Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis

night—not riding it, just swaying back and forth and thinking about stuff.
    The stuff he thought about these days usually involved his Mom and Terry, her latest boyfriend. A couple of months ago, Terry had gotten Mom to try this stuff, crystal myth or something. The two of them would smoke it and pretty soon they'd get all weird, talking a mile a minute, laughing, crying, not sleeping for days. Then the myth would wear off, and they'd get all sad and mean until they had some more. Then it would start up all over again.
    Tonight, Terry had tried to get Dex to have a puff from the pipe that he and Mom used. Mom heard him and started yelling, stuff like "Jesus, Terry, he's only nine fucking years old!" Then Terry had got mad and slapped Mom. A little while after that, Dex had sneaked out and headed for the playground.
    There was a big, kind of beat-up car parked near the entrance to the park. Dex saw the silhouettes of two people in the front seat, one looking like it might be a woman. Dex wondered if they had been fooling around with each other, stopping when they saw him approach. Well, they could fool around all they wanted, as if Dex gave a shit. It was none of his business.
    He had just passed the car when he heard one of the doors opening. He looked back and saw a tall, really thin guy get out. The man looked toward Dex and called, "Hey, kid, wait up a second. I wanna ask you somethin'."
    Yeah, right. Dex had watched enough TV to know danger when he saw it. He turned and ran, flat out, toward the park.
    He almost made it as far as the front gate.
    * * * *
    Snake Perkins slammed the trunk lid and got back behind the wheel.
    "He is no good to me if he is dead," Cecelia Mbwato said.
    "I didn't kill him," Snake Perkins told her. "Just put him out with a sleeper hold until I could get the duct tape on him."
    "What do you mean, 'sleeper hold?'"
    Snake held out one hand, fingers shaped as if he were gripping a large glass. "Grabbed him around the neck and put pressure on the carotid arteries. Cuts the flow of blood to the brain, puts 'em right out. No permanent damage."
    At that moment they heard the first of the muffled cries coming from the trunk.
    "See?" Snake said. "Told ya."
    Snake wasn't worried about the noise. You'd have to be either inside the car or standing right next to it to hear anything, and in a little while it wouldn't matter, anyway.
    Cecelia Mbwato nodded. "Good. Now take us to the place I have selected. When we get there, and I have completed the preparations, you will assist me with the procedure." She paused. "I was told you are a man who is not bothered by the blood and pain of others."
    "Long as it ain't my own, don't bother me a bit."
    Another nod. "Very good. Now drive."
    Snake started the car and headed off to the isolated spot near the lake that he and the woman had found the day before.
    He wondered just how much blood and pain he was going to have to deal with when he got there.

Chapter 5
    When the buzzer sounded, the tall, brown-haired woman put down the ladle she was holding and went to answer the door.
    Standing in the hall was a woman of medium height and rather chunky build. Her face, behind aviator glasses, was framed by thick black hair. The earnest expression that she wore went well with the tailored gray suit and slim briefcase.
    "I'm a little early," the visitor said. "I hope that's okay."
    "No problem at all," Libby Chastain told her, opening the door wider. "Come on in. Let me just turn off the stove."
    They walked into the condominium's large kitchen, where Libby extinguished the blue gas flame that was burning under a large, black pot.
    "Ah, a cauldron!" the visitor, whose name was Susan Mackey, exclaimed. "And what goes in there—tail of salamander, eye of newt, that sort of thing?"
    Libby smiled slightly. "More like paste of tomato and leaf of basil," she said. "I'm making spaghetti sauce for later. But it can sit a while with no problem. Why don't we do the same?"
    A deep