‘That sounds nice.’
‘Or just a slight sprinkle of shredded coconut.’
‘Whatever.’
Del picked up the red-flannel Santa hat with the white trim and white pompon, which she had found in the display of Christmas items at the supermarket.
‘What’s that for?’ Tommy asked.
‘It’s a hat.’
‘But what are you going to use it for?’ he asked, since she’d had such specific uses for everything else they had picked up at the market.
‘Use it for? To cover my head,’ she said, as if he were daft. ‘What do you use hats for?’
She put it on. The weight of the pompon made the peak of the cap droop to one side.
‘You look ridiculous.’
‘I think it’s cute. Makes me feel good. Puts me in a holiday mood.’ She closed the back door of the van.
‘Do you see a therapist regularly?’ he asked.
‘I dated a dentist once, but never a therapist.’ Behind the wheel of the van again, she started the engine and switched on the heater.
Tommy held his trembling hands in front of the dashboard vents, relishing the gush of hot air. With the broken window covered, he might be able to dry out and get warm.
‘Well, Detective Phan, do you want to start this investigation by trying to find it?’
‘Find what?’
‘Your butt.’
‘Just before I totalled the Corvette, I’d decided to go see my brother Gi. Could you drop me off there?’
‘Drop you off?’ she said disbelieving.
‘It’s the last thing I’ll ask you for.’
‘Drop you off – and then what? Just go home and sit and wait for the doll snake rat-quick little monster thing to come tear out my liver and eat it for dessert?’
Tommy said, ‘I’ve been thinking-’
‘Well, it doesn’t show.’
‘-and I don’t think you’re in any danger from it-’
‘You don’t think I am.’
‘-because, according to the message that the thing apparently typed on my computer, the deadline is dawn.’
‘How exactly am I to take comfort from this?’ she asked.
‘It’s got until dawn to get me – and I’ve got until dawn to stay alive. At that point the game ends.’
‘Game?’
‘Game, threat, whatever.’ He squinted through the windshield at the silvery skeins of rain falling beyond the underpass.
‘Could we get moving? Makes me nervous to sit here so long.’
Del released the handbrake and put the van in gear. But she kept her foot on the brake pedal and didn’t drive out from under the freeway. ‘Tell me what you mean – game.’
‘Whoever made the doll is willing to play by rules. Or maybe they have to, maybe that’s what the magic requires.’
‘Magic?’
He locked his door. ‘Magic sorcery, voodoo, whatever. Anyway, if I make it to dawn, maybe I’m safe.’ He reached across Del and locked her door too. ‘This creature it isn’t going to come after you if it’s been sent to get me and if it has only a limited amount of time to make the kill. The clock is ticking for me, sure, but it’s also ticking for the assassin.’
Del nodded thoughtfully. ‘That makes perfect sense,’
she said, and she sounded sincere, as though they were discussing the laws of thermodynamics.
‘No, it’s insane,’ he corrected. ‘Like the whole situation. But there’s a certain nutty logic to it.’
She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. ‘One thing you’ve overlooked.’
He frowned. ‘What’s that?’
She checked her wristwatch. ‘It’s now seven minutes past midnight.’
‘I hoped it was later. Still a lot of time to get to the finish line.’ He looked over his shoulder, across the cargo hold, at the back door of the van, which wasn’t locked.
And dawn is in probably five and half or at most six hours,’ Del said.
‘So?’
‘Tommy, at the rate you’re going, the creepy-crawler will catch you by one o’clock, tear your head off – and still have four or five hours of spare time on its hands. If it has hands. Then it’ll come for me.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘I think so.’
‘It doesn’t know who you are,’ he said patiently. ‘How would it find you?’