building that night in February, he or she left no footprints and no fingerprints and no image on the closed-circuit television cameras. There is nobody else I know of who could have done that, except you.
"The killer passed through a solid door and didn't materialize until he or she was actually standing in my bedroom. There is nobody else I know of who could have done that, except you.
"I know it was you, Queen Ache. You came up real close, so that you could shoot Cathy point-blank in the face.
283
Cathy grabbed your hair and pulled out some of your beads. You said, Irosun oche!"
Queen Ache stared at him, her eyes so wide that she looked as if she had gone mad, and actually shuddered. Her white dress was illuminated so brightly by a single shaft of sunlight that it looked like an incandescent gas mantle.
"So you do know," she said, at last.
Decker nodded.
"You will find these accusations impossible to prove in court."
"That doesn't matter, as far as I'm concerned. I'm satisfied that you killed both Cathy and Junior Abraham, and that's good enough for me."
"What are you talking about?"
Decker took his Colt Anaconda out of its shoulder holster, opened the cylinder, and ejected all of the shells into the palm of his hand. One by one, he kissed the tip of each shell and pressed it back in.
"I do this every day," he told her. "I bless these bullets. And do you want to know why I bless these bullets? I do it because once I accidentally shot a fellow officer because I was too jumpy and too quick and I didn't make absolutely sure that I was shooting at the right person. So I promised myself that I would never do that again. If I had to shoot anybody, each bullet would be blessed, and each bullet would be fired with forethought. Not out of fear, or panic, but because it was right, and because I had no other choice."
Queen Ache didn't say anything, but she didn't stop staring at him.
"I have a serious problem," he said. "You've heard about this recent spate of homicides, people getting beheaded, people having their guts cut out. I'm pretty certain that they're connected with Santeria, and that the perpetrator is
284
possessed by Chang& I'm also pretty certain that there are going to be more. Up to eight more, at least."
Queen Ache frowned. "Why should that be any concern of mine?"
"It isn't, not directly, but I'm going to make it your concern. You see, you're the only person in Richmond who has the power to deal with this joker, and in spite of the fact that you're a killer and a racketeer I'm going to ask you to help me to track him down and put him out of business for good."