Hungry Ghosts (Eric Carter #3)(5)

But with Tabitha, Santa Muerte gains a physical presence. She can actually see her followers, show them proof of who she represents. Whether operating through an avatar limits her power at all, I have no idea, but I’m not sure how much that matters.

It’s not surprising that Santa Muerte knows I’m down here, and if she knows it, then it’s a good bet Tabitha knows. I’ve made a point of making as much noise as I can to get her attention. I want her to know I’m coming for her. I want her to think she’s got the upper hand. I want her to get lazy. It might be a stupid move, but it’s not likely I could surprise her, anyway, so I’d rather work with what I’ve got.

But if she’s set this guy up with a message for me then it’s not just that she knows I’m in Mexico looking for her. She knows that eventually I’d have come here for him to give it to me. I’ve been herded in this direction from the start.

“You should know she wants very much to see you again,” Bustillo says. “She knew you would be coming here not long after her visit.”

“How long ago was that?”

“A month ago? Little more?”

“What’d you guys talk about? Best ways to dispose of troublesome Federales? The ins and outs of the heroin trade?”

“Tithes, mostly. Sacrifices to Santa Muerte. Spreading her word among the faithful. Se?ora is powerful, and she has many devotees, but she needs more.”

This is pretty much what I’ve heard from everyone else. Santa Muerte’s looking to consolidate her power, grow her flock. Every day she gets more followers. Among the narcos, sure. But also, oddly enough, among Mexican and U.S. law enforcement, not to mention the millions of men and women who are caught in that crossfire, or the ones who simply see her as an alternative they can understand.

They follow her for different reasons, but a lot of them do it because they think she’ll help when the saints they grew up with and the god they follow won’t.

Santa Muerte will not judge you, will not tell you what you are doing is right or wrong. She will help you with vengeance, she will help you with your rocky relationship, she will help you when the chips are down and there’s nowhere else to go.

Unless she doesn’t. She can be fickle. She is Death, after all.

“All right. So where is her avatar now?” I ask.

“Tepito.”

Of course she is. Tepito is a barrio in Mexico City that has one of the highest concentrations of Santa Muerte devotees in the world. There are others, Tultitlán north of the city, Ciudad Juárez just on the other side of El Paso. But Tepito is where her base is. Where the people who need her most live.

Tepito’s a slum, a massive, blocks wide, open-air bazaar. You can find food, drugs, electronics, guns, phones, computers, anything you can think of. As long as you’re okay with questionably sourced goods and illegal trade, you’re golden.

“You know where in Tepito?” I know of the place, heard a lot about it, but I’ve never been there myself.

He spreads his hands and shrugs. “She didn’t say. Can you answer something for me?” Bustillo says.

“Possibly.”

“You want to kill her,” he says. “Why?”

“Santa Muerte, or her avatar?”

“Both.”

“Santa Muerte murdered my sister. Her avatar, well, she’s got a piece of her in her head. They’re pretty much the same person. You’ve been a devotee of hers long?”

“Many years. Even before I knew it. There is an honesty to her I find refreshing.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Honesty. Right.”

“I have heard some of what she did to you. But tell me. Did she lie, or did she merely keep the truth from you?”

This is actually a question I’ve been struggling with. She’s never flat out lied to me as far as I can tell. When we first met she offered to tell me who killed my sister, Lucy. I didn’t take her up on that offer, the price was too high. So instead she offered me a cryptic clue that wasn’t, technically speaking, incorrect. If I’d taken her up on her offer right then and there, would she have told me the truth? I think she might have.

“No, she hasn’t lied to me. That’s not why I’m going to kill her.”

“Of course not. But she is a product of her time. She has not fully grown into this modern world. It is regrettable that your sister died, but Se?ora only knew one way to get your attention. You cannot expect her to be anything but true to her own nature, even as she tries to change it.”

“Yeah, and I can’t blame a bear for trying to eat me, either, but I can put a bullet in its brain so it doesn’t.” Something he just said catches my attention. “Wait, what do you mean about trying to change her nature?”

“She hasn’t lied, but she has deceived. That’s new to her. Foreign. She tries to accommodate this new world, but doesn’t know how. Her ways are not—”

“Sane?”

“I was going to say subtle. She may only know death, but she is not the instrument of it. To enlist you in her cause she used the only tools she understood. So, as I said, she has an honesty that I find refreshing. She’s simply death. There’s nothing more honest than that.”

He has a point. Death is the great equalizer. It’ll lay you low whether you’re the richest motherfucker in the world or the lowliest peasant.