Suspect Zero (5 page)

Authors: Richard Kadrey

BOOK: Suspect Zero

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I walk to a guy sitting on a Harley. He’s a big boy. His feet are planted on either side of the bike but his hands aren’t on the handlebars. I don’t have time for subtle. I have to move fast.

With one hand, I grab the front of his shirt and lift him off the seat far enough to toss him off the bike without hurting him too much. With the other hand, I grab the handlebars so the bike doesn’t fall. The keys are still in the ignition. I gun the engine and take off before either of the cops closing in on me can get within grabbing range.

The moment I take off they hoof it back to the patrol car. Which isn’t going to do them any good at all. The accident has turned the street into a solid mass of cars, gawkers and, now, twenty or more amateur paparazzi, cameras blasting. I steer the Harley onto the sidewalk and open the throttle, laying on the horn to clear the way. I circle the block and head back up to Hollywood Boulevard.

I ditch the bike on the sidewalk behind a pickup truck with a camper shell big enough to hide it from a patrol car rolling by.

There are six more cop cars outside Donut Universe. Patrons are out in the parking lot yammering to the uniformed cops all at once. They don’t want to hear about it. They just want the cattle to wait for the detectives while they’re busy putting up yellow tape around the crime scene.

I look around and spot Candy waving to me on the opposite corner, near a Christian Science church. Samael has his hand to his ear, talking on his phone.

Candy throws her arms around me and kisses me on the cheek when I reach them. A second later Samael closes his phone.

“Did you get him?”

“He got himself. Strolled off the curb and kissed a bus.”

“Why? You’re not that scary.”

“Yes I am.”

“If you say so.”

“How much do you have to pay a guy to go out like that?”

“You don’t. He chose to do it himself. It’s the mark of a true believer. In what, I don’t know and I don’t care. But you should.”

I thumb on my phone and go to the picture of the shooter’s driver’s license. I read it out loud.

“Trevor Moseley. Either of you ever hear of him?”

I show them his picture.

Candy shakes her head.

“I took a lot of souls back in the day but I don’t recognize his name or face. There wouldn’t have been anything special about him.”

Candy beams at Samael.

“Sam just called some people. He’s getting a new laptop.”

“Sam?” says Samael.

“Thanks,” I say.

He looks at me.

“Just thanks? Nothing pithy or sarcastic?”

“I’m capable of appreciating when someone does something nice for someone I care about.”

Samael looks at Candy.

“Good Lord. What have you done to him?”

“Shocking, isn’t it?” she says. “Pinocchio is almost a real boy.”

“Fuck both of you.”

Samael, “Ah. There’s the Jimmy I know.”

He looks at his watch.

“Look at the time. I should be getting back home before I’m missed.”

“How are things Upstairs?” I ask.

“Let me just say this: Don’t die anytime soon. You’ve seen Hell and right now I wouldn’t wish Heaven on anyone. Ruach is more paranoid every day. Imagine Josef Stalin with unlimited resources.”

Ruach is the oldest of the God brothers. He’s also the son of a bitch of the family. Supposedly he’s cut a deal with Aelita to let her kill the other brothers if she leaves him alone. She’s already killed at least one.

“At least he can’t send you to Tartarus,” I say.

“There are worse things than Tartarus, I’m afraid.”

“Like what?”

Samael just shakes his head.

“If you want to get in touch with me, don’t do it directly. Go through Muninn. Sandman Slim isn’t a name I want on my contacts list right now.”

“Got it.”

And he’s gone. Just blips out of existence. It’s funny too. With all the shit that’s happened with Mason and the God brothers, I’ve never seen him nervous before.

A couple of people in the Donut Universe parking lot are pointing our way. I forgot. I wonder if the cops have put together that the hero who chased a shooter from the donut shop is that same asshole who desecrated his corpse and jacked a biker a few blocks away. This isn’t the time to find out. I find a tasty shadow by the side of the church and pull Candy inside with me.

We go through the Room of Thirteen Doors and come out around the back of the Chateau Marmont. Our digs these days. At least until someone figures out that I’m not Lucifer anymore.

About
the Author

RICHARD KADREY has published six novels, including
Sandman
Slim
,
Kill the Dead
,
Aloha from Hell
,
Devil Said Bang
,
Butcher Bird
, and
Metrophage
, plus the forthcoming
Kill City Blues
, and more than fifty short stories. A freelance writer and photographer, he lives in San Francisco, California.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Also by Richard Kadrey

Devil Said Bang

Aloha from Hell

Kill the Dead

Sandman Slim

Coming Soon

Kill City Blues

A Sandman Slim Story

Devil in the Dollhouse

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
Kill City
Blues
copyright © 2013 by Richard Kadrey.

SUSPECT ZERO
.
Copyright © 2013 by Richard Kadrey. All rights reserved under International and
Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have
been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text
of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,
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information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether
electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express
written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN:
9780062230676

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Australia

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