“And they believed it?” Gabriela says.

“I did,” Vivian says. “At first.”

“Fair point,” I say. “Wherever it started, it would have to have come from a trusted source. There’s nobody out there all of us trust. So, it can’t be just one. It has to be a lot of them.”

What would I do if I wanted to find who killed a family member? I know exactly what I’d do because I’ve done it. I’d track down their ghost and ask them. I tried that with my sister, but like the woman in the West Adams house, she was just an Echo.

Everybody’s got their own methods for finding things out that they trust. Maybe not talking to ghosts. Could be tarot cards, goat entrails, whatever. The point is that they’re all only going to trust their own methods.

“Divination,” I say. “They all went looking for answers their own way. Something got in the way.”

“Somebody broke into a divination to point this shit at you? Some of these people are really, really good, Eric,” Vivian says.

“If you really believed that you wouldn’t have pulled that poison out of me. Because they’re so good is why they fell for it. They all made a phone call and the wrong guy answered.”

“Somebody really has it out for you,” Vivian says. “Have you narrowed it down to the thousand or so people you’ve pissed off in the last fifteen years?”

Gabriela and I exchange a look. “Doc,” Gabriela says, “can you give us a minute?”

Vivian looks between us, not happy about being kept out of what’s going on, but finally relents. She collects her plastic water bottle full of poison, drops it in her bag. “Sure. Some of your boys and girls need a checkup anyway. I’ll be downstairs.” She doesn’t say goodbye, or even look at me as she leaves.

“Jesus,” Gabriela says. “What’d you do to piss her off so much?”

“Dated her,” I say.

“Oh. Yeah. That would do it.”

“You know who this is,” I say. “Quetzalcoatl’s the only thing I can think of both strong enough to intercept divination spells without the casters noticing, and also wants my head on a stick. You heard Viv. These people are powerful.”

“Were you this much of a pain in the ass before you came back to L.A.?”

“If you ask Vivian she’ll probably tell you I was this much of a pain in the ass before I left.”

Gabriela pulls up a plastic chair and falls into it. “Jesus fucking Christ, Carter. How did all this slip past your radar? I thought you were watching out for this crap?”

“Me? What about you? Dead people aren’t as chatty as you might think. Or as smart. What about this whole fucking criminal empire you got going on here?”