"I don't know whether to drink this or use it to take the rust off my patio furniture." "It's tafia." "It's rum, anisette, molasses, some African herbs and a little tree frog." "It's a traditional drink back home in New Orleans." "Oh, well, I'm not much for tradition or tree frog." "Don't let this go to waste, big guy." "Listen, Angelique, if you want to find your brother," "I would suggest starting with the cops." "At least that way you're not burning through your savings." "No, no, I can't go to the police." "After the floods back home everything was turned upside down and Royal lost his way." "Fell in with some men." "I think it was drugs." "He wasn't quite himself." "Well, listen, if I do get into this, you have to be prepared for what I might find out about him." "I understand." "All right." "My time is 500 a day, plus expenses." "I'll need a list of anyone he might know in town, your contact information, and a recent photo of him." "My contact is in here and enough for about a week of your time and that's Royal." "He's a very beautiful boy." "He's my mother's pride and joy." "Don't worry, if he's in town, I will find him." "The man who drew my brother into this, his name is Henri Gregoire and he's a very dangerous man." "Ah, I meet a lot of that type in this line of work." "Run!" "Get out of here!" "What?" "Hey, Angelique, wait!" "Angelique!" "What the hell's going on?" "Who was that?" "Angelique!" "Run!" "Run!" "Somebody tell me there's a cement mixer running and that grinding is not my head." "No, that would be your head." "So, who is this guy?" "Jean-Marc." "I don't know his last name." "He was a friend of my client's." "I'm telling you, neither one of us could slow down the guy that came after us" "And who is this client and why does somebody want them dead?" "Her name's Angelique Jarou." "Do you have a contact for her?" "Um... yeah, she gave me this number." "I haven't had any luck though." "She's looking for her brother, Royal." "He's gotten mixed up with someone named Henri Gregoire." "Okay, I'll call it in and see what I can find on him." "All right, thanks, Dave." "Okay, what else?" "What do you mean, what else?" "Since when does an unarmed guy just walk away from you?" "Well, this is where it gets complicated." "Complicated." "Look, I was right up in this guy's face, came wailing on him, there's nothing." "I mean he was making gargly noises, but he's not breathing." "So...what?" "You're saying that this guy isn't alive?" "That kind of thing?" "I guess I am." "I mean I don't really think the guy was alive." " Vicki, don't do this." " Don't do what?" "Don't turn into a whack job, okay?" "Sometimes the only way I can get through my day is knowing that there are normal people out there, okay?" "And until recely I considered you one of them." "You know what I'm saying." "I'm telling you, this guy was unstoppable." "Okay, it could be PCP," " crystal meth, who knows?" " I saw him!" "Vicki, it's pitch black!" "You're half blind!" "I said that last part our loud, didn't I?" "Look, I just..." "I" "I don't want to hear that you're back out there chasing vampires, okay?" "It wasn't a vampire, all right?" "I don't know what it was." "Is Henry Fitzroy involved in this somehow?" "Henry has nothing to do with this." "Cause I tell you, ever since you met him, he's been putting these crazy ideas in your head." "Since you've known me, when has anyone put anything in my head I didn't want there?" "Okay, you say you're good." "You're good." "I believe you." "You know what, Mike?" "You know what I hate more than the pity?" "Is this macho over-protective crap." "I can take care of myself." "Garbage can, twelve o'clock." "I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away." "You're one of those guys who's just riddled with nagging self-doubt, aren't you?" "I have a fair opinion of myself." "And hundreds of years of positive reinforcement." "Henry, I need your help." "Something happened to me tonight and you may be the only person who'd believe me." "It was... supernatural." "And I should get involved because...?" "Listen, you're the one that dragged me into this world of vampires, monsters and demons." "I don't have anyone else to go to." "Well, never let it be said that Henry Fitzroy shirked a responsibility." "What happened?" "I got attacked tonight by this guy or... he used to be a guy." "Used to be?" "Where do I start?" "Gray skin, no pupils, not breathing." "I was meeting with this client of mine, from New Orleans, she's looking for her lost brother." "This thing attacked us." "It..." "It killed her friend." "And it's still out there looking for her." "The man who attacked you" "His eyes were glazed over?" "He looked like he wasn't in control of his body?" " I see you've met." " He was a zombie." "A zombie." "As in eating brains in the shopping mall zombie." "No, zombie like voodoo." "Dead bodies resurrected to carry out the will of a powerful bokor." "You need to stay away from this, Vicki." "You're the second man to say that to me tonight," "I wasn't crazy about it the first time." "What is the big deal?" "A big scary vampire frightened of a little zombie?" "You enjoy a familiarity with me that very few people in this world have known." "I am not to be taken lightly." "Do not forget who and what I am." "Yeah, that's unlikely." "Now, I will help you if only to keep you alive." "The trick will be to locate whoever created the zombie and break the connection." "And I promise you, that will be a lot more difficult than it sounds." "I don't usually show my work before it's completed." "Call me superstious." "That seems to be the name of the game lately." "It's beautiful." "What's it about?" "Passion... politics..." "Good and evil." "technology and magic... and a woman in search of her own destiny." "Please." "Will you let me read it when it's done?" "Well, maybe you can help me come up with an ending." "Woman like Angelique can't hide." "How you hide a wildfire?" "How you hide a mountain?" "Our people are on the streets." "The girl can count her time in hours." "You know who she is!" "You talk like a fool!" "Her protection's gone." "Girl like that always has protection." "You think you chasin the lamb?" "That's when you get gored." "You want to find her?" "Wake up?" "You tell them boys to look stronger." "Cause if they don't find her... my babies's gonna find them." "I think one of them babies just found you." "You tell the boys, Ti-Jon." "Find the girl... or the babies find them!" "You asked for vood in 100 words or less?" "I've got a ton of stuff on curses, sympathetic magic, voodoo dolls, zombies." "Is there anything on how to stop them?" "I'm still reading but it looks like they're pretty unstoppable." "Yeah, I was kind of getting that." "Why isn't it like the movies where you just have to bash their brains in." "Don't trust the movies." "Look what they did to vampires." "Oh, yeah, right." "I've got something else, too." "I was looking at the pictures you took of the guy who got killed in the alley." "Something was bugging me about his tattoos and then it hit me." "They were in a book." " What are they, gang related?" " They're veve." "Voodoo symbols marking allegiance to certain gods." "Kind of like access codes." "They're for power and protection." "Well, it looks like they didn't give him much of either." "This is not something we want to involve ourselves in, Vicki." "You know what?" "I got a client out there with killer zombies on her ass." "I'm not going to bail on her." "You coming?" "Hi." "What do you drink?" "I'll have a beer, and him?" "You don't want to know." "You don't want to know." "You remember me from earlier, right?" "Maybe." "A lot of people come in here." "Yeah, but a lot of people don't come and talk to Angelique." "Can't say I rember her, either." "You sure treated her like she was someone special." "I treat all customers that way." "That's how we do business." "Then it must not matter to you that the man she was with is dead, or that she was almost killed." "Ah, now that got your attention, didn't it?" "I'd like to give this a shot." "I've got this under control." "Trust me, I can make him talk." "Knock yourself out." "Where is she?" "You know what?" "That's an excellent try, but you might want to ramp it back a notch." "Everybody, sorry." "No harm, no foul, just a little misunderstanding." "You know what?" "You see that girl, you give me a call." "How many times do I have to tell you?" "Don't bite the bartender." "I was only playing." "Trust me, he would have talked." "Yeah, but we would have been busy getting our asses kicked to hear him." "'Our' asses?" "Trust me." "My way is a whole lot neater." "And what exactly is your way?" "Um...we wait for him to lead us right to her." "Arret!" "Please." "Henry" "No more killing." "I didn't expect to see you again." "I was sure you'd been scared off by what you'd seen already." "I suppose at least I should tell you the truth, huh?" "That would be a start." "Voodoo has been in our home for generations." "Our mother was a mambo our father a houngan, a... a priest and priestess." "Royal and I were supposed o follow in their footsteps." "Tough to get kids into the family business these days." "We saw things that no child should have to see." "Angels and gods possessing their followers." "Possessing our parents." "We saw what it did to them." "It sucked their life away." "They died when we were still small children." "How did they die?" "They were murdered by a follower of the secta rouge, the dark side of our religion." "My brother and I, we came home from school one day and found them nailed to the wall, gutted as a sacrifice." "Royal and I, we ran away, determined to keep ourselves apart from that world." "And then he disappeared." "I dreamt him in a vision." "He was in a dark place, crawling with snakes and spiders." "And when he opened his mouth to call for me, it was a window to hell." "And now, my religion... might be the only protection I have that I can rely on." "Not the only thing." "We'll protect you." "And we'll help you find your brother." "Vicki, a word, please." "You don't know what you're promising." "Keeping that girl alive is one thing, but going up against a powerful Voudoun" " is suicide." " She needs our help." " She almost got you killed." " That's not her fault." " You going to keep doing this?" " What?" "Coming up with an answer for everything I say." "Only if you keep saying things." "This is a world you know nothing about." "Then tell me." "I want you to come with us." "I think you'd be safer at my office than here, okay?" "Thank you Vicki." "Thank me once we find your brother." "Okay, I have been reading up on this stuff for like, hours now and I never expected to talk to a real life mambo." "So now that you're here, you've got to tell me how to do some of this stuff..." "Curses, soul traveling attracting money." "The spirits are not to be toyed with, and nothing comes for free." "The gifts you ask carry a heavy price." "Why do people always say that?" "Because some of them have paid, and some of them are still paying." "All right, we've got some things to do." "Do you mind staying here with Angelique?" "Absolutely, we should have a million things to talk about." " Hey." " Hey, Vick." "Surprise, surprise." "I see you brought your cartoonist friend." "Detective C elluci." "And what I create are graphic novels." "Yeah, if I were a cartoonist, I'd call them that, too." "Did you find anything on that name I gave you?" "There is no Henri Gregoire in vi-cap or vi-class databases, nothing in DMV, property registry or tax filings." "I have a feeling that your friend doesn't exactly take out an ad when he comes to town." "Perhaps it might take some real detective work." "Oh, is that where you come in, sport?" " Someone will have to." " I see." "Yeah, you know what?" "I have a client out there being chased by a killer zombie, so maybe we could just focus on that for, I don't know, a minute!" "Of course." "It's open." "Would you say that's a good thing or a bad thing?" "I'd say very bad." "Hello." "Hello?" "Oh, jeez." "He's dead." "And whatever he knew about those guys we're looking for, it's gone." "And whoever killed him isn't." "Is anyone there?" "Let's go!" "Say it." "I didn't take this seriously enough." "It almost staked you." "You're in a new world." "It's hard to comprehend the dangers unless you've seen them with your own eyes." "That thing's unstoppable." "It's just a puppet." "It's the person who created it we have to stop." "Yeah, well I hope he responds better to a beating." "Do you really have a death wish?" "Okay, this is not about you hating magic." "Are you going to tell me, or what?" "Come on, I'm all ears." "In the '20s I visited Haiti with a woman I met in Paris, with a woman I met in Paris," "She was... keen to experience the world and everything in it." "She'd heard of a... a voodoo ceremony taking place and insisted we go." "I was so full of my own power I was sure we'd be safe." "When we got there it was like the crowd was electrified." "People dancing, drinking," "calling to the spirits, asking them to take over their bodies and live through them." "I got so wound up in it, I didn't even notice she was gone." "What happened?" "I finally found her at the head of the crowd, lying on an altar, her clothes ripped and bloodied." "There was a priest standing over her with a knife." "I tried to get to her through the crowd but I couldn't get to her before he completed the sacrifice." "I'm sorry." "There were two zombies holding me like the thing we saw tonight." "The priest said that he knew what I was." "He said that we'd greet the dawn together, him, me and Sandrine." "I thought you said he killed her." "He did." "And then he made me watch as he brought her back." "It took the rest of the night." "And when she finally arose, it wasn't Sandrine that stood before me, it was one of them." "No, she wanted to go" "You couldn't have known." "Now I do." "And I'm not let that happen to you." "Just in time Vick, I almost gave up on our dinner date." "Yeah, that's the thing, Mike." "I think I'm going to have to cancel." "This case is getting really hairy." "Sorry." "Did you find anything out on Gregoire?" "Yeah, yeah." "Turns out this guy runs a hoodoo voodoo freak show." "Calls himself Papa Samedi" "That would be the guy." "Yeah, he's got a place in the old McMillan building on King West." "He offers healings, love filters, curses, to the people that can find him at least." "I'll tell you, this is not an easy guy to do a work-up on." "Not many people willing to talk about him." "I think I know why." "All right, your turn." "You tell me how do I connect that guy to the body I've got in the morgue?" "And don't tell me this is where it gets complicated." "Okay, if I told you that" "Samedi created a zombie that killed my client's friend, would you believe me?" "Not in a million years, no." "Well, that being said, it's complicated." "Vicki, why do you keep shutting me out of these things?" "What is going on?" "You're the one banging your head against an open door." "Your friend, Henry, does he believe in all this crap?" "Believe it or not, he wants me off this case even more than you do." "He has no problem supporting your trip to fantasyland, does he?" "In fact, he's driving the bus, isn't he?" "Mike, this is not about Henry." "I know you think I'm going nuts." "Maybe I am." "But I still feel like I'm thinking straight." "It's like the more I lose my vision, the more clearly I'm seeing the world, and there is a whole other side to it that I was completely missing." "It's scary and it's exciting and it's real, and I know you don't believe me." "A month ago I wouldn't have either." "I'm just asking you to sit tight." "Okay?" "I will share whatever I find out with you and you can take it or leave it." "It's the best I can do." "Hey, Dave," "I need you to do me a favor, okay?" "Run a records check on this Henry Fitzroy." "He's some kind of comic book writer." "You think he's got something to do with the homicide?" "Well, even if he isn't, Vicki's bringing him into it, so let's do it." "So, this is about the case or about Vicki?" " Why?" "What are you getting at?" " Nothing," "I'm certainly not suggesting that you're... asking me to run a guy just because he's getting on your woman." "Do you think that's what this is about?" "No, no, I mean... mean just because she canceled her dinner date with you to spend quality time running around" "They're not running around, Dave, it's a case." "It's as simple as that, okay?" "You know, that's what I told one of my wives, not sure if it was number two or number three." "Yeah, well, thank you for that, Dave, because if something was, you know, on my mind, it would put my mind completely at ease thanks a lot." "Oh, hey, I'm here for you, brother." " Yeah, I can see that!" " You know what I'm saying?" "Mike said that Papa Samedi is working out of the McMillan building on King West." "Did they find Royal?" "Is he with them?" "Oh, they don't know." "But until we have concrete proof of a link between him and Jean-Marc's death, we're on our own." "It's kind of romantic, isn't it?" "Nobody believing us, plumbing the deep horizons of experience, having to search out the truth all on our own." "Well, me accurately, you'll be here, searching out dinner for you and Angelique." " I should be with you." " What?" "No, no, no." "If this guy's looking for you, I'm not going to lead you to him." "You're safer here." "Henry and I will be fine." "It's for your protection, huh." "Hopefully you won't need it." "Thanks." "Angelique," "I think I still need a little help with my love juju." "Comment?" "'" "Say I was trying to attract a man, much older than myself, but who doesn't look it." "Who's incredibly attractive, a real night owl." "Would I be better off using aloes or acacia?" "Maybe I should just use both." "Actually, maybe we should start again from scratch." "Okay." "You come to kill me, Nightwalker..." "You've got be way more quiet." "I hear you thinking." "We're not here to kill you." "You're too late for dinner, too early for breakfast." "What you here for then?" "You tried to kill my client, Angelique." "We want her brother back." "You working for the zombie queen?" "Man, you're already sewed up tight in the devil's pocket." "Enough games!" "Show yourself!" "You don't even know, do you?" "That woman been hunting me a long time." " You took her brother." " Somebody had to." "The two of them was the family from hell." "Some serve avec deux mains, serve with two hands." "Them two only served the dark." "They bring a lot of people to hell with them." "That's why I take the brother..." "Bring him here after the floods wash open my hiding place." "So you killed him, too." "I helped him along the path." "His bones are hidden in the cemetery but his soul, it stays with me." "Without him, the crone's not so strong." "Crone?" "She's what, twenty-five?" "Looks are deceiving, girl." "You know how Angelique and her brother keep looking so young is a long chain of dead children give up their lives for her to look so good." "A lot of those young spirits were children of my flock." "You're saying she killed children to stay alive." "Angelique cut their innocent hearts out and fed on them while they were still beating." "When the floodwaters washed their bodies up they called out to me." "Them children not gonna rest until that witch is dead." "Why should we believe you?" "You've got no choice, mon ami." "The moon and stars feel right tomorrow night for burying cemetery to give up his dead." "Angelique want to bring that black soul brother back to earth." "If she gets him back, children start dying in this place, too." "Disappearing." "Maybe we should wait for Vicki, order some food like she said." "I don't really need a love juju," " there's always online dating." " Shut up!" "How do we know you're telling the truth?" "Why, you think I care about you believing?" "You're not strong enough to stop me, and I'm plenty strong to push you down." "I underestimate that old girl." "I think she sent you here to talk, but she sent you in wearing a bandeau." "What?" "Oh, jeez...!" "You walk in bold as brass to eat my soul." "You have to tell us where Royal is buried." "Okay?" "What cemetery?" "The amulet!" "Don't let her have it!" "She played us." "And we delivered her right to Papa Samedi and the amulet." "Oh God, she's got Coreen." "Oh, Coreen!" "Thank god you're okay." " Henry!" "Her mouth!" " Coreen!" "You were a big help, Miss Vicki Nelson." "I knew you and your undead friend would get me everything I needed." "You've given me a gift, and now I give you one." "You know what?" "I think we're both a little old to play with dolls." "I squeeze too hard..." "Who knows what will happen?" "You and this doll have a lot in common." "The hair came right from your brush." "And you see this?" "She's a grave bug." "My bug is very hungry." "And she gets hungrier." "I tell her to eat..." "Vicki dies." " What do you want?" " I want the amulet." "I want my brother's soul." "You know we can't give you that." "I can wait one more night." "Can you?" "Vicki?" "Vicki?" "She took my mouth away." "Oh, I'd love to learn that trick sometime." "Do you have to wise crack even when you're dying?" "I'm not dying." "Yet." "Henry, do something." "She needs help." "We can't exactly take her to a hospital and ask for a voodoo curse specialist." "The only thing we can do is get the doll back, before she makes her next move." "Now, it's almost daylight, and I've got to go." "You can't just leave her like this." "Coreen, you have to be strong." "Keep her comfortable until I get back, okay?" "Comfortable?" "I screwed up trusting her, huh?" "I should have listened to you." "You only do it one way." "I have to stop her, Henry." "I just keep thinking about the parents." "You know?" "Finding their kids bodies and realizing how they suffered and died." "If she gets her brother back, how many more families are Royal and Angelique gonna destroy?" "Do what you can, to find the cemetery Royal is hidden in." "Wait for me until I get back, okay?" "Yeah, I'll think about it." "Keep her here." "Sit on her if you have to." "I need you to do something for me, okay?" "Papa Samedi said that, he sent the brother's remains up here after Katrina hit New Orleans, so I need you to check all the cemeteries in the downtown core." "I need the name of anyone... who was... shipped up here after the hurricane, probably interred without a ceremony." "Right." "Are you sure you're okay?" "Yeah, I'll be fine." "Just go, okay?" "Vicki, I got something." "Oh, say it's a quick death." "I called every cemetery in town." "At first I thought it was going to be a total bust." "But then the guy at Mount Pleasant said someone came in, bought a crypt there eleven months ago." "The guy who bought it, paid cash and gave the name, Damballah." "That's the sky serpent spirit in voodoo." "Remind me never to make fun of your supernatural obsessions again." "Vicki Nelson investigations." "It's Mike." " Hi, Mike." " Where are you?" "In the office, why?" "I've got two more bodies racked up connected to your case." "A guy from the bar where you met your client and Gregoire, the guy whose address I gave you." "Don't look at me, I didn't kill 'em." "Yeah, but you know something about who did." "Well, to tell you the truth, it was my client." "What, that young, innocent thing looking for her brother?" "Yeah, try voodoo witch trying to resurrect her dead brother so they can go on a killing spree at your local elementary school." "Are you still there?" "Yeah, I'm here and I don't know why, Vicki." " Listen, I need to see you." " Yeah, I can't right now," "I'm kind of battling a bit of a stomach bug." " I'll call you later, though." " No, not later." "Vicki, I need to talk.." "We did that search on that Fitzroy guy you asked for." "Guy leaves less footprints than a cat on concrete." "Squeaky-clean driving record, perfect credit rating, no previous address or employment record." "It's like the guy just started one day." "Why does this not surprise me?" "Should we roust him a bit?" "See what he's got to say for himself?" "No, no, put a pin in it for now, okay?" "All right." "Thanks." "Where are you going?" "I can't wait for Henry." "I gotta find Royal's body before Angelique does." "Don't do this, Vicki." "Vicki Nelson investigations." "Coreen, it's me." "How is she?" "Henry, she didn't listen." "She took off, out to the cemetery." "The lamb to the slaughter." "Which cemetery?" "Mount Pleasant." "Okay, I'm on my way." "If she calls, tell her to wait for me." "Hey, one more thing." "One of my books says something about zombies." "You can use salt." "I don't want to season them, Coreen, I'd like to kill them." "The book says that if they taste salt, it's supposed to remind them of their mortality." " They'll return to the grave." " Coreen, you can't believe everything you read." "Now if Vicki calls, tell her to wait for me, okay?" "All right." "Bye." "Salt!" "Salt!" "I was wondering when you would get here." "How did you find this?" "I thought you didn't know where Royal was." "I knew where the body was." "I just needed someone to breech" "Samedi's defenses so I could get to him." "You still don't have the amulet!" "It's coming." "We both know that." "Bring him to me." "I don't think so!" "Let her go or I destroy this!" "Hello, my Royal." "Hello, my brother." "I'm gonna bring you back real soon now, and as for you, you get to see this foolish girl help bring him back." " Vicki!" " See my sacrifice." "See this woman's life who I trade!" "Come to me now!" "This is for your worms." "My brother for the light." "You missed." "But I won't." "Who says I missed?" "Come on!" "Let's go!" "Come on!" "You okay?" "Destroying the soul amulet uined the ceremony and angered the god." "Yeah?" "Well remind me not to do that." "Would it do any good?" "No, but you could just keep trying." "You might want it as a souvenir." "You know, I stopped playing with dolls a long time ago, but... as for voodoo..." "Hey, I think we've had enough of that in our lifetime, maybe two." "Thank you, Henry." "And, um... take care of that." "What took you so long?" "How did you know it was me?" "Well, it's like the guy in the comic books, the more you lose your sight, the sharper your other senses get." "Well, that or I would have been here an hour ago if I was you." "Want to hear what I found in Mount Pleasant Cemetery?" "Oh, I'm all ears" "Two old corpses in an open casket, one in fresh clothes." "The other the body of your client's friend who magically jumped out of the city morgue on his own." "Well, at least he was walking in the right direction." "You were there, weren't you?" "You don't want to know that, Mike, even if you think you do." "Vicki, Vicki." "Come on, what's next, huh?" "Goblins in the subway, Bigfoot in the shopping mall, that kind of thing?" "What's next is lunch." "Come on, I'm buying, big guy."