Danny puts the sandwiches on the counter beside the till. “Jeremiah, can I ask you a question? Who are you? Why are you doing this? Why are you so interested in Stephanie?”

“That was three questions,” Jeremiah says. “Four, if you count the asking of the first question as a question. I’ll answer one of them. Which one you want answered most?”

Danny hesitates. “Why are you so interested in Stephanie?”

“Because she’s special. She’s not like you regular people. She’s special like I’m special, and Mr Gant is special. Special people are littered through this world and some of them are nice and some of them are nasty. Mr Gant and I, we are unashamedly nasty, and it’s our job to find the nice special people, like Stephanie, and pluck them from this earth like you’d pluck a flower from a garden.”

“What makes you special?”

Jeremiah’s tongue finds that last dollop of sugared cream on his whiskers, and he sucks it in between his soft pink lips. “Everything,” he says.

Danny looks at him, and the stillness of their surroundings suddenly veer from strange to unnatural. “Where is everyone?”

Jeremiah looks back at him innocently. “Everyone?”

“The people who work here,” says Danny. “The people who own those cars outside.”

Jeremiah’s head twitches towards the backroom. “They’re all in there,” he says. Says it like it’s nothing. Says it like it isn’t even something worth saying.

Moving slowly, Danny steps round Jeremiah, and limps behind the counter. Jeremiah doesn’t try to stop him. His mouth dry, Danny puts one foot into the backroom, glimpses the bodies stacked in the corner, and immediately steps back.

“She’s following us,” Jeremiah says, eating one of the sandwiches Danny has left on the counter. “Mr Gant has seen that pickup of hers, way back in the distance. Mr Gant talks about fishing sometimes. He says this is like reeling in a fish once it’s hooked. You bring it closer and closer until it’s out of the water and flapping around on the deck of your boat. Course, in this case she doesn’t even know she’s got a great big hook in her mouth. That just makes it funnier.”

There’s a loud honk from outside. Gant getting impatient. Jeremiah takes his gun from his pocket, points it at Danny’s belly. “Time to go. Want to take your other sandwich?”

“I’m not hungry any more,” Danny says, his voice quiet.

Jeremiah gives another little shrug. “Suit yourself. Back in the trunk for you.”

50

THE CARD TRICK

arquesse stood in the rain until she was nice and wet. Levitt was watching her. She liked Levitt. He was a quiet man even when he had a Remnant inside him. She appreciated the fact that he never spoke. The ability to shut up was something she respected in a man.