CHAPTER THIRTY

On any given night the Las Vegas Strip was a nightmare to negotiate in any vehicle, even a squad car. But tonight’s traffic was the worst Sanchez had ever seen, and he’d been cruising these streets for a long time. He tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, watching the light a block ahead change from green to red for the fifth time. They’d barely moved an inch.

He looked over at Myers in the passenger seat, his face reflecting the rainbow colors of all the pulsing casino lights that defined Vegas and drove Sanchez crazy. The tourists loved them, but they didn’t have to look at them day in and day out. ‘Crowd control on Christmas Eve. Do you believe it? I never should have answered the phone.’

Myers sighed. ‘Yeah, I know.’ He reached toward the console, flicked off the chattering police radio, and cranked up Burl Ives singing ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ for the billionth time that season.

‘Give me a break, Myers.’

‘What? We have one very specific assignment tonight, we don’t need to listen to Dispatch rolling out a whole list of sorrows.’

‘I’m going to give you thirty seconds to shut that off, or I’m going to shoot you in the head.’

‘Come on, Sanchez. It’s Christmas Eve.’

‘Yeah, and my kids are home opening presents without me.’ He eased the squad up another car length. ‘Speaking of presents, did you ever find that Barbie thing you were looking for?’

‘The Fashionista doll? You bet I found it. Two hundred and fifty bucks from some fat sow in the parking lot at Toy City. I should have arrested her for racketeering.’

Sanchez chuckled, then stuck his head out of the window, assessing the traffic jam. ‘We’re never going to get there at this rate. The whole town is headed to where we’re going. Hang on.’ He flipped on the lights and siren.

***

Emil was riding a razor’s edge as he and the sisters trudged ever closer toward their very different ideas of a desert oasis. Not only was he on high alert for search parties at all altitudes, he had to pay attention to the barren lunarscape they were passing through, ever mindful of malevolent wildlife.

He rewound to all those nature shows he’d seen in jail, trying to remember if there was anything in the desert that wasn’t poisonous. Probably those cute little cactus owls were okay, and the jackrabbits for sure. Everything else was pretty much sudden death waiting to happen.

He looked up and saw an orange and lavender sunset fading from the sky, punctuated by a distant circling cluster of vultures, which he did not take as a good omen. Then again, at this point in time, vultures weren’t nearly as scary as low-flying aircraft. They’d gotten lucky earlier with the overhang, but the small, sheltering spine of rocks had disappeared behind them long ago. If those choppers came around now, there was no place to ditch, no place to hide, and three magi would be pretty hard to miss in the middle of an empty desert.

For his third trick, he also had to keep an eye on Edith and Gloria and watch for any signs of dehydration or psychosis. Not that he had any plans on how to deal with either of those things if they happened – he didn’t see any pharmacies or spare strait-jackets lying around, and definitely no drinking fountains. By any calculation, his luck was on borrowed time, and so was he.

‘How are you ladies doing?’ he asked hopefully, over his shoulder, elated to see Edith and Gloria not only still upright but keeping a decent pace and gazing around with great interest, admiring things like tumbleweeds, sagebrush and the spikes of a lone saguaro cactus.

‘We’re just fine, thank you,’ Edith said brightly.

‘Yes,’ Gloria affirmed. ‘We’re enjoying our journey. It’s quite beautiful out here.’

‘That’s great news. Better yet, do you see what I’m seeing?’ He pointed ahead, where the outskirts of Vegas were finally coming into clear view. ‘We’re getting close.’

Gloria grabbed her sister’s arm in excitement. ‘Look, Edith!’

They both stopped and stared in awe. ‘The City of David,’ Edith whispered reverently. ‘I never thought we’d make it.’

‘Well, we’re not there yet, so we gotta keep trucking,’ Emil reminded them. ‘We’ve got maybe another half-mile to go, then we can –’

Gloria gasped and clutched her heart, a stricken look on her face, and Emil felt the paralysis of a sudden certainty that she was going to croak right here and now, and he would be sitting on Death Row by next week.

‘What? What’s wrong?’ Emil was fluttering around Gloria, trying to get a read on her condition.

‘The gifts, Emil! We didn’t bring any gifts for the child! Oh, Edith, how could we have forgotten the most important part of the book?’

Edith was now equally distressed. ‘Oh, no. You’re so right, Gloria, and this is all my fault. I totally left that out of my preparations. Whatever will we do?’

Emil stepped back. He gave them both a little space and a hastily manufactured reassuring smile. He didn’t have a lot of practical skills, but the one thing he could do was think fast on his feet. ‘Hey, you two, relax, okay? We’re walking straight into a shopping mecca – we can pick up a few things along the way. Whatever you want, no problem, I’ve got you covered.’

Gloria seemed to calm down a little, but she was still doubtful. ‘We’re supposed to bring gold, frankincense and myrrh.’

Emil nodded confidently. ‘Tons of gold and frankincense and myrrh where we’re going. It’s all over the place. They probably even have vending machines on the street that sell it.’

‘Really?’ Edith asked.

‘Oh, yeah, for sure.’

Gloria sighed and looked heavenward. ‘Well, that’s a relief.’

‘Yeah,’ Emil said, his voice a little shaky from his near-brush with disaster. ‘That is a relief.’