Dead Ice
Page 27

“I don’t think it’s her come back from the grave, Manny, but could it be someone who knew her? When I turned her down, did she recruit anyone else?”
“I don’t know; the day I took you to see her was the first and last time I’d seen her in years.”
“Who would know if she’d recruited someone else?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Think, Manny, think; these women are being tortured in a way that no one should have to endure outside of a lower circle of hell.”
“I will think on it, Anita, but I don’t know who would be willing to talk to me now. They know I brought the police to the Señora’s door, and only fear of my own power kept them from trying to retaliate.”
“I’m sorry, Manny; I didn’t mean to endanger you by asking for your help.”
“A good man must help stop evil when he is called, Anita; do not apologize for that.”
“I’m just tired of endangering people. I mean, it’s dangerous just to be around me sometimes.”
“That is not true,” he said.
“Isn’t it?”
“Anita, I don’t know what part of your past you are fighting, but fight harder, because you are a good person, you fight the good fight.”
“Thanks, Manny.”
“De nada.”
I smiled. “If you think of anyone to ask, or anywhere to look for this bastard, let me know.”
“I will.”
“Now go enjoy whatever family thing you’re doing.”
“I’m coming, Rosita,” he called out. I heard more voices, and then the voice on the phone was a woman’s. “Anita, congratulations on your engagement; I am so happy you are finally getting married.”
“Thank you, Rosita; now you don’t have to keep worrying I’ll be an old maid.”
“A woman should be married, Anita, that’s all.”
“You know I don’t agree with that.”
“But you are getting married anyway,” she said, as if that proved her point.
I sighed, and laughed a little. “We’ll agree to disagree, but yes, I am getting married once we work out all the details.”
“If you want help with anything, just call.”
“You’re planning Connie’s wedding, isn’t that enough?”
“Consuela’s wedding is almost done.”
“Congratulations to you and her.”
“Gracias, but I have been to every wedding shop, caterer, everything. I would be happy to give you a list of the places we found most helpful.”
“Okay, that might actually be useful, thank you.” I’d pass the list on to Jean-Claude.
“I will have Manny email it to you.”
“Thank you, Rosita.” It was probably the longest conversation I’d ever had with Manny’s wife.
“I hope you do let me help; I’d forgotten how much I love weddings.” She laughed, one of the best and happiest laughs I’d ever heard from her. She was usually pretty stern and uncompromising. I tried to picture that girlish laugh from the Rosita I knew, who was five-eight and last I’d seen her well over three hundred pounds. Manny was still lean and shorter than her, so that they looked like the Jack Sprat nursery rhyme. The laugh belonged to that young slip of a girl that Manny had met in Mexico long ago.
“So no issues with me marrying a vampire?” I asked, because I couldn’t leave it alone.
She made a harsh sound. “I am a devout Catholic, you know that.”
“I do, and since the Church declared all vampires soulless and damned, I thought you might have an issue with my fiancé.”
“They also declared all who raise the dead excommunicated, but our priest still gives Manny communion, even though he would get in trouble if they knew, so perhaps your man is a good one, too, even though the Church says otherwise.”
This was so open-minded for Rosita that I didn’t know whether to applaud or ask her what self-help group she’d been going to. Wisely, I did neither.
“Besides, it is not just any vampire, it is Jean-Claude, and he is . . .” She seemed to search for words, and finally settled for, “hermoso.”
I laughed, because it didn’t mean just “beautiful” here in America, but someone who was amazing in some way that went beyond beauty. “I’ll tell him you said so.”
“Oh, do not do that, Anita.” She sounded flustered; I couldn’t quite picture Rosita flustered.
“Okay, I won’t, but I will tell him you’re happy for us.”
“Yes, do, I cannot wait to see the wedding that will match such a proposal.”
“Me, either,” I said, and again the tight knot in my stomach wasn’t about crime-fighting. The proposal had raised the bar too high, and now everyone would be looking for the wedding to top it, and nothing was going to top Jean-Claude in full prince-sweeping-you-off-your-feet mode, not even Jean-Claude.
We said our good-byes, and then I was in the car with Nathaniel and the sound of the wheels on the night-black road. “Manny’s wife can’t wait to see the wedding that matches such a proposal, she said.”
“It was something,” Nathaniel said, and his voice was very careful. It made me look at him and study that so-serious profile.
“What did that mean?” I asked.
“What did what mean?”
“That tone of voice and the bland phrase?”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Are we close to the cemetery yet?”
“Another four, five miles, and then slow down, the entrance is easy to miss in the dark. But you’re not changing the subject.”
“You’re already upset tonight, and I’m being silly.”
“Silly about what?” I asked.
“I’d have been thrilled if someone had tried to sweep me off my feet for a proposal the way Jean-Claude did for you, but men never get the big gesture aimed at them. They always have to do the big gesture.”
I studied the side of his face. “Are you saying that you want a big, fancy proposal?”
“I’m saying it would be nice to be the girl once in a while.”
“You already do most of the domestic stuff, and you’re the one who wants a baby. I think you’re better at a lot of the traditional girl things than I am.”
“Then if I’m the girl, why don’t I get a big, fancy proposal?”
“Are you serious?”
He gave me a look that said, with no uncertainty, that he was. Shit.
“Just me making the gesture, or me and Micah?”
“Either Micah, or you, or both of you, I don’t care as long as you mean it.”
“Micah proposed to both of us at the same time. I would marry you both if I could, I’ve said that.”
“I know, and I told you it was silly.”
“So if Jean-Claude had pulled up in front of you in a horse-drawn carriage with the huge-ass ring, you’d have loved it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, well if it were you and/or Micah, yes.”
“Well, fuck.”
“That is not quite the romantic sentiment I was hoping for, Anita.”
“I’m sorry, really, but you just caught me off guard.”