Certain Dark Things(75)

“Coffee,” Ana said. “Cream, too.”

“Beer and pork chops. And a basket of bread.”

The waitress looked rather skeptical about their choices.

“I don’t think our collaboration is working as planned,” Ana said. “That thing with Atl? It was a mistake. She got away and all we had was a bunch of dead people in the street. I’m lucky I’m here.”

“Life is unexpected,” Kika declared, as though she were a walking, talking greeting card.

“Well, what’s unexpected is that after the massacre at that factory my boss has sidelined me. I gave him Atl and Nick’s pictures. Luna is doing some shit with checkpoints and distribution of the images. I’m not leading the investigation anymore. I’m probably of no use to you now.”

“I wouldn’t say that. You got us very close to her. I have faith in you. You want the other half of the money, right?”

“I want a decent night’s sleep, is what I want,” Ana said.

The waitress returned with the coffee and the beer. She forgot to bring any cream and Ana stared at her drink, irritated.

“You’re the closest thing to a vampire hunter in this town, Ana. We don’t have anyone else to go to.”

“Why don’t you just let them kill each other?” Ana asked, utterly exhausted by the conversation. “They’ll manage it, eventually.”

Ana grabbed a napkin and folded it in half, then in another half, while Kika drank her beer, looking cool and chill. If the young woman ever had a bad day, she didn’t let it show.

“I told you why already. It’s disrespectful. Vampires start getting the idea they can just waltz into Mexico City, how soon before they’re snacking on us and messing it up like they do in the rest of the country? It’s a question of pride.”

“Yeah, I don’t give a f*ck. I’m worried someone thinks I’m working with you, or at least suspects something’s up.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“I’m not imagining shit. I got a phone call the other day, very unsettling, asking why I was researching Nick and Atl.”

Ana had not breathed a word to Marisol about what she was doing in her spare time, but she had checked the locks on the door and made sure the electronic peephole was in good working order. Marisol was under strict instructions to never open the door when Ana was away anyway, but it didn’t hurt. As an extra precaution Ana had arranged for Marisol to ride the daily school shuttle back and forth from school, which she normally didn’t do because it cost an extra fee. Since it was a private school the shuttle carried an armed guard.

“Come on, you do give a f*ck,” Kika said, brushing away Ana’s concerns like they were useless garbage.

“My boss is going to fire me if he figures out I’m working with you,” Ana countered.

“Who cares?” Kika took another swig of beer and smiled at Ana. “Don’t start with the lame excuses. You won’t need your stupid job soon enough. Are you scared?”

“It’s scary when you’re going against vampires. Maybe you don’t care, because you think this is a staff barbecue, but I know what they can do.”

“If the pictures in the papers are correct, I also know what they can do. Disgusting.”

“The reporters are enjoying it,” Ana said. “Naked girls on page three and a guy that was gutted on the cover.”

“When I was a kid, I remember reading those old romantic books. The Gothic paperbacks. Remember those?”

Ana stared at the calendar and what, she supposed, was the Chinese character for Year of the Snake printed below the Western letters. She remembered the Chinese vampires she had bumped into, their atrophied muscles giving the sensation that they were always shuffling around. The Revenants had similar problems: kyphosis, arthritis. Not like in the books, no. Not romantic, either.

“No,” Ana said. “But then again, I have never been a big reader of romance books.”

“Well, they had castles in those books and they vampirized young virgins, offering them eternal love. The truth, though, well, the truth is more interesting. Corpses on parade. It’ll be a blast putting a bullet through their skulls. Stake. Something.”

“I’m not interested in discussing vampires in popular culture,” Ana said. “I’m heading out.”

“You can’t let me eat by myself.”

Ana considered staying for a bit longer. She decided against it. The coffee looked terrible, anyway. “I got work,” she said. “I’ll phone you if anything comes up.”

“You’re not scared, Detective Aguirre,” Kika said, raising her bottle in a salute. “You’re eager.”

Ana took out a bill and left it on the table. The walk back to the office had her thinking more about types of vampires. She bounced between reciting their characteristics in her head and remembering the faces of the two young ones who were responsible for the bloodbath she had been staring at on her screen.

Deny it as she wanted to, Ana knew Kika had a point. Ana was good at one thing and that thing was dealing with vampires. They fascinated, repulsed, and obsessed her. She was disgusted by this whole business but she also needed to see this case to the end. Try as she might, she couldn’t turn her head away.

And yet by the time she reached her desk, she was ready to go home. The office zapped her life, it was the real vampire. Tops five minutes after she sat down, another officer came walking by.