She stepped closer to me. “That’s all they wanted. They’d gained some power working with Billy, learning Satanic rites. They used the last of their power to contact me and tell me how they were killed.”

“By curses Billy Fuller put on them?”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah. Sounds like they were all buddies. They experimented with the whole witchcraft, devil thing . . . then Billy screwed them. Hogue and Potter were just into it for kicks. Fuller got serious.” She was staring at me as she talked.

I swallowed hard. Suddenly, it was getting hot. Something about her confronting the apparitions, I don’t know, turned me on.

“Why was Dawson with them?”

“Some spirit world unity. Victims bound together, united in exposing their killer.” She was whispering.

“Oh,” was all I could muster.

We had both moved forward. We were close, inches apart. My whole body was about to start shaking, so I just did it. I leaned in and kissed her and, thank God, she did the same. It had been a long time since I’d kissed a woman, but it never felt like this. Kissing Sabrina felt right.

After a long pause, we parted. We both smiled and laughed, shy like kids. It was the perfect moment, a moment about to be shattered by a pissed-off head.

“This is all very touching, but in case you haven’t noticed…I DON’T HAVE A MOTHERFUCKING BODY AND I SURE WOULD LIKE TO GET THIS GODDAMN SHOW ON THE ROAD!”

I closed the box. Billy could wait another hour.

Sabrina wanted to come with Sam and me to Billy’s place in Sherman Oaks, but I didn’t like the idea. The kid was way too dangerous. Luckily when I told her about the rip and the demon that had been spotted coming out, she decided the observatory had better photo opportunities.

I watched her walk to her Beetle and glance back at me no less than three times with a stupid grin plastered on my face that was impossible to erase. I hardly even noticed Sam yelling from inside the box as I carried him to my car, but once we started driving he was hard to ignore. He didn’t shut up the entire trip. He bitched about how I treated him, he bitched about being severed from his body, he even bitched about being hungry and having to piss.

That’s when I pulled the car over.

“What do you mean you have to piss?”

“I gotta piss and I’m hungry.”

“You felt this before?”

“Not like this,” said the head in the box.

I licked my lips. “Could mean we’re close to where your body is being hidden.”

“It could mean Billy is shoving corncobs up my ass,” Sam blurted. “Let’s move, asshole!”