“The ghouls of Los Angeles are restless. They fear there is a great evil that has come to the city.”

I rubbed my head. “That much I know,” I said. “Do they know anything else?”

“No,” the ghoul said and moved to the front door.

He took hold of the knob and opened the door to reveal a gaggle of ghouls on the porch. There were about a dozen that I could see. I stood and walked to the door. When I appeared, they all faced me.

A random ghoul spoke up. “We’re here to help, Cal.”

I looked from Mo’Lock to the crowd on my porch. “If you can’t tell me anything, you’re not going to be much help. I don’t need some fuckin’ undead posse.”

“They have something to show you,” Mo’Lock said over my shoulder.

The crowd parted and four ghouls walked down the middle carrying what looked like a makeshift body bag. I stepped aside and let them come in. Just inside the door they placed it down gently and pulled back the sheet. There was another body there, just like the bodies in the motel rooms.

“It’s a ghoul, Cal,” Mo’Lock said. “This thing can kill the undead too.”

“Who is it?”

“Someone you know. He is called Emek.”

“Shit. I just saw him this morning.”

I leaned down and examined the corpse. If it was Emek, I couldn’t tell. All his features were erased and covered with thick muck. The smell was horrible. I could see the two marks on the front of the throat like the others.

“Where’d you find him?”

“Behind the liquor store where he worked.”

I was pissed. Emek had always been cool. He didn’t deserve a death like this. I stood and faced the open door and the ghouls.

“Can any of you track it?”

They all looked around and shook their heads.

“Okay, then here’s what we’re going to do,” I said. “Assemble all the undead you can and let’s set up a dragnet of the entire city. If anybody sees anything at all, contact me or Mo’Lock.”

The crowd nodded in unison, turned, and scattered into the darkness. Mo’Lock stayed with me. The four ghouls took away the body. I slammed the door. When I turned back, Mo’Lock was staring at me.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked.

“Aren’t we going to join the search?”

“Why should we? We have hundreds of ghouls doing it for us.”

I sat on the couch. I rolled a smoke and lit it and tried to ignore the fact that Mo’Lock was staring at me. Finally I exhaled and looked his way.

“You’re really bugging me, you know that? Let them do the footwork. I’m sick of freebies.”