Well, I've been on the job, Eileen thought, I'mnot running scared.
But she was.
"When was the first one?" she asked.
"The tenth. A Friday night, full moon. Alvarez thought maybe a loonie. Then the second one turned up a week later, the seventeenth. And another one last Friday night."
"Always Friday night, huh?"
"So far."
"So tonight's Friday, so Homicide wants a decoy."
"So does Alvarez. I spoke to him right after I got the call. He sounds smart as hell, but so far he hasn't got a place to hang his hat."
"What's his thinking on it?"
"You don't know the Zone, huh?"
"No."
"Then you missed what I was saying about Houston."
"I guess so."
"There's an area bordering the Ship Canal down there, it's infested with hookers and dope. Sleaziest dives I've ever seen in my life. The docks on the Calm's Point Canal run a close second."
"Are they hookers then? The victims?"
"Yes. Hookers."
"All three?"
"One of them only sixteen years old."
Eileen nodded.
"What'd he use?" she asked.
Annie hesitated.
"A knife," she said.
And suddenly it all played back again in Eileen's head hellip;
Her hand going for the Browning .380 automatic tucked into her boot, Don't force me to cut you,the pistol coming free of its holster, moving into firing position mdash;and he slashed her face. Sudden fire blazed a trail across her cheek. She dropped the gun at once. Good girl,he said. And slashed her pantyhose and the panties underneath hellip;>
And hellip;
And thrust the cold flat side of the knife against her hellip; against her hellip;
"Want me to cut you here, too?"
She shook her head.
No, please, she thought.
And mumbled the words incoherently, No, please, and said them aloud at last, "No, please. Please. Don't hellip; cut me again. Please>."
"Want me to fuck you instead?"
"Don't cut me again."
Annie was watching her intently.
"Slit their throats with a knife," she said.
Eileen was covered with cold sweat.
"So hellip; I hellip; I guess they want me to play hooker, is that it?" she said.
"That's it."
"New girl in town, huh?"
"You've got it."
"Cruising? Or have they set up hellip; ?"
"They're planting you in a place called Larry's Bar. On Fairview and East Fourth."
Eileen nodded.
"Tonight, huh?"
"Starting around eight."
"That's early, isn't it?"
"They want to give him enough rope."
"Where do I check in?"
"The Seven-Two. You can change there."
"Into what? The hookers today look like college girls."
"Not the ones working the Canal Zone."
Eileen nodded again.
"Has Alvarez picked my backups?"
"One. A big beefy guy named hellip;"
"I want at least two," Eileen said.
"I'm your other one," Annie said.
Eileen looked at her.
"If you want me."
Eileen said nothing.
"I'm not afraid of using the piece," Annie said.
"I know you're not."