Blout shot a look at the ghoul, then quickly back to me. “I’ve got to get going,” he said and shook my hand again. “I’ll check back before they let you go.”

I thought Blout would go to great lengths to avoid Mo’Lock, but as he passed by the ghoul he gave him a slap on the shoulder.

Mo’Lock waited patiently while the doctor and nurse checked me out. When they had gone, he made sure the door was shut. He turned and tossed me a little stuffed rabbit much like the one Blout had given me.

“All my friends are comedians,” I said.

Mo’Lock smiled. “Pull its head off.”

“What?”

“Pull the head off.”

I gave the bunny head a twist and pull. It came off with a pop, exposing the neck of a half pint of good stinky hooch. I grinned and looked up at the ghoul. “God bless you.”

“I figured you’d have a bad case of the DTs when you woke up.”

“Naw, they’ve got me pretty pumped full of juice. I don’t feel a thing.”

The ghoul stepped around to the foot of the bed and lifted my chart off the hook, scanning it with big, dead eyes. After a second, he let out a long whistle. “Four hundred stitches. That a record?”

“Yeah, I’m breaking them left and right. Where’s my goddamn trophy? So what’s been going on while I was in la-la land?”

The ghoul touched his hand to his chin. “Surprisingly quiet, really. The lawyer for the man who was suing you left a message with a new court date. I wrote it down.”

“Great. Enjoying my apartment?”

“Yes, thank you. Landlord stopped by. He said he wants you to pay for the front door. He left a bill. The insurance co—”

I waved him off. “Okay, okay. What about work? I need some cash—a lot of cash—and I need it yesterday.”

Mo’Lock stood at the foot of the bed staring at me for a moment, as if he was deciding whether or not he should tell me anything that might get me excited. Then he took out a small spiral memo book, flipped it open, and began to read.

“We got a call this morning from—”

“We?”

“You got a call from a woman named Veronica Vanderbilt.”

“As in the ‘we-got-more-money-than-anyone-in-the-world’ Vanderbilts?”

“The one and only.” The ghoul went on. “She sounded very scared and would like you to come to the house as soon as possible.”

I was feeling better by the second. “What’s the skinny?”

“She has a teenage son who is acting very strange. Sleeps all day and stays out all night.”

I shrugged. “Sounds like a teenager to me.”

“This morning she said she found something in the boy’s closet that alarmed her. She didn’t want to call the police. She was too embarrassed, so she called you.”

“What was in the closet?” I rolled my eyes, pretending I didn’t see the answer coming up Main Street.