Divine Evil

stepfather.”
    She squinted her eyes against the smoke. “Yeah. There sure ain't any family resemblance. I knew Biff real well. He and I had what you could call a close business relationship.”
    “Is that what you'd call it?”
    He was a cop, all right. Mona held the cigarette out, tapped ashes delicately on the ground. “He'd roll into town now and again, and we'd party. I'm real sorry he's dead.”
    “If I'd known you were so close, I'd have invited you to the funeral. Let's get to it. You didn't ask me to meet you out here just to tell me Biff was a regular.”
    “Just paying my respects.” He was making her nervous, as if she were an actress on opening night. “I could use a cold drink. They got machines back there.” She sat on the stone wall with the mountains and valley spread sedately at her back. Cocking her head and giving him a sultry look, she said, “Why don't you buy me a drink, Rafferty? Make it a diet. I gotta watch my figure.”
    “I'm not here to play games.”
    “I'd talk better if my mouth wasn't so dry.”
    He reined in impatience. He could play this two ways. He could be a hard-ass, stick his badge in her face and threaten to take her in for questioning. Or he could get her the damn drink and let her think she was leading him by the nose.
    Tapping the filter of the cigarette against her teeth, Mona watched him walk away. He had cop's eyes, she thought. The kind that could spot a hooker even if she was wearing a nun's habit and saying Hail Marys. She was going to have to be careful, real careful if she wanted to earn that other twelve-fifty
    When he came back with the Diet Coke, Mona took a long, slow sip. “I didn't know whether to call you or not,” she began. “I don't like cops.” She felt more confident, starting with the plain truth. “In my business, a girl's got to look out for herself first.”
    “But you did call me.”
    “Yeah, 'cause I couldn't stop thinking. You could say I wasn't giving my clients my full attention.” She took a deep drag, blew smoke out through her nostrils. “I read in the papers about what happened to Biff. It really shook me, his getting beat to death that way. He was always real generous with me.”
    “I bet. So?”
    She tapped her cigarette again. The family walked by, to pile wearily into their station wagon and head north. “Well, I just couldn't put it out of my head like I wanted to. I kept thinking about poor Biff suffering that way. It didn't seem right. You know, he was into some pretty bad business.”
    “What kind of bad business?”
    “Drugs.” She inhaled slowly, watching him. “I'm goingto tell you, I don't hold with that shit. Maybe a little grass now and again, but none of the hard stuff. I've seen too many of the girls burn themselves out. I got respect for my body.”
    “Yeah, it's a temple. What's the point, Mona?”
    “Biff did a lot of bragging about his sideline, especially after he was, like, satisfied. Seems he had a connection in D.C., a Haitian. And Biff, he was the mule.”
    “The Haitian have a name?”
    “Biff just called him René and said he was a real high roller. Had a big house, fancy cars, lots of women.” She was cruising now and set the can aside on the wall. “Biff wanted all that, he wanted it bad. He said if he could make a score, a big one, he wouldn't need René. The last time I saw him, he said he was moving out on his own, that he had a shipment and was going to deal it himself and cut René out. He bragged about how maybe we'd take a trip to Hawaii,” she said, deciding to embellish. She'd always wanted to go to Hawaii. “Couple days later, I read about how he was dead. Biff, I mean.”
    “Yeah.” He studied her. “How come you waited so long to contact me?”
    “Like I said, I don't have any use for cops. But Biff, he was a good guy.” Mona tried to bring tears to her eyes, for effect, but couldn't quite manage it. “I read how they're saying he raped and killed some kid. But I don't buy it. How come Biff would rape a kid when he knew he could pay for a woman? So, I start thinking, maybe this René guy whacked them both, and since Biff was a good customer and all, I thought I ought to tell somebody.”
    It sounded neat, very neat and tidy. “Biff ever talk to you about religion?”
    “Religion?” She had to hold back a smile. It was a question she'd been told to expect and told how to answer.“Funny you should ask that. This René was into some weird shit. Devil worship,