KNIGHT'S REPORTS: 3 Book Set (11 page)

It wasn’t hard for me to step sideways and give
Special
Underling
Agent Moranus the same knock-out jab. It put him down in an instant, as well. As his knees buckled, I quickly slipped my other hand under his jacket and extracted the compact Glock 23 .40 caliber from its shoulder holster.

They were both laid out on the floor within the same second.

Poodoo came to my side. “What happened?”

“I think they fainted.”

“You punched them out, didn’t you?”

“It was probably all the heat and the noise. You know, after a couple of drinks — if you aren’t in good shape — all this,” I motioned around us, “can be too much.”

“Jeez, you’re fast,” she said. “I didn’t even see you move. I mean, I saw you sidestep, but I didn’t even see you throw hands.”

“It was the alcohol,” I insisted, turning away from the two agents. “They can’t hold their Shirley Temples.”

Poodoo followed me back through the crowd. “You’re kinda crazy, aren’t you?”

“Thanks for letting me play with your friends,” I told her. “It was fun.”

“You’re incredible, you know that?”

“Sweetheart,” I told her. “I can only hope to show you.”

We left the Green Fairy Absinthe and Cigar Lounge expeditiously, being a little anxious to get lost in the crowd before the two FBI agents I just punched out woke up.

But w
hen we got outside, Goofy was nowhere to be seen.

Poodoo noticed it first and grabbed my arm hard. I followed her eyes to the sidewalk, busy with feet.

A blood trail.

Chapter
18

Gone Goofy

“No!” Poodoo said. “Not Goofy! He’s such a sweet man. I shoulda never gotten him into this.”

I examined the blood on the sidewalk and then found where it led. “Let’s go!” I pulled her by the arm with Special
Underling
Agent Moranus’ handgun held low in the other hand.

We followed the fresh blood, glad there was enough to follow in spite of the hundreds of dancing and scuffing shoes that passed over it. At the same time, we were frightened by the sheer volume of life leaking from Goofy’s body.

I caught myself hoping to hear his comical laughter, wishing we would find him somehow alive and well. But the constant trail of now smeared blood wasn’t a good sign.

After a couple of minutes, Poodoo checked the street signs at the intersection we came upon. She said, “I think I know where Goof’s headed. He was parked near here when I picked him up to go find you and Zack this morning.”

She led now, pulling me by the wrist. After another two-and-a-half blocks, the trail took an alley, lit only by the lights on the intersecting streets at each end. Parked about two hundred feet in was a small pickup.

“It’s Goofy’s!” Poodoo said.

I grabbed her arm before she could run into the alley, blindly. She tried to jerk away.

“No!” I told her. “It could be a trap.”

She came to her senses, reached under her dress and pulled out her DoubleTap .45.

We moved quickly but tactically up the shadowed alley toward the pickup, noticing the cab light on and driver side door open.

At fifty feet, I saw movement — a body on the roughly paved alley beside the open pickup door.

Poodoo couldn’t hold back any longer, running to Goofy’s side. I followed and stood on guard over them with the Glock.

“Goofy, sweetie — I’m here! Ol’ Poodoo’s here, and I’ll get help!”

She pulled out her cell phone and called 911.

I took a quick glance. He was bleeding from his gut. “Who did this, Goof?”

He chuckled. “That bare chested bitch with the white mask. She saw me first. Musta known I was with you. She tapped me on the back, and when I turned she stuck a damn dagger in me.”

“Did you see her face — did she say anything?”

“Yeah ... you better hurry,” he told me. “She said ‘Black Zack’s next’!”

Poodoo took the phone from her ear. “What?”

“Yeah, that’s what she said. I followed her until she got into the back of a big Caddy about two blocks away. I was gonna get in ol’ blue here an’ try an’ track them down, but I passed out.”

“A late model Cadillac? What color?”

“Yeah, looked brand new. Black. I tossed a beer bottle at it as it took off. But it only bounced off the trunk and back window.” He grimaced in pain. “Wish it’d been one of those Molotov cocktails and blowed the thing up!”

“Help’s on its way, Goof,” she said. “They’re just around the corner.”

“Then go! Get the hell outa here and keep that bitch from getting to Zack!” He opened his hand to show me the key to the little ‘82 Ford Ranger pickup, and I took it.

At that instant, an ambulance siren broke through the crowd noise. In another five seconds it’d turned into the alley.

Poodoo waved to the EMTs, and they drove up to within thirty feet and got out.

She flashed her badge. “Knife wound in the abdomen. He’s lost a lot of blood but he’s conscious.” She stood up while one of the ambulance attendants knelt beside Goofy. “You take good care of this little man. We’re taking the vehicle. If anyone asks, tell them we’re FBI, and we left in pursuit of the
unsub
.”

She stood, and looked down at him. “You don’t die on me, Goof! You hear me?”

“I ain’t gonna die. Just take care of Zack.”

Poodoo got into the passenger side as I fired up the little stick-shift, four-cylinder. We headed for the end of the alley and into the crowd. The street was blocked off to through traffic.

For the most part, the sidewalk seemed like the easiest going. I honked, used the flashers and flashed the headlights, while Poodoo held her badge out the window at the few police and security officers we came across. In the meantime, she was on the phone to the police to meet us at Zack’s — figuring her partners were probably still unconscious. Most likely they wouldn’t be willing help, anyway.

Crazy busy with Mardi Gras going on, she was warned the police’s response time would be longer than normal. She called Zack’s number, but got no answer. With Zack only having a landline and without voicemail or answering machine, she could do nothing else but to continuously speed-dial his number.

Within four blocks we made it to an open street, and we headed toward Zack’s horn shop about three miles away.

As I drove, I told Poodoo, “I figured Goofy for a limo driver, being a pimp and all.”

“Goof’s no pimp,” she said. “He’s an accountant. I got him into this — asked him to help. Wish I hadn’t, now.” She shook her head. “I looked him up when I transferred here. Needed someone to pose as a pimp for me. The guy’s a lot smarter and resourceful than he looks and sounds. He and my daddy were in the Army in Vietnam together. My daddy saved his life, jumped in front of a
bouncing Betty
booby trap, and got wounded bad in the bargain. Took nearly twenty years, but he finally died from the injuries soon after putting me in my momma’s belly.”

Being a Marine, I was very familiar with the type of spring mine she was referring to. Set off by a trip line, the actual mine portion of the
bouncing Betty
would be ejected up from the ground and into the air about three to six feet before exploding. Not pretty.

As I negotiated the traffic and a couple of turns, I had to ask something that I’d been curious about since I heard her name, “Your real name is
Pooh
?”

“Daddy killed himself with a shotgun while Momma was in midterm. I said the injuries in Vietnam killed him — and they did. According to Momma, they killed him in the brain just as sure as that shotgun.”

She paused and shook her head before continuing. “Anyway, Momma wanted a boy cause that’s what Daddy would’ve wanted. When I was born, the nurse brought me up to my mama’s chest and asked, ‘What you gonna name
her
?’ When Momma heard I was a girl and looked at me, she said, ‘Oh, pooh!’ And it stuck.

“But I didn’t like being called
Pooh
all the time — kids called me
Winnie
, like I was some kind of a soft ol’ bear. When I was seven and saw
Star Wars
for the first time, I learned one of the rarest and most powerful and sought after energy sources in the Galaxy was a substance made from bantha poop called poodoo. I realized then I’d found my moniker.”

She frowned into the night in front of us and pushed the
send
button on her phone again. “Damn, I sure hope Zack’s okay.”

Chapter
19

Hot Brass

We saw the smoke first. I knew Poodoo’s heart was racing twice as fast as mine. As flames leapt from the Jazzy Brass horn shop, I parked Goofy’s old pickup across the street next to the broom that Zack had put in his shop’s doorway. The SUV that Poodoo had loaned Zack to drive was nowhere in sight, so I hoped our friend had somehow escaped. Or maybe he’d never arrived — which was also worrisome.

I got to the door first. “See if he’s in the back,” I told her. “But be careful, and don’t go inside!”

I was a bit surprised when she obeyed.

With the windows blown out, I wasn’t so worried about causing an explosive backdraft when I opened the front door. The knob was hot, so I used my shirt to protect my hand when I grasped it. It was locked.

Poodoo came up behind me. “My Jimmy is around back, shot full of holes and all four tires are flat. The back door’s locked and probably barred, too. No one’s around.”

I broke through the door glass with my elbow, reached in and flipped the frying-pan-hot deadbolt latch to unlock, and I opened the door.

With sirens in the background, Poodoo said, “Here comes the fire department.”

“They’ll be too late,” I told her. “Stay back!”

Flames licked the ceiling, and I smelled gasoline as I took two steps into the burning building. Brass instruments that had been hanging from the open rafters and joists cluttered the floor, as more of them dropped from their hangers with symbol-like clashes every few seconds. I shielded my face with my arm and stepped farther, searching the smoke and flames for our friend.

About halfway to the back room, the heat and smoke finally became too much so I got down on all fours and scampered toward Zack’s bedroom doorway, amid the clamor of crashing brass.

Just outside the threshold, I found a tiny and still puppy, its fur shining like golden threads in the blazing fire around us. Hoping it was still alive, but with no time to check, I snatched it up and placed it under my shirt as I scanned for more life.

Nothing.

Then, in the licking flames, I saw Ella Fitzgerald, lying motionless, a puppy in her mouth. A few feet past her were another six or seven pups lying quiet in a dog bed at the foot of Zack’s bunk. I was too late, the fire beginning to engulf them.

I was so mad, tears came to my eyes.

“Zack!” I cried out. “Zack, damn it! Where are you?”

I caught movement next to the bed. The big, gentle man’s arm was extended up to the mattress from where he lay on the floor.

I moved as quickly as I could to him but something suddenly block my way.

A bare-chested black woman with a white mask.

On all fours like me, she reared back on her knees.

She seemed familiar. Then I noticed the fresh scar in the middle of her chest ... and the pink and red handprints tattooed on her bare breasts.

“No. It can’t be —”

She dropped the mask. It
was
Marie Paris Dumesnil de Glapion.

She blew the dust into my face, this time covering me well, and I inhaled the deadly powder in my surprised gasp.

Within seconds, the world spinning around me, she’d disappeared. Drained of strength and focus, I finally found my way to Zack’s body.

I collapsed on top of him as the ceiling caved in.

In the darkness behind my eyes, I thought
I’m going to kill that bitch!
Then, before I passed out, I realized that in my drug induced gayety and stupor, I had failed to tell Poodoo about both Legba’s plans of killing her and of his plans to sink the child-filled container ship.

Chapter
20

Real Time
: in Fur-Lined Handcuffs

Still handcuffed to the bed, my thoughts were coming clearer. With a few holes big enough to steer an M-1 Abrams through, I remembered most of what had happened.

The front door knob rattled from the next room and Black Zack appeared smiling in the bedroom doorway.

“Zack, thank God you’re okay!”

“I’s jus’ fine, E Z boy.”

“Sorry about Ella Fitzgerald and the puppies.”

“They’s jus’ fine, too.”

I was puzzled. “But I thought sure — “

Zack interrupted, “How ‘bout you?”

“Except for being tied to a bed, I’m good. Get me the hell outa here, will you?”

I heard the front door close and Poodoo came in. “That’s coming soon enough. First I gotta make sure they didn’t turn you into a zombie.”

“What?”

“Your memory back?”

“It’s coming. We have to get moving, I know that.”

She came to me, saying, “Sorry I was so rough on you, earlier. I thought if I got you riled up and your mind racing, you might recover the memory of the past few days quicker.” She felt my head and then inspected my eyes. “You know I spent many hours lying naked next to you in this bed, trying to keep your ice-cold body warm. Then you came back from zombie land and had that bad fever last night. You were tossin’ and turnin’ and beating yourself up. I had to put these on you.”

Zack said, “That damn powder they keeps blowin’ in ya face really messed ya up. Stuff’s kilt many o’folks. You’s lucky, E Z boy.”

Poodoo opened a drawer by the bed and took out a key. “You were saying some pretty crazy stuff. None of it made a bit of sense.” She unlocked both hands.

She left the handcuffs dangling from the steel headboard.

“I’ll leave these here as a warning for the next guy who dares enter my boudoir. Nice touch, don’t you think?”

“That and the two-foot-long dildo in the closet ought to do the trick.”

Zack raised his eyebrows. “Poodoo, you’s gots Legba’s big deek in that closet o’yo’s?”

She ignored him. “Your clothes are hanging next to the blindfolds, cock rings and ball gags.”

I rubbed my wrists. “You really get into this shit, don’t you, Dooley?”

Poodoo ignored me as well. She got a cardboard box and gently lifted the tiny golden retriever pup from its sleeping place beside me on the bed. She set it into the box and covered it with another small towel.

“Our little girl oughta be okay for a while in here. I’ll get my neighbor lady to take care of her while we’re out.”

Zack said, “Ya got the runt there, E Z boy. Mama Ella Fitzgerald cain’t nurse her, so Poodoo volunteered.”

I leaned over and looked into the box. She
was
cute.

Feeling much better than only minutes before, I sat up to untie my feet. But a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over me.

“Easy, tiger!” Poodoo said. “You won’t be 100% for a while — if ever.”

I didn’t like what I was hearing —
if ever?

I noticed the lights outside the window. It was getting dark.
“What time is it?”

Poodoo said, “About six-thirty.”

“So what happened,” I asked, throwing my legs over the side of the bed, “between you and me, I mean?”

She sat down in a chair beside the bed. “Well, sugar, don’t get me wrong. I don’t normally go to bed with a man I just met the day before. I know what you’re thinking, with that closetful of S&M and bondage stuff. You think I’m a loose woman.”

“Lady, you could be tighter than a bull’s ass at fly time for all I know.”

“Let me finish without you being so damn vulgar, would you?”

I shut up.

“I’m on a job, here. I’ve been deep undercover for over a year now, and we’re getting close. But I know we’ve got to get to those kids before the whole shittin’ mess falls apart. I’ve been doing guys, sometimes three or four a night ...”

“No doubt.”

She slugged me hard in the solar plexus. I hate it when people do that. “
That’s two
,” I said.

“Screw you,” she said. “Anyway, I was
doing
them by getting them naked, tying them to the bed and drugging them up with a special truth serum a CIA friend concocted for me. I neither kissed nor felt up a man in that bed for the year I’ve had it, or any other bed for that matter ... until you lay in it.”

“And ...”

“Something about you told me you had a good heart. I’d seen your file, so I was pretty sure you were a good guy. And, although I’d only known you for a few hours before that, I saw how thoughtful you were with Zack. I knew you’d put your own life on the line, not for profit, but to save Billy, a young man you didn’t even know. But when those drugs they gave you took over — well, you started out as cold as death, then you got as hot as fryin’ bacon.”

She clasped both hands between her thighs and leaned forward, speaking low as if to tell a secret in a roomful of people. “I’ll admit to you, when you got so hot and sweaty, and you were floppin’ around in the bed like a wild man, I gave you more than a once over. That spell you were under put an erection on you the size and strength like nothin’ I’d ever seen before.”

Zack had turned away, his back to us now. But I was sure he could hear every word Poodoo was saying.

“What about the big guy in the closet—the anaconda with batteries?”

“Big Bad John’s not, real. The mister in your britches is.” She looked at me coyly, then nodded to the towel. “I finally had to cover up that sugar stick of yours to keep from being tempted.” Her full lips were painted red and glistened. Two points on her chest were starting to protrude from her sundress like pencil erasers. “Not that I’ve seen a lot of male members, understand. But I could have done an upside-down pole dance on the thing, and it was so hard it’d break an eagle’s talons.”

His back still to us, Zack awkwardly side-stepped out of the bedroom. From the other side of the doorway, he said, “I’ll jus’ b’watin’ out here. Don’t y’all mind me none.”

Still not paying a bit of attention to Zack, she grinned wide. She had a beautiful smile, and her big green eyes were the type that always beamed.

She said, “I didn’t think you’d mind — I had to touch it. Well, I had to put my hands around it ... and I have to admit I did give it a tug or two ... or three.” She was blushing. “You must understand, though, I got a little bit of that powder blew into my face, too. It made me go a little crazy, as well. I might’ve kissed on you some ... . I might’ve kissed you in some otherwise inappropriate places, if you know what I mean.” She whispered, “I actually considered riding your love horn into the sunset, before my self-control won out, and I decided that would be too much like takin’ advantage of you.”

“Sweetheart,” I said, “I wouldn’t have minded a bit as long as I could watch the video and be conscious during our sequel.”

Her blush grew brighter and she turned away. “Now you go on and get dressed. Your undies are on that chair by the closet, and you’ll find your clothes inside all clean and pressed.”

“Hanging next to the whips, paddles and vibrators?”

“I told you, blindfolds, cock rings and ball gags.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Your shoes are over by the chair,” She said and raised an eyebrow, “And I stuck the little doll you had back in your pocket after I got your clothes back from the cleaners. Don’t worry, I won’t even ask about that.”

“You didn’t take out the pins, did you?”

“I didn’t molest your little dolly a bit.”

I tossed the towel to the side and strode to the closet feeling her eyes on me the entire way. I considered what an inconvenience this slave-trading, murdering ring of Voodoo-magic-slinging bastards was to be interfering with my sex life. But I never did get into the BDS&M stuff, anyway.

As I opened the closet, I saw Zack standing patiently near the front door of the apartment. “Where we off ta, E Z boy?”

“The port,” I told him. “We’re going to the Napoleon Avenue Terminal.”

*   *   *

The little ‘82 Ford Ranger pickup Goofy loaned us was parked at the curb.

As we walked up, I asked, “How’s Goof?”

Poodoo smiled at me. “He’s gonna make it, thanks for askin’.” He’s gotta be fed a liquid diet through a tube in his stomach for a while. But the doc says he’ll be eatin’ steak in about six weeks. I’m gonna buy him the biggest T-bone this side of the Pecos as soon as he’s outa the hospital.”

“Did you ever find out who this Papa Legba is—where to find him?”

“Nope. Didn’t find the dirty lowlife whore that jammed that pig-sticker into Goofy, either. But, we will — you can count on that as sure as my name is Pooh Dorcas Dooley.”

“Dorcas? Does the fun ever stop?”

“It’s from the
Bible
.”

“So’s
Nergalsharezar the Rab-Mag
, but nobody curses their child with it.”

Poodoo frowned at me. “For real?”

“Jeremiah,
Chapter
39,” I said.

Poodoo smiled, stepping up to the passenger side of the little pick up. “You truly are full of surprises.”

I smiled at her then looked to our big friend. “You drive,” I told Zack.

Poodoo thought I was talking to her. “Stick shifts and I get along about as good as you do with the FBI.”

“I’d say you and I have hit it off pretty good.”

“Yeah, but I’m undercover FBI. When the sheet’s pulled back, I’ll come at you scratching and biting like a she wolf.”

“I can’t wait.”

Zack seemed bored with our verbal foreplay. “Ya g’head, E Z boy.
Key’s in y’pocket.”

I checked, and there it was.

Regardless of who drove, Zack was a big man, and I’m not that small. Even though Poodoo’s sexy little body was petite, fitting the three of us on the small pickup’s bench seat would make it a bit cramped.

When I got in, I leaned over and unlocked the passenger side and then started the engine. Poodoo slipped in.

I patted the seat beside me, and said, “You’ll need to sit here as close to me as you can. I don’t —”

Poodoo interrupted, “If you insist.” She was grinning. “But don’t you tell me you don’t bite. I got a hickey on the back of my neck the size of a goose egg that proves different.” She had to straddle the shifter.

“Damn, I wish I could remember,” I said under my breath as Poodoo placed her hand on my thigh. I gently pulled the shifter into first gear about two inches from Poodoo’s
sweet spot
.

She placed her other hand on mine, seeming to help me shift gears as we accelerated, out to second, then held tight as I clutched and pulled it back into third.

We were speeding along at forty-five toward the highway to the port within seconds. In my mind we were racing at about a hundred and twenty in Poodoo’s bed.

“E Z, hon,” Poodoo said, “I lied to you. We did make love. It was more like sex between two wildcats. That’s where all your scratches came from. It was the drugs, E Z. Still, I enjoyed it immensely — and by the roars coming from you, I think you did as well. First you took me from the back, then the front, on top, on bottom, then over a chair, on the kitchen counter, up against the window, the wall, and finally the front door.”

I glanced at Zack, puzzled at Poodoo’s continual frankness in front of the old jazz player. I knew they were friends, but she obviously had not
inhibition one
. Zack seemed frozen, eyes forward, a thin smile on his lips. I knew he wanted to let go his patented
Walter Brennan
.

Poodoo continued, “The neighbors across the hall didn’t seem to enjoy it much, though. They came knocking on my door while you were banging me up against it on the other side. That’s when you dropped me upside down on the living room sofa, and swung the front door open. You chased after that old couple, naked and with a hard on, like a screaming, sex-craved banshee.”

God I wished I could remember that!

“Afterwards, when you came back, that’s when you started getting carried away. I was still giggling, upside down on the sofa, and you came back and, wow! You took me
around the world
, and —”

I glanced at her. Zack raised his eyebrows, his smile getting bigger. He was about to bust loose like a bull getting his nuts cut.

I said, “Carried away,
after that
?”

“Yeah, you know the wild sex was great, but when you began flailing on yourself something awful, I finally had to get you cuffed. I think somebody musta been doing some Voodoo on you besides all those drugs. You finally passed out after that. But you stayed stiff for another half hour, and ... well. I couldn’t let it go to waste.”

Black Zack’s shrill Walter Brennan chuckle filled the truck cab.

I sighed. “What’s the quickest way to Napoleon Avenue?”