Queen Ache closed her eyes and tilted her head back and said, "Ha!"
"Ha? Is that a no or a yes?"
She came up close to him. He was almost overwhelmed by the musky perfume of Esencia Pompeya. "You have wasted too much of my precious time, Lieutenant. If you are going to arrest me, then you had better arrest me. My lawyers will have me released before you can say 'insufficient evidence.' Don't think for a moment that you can play games with me."
Decker raised his revolver and pointed it straight between her eyes. "I wasn't really going to arrest you, Your Majesty. You see this warrant? This is only a search warrant to check through your accounts. But I wanted to tell you face-to-face that I am completely satisfied that it was you who killed my Cathy."
"And what?"
"And if you don't agree to help me I'm going to do to you, with two or three of my blessed bullets, the very same thing that you did to her. I don't give a shit for the consequences. You killed the only woman I ever loved and I'm going to blow your fucking brains all over this room."
Queen Ache stared at him, her eyes glittering, her bosom rising and falling as she breathed, as if she had just finished running, or making love.
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"You'd actually do it, wouldn't you?" she said at last. "Oh yes. You can be totally sure of that."
"And if I do agree to help you? What then?"
"Then my witnesses conveniently forget to remember that it was you who shot Junior Abraham."
"And you?"
"Me? I try to accept the fact that at least one good thing came out of Cathy's death."
Queen Ache touched her face with her fingertips as if she were making sure that, in the afterlife, she would always remember what it felt like. Decker pulled back the Anaconda's hammer.
"Aren't you going to count?" Queen Ache asked. "You want me to? Okay, five."
"The death penalty is almost guaranteed in Virginia."
"I know that. But at least my ancestors will recognize me. If you don't have a head, how's King Special going to know that it's you?"
"Don't mock my religion, Lieutenant."
"Four."
Queen Ache stood up very straight and flared her nostrils. She wasn't used to dealing with people who weren't afraid of her, and Decker could sense her rising uncertainty.
"Three."
She was still staring at him as if she were trying to hypnotize him, but Decker knew without any doubt at all that if she didn't ask him to stop, then he was going to shoot her. The So-Scary Man was going to get him, anyhow, one way or another, and he was probably going to suffer the Nine Deaths, so what did it matter? From whatever limbo it was that her spirit still lived on, Cathy had done everything she possibly could to save him, but if she couldn't, she deserved avenging, at the very least.
"Two."
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At that moment, the doors on the opposite side of the throne room were thrown open, and Hicks came back in. He held up his cell phone, and said, "Lieutenant—the captain wants a word with you. Like, you know, now."
"One," Decker said, without blinking.
"Lieutenant? The captain says that—Lieutenant? Lieutenant? What the fuck are you doing, Lieutenant? Lieutenant!"
Hicks struggled to get his gun out, but Decker shouted, "Don't!"
"What's going on?" Hicks said, in a panicky voice. "You can't just—"
"You want to say a prayer?" Decker asked Queen Ache.
Queen Ache breathed in, breathed out, breathed in. Then she said, "I will say just one thing. Yenya orisha obinrin dudukueke re maye avaya mi re oyu ayaba ano rigba iki mi iya mayele. An invocation to Yemaya, to fill me with her strength, as I go to face Chango."
Decker lowered his revolver, eased the hammer forward, and slid it back in its holster.
"Where is this man who is possessed by Chango?" Queen Ache asked.
"Not far. Somewhere in Main Street Station."
"And when do you want me to help you?"
Decker checked his watch. "Sooner the better."
"Very well. But only because my orisha wills it, and because I wish to confront this man."
-"Whatever you say."
Queen Ache said, "I have to change. You can wait for me." "Just one thing, before you go. What does irosun oche mean?"
"It is one of the patterns of the cowrie shells. It means `the dead are circling to see who they can seize."
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Decker and Hicks waited nearly a half hour for Queen Aché to make herself ready. Decker and Hicks sat at the bottom of the stairs, sullenly watched over by George and Newton. People came and went: family members and friends who had been invited to the asiento, all dressed up in their best clothes and carrying baskets of fruit, jars of honey, rum, cigars, chickens, and flowers. When they learned that the asiento had been delayed, and why, they looked across at Decker and Hicks with restless hostility, and one elderly man came over and said, "You are not the law. The orishas are the law. You have ruined my grandson's asiento."
Decker said, "Sorry about that, sport. Nothing personal."
"Something bad will happen to you today because of what you have done here. You will know justice and blood."
"Thanks for the warning, but that's part of my job description."
Eventually Queen Aché descended the staircase, no
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longer a crimson-eyed white-faced ghost in muslin, but a tall, athletic-looking black woman in skintight black leather pants and a dark brown sleeveless suede top, with six or seven silver armbands on each arm. Her head was covered by a dark brown silk scarf, tightly knotted, with a silver medallion dangling over her forehead. She carried a large leather bag over her shoulder, with fringes and beads.
One of her heavily bejeweled henchmen came down with her, a shaven-headed man with mirror sunglasses and a neck like a tree stump. "You listen to me, Mr. Detective. This is Queen Aché here and Queen Ache is the queen of all she survey. Any bad shit come to her, then a hundert times more bad shit is going to be happening to you."
"I'll take care of her," Decker assured him; although he knew that, in reality, Queen Aché was coming along to take care of him.
In the car, with the two squad cars following close behind them, Decker gave Queen Aché a brief outline of who they thought they were looking for, and why. He told her all about the Devil's Brigade, and Major Shroud, and all of his nightmares. She listened, and nodded once or twice, but said nothing.
"You don't seem particularly surprised by any of this," he told her, when he had finished.
"Nothing in Santeria surprises me, Lieutenant. I have known people whose dead ancestors are still walking the streets after two hundred years. You forget that Yoruba beliefs not only gave birth to Santeria, in America, but Candomble in Brazil and Shango in Trinidad; and in Haiti, Yoruba traditions were mixed with those of the Fon people from Dahomey, and resulted in the creation of voodoo."
"So you think that it's perfectly possible that the So‑
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Scary Man could be Major Shroud himself, risen from the dead?"
"Why not? A lead-lined coffin would preserve his body—as well as all the herbs and spices that were buried along with him. And if he was really possessed by Changó, that would preserve his soul. Changó, like all of the orishas, is immortal."
"You think you might be able to call him off? Like, appeal to his better nature or something?"
"Changó is Changó. He is the most popular of all orishas. But when he wants revenge, he will never rest until he gets it."
Hicks's cell phone rang. He said, "Yes—yes, Captain. I'm afraid he's driving right now."