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"They're bringing up the body now."
Agent Zheng acknowledged him and turned to Ukiah. "Do you think you could
identify a burned body the way you can identify blood?"
It amazed him that she so easily accepted his abilities. Most people refused
to believe, even after he nailed one piece of evidence after another. Others
found him creepy and shied away as if he was going to harm them. There was no
uneasiness in her, no fear, only calm expectation.
He found himself nodding. "Yeah, I think so."
Max drifted up. "Get your stuff yet?"
"Working on it." Actually he had forgotten to ask. Perfect recall didn't mean
one couldn't forget.
Agent Zheng handed him his Colt carefully and then pulled his phone and key
ring out of her raincoat pocket. "Here." She pressed them into his hands and
then pulled his wallet from her coat breast pocket. "There was a photo of you
taken by a professional photographer in your wallet. I took it for our fact
sheet. I don't have it on me right now. Sorry."
"Oh, that picture." He cracked his wallet and found the empty slot among his
credit cards and other photos. "We use it for our advertising. Don't worry
about it. Max is the photographer. We print up copies
whenever we need them. I don't need it back."
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The body came then, interrupting anything she would have said in reply. They
had it in a body bag already, but the bag looked far too flat to hold an adult
body. Agent Zheng stopped them and unzipped the bag.
The body looked like an Egyptian mummy; flesh sunk down to bone or missing
altogether. Limbs had separated from the body, cooked until the joints parted
with the gentle movement of lifting the victim into the bag. The skull was
missing the jaw, the mouth open in an endless scream, hair and flesh burned
away to the blacked bone.
Ukiah reeled backward.
Had Kraynak seen this? No wonder he was sick.
"Are you sure about this, kid?" Max murmured at his elbow.
Ukiah nodded and put out a hesitant hand to touch the coarse burnt flesh. It
was difficult, the fire had changed the structure so that he could barely
recognize the familiar form. He knew, though, and his eyes filled with tears.
"Who is it?" Agent Zheng asked quietly.
"Janet Haze."
***
He and Max drove in silence back to the office. He went upstairs to the
bedroom unofficially considered his and got a clean T-shirt. When he came
downstairs, he found himself drifting through the rooms as Max made countless
calls. Ukiah recognized the pattern after the first few calls. Max had
contacted anyone that could have helped find Ukiah or avenge his death. His
partner was now spreading the news of his safe return.
He raided the kitchen and found he was hungrier than he thought. In the
refrigerator was leftover
General Tso's Chicken, which he heated and ate. It seemed to trigger a tidal
wave of eating. He thawed a porterhouse steak in the microwave and broiled it.
He made a box of instant au gratin potatoes, fried all the eggs lining the
fridge door, and cooked a package of frozen corn in the microwave.
Max came in for coffee as Ukiah was finishing off the ice cream bars and eyed
the remains of his lunch. "Call it a day, go upstairs, and sleep."
"I was going to do some work after I finished," Ukiah protested.
Max laughed at him, glancing at his wristwatch. "If you want, I could set a
stopwatch for when you crash and burn. You can sleep at your desk or you can
sleep upstairs in a bed. Doesn't matter to me."
"I wasn't going to sleep." But a huge yawn suddenly forced its way out.
"You got the shit beat out of you yesterday, and you didn't sleep last night.
Trust me, I know you.
After eating like that, you're always asleep in five minutes. So, you've got
four minutes and counting."
"Okay. Okay." Ukiah held up his hands in surrender. "Don't let me sleep all
day, though. I want to go home tonight and be with my folks."
"I'll get you up in time to get your bike," Max promised.
Ukiah returned to his bedroom. Max had had it furnished after the fourth time
work or weather had forced Ukiah to spend the night sleeping on the floor
rather than make the long trip home. Actually Max had turned the project over
to an interior decorator and had written the whole thing off on his taxes as a
business expense. It had a queen-size sleigh bed, heavy cherry nightstands,
and real oriental rugs over the hardwood floors. Over time, more and more of
Ukiah's things had gravitated there. To a casual observer, it would seem he
actually lived there.
It was comfortable and familiar, but it wasn't home.
***
He woke by himself at three o'clock. The afternoon sun was full on the bed,
blasting it with heat.
He woke from a nightmare about being burned alive. It did not help to know
that if he had failed the Pack's test, he could easily have been toast today.
He stumbled into the bathroom to scrub the previous day's experience from his
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body: the dirt, the death, the fear, and all the countless bandages. The
bruise on his chest and the pellet wound were completely healed (and he
assumed the ones on his back were too), thankfully gone without a trace before
his moms could see. The Ukiah in the fogged mirror afterward looked completely
sound and familiar one would never know his whole viewpoint of life had been
scrambled.
He dressed in clean clothes and came down the sweeping staircase as Max was
trotting up.
"Hey!" Max stopped. "I was coming up to wake you. I've got to go check in with
Janey and Chino."
"I was going to walk over and get my bike and head home."
Max nodded, starting down the steps again. "I need you here tomorrow early,
like seven thirty.
Okay?"
"Okay. What do you think I should tell my moms?"
Max winced. "I don't know. Something of the truth, but probably not the whole
truth. The whole truth is just too hairy. Jo would want to know about your
father, if nothing else."
Ukiah had to admit that was true.
Max snapped his finger and pointed to Ukiah. "Don't forget, get a doll for
Cally."
Ukiah almost missed a step. "I forgot! Thanks for reminding me."
Max wearily shook his head. "I'll never figure out how you can quote back the
yellow pages and forget little shit like that all the time."
"I have to think of it before I can remember it, Max. I wasn't thinking about
dolls."
"Whatever. See you tomorrow. Drive carefully, and take your gun."
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