The Night Beat

cannon fodder for the side of evil.”
    “You can’t know that,” Freddy argued.
    H.P. cleared his throat. “Actually, we can. There’s ample proof, in a variety of tomes. When we have a spare minute, Frederick, I’ll be happy to show you. Until then, you’ll have to trust that Victoria does know of what she speaks. The dead who do not ascend, who do not join the unliving, and who do not automatically go to the Prince’s Hell remain interred in the earth, in blackness, until such time as they are called to fight. Those who died more on the side of the Prince than on the side of goodness will fight as part of the Army of the Damned.”
    Sexy Cindy processed this. “That’s going to be most of them, isn’t it?”
    I couldn’t help it, I had to ask. “What did you do, before your ex forced you into hooking?” She mumbled something. “What? Didn’t catch that.” She mumbled again. “Really, speak up. Time’s wasting here.”
    “I was studying to be a preschool teacher.” Sexy Cindy had the combo of defiance and embarrassment down perfectly.
    “Oh, I think you should aim for higher education,” H.P. said, with complete sincerity. I couldn’t blame him. The streets were burning off of Sexy Cindy and Freddy at the speed of Zeus’ lightning bolts. “We always need good instructors.”
    “Recruit for the University later,” Monty said. “We need to plan our next moves.”
    “No, actually, we need Cindy to tell us exactly why she didn’t like the clientele at The Pleasure Palace.”
    “I agree,” Edgar said. “Because I believe there’s a good chance the monster originated on the other side of the wall.”

Chapter 27
     
    We all stared at Sexy Cindy. She glared back.
    I gave it another shot. “Look, we’re not asking because we think you’re stupid or not good enough or whatever inferiority thing you’ve got going is telling you. We’re asking because you’re spotting evil naturally, and you’re repelled by it. Ergo, if you were repelled by The Pleasure Palace’s clientele, we really want to know why, in that cop way of ours.”
    She deflated. “Okay, fine. They all seemed…wrong to me. I don’t know any girl who ever picked a john up from there, either. Well, except one. But she’s dead now.”
    Jack and I exchanged the cop “oh really?” look. “What did she die from?” he asked.
    “Got real sick, sort of wasted away.”
    “How soon after she picked up that john from The Pleasure Palace?”
    Sexy Cindy’s brow crinkled in thought. “Maybe a week, maybe a little more.”
    “How long ago was this?” The base of my tail mentioned that it knew exactly what Sexy Cindy was going to say.
    “Right about the time when Tomio had everybody read those evil words.” Her expression said she had a direct line to my tail. “Oh, crap, it killed her, didn’t it?”
    “No. Well, yes, but not in the way you probably think. And,” I added to the glare that was starting to radiate out of her eyes, “not because I think you’re stupid. Because you’ve been undead about a day and I just doubt Indoctrination taught you about what possession by a major evil minion does to a human.”
    Ken put his hand against the wall and concentrated. “It’s not giving off any evil resonance.”
    “And yet, it should,” Edgar said. “A manifestation of the size you dealt with should leave resonance for days. Which means it’s got a spell on it.”
    “So, what do you figure?” Ralph asked me.
    “The incantation provided Abaddon with a portal. He came through into The Pleasure Palace. For whatever reason, he didn’t take a possession there. Isn’t that odd?”
    Edgar shook his head. “It makes sense. The clientele are the Prince’s servants. They want a strong army. Better to take an innocent, ensure one less for our side.”
    “Okay, so he picks up the poor girl unlucky enough to score a john from our little den of iniquity. He drains her life source and drops her back on her street corner.” A thought occurred. “Cindy, did you know her well enough to know who her pimp was?”
    “Yeah. Same pimp as the other two girls we just, ah, talked to. She worked that side of the block, though, so I didn’t see her much.”
    “How well connected to Tomio is this pimp?” Jack asked.
    Sexy Cindy shrugged. “I dunno. Tomio knew everyone.”
    “Which was why he was the perfect choice for infiltration,” Martin said. Black Angel Two nodded. Not that I felt we needed angelic confirmation