I Come with Knives by S. A. Hunt

Author:S. A. Hunt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

22

After Gendreau left, Robin put on a pair of sweatpants and went to the cafeteria for something to drink, wishing the hospital served whiskey. Sitting at a table in the back was Joel Ellis. The pizza chef was fully dressed in a sweater and jeans, though his skin was livid with tiny cuts and scrapes. The do-rag on his head matched his undershirt.

“Hey, man,” she said, sitting down at his table.

“What are you doing here—” he started to say, and then he sat up in shock. “What the hell happened to your arm?”

Robin glanced at the padding. “Oh, this?”

“Yeah, this, chick. Y’dadgum arm is gone.” He got up and sat closer, on her left side.

She rubbed the cotton again. If only my arm was still there so I could scratch the damn thing. “Sounds like we’ve both got a story to tell.” She took a deep drink of her soda to wet her whistle. “I guess I’ll start, since you seem to be so up in arms about my … arm.” She told him about going back into the Darkhouse and receiving the demon’s vision, right on up to the doomed dinner party and the Hogwitch biting her arm off.

“Sweet baby Jesus,” said Joel. “You’re that thing’s daughter?” He pulled out a labeled sandwich baggie with yellow pills in it and swallowed one with his drink. “Sorry.” He belched. “I’m not high enough for this shit.” This declaration segued into his story about getting jumped at his house by Bowker, getting shot in the leg, the truck crash, the cat fire, Fisher’s execution, and the Queen ambush at the sulfite drainage pond in the quarry.

Damn, she thought. Bunch of dead cats.

The witches are planning a siege.

“I’m so sorry about your brother.” Robin’s remaining hand clasped Joel’s.

His eyes sank to their combined hands and he stared at their knuckles. When he’d given the moment room to settle, and he could talk without choking up, Joel told her about yesterday. “The county cops came to talk to us after we told the nurses how we got hurt … I guess the hospital called the law. I rode out to the Mushroom Mines with a couple officers to show ’em the cat truck and Bowker’s body, and told them what happened up at the quarry. I let ’em know it was self-defense, told ’em about Fish. They’re investigatin’ everything, I guess. We’re not being charged with anything—nothin’ yet, anyway—but neither one of us can leave town until it’s finished. They said something about dredging the pond, but with all that acid, I don’t think it’s possible.

“Anyway, it turns out Bowker and Euchiss were the only two cops on the take. None of the others knew anything about it. Or at least none of them admitted anything.” Joel took his hand back and studied it grimly. “They didn’t believe me when I told ’em who was behind everything, though. For all I know, they’re all in on it, and they let Foghorn Leghorn and Chickenhawk eat shit and washed their hands of the incident.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.