Missing
The noise was like two fire alarms going off in my ears. I
tried to shake the webs out of my head to stop that damn ringing. Shit, it was
the phone. I jerked it up, yelling, “Call me back later!” then slammed it back
on the receiver.
Looking around the room, I tried to figure out the time. Let
me think. The sun is up; my watch says its
“Jack,” I heard a voice say. “We need you to get a copy of
the morning paper and read the front page. Then get down to city hall.”
I had never heard the Mayor sound this scared before. I knew
something was up and for my ex wife to be calling, it was big. I pulled out my
357, checking to make sure I had not shot all my ammo last night at the family
of rats living behind my filing cabinet. Downing the last of the cold coffee I found
on my desk, I grabbed a few extra silver tip shells from my desk and headed for
my car.
On the way downtown, it seemed strange that all the cars
were going the other way. Still, me being the kind of guy I am, I wasn’t going
to start crying about the lack of traffic jams. That’s when I remembered the
Mayor telling me something about a paper. Stopping outside one of those little
dive coffee houses, I found a paper box and dropped in a fifty cent piece I
really couldn’t spare, pulling out the last copy of the great Milltown’s one
and only city newspaper.
Across the front page of the paper was the biggest picture I
had ever seen, showing a cop car in a ditch. I began to wonder what was so
important about this until I read the article:
“Police are searching
for the bodies of two officers. Their patrol car was found empty. ‘It was one
of the bloodiest things I have ever seen,’ one of the attending officers was
overheard saying. The official police report stated that one of the officer’s
guns was found empty at the scene. Twenty-eight rounds had been fired inside
the vehicle. Blood covered the floor, seats and walls. The screen between the
front and back seats was ripped out. The roof liner over the back seat was
shredded and the entire back seat was missing. At this time neither the
officer’s bodies nor the back seat have been located.”
Throwing the paper into the back seat to join all the other
clutter - pop cans and candy bar wrappers - I told myself not to stop until I
got to City Hall. That was until I saw all the network news vans that had the
streets near City Hall blocked in all directions.
Pulling over, I parked the car, got out and started walking.
I could use the exercise and I wanted to keep my car as far away from this mess
as I could. As I got up to the police barricade, I saw my old Sergeant, Mackey
O’Donnell.
I laughed, asking what an old fart was doing out on a police
barricade and not sitting at a desk. The look he gave me almost turned my blood
cold.
“You haven’t heard, I see,” he said, looking me square in
the eyes.
“Well, yes, I read the paper and Jennet called me to help on
this one.”
“The paper,” he snapped. “My God, man, is that all you know?
What was in the paper? Jacky, my boy, those two officers were just the first. We’ve
lost four more as of
“Six officers? How could you lose six officers in one day?”
“Hell, wake up, Jack, and think. If we knew that, do you
think the Mayor would be calling you in?” He pulled back the barricade, letting
me pass.
I stepped around him and asked, “Well, what do you know for
sure?”
Mackey looked me straight in the eyes and said, “About an
hour ago Officers Brown and Nolan called in. They found a back seat covered in
blood at the intersection of
“What?
“That’s it,” said O’Donnell “By the time four other patrol
cars showed up all they found were the seat and another empty patrol car. Bob
and the rookie Nolan were gone.”
The closer I got to City Hall the more television
journalist’s microphones were shoved in my face. I kept telling them I was the
night janitor and I was called in to help with all the extra cleaning because
of the mess they were making. Like all bad stories, it got around quicker than
the truth. Soon no one wanted to interview me.
Jennet (oops – old habits die hard) the Mayor, met me outside
her office.
“What in the hell took you so long? You’ll never change. The
world is falling down around me and you take your sweet time. Do you think you
can get in my office before every officer in town ends up missing?”
Everyone that was anyone in Milltown’s government was in the
Mayor’s office and they all seemed to be talking at once. Finally, someone
yelled, “Quiet!” All you could hear was me pouring a drink.
“Great,” Jennet said. “I call you in to try and get a quick
break on this before the whole town moves out and you stand there with a drink
in your hand. Oh, to hell with it. Jack, pour me one, too. I need it.”
Like a good ex I poured her three fingers of Crown Royal
over the rocks. As I handed it to her, I figured I might as well get started.
“Okay, if I’m going to work on this, I need more information. I know about Bob
and some rookie – but who are the other four?”
Police Chief Lancaster said, “Look, just for the record I
didn’t ask for you and I think we can handle it. But the Mayor thinks you need
to be here, so here goes. The first two were Officers Sue and Ilee.”
Great, I thought, the only two women on the force. I knew
Sue and she was a damn good cop. Sue and I had ridden together for about six
months before I met Jennet. Ilee, I think, came on the force just after I left.
But “left” isn’t quite the word I would have used.
The chief continued, “Sue called in at zero four-thirty that
they were stopping to check out a transient in old, torn clothing. The transient
was walking down county line
The Mayor walked up close behind me, whispering in my ear,
“You have three days to find out what is going on and stop it.”
She could read the question on my face – why only three
days? She smiled, looking over at the calendar. “No more full moon.”
I shook my head thinking about what people believed.
“This meeting is over,” Jennet announced. “I want some
answers and I want them fast.”
As I left Jennet’s office, I knew the three places the
officers had disappeared from, if you put pins on a map, it would show a
straight line pointing north. Every cop would be heading north to cut this guy
off at the State Line.
I was going to talk to the one person that seemed to have
known or heard anything. I went south to the Industrial Park to talk to the
lady who had made the report about the dog fight.
Parking in her driveway I saw the curtains in the front
window moving. Yes, she was home. I have an old man like her in my condo. Nothing
moves in, out or around, that they don’t know about. They drive you up a wall,
but we private eyes love them. For a ten spot they will talk to us for hours. Right
now, however, I was broke so I would just have to try sweet-talking her.
Walking up to the door a rotten odor nearly had me gagging. It
was the worst stench I had ever smelled. I started banging on the door. Man,
this old lady must be deaf if she couldn’t hear me.
The bolt finally slid back and she looked out through a tiny
opening. “What can I do for you, sonny,” she hissed.
Funny, her green eyes seemed to sparkle in the dim light.
“Well?” she hissed again.
“I’m Jack Moore, Private Eye. I have a report that you were
the one who called in about the dogs fighting.”
“Yes, I called it in. It was right down there in all those
old junk cars they stack up. I’ve been trying for years to get the city to do
something about them.”
“Now, now, Mom,” I heard a deep raspy voice say from behind
her, “this policeman is asking about the dog fight, not the stack of old cars.”
He seemed to almost growl at her.
She slid back into the shadows, allowing him to step into
the light.
The guy stood looking down at me. I was six two and this guy
had a good four inches on me. His shoulders touched both door jams and his
biceps were as big as his waist. He had coal black hair with a two inch wide
silver streak down the middle. The kind of man you never forget once you see
him and I’d never seen him around Milltown.
“Wait. You said you were a private investigator. I’m sorry,
but we’re sitting down for supper. Would you mind coming back next week?” Just before he closed the door in my face, I
saw it - a barbed wire tattoo around his upper arm. You know the kind you get
when you’re in prison.
Not much left for me to do at this end of town, but check
out the pile of cars the old lady had told me about. As I drove away, I couldn’t
shake the feeling I was being watched; not only from the house, but from both
sides of the road. Probably nothing, but her son sure gave me the creeps.
It felt like I’d been driving around that industrial park
for an hour when I finally spotted them. Behind a small junk yard were about
three hundred cars stacked in three rows about four cars high. If I figured it
right, the old lady’s house was about a quarter of a mile on the other side of
the fence. I didn’t want to spend a long time here. I wanted to get back to
City Hall to find out if maybe the police had guessed right and found something
around the state line. It was getting late so I stopped near the first row of
mangled cars and got out to have a quick look.
I started to close the car door when I heard a low growl to
my left. Thinking junk yard dogs can be really mean, I pulled out my 357 as I
slowly looked around. About forty feet from me was one damn mean looking dog. I
think it was pushing a hundred and thirty-five pounds, had three inch teeth and
was showing me every single one.
I knew this wasn’t going to be one of those times where you
let him sniff your hand, he wags his tail and you’re buddies forever. I pointed
my 357 at the dirt in front of him and squeezed off a round.
When the bullet hit the ground you’d have thought I shot him
the way he jumped back and started flopping around. That’s when I saw the blood
on his left shoulder. The bullet must have ricochet. I was thinking I’d have to
finish him off, but then I saw the rest of the pack. Five or six dogs were
standing there; none of them were under a hundred and ten pounds. Some, I
figured, were closer to a hundred and seventy. This pack wasn’t going hungry.
I jumped back in my car, threw it in gear and started off. No
way was I going to try and take on that many dogs with just a six shooter.
As I drove past the last stack of cars I spotted another
dog. Dog? Hell, it looked more like a small horse. It was watching me. The rest of the pack was
surrounding their downed comrade, but this huge black monster with the silver
streak just watched me as I sped past.
Strange. I could have sworn that the dog had green eyes.
Driving back into town, I muttered, “What a day.” I turned
left on
You hear the stories about how a swank-looking doll would
walk out of the back door behind the bar. They tell you how she had got the
place from her Dad, who had been either a cop or a football star. Well, not
here. Margaret was about 4 feet tall and just as wide. She had the temperament
of an alley cat. Behind the bar was an aluminum baseball bat that she would
make ring upside your head if you got out of line. The story was she got the
bar from her mother, who in turn got it from her grandmother’s pimp back in the
Roaring Twenty’s.
I sat down, telling Margaret to get me the biggest beer she
had and put it on my tab.
Margaret; being the sweet gal she was, raised her hand and
showed me how I was number one in her life. Getting a bottle of beer out of the
cooler, Margaret looked at me and asked, “Aren’t you working on that missing
cop’s cas 0e?” She set the beer in front
of me.
“Why?” I asked.
“Well, if you are, why aren’t you out at the industrial
park? I just heard over the scanner they found that young rookie’s body. Only
problem was there was no head with it. Someone reported hearing a shot fired
earlier tonight. From the chatter on the scanner, they must have sent the whole
police department out there after what happened last time.”
I downed a swig of my beer and asked her to keep the rest on
ice for me.
“Sure,” she said, downing the rest of it and throwing the
bottle in the trash. “That’s going on your tab,” she yelled as the door closed
behind me.
Why did the killer take the head and leave the body? I asked
myself, turning off
Man, the place looked like Close Encounters of the Third K
“Chief,” I yelled. “What do you have?”
The Chief walked up to me with a grin. “So, the great saviour
of Milltown arrives. Well, you’re late, as always. Just like the day your
partner got killed.”
I never even stopped to think. My fist hit him so hard he
was out before he hit the ground.
Sergeant Mackey O’Donnell walked up to me, shaking his head.
“Jack, my boy, don’t you know if I’d seen that punch you just threw I would be
forced to lock you up? You always were a hot head.”
I looked around at the other officers. They just turned and
went back to what they were doing.
“Give me a break, Sergeant. After the case is over I’ll turn
myself in. That’s if the Chief doesn’t throw me in jail first. Right now I need
to see the body of the young rookie.”
“Well, you’re a bit late. Hell, Jack, they’ve already sent Jeff
Nolan’s body to the morgue. You know they’ll be doing an autopsy as quick as
possible.”
“Hey, O’Donnell,” I called out to him as he walked away. “Can
I borrow that radio? I tried to get one off the Chief this afternoon, but he
told me over his dead body.”
Sergeant Mackey looked down at the Chief. “Sure. Hell, he
looks dead to me.” He tossed me the radio. “You’d better take care of it and get
out of here. I think I saw Sleeping Beauty moving.”
Heading for my car, I checked my watch. The
With a cup of coffee in one hand and a sweet roll in the
other, I stopped in front of the receptionist. “I’m Jack Moore, Private Investigator,
working for Milltown’s Mayor, Jennet Moore, on the missing officers’ case. Is
the coroner in?”
“Just a minute.” She picked up the phone and dialled an
extension. “Honey, a private investigator is here about the policeman we got in
last night.” She put down the phone and smiled at me. “Go right ahead, sweetheart,
through those doors. Johnny is just about to start on him.”
Johnny? I think Johnny’s wife should keep an eye on this red
head.
The coroner had just put Nolan’s body on the table when I
walked through the door.
“Am I too late, Doc?”
“No. Come right on in, but I must ask you to put on a white
suit and goggles. Morgue rules, you know. Don’t want you to leave with anything
you didn’t come with.”
He was still laughing at his own joke by the time I got all
suited up. I went over to the table and read the toe tag. “They think he was
killed by a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Doc, if this tag is right, why was
his head removed?”
“That’s why they’re cops and I’m the coroner. Look closer at
the shoulder wound. See all this dead flesh around the center of the hole?
Whatever hit this guy in the shoulder, he must have been allergic to.”
“So you’re saying he died from an allergic reaction?” I
wasn’t about to tell the doctor I shot a dog tonight in the very same place.
The doc looked up from poking around in the hole. This time
he wasn’t smiling. “Look, if you’ll be quiet, I’ll be able to tell you a whole
lot quicker what he died from.”
It was almost
“Pulled? You’re telling me this guy had his head pulled off?
Come on, Doc, how strong would they have to be to pull a man’s head off?”
“Look at these two sets of bruises and then compare them to
the others. The one on the left leg and these on the left wrist were made by someone
with smaller hands probably either woman or teenagers. The sets on the right
side are much bigger. I have no doubt they were men. This last set around the
neck were made by hands almost twice the size of mine. So I would say three men
and two women did this. But you asked, ‘How strong?’ I’d say they’d have to be
able to bench press a thousand or more pounds.”
“No man or women I’ve heard of can bench press that much.” Reaching
into my pocket, I pulled out one of my 357 silver-tip, hollow points then
handed it to the coroner. “Would you mind looking under that microscope at this
and the bullet fragment you pulled from the rookie?”
“Any particular reason why?”
“I want to see if the tip of this bullet is anything like
that fragment. I was wondering what calibre of gun he was shot with and also,
is there real silver in that paint?”
“Well, first there’s no way I can tell if the two are the same
calibre without sending them to the F.B.I. lab. As for your other question,
each ammunition plant uses a specific amount of silver each year. This way the
bullets can always be traced. My God! Take a look at the fragment I pulled from
his shoulder.”
I leaned down to look into microscope. “Okay. What am I
seeing other than lead, silver paint and that green bubbly slime?”
“The green bubbly slime is eating away at the silver paint
and lead at the same time. I’m sending this off to the lab also. Stop by the
police station in about three weeks if you want to see a full report.”
“Great. I have days and you’re talking weeks. Thanks for
everything, but I’d better be getting back to Milltown and fast.”
On the way out of town I spotted a Wal-Mart and pulled in. I
was going to need a few more boxes of silvers tips before I spent another night
in Milltown.
“You what? When?” I asked the clerk.
“Yes, about an hour ago. Like I said, I sold every box I had
to the biggest guy I’ve ever seen; paid cash for the whole lot.”
“Did he have coal black hair with a silver streak, about 6
feet 6 tall, with wide shoulders?”
“That was him. I couldn’t forget someone like that. He had
the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen. Do you know each other?”
“Not well, but we will soon.”
Driving back to Milltown what Jennet said kept playing over
and over in my head like a bad 45 RCA record, “You have three days… no more full moon… no more full moon…” That’s
probably why I didn’t see the cop car’s flashing lights behind me. When the
siren sounded, it snapped me back to the real world.
I pulled over to the side of the road. “What is it?” I asked
the cop, lowering my window, thinking they had more information for me.
“Sorry, Jack, but the Chief put out a warrant for your
arrest - assaulting a police officer. We have to take you in.”
“Is it okay if I drop my car off at my place? I can’t afford
the impound fees. Besides, I need a new battery for the police radio anyway.”
“Sure, we have no problem with that,” the officer said. “See
you there in about half an hour.”
I looked at my watch.
Pulling up in front of my office building, I saw Jennet
pacing up and down the sidewalk.
“Great, Jack,” she whispered angrily as some people walked
by. “Here I’ve given you a chance to get back on the force and you go and hit
the Chief. Do you have any idea how far I stuck my neck out for you? I want you
to get down to the station and don’t even go back to booking. All the paper
work is at the front desk. Your bail money has been paid. Then get your butt
back out there. You have less than a day to work this all out.”
A patrol car pulled up. Both officers were looking our way.
The Mayor went to talk to them. “Jack, did you tell them to
come by and get you?” She yelled over to me.
“Yes so I wouldn’t get my car impounded,” I said, as I
smiled at her. Wow, she still looked good from every angle.
“Look, officers, you go on down to the station. He’ll be
there in a minute. I want you to sit outside and watch his car so the Chief
doesn’t try giving him a parking ticket.”
As they drove off, she turned to me. “Well? Get going –
don’t just stand there looking like some love-sick puppy.”
Jennet was right. I was in and out of the police station
faster than through a swinging door. As I got into my car the officers Jennet
had told to keep watch drove by and smiled.
Checking the silver tip bullets in my pocket, I remembered I
had fired one and never reloaded. “Great. Some private investigator you are,” I
told myself. I had to get some more bullets before I headed out to the old lady’s
house - daylight or not. I headed back to my office.
Climbing the stairs I knew that after this case was over I
was going to get an office on the ground floor.
I heard the sound of running footsteps as I topped the first
landing. The steps were fast and made a strange clicking noise. I started to
bolt up the stairs, but figured they had got whatever they were after and were
already heading down the back stairway. No need to hurry.
When I got to the top floor I saw that my office door was wide
open. I went straight to my desk and looked in. All my silver-tip bullets were
missing.
How was this guy managing to stay one step ahead of me? How
would he know I kept bullets in my desk and not at my house? My house! This
time I ran down the stairs.
I drove down the alleys to avoid the traffic lights and stop
signs. I had to get to the house before he did. Stopping behind my house, I
hurried through the back door. Just as I stepped inside, I heard someone out on
the front porch, turning the doorknob.
Pulling back the dead bolt, with my 357 ready, I yanked open
the door and jammed my gun right into Jennet’s face.
Jennet screamed. I screamed. I think even Miss Bigby across
the street screamed.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jennet shouted.
“Put that damn gun down! Are you trying to kill me?”
“Sorry,” I said, putting my gun away. “I thought you were
the one that broke into my office and was coming here next.”
“Why in the hell would I want to break into your office? I
still have a key or did you forget?”
“No. I didn’t mean you broke in. I thought the person at the
door was the one that broke in. Look, just go get a drink and relax. I have to
get out to the industrial park before it gets dark. Stay here until I get
back.”
Speeding away in my car, I kept thinking how everyone was
getting jumpy with everything that had happened. I had a feeling I was going to
get to the bottom of this whole mess when I got to the old lady’s house. I just
wasn’t sure I wanted to.
I parked on the road north of the old lady’s driveway. Pulling
my gun, I started sneaking up to her house.
Inside I could hear growling and snapping, like dogs
fighting over a bone. Just as I put my hand on the doorknob, I heard a sound
behind me.
The door swung open and something big hit me from behind,
sending me flying across the room to land headfirst in a pile of something wet
and sticky that covered my face. The odor was gagging me.
Someone picked me up, throwing me down onto a table like I
was a five pound bag of sugar. Hands grabbed me from all sides, holding me so
tight I couldn’t move. Other hands riffled my pockets. I kept my eyes closed to
stop the goo from getting in.
I felt hot breath inches from my face. That’s when I heard
the sniffing. Sniffing! My God, they think I’m Sunday lunch.
I felt licking on my right hand first then my left, across
my forehead and both eyes. Licking me the way a dog does before they eat their
food. All I could think was, “Where’s my gun? I’m not going down without a
fight.”
“Jack,” someone said. “You can open your eyes now.”
That voice. I knew that voice. It belonged to Officer Sue
Taylor. I peeked out of one eye. Sure enough, it was Sue. “What now?” I asked
her. “Am I supper or just a snack?”
“Neither,” another voice said. “But if you try anything, you
will be.”
I looked over my shoulder and there stood the big guy. He
had to be the one that had hit me from behind.
I looked around. Bob, Mal, Sealy, Sue, and someone I figured
was probably Ilee were holding me down. The old lady was at the end of the
table. She wasn’t holding me, but she was licking her lips.
The big guy growled, “Linda, remember Jeff. Back off!”
The old lady whimpered and sat down in a chair.
“Okay, everyone let him up.”
I sat up and swung my legs off the table. I heard the old
bat give a low growl.
“Here’s your gun back.” The big guy handed me my gun. “Don’t
worry. I took the bullets out of it, plus the ones you had in your pockets. Do
you think you might be ready to talk now? Sue, would you show Mr. Moore what we
can do if he tries anything funny.”
Sue changed into one of the dogs I’d seen the other night,
showing her teeth. She ripped my pant leg and turned back into a human before I
could move.
I just sat there in shock.
“Oh, Jack! Snap out of it,” Sue said “You’re not hurt. It
was just your pants I ripped.”
I reached down to pull up my pant leg. Sure enough, there
wasn’t even a scratch on my leg. All this time my heart was beating forty times
a second.
“Okay, so what do you want if I’m not supper?” I turned to
the big guy and asked.
“We want to get out of town without any of us going to
jail.”
“What? So you can go somewhere else to kill?” I shot back at
him.
“We don’t kill humans to eat them. Only Nolan is dead. That
was Jeff’s fault. We tried to tell him to get a rabies vaccination. He put it
off too long and was bitten by a rabid dog. When a Morgone gets rabies they
just get meaner and meaner. It kills them, but it takes a long time. If we hadn’t
found out about the two ladies he had bitten and not given them the rabies
anecdote, there would have been a killing spree in these parts the world would
have heard about.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I had to ask. “Okay,
then what do you eat?”
“Come in here,” the big guy told me.
“Wait a minute. Do you have a name?”
He laughed. “Randy. Randy Webb.”
As I walked into the other room, looking to where he was
pointing, I knew what I had smelt all this time.
I grabbed my gut and ran for the front door. Just outside I
got rid of everything I had eaten for a week in about two seconds. Looking up,
I saw Sue sitting there, watching me, and another dog showing his teeth. I
patted Sue on the head and walked back inside.
I looked at the pile of bits and pieces of what looked like
hundred of cats and dogs. “Where did they all come from?” I asked. “No one has
reported this many pets missing.”
Randy smiled. “People throw them out of their cars daily.
Those that don’t starve form packs and prides. We hunt them. If we didn’t kill
them, you Nons wouldn’t be safe in the woods. Your own pets would rip you to
shreds for food.”
I turned to Sue. “You said you want to leave town. Why not
just leave? Why this missing cop fiasco? How long have you been one of them?”
Sue looked over to Randy.
He nodded his head. “You might as well tell him everything. We’re
going to have to trust him to get us out of this mess.”
“I’m a Morgone,” Sue said.
“A what?”
“Morgone - a shape shifter. We can change from dogs to
humans at will. Sealy and I are half brother and sister. Mal and Bob are from another
litter. Ilee was in a different Pax with her parents. After they died, she
wandered into Milltown and we took her into ours. Jeff is a whole different
story. He showed up one day after another Pax had killed his because of a food
shortage. He managed to get away, but he never got over it. It’s too bad
because he was a good kid. Just mixed up, is all.”
“So you have to be born as one,” I said. “And what else can
you shape shift into?”
“No, you don’t have to be born as one and we can only change
into dogs.” Sue went on, “There are also ‘Halflins’. They are half Morgone and
half Non. We call humans Nons. Then there are Turneds. That’s when a Non gets
bitten by either a Morgone or a Halflin. One of the problems with Turneds is
that their temperament is unpredictable. We have to watch them closely for two
or three weeks until they’re fully changed over.”
“So can you be killed like humans?” I asked.
“There’s all kind of ways for us to die. We can die of old
age like Nons. We can heal from most major wounds quickly unless silver is
involved. If silver enters our brain we die instantly. If a piece of silver
stays in our body it will kill us over time. If the silver just passes through
us, we go into a coma until our body heals. In cases like Jeff’s, when the head
is removed, we instantly die.”
“Enough, already. I’m hungry,” Linda said as she shape
shifted and started picking pieces of meat from the pile on the floor.
Randy looked down at Linda. “Some of the Turneds we have to
watch a lot longer. She’s one of Jeff’s. Thank goodness, he only had two.”
“Before I do anything, I want some answers. Why all the
blood in the police cars? And why such a hoax just to get off the police
force?”
Ilee laughed. “You don’t have a clue what’s going on in your
little city do you?”
After they told me their stories, I sat back and shook my
head. “Look, I have a friend at the paper. All of you show up at my office in
about three hours. I think I can get you out of this mess. Wait a minute. What
about Linda?”
“She’ll be okay,” Mal said. “We have a friend that will
watch her.”
“Good. See you at my office.” I said, starting for the font
door.
“Jack!” Randy yelled.
As I turned around, he handed me my bullets. I looked at them.
Yep, they were my silver tip ones.
Driving back into town, I called Sergeant O’Donnell on the
police radio.
“O’Donnell, give me a number
where I can reach you.” He did. I stopped at a pay phone and called him,
telling him the whole story. Well, almost the whole story. No reason to say
more than I had to.
When I got to my office building District Attorney Gerald,
Sergeant O’Donnell and Chuck Stewart, an editor from the local paper, were
waiting at the foot of the stairs.
O’Donnell was telling Chuck, “You spell that
m-a-c-k-e-y-o-d-o-n-n-e-l-l and you’d better get it right this time. I still
have a handful of parking tickets that you haven’t paid.”
The district attorney and Chuck took the only two chairs in
my office. O’Donnell and I leaned against the wall.
The D.A. glared at me. “This better be good, Jack. It’s way
past my bedtime.”
Right then Randy, Sue, Sealy, Mal, Bob, and Ilee walked in.
Chuck and the D.A. almost fell out of their chairs.
“There better be a damn good explanation for you all not
being dead,” the D.A. yelled, standing up.
I stepped in front of him and said, “They want no charges
brought against them in exchange for information on a major bookie operation which
also involves extortion and prostitution.”
The D.A. sat back down and smiled. “Let me hear what you
have.”
Sealy spoke up. “Mal and I like to make side bets on sports.
You know, five dollars here or twenty dollars there. Well, at first, then it
got to be more like five hundred, sometimes more. We got in over our heads and
were forced to work for Chief Lancaster collecting protection money from small
businesses around the city.
“That’s when we met Randy. He was one of
“Mal and I drove out to where Ilee and Sue reported they found
a transit. When we got there and found them staging the crime scene, we thought
what the hell. We’ll just leave town, too, and let him think we’re all dead. We
used chicken blood in our patrol car. No one even bothered to test the blood we
used.”
“I’ll go next,” Randy said. “My story is short. I got out of
prison about six months ago. I did my time so I didn’t have to report to a
parole officer. Chief Lancaster had me hauled into his office and told me if I
didn’t start working for him, he would trump up some charges and have me thrown
right back into prison. I helped Sealy and Mal knock heads around if people
didn’t pay their protection money. I made copies of the names, dates, times and
amounts they were paying. Mal and Sealy helped me get photos of
Sue stepped forward. “Ilee and I were the ones the Chief
sent to get his lunch from time to time from the deli on Fifth and
“A week ago he showed us the video and said if we didn’t
start working as prostitutes, he would go to the D.A. and would see to it that
we spent time on the road gang. You know what happens to police officers on the
road gangs. We would be dead within a week. We gave a pint of blood down at the
blood bank and later broke into it, stealing our own blood and faking our
deaths.”
The D.A. looked over at Bob, “That leaves you and the dead
officer, Jeff Nolan, right?”
“Well, my story is simple.” Bob grinned at Ilee. “You see,
I’m in love with Ilee. I knew what the Chief was doing. Ilee told me everything.
Jeff and I got the call on the blood bank that night. We also backed up Sealy
and Mal when they went to the industrial park about that dog fight Miss Linda
McFarland called in. We picked up the seat from Sue’s patrol car that Mal had
stashed there and the rookie and I dropped it at
The D.A. looked over at Chuck. “Is that recorder still
working?”
Chuck stopped his recorder, hit rewind then pushed the play
button. Bob’s recorded voice filled the room, “The rookie and I dropped it at
“Go on,” the D.A. said to Bob. “Was Chief Lancaster
blackmailing you, too?”
“No. The Chief wasn’t blackmailing me, but he had something
on Jeff that was eating away at him. I tried to talk to Jeff, but all he kept
saying was, ‘It would ruin her.’ He never told me who she was. ”
Just then my phone rang. I reached over and answered it.
“O’Donnell, it’s for you. It’s your dispatcher.”
O’Donnell took the phone. “O’Donnell here…what
happened...you’d better not be kidding me…okay, have them bag the note and send
a car to look in that damn car crusher.” He reached down and turned his police
radio back on.
“What’s going on Sergeant?” the D.A. snapped at O’Donnell.
“After Jack called me I sent two patrol cars out to watch
the Chief’s house. It seems that when the Chief went to put out his trash he
saw the patrol car in front of his house. He checked the alley out back and saw
the other one. The next thing the officer saw was the Chief standing on his
front porch holding a gun, yelling, ‘I’ll shoot anyone that comes on my
property. I didn’t kill that little pervert Jeff. His suicide note is in the
trash.’ Then the Chief went back inside still threatening to kill anyone who
came too close.”
“Okay,” I turned to the D.A. “Gerald, you did say that no
one here would be charged with any crime that is linked to this case?”
“Yes. Yes, I give you my word as the District Attorney that
no one will be charged with any crime.”
“One of two things I think you might like to know,” Bob told
him. “Jeff was into bondage.”
“Bondage? Like ‘tie-you-to-the-bed’ bondage?” the D.A.
smirked.
“Yes. He liked having his arms and legs tied to the bed.” Bob
sighed. “Plus, he had rabies. He told me that day at the industrial park. A
wild dog bit him and he waited too long for treatment. There was nothing anyone
could do to save him. He was looking at the car crusher when he was in the
industrial park that night. The last time I saw him alive was when he came by
the place where we were hiding and told me he had mailed two letters.”
“Chuck, did you get all that?” the District Attorney
snapped.
“Every word. Will this ever make a great story; I can see
the headlines now.” Chuck was grinning from ear to ear as he reached for the
phone.
“Great. Let’s get the hell over to
“They’re on the way.”
The D.A. barked, “Let’s go! O’Donnell, I want to be the
first person those camera crews see.”
I was the only one that saw Bob and the rest slip out. I
smiled as they went down the back stairs. Gerald, O’Donnell, Chuck and I ran
down the front stairs to O’Donnell’s patrol car.
Halfway there a report came over radio of shots being fired
at the Chief’s house.
“Faster, Sergeant! Faster!” Gerald yelled from the back
seat.
As we pulled up to the Chief‘s house, we saw them wheeling
Lancaster’s body out to a waiting ambulance.
The D.A. sprang from the car and ran up to the house,
grabbing an officer’s arm. “What in the hell is going on here, Officer?”
“About five minutes ago we heard a shot. When we got inside
the Chief was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.”
“Sergeant O’Donnell,” the D.A. yelled. “Get back and arrest
all six of those people now!”
Chuck stepped up to Gerald, held up the recorder and pushed
the play button. “ ‘Yes. Yes, I give you
my word as the District Attorney that no one will be charged with any crime.’ This won’t look good for re-election next year
if you go back on your word. Don’t worry; I’ll take good care of you in tomorrow’s
paper.”
I put down Friday’s paper. Our one and only District
Attorney had single-handedly broke open the case against the Chief of Police;
well, with the help of a few officers that are now in the Witness Protection Program.
Boy, Chuck tied Jeff’s suicide letter in well. It alone had enough evidence to
hang the Chief. Still, hard to believe the Chief was low enough to force Jeff
into becoming a male prostitute. Can you imagine using a car crusher to pull
your own head off? Wow, if anyone ever writes anything about me in the paper, I
hope it’s Chuck.’
The front doorbell
rang.
I opened it to find Jennet
with the paper in one hand and a bottle of bubbly in the other.
“Can a girl come in?” she asked.
As she walked through the door she threw the paper on the
floor and scowled. “Did you see the paper? Gerald will probably be running for
Mayor next year. Jack, do you mind if I use your powder room? And pour us some
wine while I’m in there, please.”
"Go ahead," I said, heading to the kitchen to see
if I could find two clean glasses. After pouring the wine, I carried them back
into the living room.
“Jack,” I heard from the bedroom doorway. “Did you know Jeff
sent me a letter?”
Turning around I saw her standing there in nothing, but my
T-Shirt, holding something behind her back. Man, oh, man, she still looked
great. “No, I didn’t.”
Jennet brought out a set of handcuffs. She smiled. “Would
you like me to show you something I learned?”
I smiled back. Besides, how could I resist those sparkling
green eyes?
Madness
Debbie heard the screen door slowly open. Crouching over,
she moved across the floor to position herself behind the television. With her
45 auto in her right hand cocked and ready, she waited, listening to the sounds
of the night, trying to spot the intruder in the pitch blackness of her house.
From behind her came the sound of soft shuffling. Someone
was back there. Spinning to the left, she swung the 45 around. Aiming wildly,
Debbie fired three shots as she dropped to the floor. The lights flashed on in
the front room. Debbie turned back as fast as she could, but all she saw was a
hand sticking in through the open door. She raised her gun as the door slammed
shut. Looking over her shoulder she saw her little girl lying in a puddle of
blood, still clutching her doll,
Debbie placed the barrel of the 45 to her temple. Down the
street, laughter filled the night air as a fourth shot was heard.
“Captain O’Donnell is it now?” I said stepping under the
yellow police tape. “You mind if I still call you Mackey?”
“It’ll be Captain O’Donnell to you, Jack Moore. Just because
you’re back shacking up with the Mayor, you’re nothing more than a gun toting
private eye to me.”
“Okay, Captain! Why did you call me out in the middle of the
night for a simple murder/suicide?”
“After that Missing case you worked on, I thought this might
be right up your alley.”
I gave Captain O’Donnell a questioning look. “What makes you
think that this woman shooting her kid three times then herself, has anything
to do with that case?”
O’Donnell held up four silver bullets. “We dug these out of
the walls. Three came from that back wall. It looks like she might have been
lying down when she fired them. The other came from over there.”
I looked to where the Captain was pointing and saw a circle
of drying blood up the wall about four feet. “It looks like she was on her
knees when she shot herself.”
“That’s not all. Take a look at these.” O’Donnell picked up
his briefcase and walked over to a coffee table. Laying the case on the table,
he opened it. “You’ve been out of town the last three weeks. Maybe this will
help you understand why I want you to snoop around.” O’Donnell pulled out a
stack of photos and placed them face-up on the table.
I scanned the photographs. “How many?”
“Four. This one makes five. All involved silver. All the
killers committed suicide. I’ll lay you even money she’ll have no next of kin
like the other four. My men haven’t found any picture of anyone but her and the
little girl in the house. The neighbors said they’ve never seen anyone coming
or going but those two.”
“Five? In three weeks? What’s going on?”
“Jack, my boy, if I knew that then you wouldn’t be standing
here asking me questions. I want you to get me some answers - and fast - from
your friends.”
“I’ll need access to all the case files and crime scenes.
Try and let your boys know.” I motioned to the policemen milling around.
“I thought you might. I set up a file you can access on the
internet. Here’s - the address and password.” O’Donnell handed me a slip of
paper.
Looking around the room I didn’t see anything one wouldn’t
see in an ordinary home. Lifting the sheet they had placed over the woman’s
body, I took off her shoes to look closely at the bottom of her feet. I slipped
the shoes back on. I picked up her wrist to feel for a pulse before I checked
the palms of her hands.
“What are you doing?” O’Donnell stepped up behind me.
“Just checking for anything out of place. I’ll need to see
the bodies again when you get them to the morgue if that’s okay with you,
Captain. I’ll want to see the other bodies, too.”
“And why, Jack, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Because I need to check out the bodies and I don’t think
you want me to undress these two here on the floor.” Shaking my head, I moved
over to where the little girl was lying.
After checking her feet and hands I looked at the three
holes in her nightgown. “Mind if I turn her over Captain?” I looked up, but
O’Donnell had left the room. Reaching under the girl’s body I felt for the
holes where the bullets had came out. Laying her back down, I went to the
kitchen and washed my hands. Returning to the living room and kneeling down
beside the girl again, I lifted her eyelids. Green eyes looked back at me. I
winked and gently closed the lids. I went back and checked the mother’s eyes.
They were a dull brown.
Two guys came in with a stretcher. “Officer, you ready for
us to take the bodies?”
I looked up. They were wearing tags that said
“Sure,” O’Donnell said, poking his head into the room. “Get
them out of this mess. You need to see anything else here, Jack?”
“Where are the bedrooms?” I asked.
“Back there - to your left. You have any ideas yet?”
I grinned. “Now, Captain, you’ll be the first to know.”
The mother’s bedroom told me more than the rest of the house
had so far. A single woman raising a child on her own, her clothes looked like
those ‘blue light specials’ you used to see at K-mart. Two pair of shoes – well,
three with the ones she was wearing. A twin bed unmade.
The little girl’s room was about the same. One could see she
didn’t do without. More clothes on the bed than the mother had in her whole
room.
My foot hit a little red ball and sent it jingling across
the floor. I bent down and picked it up. It was one of those doggie chew toys.
Well, their dog must have had a lot of fun playing with it; the poor thing looked
like a pit bull had chewed it up.
“Hey, officer.” I stopped one of O’Donnell’s men. “What did
you do with the family dog?”
“Dog? She didn’t have a dog that I know of. Hey, Mike, did
you see a dog?”
“Hang on. I’ll look,” a voice called from the back of the
house. “No. There’s no food, water dishes or dog house out back. Why?”
“The PI wanted to know.”
“Thanks,” I said and slipped the ball in my pocket.
On my way out I picked up what looked like a notebook and
looked through it. “Officer, write down that I’m taking this address book with
me.” I flipped through it to show him all the pages were still intact.
Getting in the car and closing the door, I picked up my new cell
phone and called my ex, the Honorable Mayor, Ms. Jennet Moore.
“Hello. Do you know what time it is? This had better be
good.”
“Get dressed and be ready when I get home. I need you to go
to the morgue with me. We don’t have a lot of time, my green-eyed love.”
“How long till you get here?”
“Five minutes.”
“Fine. I’ll be ready.”
When I pulled up to Jennet’s house she was ready and
waiting. She slid into the front seat.
I tossed her the red chew ball.
“What’s this?”
“I’m not sure yet. I found it in a child’s room. A little
girl about three or four years old was shot by her mother three times in the
chest with silver bullets. They all past through her but one went through her
heart. Then the mother shot herself in the head. Their bodies are on their way
to the morgue right now. Funny,” I gestured to the ball that Jennet was lightly
tossing in the air. “They didn’t have a dog. Did I mention that the mother had
brown eyes and the little girl has emerald green ones?”
Jennet shivered. “Poor little thing. Does she have next of
kin anywhere around here?”
“Not that I know of honey. I thought I would leave all that
to your friends.”
Jennet leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Did I ever
tell you what a sweet guy you are?”
I patted the seat beside me. “We have about another forty
miles to go.”
She slipped over next to me and put her head on my shoulder.
Her green eyes sparkled in the rear view mirror. “Jack, why weren’t you like
this when we were married?”
I kissed the top of her head. “It took losing you to make me
understand what I was losing.”
As I pulled up to the
Jennet was pointing at a parking space not far from the
door.
“Jennet, you’re going to have to find a place to send them.”
“There’s a funeral home over in Poplar that I know handles
these types of cases.”
Entering the morgue, we saw the
“You haven’t cut them up already, Doc?” I quickly asked.
He looked at us over his wire-rimmed glasses. “Aren’t you
that Private Eye from Milltown?”
“Yes, Jack Moore, and this is the mayor, Ms. Jennet Moore.
Captain O’Donnell said we could have a look at the bodies.”
“He said something about that when he called me this
morning. I don’t know why they have to have me look at murder/suicides just so
I can say they’re dead. It’s a waste of tax payer’s money.”
Jennet touched him on the shoulder. “Have you already filled
out the death certificates?”
“I’m going to do that now.”
“We’d like to have them taken to a funeral home in Poplar today.”
Jennet wrote down the name on a slip of paper and handed it to the coroner.
“I don’t see why not. I’m paying those two outside over time
to stand around and smoke. Go tell them I want to see them in my office and not
to be throwing their cigarette butts on the ground.”
Jennet went to the front door.
“Mind if I check out the bodies now, Doc?” I asked.
“Sure, first two lockers, top row on the right. I’ll get you
a list of the other locker numbers.”
I pulled open the first locker. The name Christine
Standfield was on the toe tag. You’d think they would put a cover over her, but
what does it matter to her? She’s dead. I checked Christine’s legs, belly, arms
and throat. I turned her over to look at her back and neck. Other than the
small holes where the bullets had passed through, there wasn’t a scar on the
little body. Carefully I turned her on to her back and slid the locker closed.
Jennet walked up. “I called the funeral home. He’ll be waiting
for them. Did you find what you were looking for?”
“With her, I did. Now I need to see the other bodies.”
“Here.” Jennet handed me a slip of paper. “The coroner gave
me a list. He said four are already gone to funeral homes.”
I opened the first locker to see an older man lying there.
The tag read: ‘Billy Walker. Poisoned by silver nitrate’. I found no scarring
on his body. The locker underneath him held an older lady. Her tag read: ‘Anna
Walker, Suicide gun shot, wound behind left ear.’ The other two bodies were a
younger couple, Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Overland. Sue Ellen Overland had been shot
in the back of the head. She had a large scar across the back of her right leg.
Mr. Overland had shot himself about an inch behind his left ear. With my left
forefinger, I touched myself about an inch behind my left ear then went to open
the locker that contained Christine’s mother and found what I was looking for.
She had shot herself in the right temple.
I slid the locker closed and turned to Jennet. “We need to
find access to the internet.”
“We can go to my office.”
“Let’s go. Jennet, listen to me. I want you to stay by my
side till this case is over. Okay?”
“Sure. What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you in the car. You drive.”
Pulling into the parking lot of City Hall, the car lights
moved across a person standing in the shadows of an alley.
“Jennet,” Jack said quickly. “Swing the car back to the
right slowly so the lights hit that alley next to the post office. Did you see
someone standing over there?”
“Not sure. It might have been a shadow from that hedge row
as we pulled in.”
“Circle around and try it one more time, then go ahead and
park.”
This time I didn’t see anyone.
Jennet parked in the Mayor’s reserved parking. She rolled
down the windows. “Be quiet for a minute,” she told me. A light breeze from the
direction of the post office flowed through the car. Looking toward the alley,
I heard her sniff the air. “You’re right. Someone was there, but he’s gone
now.”
“He?” I asked. “You sure it was a man? Was there more than
one?”
“Yes, it was a man and just one.” Jennet rolled up the
windows. “But, if he was still here, he’d hear everything we say. I’m starting
to think you’re right about this case. Now how do we prove it?”
“Let’s get a look at those police files Captain O’Donnell
has given us access to.”
Jennet opened the door to her outer office and walked in
without turning on the lights. “He’s been here; two or three days ago. I can
still smell him.” Walking over to the secretary’s desk, Jennet bent over and
sniffed Debbie’s rolodex. “This is the only thing he touched. Debbie must have
been out or he’d never have gotten his hands on it.”
Still leaving the lights off, Jennet went into her office, powered
up her computer and logged in.
I handed her the slip of paper O’Donnell gave me. She opened
the file then got up so I could sit at the computer.
The first murder/suicide case in the file was Joanne and
Bill Taylor, a couple who had been reported as arguing in their front yard.
Joanne Taylor had gone inside, got a shotgun, came out and shot Bill Taylor as
he sat in his lawn chair. The report said she then sat down on the porch and shot
herself in the head in front of a half-dozen eye witnesses.
The next case involved a teenage boy that had cut his
mothers head off with an axe. He then typed a note saying how much he loved
her, kneeled beside her on the right then shot himself in the left temple with
a 22 caliber pistol with the exit wound in the right jaw. The mother’s blood
was found on the typewriter and his bloody thumbprint on the note.
“Look here in the
“Mr. Overland was found lying across his wife’s body. His
exit wound was also in the right jaw. Mrs. Walker and Mr. Overland both used 22
caliber pistols.”
My cell phone rang and I answered it, listened for a moment,
said thanks and hung up. “That was O’Donnell. He was going through some files.
He found out Martha Standfield reported two weeks ago she thought someone was
stalking her and her little girl. She said a man at the supermarket had made a
slur about a half-breed mutt and the mixing of race. That same night she called
to report someone trying to break into her house. The officers found nothing.
One of the officers overheard a neighbor telling her to get a gun, wait till
the person breaks in and then shoot them. I think it’s time to have a meeting with
your friends and the sooner the better.”
Jennet reached past me to open her email. She typed a short
message, clicked send. “We’ll be meeting here tonight at
I got up so Jennet could print off a list of the victim’s
addresses. “That gives me time to check out the crime scenes. Maybe I can add
some pieces to the puzzle before the meeting. Would you rather stay here until
I get back?”
“No way, Jack. I’m coming with you.”
We pulled up to the first address. We got out of the car and
I leaned up against it. Jennet came to stand beside me as we looked into a yard
full of yellow police tape.
“Are we going to go in there?” Jennet asked.
“No, just stand here and look over the fence. You’ll find
out everything you need to know in nothing flat.”
In less than thirty seconds an elderly woman came out from a
house across the street.
“Are you reporters? I tell you, it was just terrible what
happened. I saw it all from my porch. The paper missed me the first time. I’ve
been sickly, you know.”
I got out a notebook and pen. “And your name is?”
The old lady’s eyes sparkled. “Miss Ellen Cartter. Mind you
that’s with two T’s. I’m a widow. Poor Bill’s been gone going on ten years. Now
it’s just Willy and me. Willy didn’t like Mr. Taylor. He’d just turn and run
every time he came over.”
“Willy? Who’s Willy?” I inquired.
“My cat, Mr. Willy Cartter Jr. I named him after my sweet
Bill.”
I kept drawing circles in the notebook. “So you said you saw
it all?”
“When I went to let Willy out, they were over there yelling
at each other.”
“What were they saying?”
“He must have been seeing other women. She was yelling about
all the bitches he was running around with. Mind you, my Bill never ran around
on me. Then Mr. Taylor said the funniest thing.”
“Do you remember what he said?” Miss Cartter gave me one of
those looks that told me her memory was still intact.
“He said, ‘I should have known better than to marry some
bitch not of my race. I should do the world a favor and kill all the mutts and
those in mixed marriages.’ He got up out of that lawn chair and started toward
her. That’s when she pulled that shotgun out and shot him right in the belly.”
“Did you say belly?” Jennet asked.
“Sure did. Mary from across the street said they were
digging silver buckshot out of her tree.”
I smiled. “Thank you very much. You’ve been a great help.”
“Remember that’s two T’s.” Mrs. Cartter started back across
the street to her house.
I ripped the police tape off the gate and opened it for
Jennet.
Jennet looked around the yard. “It’s rained since then. I
don’t smell a thing. Can we get inside?”
I walked up and tried the front door. It swung open.
Jennet stepped back as the three week old air hit her.
“That‘s him. Look!” Jennet pointed at a group of framed photographs on the
bookcase by the door.
I stepped inside and looked at a photo showing men and women
standing around a campfire with the edge of a tent in the background. All of
the people in the photograph had green eyes. Beside that picture was a wedding
photo of a couple. Across the corner was written, ‘The happiest day of our
life…Mr. and Mrs. Allen Taylor’. I looked back at the campfire picture. Allen
Taylor had his arms around two women. From where his hands were resting, if I’d
been his wife I would have shot him too. I pulled the camping photo out of the
frame and stuck it in my pocket.
As Jennet and I walked to the car, she stopped me and
sniffed the air. “He’s up-wind of us. I smell an air of fear around him. He
knows we know. He can’t quit now till he kills us too, Jack.”
“I know. Let’s stop by my office. I need to pick up some
special bullets I had made about a month ago. I was hoping I would never have
to use them,” I said, shaking my head.
I had Jennet pull through the alley behind my office
building. An old fire escape runs up the building to my third floor window. I
saw my window was still closed and the flag at the top of the fire escape was
down. I set that flag up years ago to spring up if anyone used the ladder.
Jennet drove around and parked in the street. “I’ll wait in
the car. I don’t feel like climbing three flights of stairs.”
“I need your nose, love,” I told her, leaning over to kiss
her cheek.
“I can help you with that if you want me to.” Jennet grabbed
the back of my head and pulled me to her, giving me a deep passionate kiss.
I didn’t try to fight it. I slid closer to her, taking in
those sweet lips and the feel of her warm body pressing up against mine. I
probably would have said to hell with it and taken Jennet back to her place,
but something moved outside the car.
My hand was under my coat and pulling out my 357 before I
realized it was a meter maid.
She rapped on the driver’s window.
Jennet eased the window down an inch or two.
“This is a ten minute parking zone, Mayor. If you and Jack
are going to be longer than that, I’d say you might want to move it to another
location.”
I knew that voice. “Shirley, is that you? I haven’t seen you
since your mother worked down at the station. How you been?”
“Fine! But you’re still going to have to move you car in six
minutes.”
“Is that ticket good for all day if you put it on my car
now?”
Shirley laughed, went back to her three-wheeler and got an
extended parking permit, brought it back and handed it to Jennet. “Put this on
your dash.”
“Thanks, kid. I owe you.” I got out of the car and headed
for the entrance while Jennet spoke to Shirley for a moment. “What was that all
about?” I asked, opening the door for her.
“I asked her to watch the car if she was going to be in the
area for the next twenty minutes. I told her someone was making threatening
phone calls to me.”
“Smart thinking. I should have made you a partner long ago.”
Jennet looked around the lobby for a second then started up
the stairs. When she got to the third floor she stopped. “You do know there are
two vacant offices on the first floor?”
“Okay. First thing Monday morning I’ll talk to the
landlord,” I told her. “Do you smell him anywhere?”
“No. Not even a tiny whiff.”
Jennet looked into my office as I swung the door back. “When
was the last time you cleaned this place? Maybe you should stay up here. It
keeps the value of the building up. Is there anything in here that bites other
than me?”
“I think there was last year,” I said going over to the
filing cabinet to get the box of bullets out. I held one up for her to see.
“It’s one of those new plastic slugs for a 357 Magnum filled with silver BB’s
and candle wax. They hit harder than lead and rip through you like a shotgun.”
Jennet gave me a scornful look.
I slipped the bullet back into my pocket just as my cell
phone rang. “Hello. Jack Moore Private Eye... I’m in my office... Okay I’ll
wait. Bye.” I looked over at Jennet. “That was Captain O’Donnell. He’ll be
right over.”
Sure enough, in fifteen minutes the Captain was standing in
the doorway trying to catch his breath. “What are you two up to? I just got
back from Poplar and they’ve cremated the mother and daughter already.”
“What!” I yelled, jumping up. “Cremated them?” I turned to
Jennet.
The Captain said to Jennet, “The coroner said you told him
to have them cremated.”
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t tell them to cremate anyone,”
she protested. “All I said, Mr. O’Donnell, is that I had a friend that owned a
funeral home and I’d like for them to be taken care of properly. It’s not my
fault if he misunderstood me.”
“He cremated them?” I said again.
“Get over it, Jack. Things happen. Besides, they were dead,”
Jennet snapped at me.
“Nothing else better happen to any evidence relating to this
case or I’m throwing both of you in jail till I find out what’s going on around
here. Do you understand me?”
I didn’t even get a chance to answer before O’Donnell turned
and stomped down the stairs. Dumping the bullets out of my 357 onto the desk, I
loaded it with what I was calling my ‘anything stoppers’.
“Do you think we could get something to eat? It’s almost
“Sure. Your place, my place or that little Italian place?”
Jennet smiled. “What about Italian and then your place?”
It didn’t take long for me to lock my office and head for
the car.
Jennet was taking a shower when the phone started ringing. I
answered with just hello not a lot of people know my home phone number. A male
voice said, “You can tell that girlfriend of yours that she won’t see the next
full moon.” Weird laughter echoed in the background before the call was
disconnected. I reached over and stopped my tape recorder.
“Bring that tape with you to the meeting.”
I jumped and spun around with my 357 halfway out of the
holster. I saw Jennet standing there in a towel. “How long have you been behind
me?”
“From where he said, ‘Girlfriend of yours’.”
My heart rate was getting back to normal when my brain
spotted the towel again. She was holding it with one hand. I took both of her
hands in mine and kissed them. The towel dropped to the floor.
Jennet bent over and picked it up. “Later. We have a meeting
in an hour and a half. Hurry up and take your shower.” She turned and walked
back into the bedroom.
I started for the bathroom. “By the way, when’s the full
moon?”
Jennet started to close the door then pushed it back open.
“Tomorrow night. That doesn’t give us much time, Jack.”
When we left the house, I stepped up to the car and looked
in the front and back seats. Jennet went around and unlocked the doors. We were
in the car and pulling away from the curb before I could get my seatbelt on.
I turned around and looked out the back window. There were a
lot of cars out at this time of day. I told Jennet to drive around the block.
If someone was following us from a distance we could lose them. If they were
too close I’d spot them like a green thumb. Well, maybe a red one, as a red
motorcycle made the fourth right and fell in behind us about a block back.
I pulled my binoculars out of the glove box. “We have
someone following us on a Harley. I can’t see her eyes. Those sunglasses are
hiding them.”
“Does she have red hair?”
I looked over at Jennet. “Yes. Can you see her that far away
in the rear view mirror?”
“She’s a friend of mine. I called her when you were in the
shower. She’s there to watch our backs.”
“I hope this guy don’t go after her.”
“I hope he does.” Jennet nodded. “Take another look.”
When I looked back ten more motorcycles had shown up.
“Friends, I take it.”
“Yep.”
We pulled into the city hall parking lot and got out. The
motorcycles never even slowed down.
“When we get into my office there’ll be some men waiting on
us. Don’t go and start trying to shoot them.”
Jennet opened her office door and walked in.
As I entered, I could feel their eyes on me.
Without saying a word, Jennet turned on her computer and
opened the file O’Donnell had given us.
They moved behind her to see the computer screen.
Jennet then told them what we had learned. “Jack, hand me
the tape you recorded of his voice.”
I tossed it to her. I could hear them murmur as they
listened to the laughter.
Finally one of them spoke. “He’s of the Jackal blood line.
They’re the only ones I know who laugh like that. I’ve not heard of one being
this far north in a long time. We don’t think they’re a very stable group.”
They whispered to each other, whispered something to Jennet
then turned and walked out the door.
“What was that all about?”
“They gave us the go ahead, Jack, but we have to keep a low
profile. The murder/suicide must stand as is. We also have to stop him without
getting the police involved.”
“How are we going to do that?” A voice said behind me.
I spun and reached for my 357 again, but Jennet’s hand was
already on top of mine.
“Jack, I’d like you to meet Ruby.”
Her red hair and leather jacket was a good giveaway. “The
lady on the Harley, I take it.”
She laughed. “Not been called a lady in a long time, thanks.
Jennet, he’s kind of cute.”
“And taken,” Jennet said, slapping me on the butt.
I turned to Jennet. “I have an idea, kid, but you’ll have to
be bait.”
It was almost sunrise when Jennet’s cell phone rang one
time. A group of bikers came out from behind City Hall just as we came out to
get in my car.
One of them pulled a knife on me and took Jennet’s purse, my
357 Magnum and wallet. Next they smashed out my car window and jumped inside.
The good thing was, they couldn’t get my car started. They ripped my radio out
of the dash and took off running down the street.
Jennet started screaming at me about how I hadn’t protected
her; I had just stood there letting them steal everything she had, even her
cell phone. She slapped me hard across the face, got in my car and entered my
code. Next thing I knew, she’d put down my canvas top and peeled rubber out of
the parking lot.
A set of headlights came on as a car parked down the street
started up and began following her.
About five miles out of town, Jennet pulled over and got out
to look at the front right tire. She went back, opened the trunk and started
digging around in it. A car with its headlights on bright came up the road and
stopped behind her.
A deep voice say, “Looks like this is going to be your
unlucky night Mayor.”
Jennet slammed the trunk shut. “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Billy
Taylor. I think it might be a good night.”
Taylor saw me leaning over the trunk from the back seat with
my 357 pointing at him. “How in the hell did you get here? I saw you standing there when she left.”
“Six guys got in the car and only five got out.”
“That wasn’t you standing there. It was a dam decoy.”
“You’re getting smarter. Now pull your hands out slowly so I
can see them.”
He swung his left hand out from behind his back. He was
holding a gun. I fired, hitting him in the left shoulder.
His gun went flying. He ran for his car, but my next round
went through the radiator sending steam everywhere.
Taylor turned and ran for the woods.
In just seconds, eleven dogs crossed the road and bolted
into the woods after him.
Jennet got in the car and started it. “Let’s go home, Jack.
Nothing more for you here.”
Six months later, I stopped in the Mayor’s office to take
Jennet out to lunch. “Hi. Are you ready? By the way, I ran into Captain
O’Donnell today. He said he’s keeping those case files open for another year.”
“Give me a minute, Jack. Have a seat.”
On Jennet’s desk was a picture of a couple and their young
dog. “Who is this?” I asked, picking up the photo.
“Don’t you recognize her?” Jennet asked. “Look closer at the
dog.”
“It’s just a brown dog chewing on -” I grinned. “A little
red ball.”
Jennet smiled.
Pax War
Jennet sighed as she looked over a stack of papers on her
desk. It was the third night she had worked late that week. She glanced over at
the clock on the wall just as the big hand jumped to eleven minutes after
twelve.
“My God is it that late?” she murmured. “Great. Here I am
talking to myself. Jack Moore, if you don't hurry up and get home from that
private eye meeting in
The tinkle of breaking glass in the hallway snapped Jennet
back to reality. She heard a crunching sound as someone walked through it.
Jennet looked out of her open office door and saw that the outer office was
still locked. She reached down and pulled open the top desk drawer. Slipping
her hands around two 357 automatic pistols, she eased them out.
Jennet watched the light under the door. Two shadows stopped
outside her office. The door knob slowly turned left. With a sudden, loud crash
the door was kicked open so violently that the hinges were ripped from the
frame. It landed on the floor just as two large dogs that looked like crosses
between a Rottweiler and a Saint Bernard ran in and leapt for Jennet’s throat.
For a second all Jennet could see were their black gums and yellow teeth.
A deafening roar filled the room as flames shot out of the
barrels of the 357’s. Both dogs seemed to stop in mid air before crumpling and
crashing into her desk.
Something flashed by her damaged doorway so fast she thought
it was a shadow. She fired both 357’s again at the wall three feet above the
floor and right of the doorway. The yelp of a dog in pain was heard just before
a person groaned.
Jennet ran out of her office with both 357’s ready, but by
the time she got outside the night air was filled with the sound of squealing
tires in the parking lot. She heard police sirens in the distance, coming
closer. She ran back to her office and picked up the phone, but it was dead.
Captain O’Donnell stood looking at the two bodies with holes
the size of grapefruits in the back of their heads. “What on earth did you
shoot them with Mayor? A tank?”
“No. It’s a new type of soft point silver-tip bullet that
Jack had made for me. He put in a core of silver powder for extra knock down
power. He said it will kill anything, but vampires. When he gets back he’s
thinking of adding a few wood chips. He said then it would kill anything around
here.”
“Vampires! Werewolves! You have to be kidding me! When is
Jack going to grow up? It’s a good thing the bullets broke up when you shot
through the wall. If you would had killed the one that was in the hallway, I’d
have to put you in jail. Try and remember you can’t shoot people that are
running away from you. From all the blood out in the hallway, I still might
have to if we find his body.”
“Captain,” a technician called out from the hallway. “I just
tested this blood and it’s not human. Some kind of dog, I think. There’s human
blood by the window. It looks like he cut himself climbing out.”
“How do you know it was a man?”
“From the three different sets of footprints outside the
window, unless some woman wears a size twelve shoe.”
Jennet picked up her two 357’s.and held them out to the
Captain. “Are you going to want these?”
“No. You have a permit to carry them. Remember, don’t leave
town till this is over and try not to shoot anybody else tonight.”
One of the Coroner’s technicians asked the Captain if they
could take the bodies.
“Sure, but remember to put down the cause of death as ‘lack
of brains’.”
“You want us to hold them or ship them on over to the
funeral parlor?”
“The DA said he wasn’t pressing charges unless the third guy
was found dead. We have enough pictures. Hold them till tomorrow morning.”
Before the technician zipped the two bags closed, Jennet
went over to the dead men and opened their eyes one at a time. Both had eyes of
a dull, cloudy green.
“What is it with you and Jack and dead people and their
eyes? Every time you’re around a dead body you look at their eyes. ” Captain
O’Donnell held the door open for Jennet.
Jennet looked over at the Captain. “Jack said if you look
into a dead man’s eyes you can sometimes see their last thought.”
As she and the Captain left City Hall Jennet saw three
bikers watching from behind the police barricade. She gave them a questioning look,
but they turned and walked away.
“Well, you’re luckier than the other woman was tonight. Do
you want one of my men to follow you home in case the other punk isn’t hurt as
bad as I think he is?”
Jennet turned to face him. “Other woman? What other woman?”
“We found some biker chick in an alley downtown about four
hours ago. Her body was so ripped up we didn’t find all her parts. Her hands,
one of her legs and both feet were missing. It looked like a pack of wild dogs
got to her after she died from a drug overdose.”
“How do you know it was an overdose?”
“We found a homeless man not too far away with the needle
still stuck in his arm. Looked like some rats and the dogs had gotten to him,
too. The Coroner did a spot test for us on her skin tissue. There were enough
drugs in her system and the homeless guy to kill three grown men. Even if she
was alive when the dogs got there she never felt them tearing her apart.”
“Captain, I think I’ll take you up on that offer to have an
officer follow me home.”
Jennet went over and got into her car as Captain O’Donnell
went to talk to an officer. Locking the car door behind her, she ejected the
magazines from her 357’s. Pulling a box of bullets from the glove box she
reloaded the magazines and put them back in the pistols. Sliding the receiver
back she checked to make sure there was a live round in the chambers. Placing
one 357 back in her handbag and the other on the seat beside her, Jennet
started her car and checked to make sure the policeman was behind her. As she
turned out of the parking lot three big choppers sped by, headed in the same
direction. One of the bikers gave her a yellow toothy grin.
Jennet turned on her high beams as she entered her driveway,
giving the house a quick once over. As she waited for the police officer to
walk up, she put the other 357 into her handbag then turned off the car. She
got out and let the officer walk her to the front door.
She opened it and stepped inside, took a deep whiff of air
and smiled. “Don’t you just love the smell of the air out here in the country?
The officer looked at her strangely. “Mayor, keep your door
locked. I’ll be patrolling the area. Good night.” He tipped his hat and left.
Jennet watched as he drove off and closed and locked the
door. “That wasn’t the smartest thing to do,” she said. “Breaking into my home
knowing the cops were following me here. What if he had decided to check out
the house before leaving?”
The door to the basement opened and the three bikers stepped
out. One of them had tears running down his cheeks.
“Thornton, who got killed? What happened?” Jennet asked.
“Miranda. She was new to the group. She’d only been around a
few months. She and Jay were sweet on each other. Anyway, we’re not sure what
happened. We found her just before the cops showed up. She liked to hunt ahead
of the pax. I tried to tell her it wasn’t safe.”
“Still, they didn’t have to do that to her,” Jay said,
wiping the tears off his face with his sleeve. “If I get my teeth into those
Jackals, they’ll be sorry for ever setting foot in our area. We followed their
scent to City Hall, but the cops were everywhere when we got there.”
“Jackals!” Jennet turned to Jay. “Did you say Jackals? That
was the Pax of that Bill Taylor guy who went mad back around the first of the
year. You helped us on that case. I remember when they came to get his body
they said there wasn’t enough of it left for them to take back down south. What
was it I overheard one of them saying? I remember now. The big guy was looking
at me and said, ‘A tooth for a tooth.’ ”
“That’s right, but Miranda wasn’t in the Pax then.”
“But she was last night. Sorry, Jay, but I think she was
dead before they got to her. O’Donnell said she was full of drugs and in the
wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Drugs? She never took drugs. She even got me to cut back on
my drinking.”
“That’s probably why she didn’t call out for help,”
Jay started crying again.
“Nice going, meat head.” Tommy hit
“Well those guys are in the wrong place at the wrong time
now.” Jay went to the hall table and picked up the phone, tapping in some
numbers. “Sis, alpha twenty-two… yes, I’m sure… alpha twenty-two. Pass the
word. I’ll see you later… yes, Tommy is fine...” He listened for a second then
hung up. “She’s getting all the kids to safe houses.”
“Well, Jay is right about one thing. If you want the pax to
know anything, tell his sister,” Tommy said.
“When are you going to marry my sister?” Jay demanded.
“Talk to her. I’ve asked her four times and all I get is,
‘Why bother? We’re like an old married couple now.’ ”
Jennet held up a hand. “Okay guys! Tommy, marry his sister.
Jay quit hounding him about it. And,
“Sure. Go get some sleep.”
Upstairs Jennet tried to call Jack, but his roommate said he
was out on a two day mock stakeout and couldn’t be reached. She hung up the
phone and lay down on her bed, resting her head on the pillow for a second.
The sound of shattering glass brought Jennet straight up in
bed. She grabbed her handbag and took out the 357’s. Her emerald eyes scanned
the room for a movement as she strained to hear any little sound. When she
heard a woman’s voice from the kitchen downstairs, scolding someone for
dropping a glass and the patter of little feet, she relaxed. But wait – what
were a woman and a kid doing in her house?
She slid her legs over the side of the bed, looked at the
clock on the night table and saw it was
“
“Jay and Tommy aren’t here right now.
“No, thanks.” Jennet closed the door, went over to pick up
the phone and called the police station.
“Milltown Police Station. How may I help you?” Linda’s voice
squeaked from the other end of the line.
“This is the Mayor. I’d like to speak to Captain O’Donnell.”
“Oh, Mayor, I was so sorry to hear about what happened to
you last night. Are you okay?”
“Yes, Linda. Can I please speak to the captain?”
“I’m sorry, Mayor, but the Captain hasn’t come back from
lunch yet. Would you like me to page him, leave a message or would you like to
call back later?”
“Page him and have him call my house in thirty minuets.”
“Yes , Mayor. I’ll have Captain O’Donnell call you in thirty
minutes. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Have they fixed my office door yet?”
“No, Mayor. Morton, our maintenance man – he’s just a sweetheart
– said he was going to have to put in a whole new frame. Whoever kicked that
door in sure was strong. They’re still trying to clean up all that blood and,
well, you know, ‘parts’ off the floor and walls. What a mess. Morton said it
will be a week before he gets the two holes patched and your door frame in from
Warrenville, but he did get the window fixed. Every time someone came in the
front door that old wind would blow through here and papers would just go
flying everywhere.”
“Linda! The Captain, please.”
“Oh, yes, Mayor. I’ll page him right away. Remember, if
there’s anything I can do for you, you just call and let me know. You’re one
lucky woman. If two men would have come at me like that I would have just died
right there on the spot. I’d have been too scared to even shoot.”
“Bye, Linda.”
“Oh, yes, bye, Mayor. Remember, I’m here if you need me.”
Jennet hung up. “Those poor policemen,” she said, picking up
the 357s and walking into the bathroom.
Locking the door behind her, she turned on the shower as hot
as she could stand it, undressed and climbed in. Jennet stood and let the hot
water run over her body, trying to wash the memory of those two dead men away.
The streams of water reminded her of Jack’s fingers running across her back and
down her legs. Her pleasant thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a knock
at the door.
Jennet looked over at the two butts of the 357’s lying under
a towel on the sink. “Who is it?”
“It’s Ruby. You have a phone call from Captain O’Donnell.”
Jennet turned off the water, stepped out of the shower,
grabbed a towel, wrapped it around herself and unlocked the door.
Ruby stepped back when she saw the two pistols her friend
was holding. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I wish Jack was here.” She crossed the room
to put the guns down on the night stand and picked up the phone. “O’Donnell, is
that you?”
“Yes. What do you need?”
“I was just wondering if you had found out any more about
those two men I shot last night.”
“Mayor, you know I can’t talk to you about an ongoing case
that you’re right in the middle of. I’m sorry, but they’d have my badge.”
“I thought you said the DA wasn’t going to press charges?”
“He’s not for now. Still, it’ll take about a week until
you’re off the hook for good. I’ll let you know.”
Jennet looked up and saw Ruby shaking her head and waving
her hand. “Okay, Captain. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’m still a bit shook up.
Bye.” She hung up the phone and asked Ruby, “What?”
“We followed the Captain out to the Sunset Motel on State
Highway 43. It seems eight Morgones checked in yesterday. The clerk said they
were pulling out as he was opening up the office this morning. For fifty
dollars he was kind enough to copy their registration card. They had
Jennet cocked her head to one side. “Just how many people
are there downstairs?”
“Well, I was staying over at Debbie’s when her brother
called. When we went to check my place, which is one of the safe houses, it
reeked with the smell of Jackals. Debbie called Jay and told him. He said your
place had a great layout for defense against attacks. So we brought the kids
over here.”
“How many?” Jennet asked again.
Ruby thought for a minute. “Eleven kids, seven teenagers,
eight women and eight men.”
“Thirty-four people?”
“Thirty-five people, counting you. We have the kids in the
basement. Four men are guarding the front door and four the back. The eight
women sleep near the basement door. You have the top floor to yourself. We
brought our own food and bedding.”
The phone rang.
Ruby picked it up. “Hello... yes, okay... Come on back and
make sure you’re not followed.” Ruby hung up the phone. “That was Jay. They
didn’t find anything. Have you talked to Jack?”
“No. He’s on a stakeout and won’t be back till tomorrow
sometime.”
“There’s that phone again.” Ruby picked it up. “Hello.” She
listened for a long time. “Okay, we’re sending over some help. You did well. I
don’t think they’ll try that again. I’ll have Debbie call the other houses.”
She hung up and went out into the hallway to the top of the stairway. “Debbie!”
“What?” Debbie’s voice could be heard from somewhere
downstairs.
“Get a vet and two fighters over to Mary Ann’s house. Call
the other houses and tell them she was hit. Move all the adults into the
basement hallway.”
Debbie came and looked up at Ruby. “What happened over
there? Everyone will want to know.”
“The Jackals broke through the door like they did at the
Mayor’s office. Mary Ann said Frank and Tiny got separated from the rest of the
pax when the Jackals first broke in and they got some really bad gashes on
their necks and underbellies.
“The first two through the door went right over the top of
the pax for the kids. The teenagers held their ground until four of the mothers
could get there. Those four women jumped on the Jackal’s backs and almost ripped
them to shreds.
“A few of the others in her pax got some cuts, but nothing
that bad. She said they were trying for the kids. The Jackals definitely got
the worst of it. She knows at least eight of them got away.”
Jennet was listening from the bedroom doorway. “Eight got
away? I thought there were only eight at that motel,” she whispered under her
breath.
Jennet got dressed then turned on the computer that was on
the desk in the corner of her bedroom. After doing a few searches, she asked
Ruby to come back into her room. “I didn’t find any motels in town showing a
large number of guests checking in three days ago, but the Sunset Motel. When
Jay gets back find out if he remembers if any of the cars they saw were from
“Ruby, I need four guys to help me get some bodies. But
first we have to make a trip out of town. I remembered something else they said
when they came to get Mr. Taylor: ‘No one rests till they lay in their own
soil’.”
Ruby picked up the extension. Debbie was still on the phone
downstairs. “Debbie,” Ruby interrupted. “The Mayor needs four men to help her
get some bodies… I don’t know why… just get them over here.” She hung up the
phone. “Okay, Mayor, you’ll have four guys over here in a little bit.”
Jennet grabbed her handbag and both 357’s and headed down
the stairs with Ruby following her. When they got to the bottom Ruby went and
found her coat and started putting it on.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Debbie asked Ruby
with a stern look.
“With Jennet. One of the guys can take my place till I get
back. I don’t have any kids and I’m a good fighter.”
Debbie started to say something, but stopped when they heard
the sound of motorcycles outside. She walked to the window. “Jay and Tommy are
back.” She yanked the front door open. “What took you so long? Where’s
Michael?”
“We dropped him off at Wanda’s house. Why?”
“The Jackals hit Mary Ann’s house. They’re fine, but it’s
not safe to be out running around.”
“Tommy and I stopped at a coffee shop out on Highway 10,
south of town,” Jay said. “We started talking to the waitress and she told us
that there are about twenty southerners camping down by the lake. Some family
thing from the way they were talking. She told us that they were the hairiest
bunch of men she’d ever seen.”
“Thanks, Jay. See if you can get some of our Non-friends to
drive through the park and check out their plates to see what state they’re
from. Let them know what they might be dealing with. Tell them to bathe really
well and put on some strong cologne before going and one last thing. I need a
truck.”
“I wish you’d have told me. I’d have had one of the guys
bring one,” Debbie said.
Ruby looked out the window “It looks like you’re in luck.
Two trucks are pulling in the driveway now. Or maybe I’m in luck! One of them
is Andy.”
“Andy? Who’s this Andy?” Jennet asked.
“Well, let me put it this way. If I play my cards right, I
won’t be Ruby McDermott for long.” Ruby opened the door and a huge man stepped
in. She wrapped her arms around him. “Jennet, this is Andy. Andy, my friend Jennet.”
He stuck out his large hand.
Jennet shook it and leaned close to whisper to Ruby, “He’s a
Non. Does he know about you?”
“Yes. He found me in a trap in the woods about seven months
ago. We’ve been together ever since.”
“Okay, who is going with me?” Jennet asked opening up the
hall closet and taking out a box of plastic compost bags.
“Rock, you stay here with Debbie and take my place till I
get back,” Ruby said as she walked out the door.
“It doesn’t look like I have a choice, does it?” Rock turned
to go inside.
“I have some chili and cornbread in the kitchen, Rock, if
you’re hungry,” one of the ladies told him.
“Eat chili or pick up dead people,” Rock said with a laugh.
“Have fun Ruby,” he added as he hurried past Debbie.
“I don’t know if it’s the chili or Ellen he’s staying for.”
Debbie grinned.
“What about Jay and me?” Tommy whispered in Debbie’s ear as
he kissed her on the cheek.
“You two can go get your own chili. I’m not your mother. And
what the hell were you doing flirting with some waitress?”
“It wasn’t me. Jay was the one talking to her. All I did was
drink coffee.”
Ruby closed the door behind her. “I’m glad I didn’t stay
now. Okay, Jennet, where are we going to get these bodies you’re talking
about?”
“First, we’re going out to where the pax chased
“It’s been almost a year now. What makes you think we’ll
find anything?” Ruby asked.
“Because I know you and your pax.”
As they pulled out of the driveway Travis and
With Travis and
“I think we’d better get off the road.” Andy signaled for
Travis to follow him down the lane till they were out of sight of the highway.
Ruby kissed Andy. “You’d better stay here and lock the
doors. If you see anyone you don’t know, you lay down on that horn and don’t
stop until you see my smiling face. This is not a game.”
Andy grabbed her and gave Ruby a kiss that even made Jennet
blush. “This isn’t the right time, but here.” He pulled a ring box out of his
pocked and opened it. “Will you –” was all he managed to say before Ruby
screamed “Yes!” so loudly that Jennet put her hands over her ears.
Travis and
Jennet got out as Ruby and Andy wrapped their arms around
each other and started kissing. She hooked her arm in
Travis was still standing by Andy’s door. “I think their
going to-”
“Get over here!” Jennet snapped at Travis.
“But I want to watch.”
“So do I,”
Ruby climbed from the truck, her face flushed. “I’m ready.”
“I bet you are,”
“Travis, you and Ruby were here that night. Do you think we
can find Mr. Taylor’s resting place?”
“Sure, Jennet, but I’ll have to start back up by the road.”
Caption O’Donnell saw four big dogs walking along the side
of the road as he drove back to town from the
Jennet followed
Less than a quarter mile off the road Travis slowed his pace
and stopped. The four started sniffing the ground in the clearing. Over by some
brush Travis lifted his head and growled. As he started digging, Ruby and
Jennet came over to help.
After filling two bags the three checked the area again.
“That’s it.
Ruby and Jennet started back to the trucks with the two men
close behind.
About a hundred yards from the truck they heard Andy’s horn.
Ruby bolted ahead, running as fast as she could. Jennet was
hot on her heels. Both men tried to keep up, but started falling behind. They
dropped their bags and in seconds were running beside the women. The four
cleared the woods, growling and with teeth bared.
Three dogs standing beside Andy’s truck ran around to the
back, jumped into the truck bed and hunkered downed next to the cab.
Ruby came to an abrupt stop, with the other three almost
running over her. Shaking her head, she turned and headed back into the woods
with Travis and
A few minutes later Travis and
Jennet looked at the three dogs in the back of Andy’s truck
as she got in behind Ruby and closed the door.
Ruby looked out the cab window. “Honey, they have collars
and tags, black and white fur and they wagged their tails when we scared the
hell out of them.”
When they pulled onto the main road they saw a man standing
by a pick-up, calling for his dogs. The three dogs started barking. Andy stopped
and got out to open his tailgate. The dogs jumped out and ran over to the man,
whining and cringing. He dropped his tailgate for the dogs to load up.
Andy and the man exchanged a few words before Andy got back
in next to Ruby. “Yesterday morning, before sun up, that guy said he’d stopped
here to look for his dogs and about fifteen dogs came out of the woods and ran
him back to his truck. He thought he would never see his dogs again and wanted
me to tell all of you thanks.” He put the truck in gear. “Now, where to,
Mayor?”
Jennet pointed behind her.
Andy turned the truck around and headed away from town.
Travis and
Andy was the first one to speak. “We’ve been driving for
some time now and it’s getting dark. Where’re we headed?”
Jennet came out of what seemed to be a trance and looked
around. “Just a little further on you’ll see a house on the left. Slow down and
turn into the next driveway on the right and stop at the gate.”
When the trucks came to a stop, Jennet got out and walked up
to the iron gate and just stood there.
“I wonder what she’s waiting for?” Andy murmured.
“Look. Over there.” Ruby pointed down the road.
Andy could just make out six set of eyes glowing in the
headlights.
Jennet watched the six malamutes walking slowly toward her
with a man following. “John, how you doing?”
“Fine, Jennet. What brings you out this far from Milltown?
Kind of late for a social call.”
“We need a place till morning. I was hoping you might let us
sleep in the barn.”
“How many of them are with you?”
“There’re five of us and a Non.”
“Tell them to get out and stand by the gate.”
As the malamutes sniffed each of their hands John kept
saying, “Friends…friends.”
“Turn your lights off. Jennet, you know where the barn is
and don’t any of you leave the corral tonight.” John opened the gate.
“I’ll drive,” Ruby told Andy. “I see better in the dark than
you.”
Jennet stopped the group before they got into the trucks.
“I’m going to walk back with John. Follow this road. The barn is on the right
before you get to the house. Park the trucks inside. There’s an outhouse behind
the barn inside the corral. Don’t leave the corral because these dogs are
trained to kill predators.”
“Who is this guy?” Travis asked. “He acts kind of strange.”
“He’s my brother. Three years ago he lost his son to a pack
of wild dogs. Jack, John and I hunted down the pack and killed every one of
them. His wife Mary was in so much grief she killed herself a year later on the
anniversary of my nephew’s death.”
Jennet walked into the barn with an armful of quilts and
pillows and a picnic basket. “John said to just leave these on top of the feed
bin in the morning. There’s some sandwiches, tea and pecan pie in here.
“I got a
hold of the funeral director at his home in Poplar and he is going to request
the bodies of the Jackals first thing in the morning. He told me to be at the
funeral parlor by eight. He’ll have everything ready. So everyone be ready to
leave at six.”
“Six? I can make that drive in an hour,” Travis said.
“And just what do you think a cop will do if he smells
what’s in your truck while he’s giving you a speeding ticket? All of us will be
in jail for the next thirty years. Everybody get some sleep and that goes for
you and Andy, too, Ruby.”
“Like I was going to do anything different? Hell, the big
lug is asleep already.”
“Wow, don’t I feel safe.” Ruby hit Andy on the shoulder with
her fist.
He rolled over,
wrapped his arms around her, kissed her on the ear and fell back asleep.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Travis said, turning his
back on them.
The creak of the barn door brought Jennet’s eyes open. She
could see a figure highlighted by the moon as it stepped inside the barn.
Cocking her 357 Jennet, pointed the barrel at the man’s
head.
The person came to an abrupt stop. “Jennet, it’s me,
Jennet eased the pistol down, uncocked it and looked at her
watch. “It’s time to get up anyway.” Throwing her cover back, she got up and
headed for the back door.
“Just to warn you, you’ll have an escort out there and
back.”
Jennet turned to look at
“There’re two dogs guarding the back of the barn.”
Jennet walked out the door and closed it behind her.
Jennet looked down at her watch. “
Travis shook his head, muttering, “ ‘You’re driving too
slow’. ‘You’re driving too fast’ and ‘You’re driving too slow’ again. ‘My leg
has a cramp in it’. I wish she would have ridden with Ruby this morning.”
Shifting the bag onto his shoulder, he knocked on the back door.
The old man holding the door open looked at Jennet as she
walked up. “I take it your Jennet Moore, Mayor of Milltown. I seem to be
getting a lot of business from your town the last couple of years. I’m Peter
Howell.”
“Mr. Howell is everything ready?”
“Unless you have some more like the ones you’ve been sending
me. You must be a Turned. There was nothing I could do for those two Morgones,
way too much silver powder everywhere.”
“Better them than me laying here. I like the way it turned
out, thank you. Now, do you have everything ready?”
“Yes, yes, back in my office. You two put those bags on that
table. My assistant will take care of them. You can wait in the front parlor until
Mike needs help loading the coffins. Mayor, come with me.”
“And here I thought the Mayor brought us along for our good
looks and not just our muscles.”
Travis and
“Okay, Mike, where is this parlor we’re to wait in and is
there a phone around here I can use?”
The young man pointed to a door then started cutting one of
the bags open. “There’s a pay phone in the parlor.”
Just as Travis returned with Andy and Ruby, Mike came to
tell them he was ready to load the coffins.
While the men loaded the coffins into the trucks Ruby went
to the Funeral Director’s office.
Sticking her head in the doorway she said, “Jennet, the
coffins are in the trucks. We need to get back to your house.”
Seeing the look on Ruby’s face Jennet immediately got to her
feet, picked up the paperwork and the receipt and put them into her hand bag.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Ruby replied.
Two hours later Jennet walked up onto her front porch and
saw a man nailing on the last piece of framework around a new front door.
Ruby got out of Andy’s truck. “Let’s get these trucks inside
the garage and make sure it’s well secured.”
One of the men fixing the door said, “We have a work bench
across the back door. We’ll back the truck up to that and unwire the rollup
door and bolt it. The only way in will be through the kitchen.”
Debbie came out onto the porch. “Sorry, Mayor, I wanted them
to be finished before you got back.”
“That’s fine. It’ll all be finished in a few hours one way
or the other. Let’s go inside and you can tell me what happened.”
Sitting down at the kitchen table, Debbie poured coffee for
Andy, Ruby and Jennet. Travis and
“Okay,” Debbie began. “You know we sent two Nons to the park
to see what was going on there. Two guards stopped them at the front gate and
told them the park was rented to a private party. They drove by the back gate
and two men were parked there, too. At the top of the hill they used binoculars
and counted between twenty to twenty-five men. No women or kids. That included
the four at the gates.
“With that many Jackals I had two of the safe houses split up
and move into the other four so that we would have about ten more adults in a
house than the Jackals had altogether. It was a good move. Last night they came
through your front door just like they did your office. There was about twenty
of them in your front room by the time I got to the front of the pax. Once they
saw how many of us there were they backed out the door. No one got hurt. I
heard one of them yell that they’d be back.”
“Debbie, how many can you get here by, say,
“Just tell me how many you need. I know a couple of pax from
other towns close by that have offered to help.”
Jennet took the chalkboard off the wall and started drawing
the lake, park and both entrances. “Okay, here’s what I want to do. Debbie, do
you think you can get some more Nons to help us?
“Like I said, how many people do you need?”
Jennet smiled. “About eighty Morgones and about eight Nons.”
One of the Jackal guards reached over and shook his friend.
“Hey, isn’t that the same car that showed up here yesterday? I wonder what they
want now.”
The black car, with the tinted windows, stopped and the
driver’s window eased down. The driver smiled at the guard. “Are you all still
here? How long did you say you had this park rented for?”
The tallest Jackal placed his hand on the side of the car
and gave a hard push, rocking it like a toy horse. “Until our business is
finished. So, just like yesterday, turn this car around and don’t come back
till we’re not standing here, okay?”
“Sure. We don’t want any trouble, but I would like to ask
you one question.”
“What is it?” The guard leaned down and stuck his face inside
the window.
“Do you know what a forty-four loaded with silver rat shot
would do to you at this range?”
The guard’s eye widened as he looked down at the gun in the
driver’s hand. A click from the back seat made him look over and down the
barrel of a shotgun pointed at his face.
“Or how about this range?” the man holding the shotgun asked.
“Okay, tell your friend to sit down and don’t make a sound. Take these
handcuffs and lock your friend’s hands behind his back. Than put your arm
through his and lock your hands in front where I can see them.”
The two in the back seat got out and waved. Within a minute
over twenty trucks and cars were blocking the road. One of the Nons called
Jennet over the walkie-talkie to tell her the back gate was secure.
“Okay, everyone,” Jennet said. “The wind is to their backs
off the lake. You know what to do. Load those guards up and let’s end this.”
At one of the campsites a short fat bald man stood up when
he heard the cars, but it was too late. Vehicles were pouring in from both
directions and what looked like hundreds of men were spilling out of them.
One of the Jackals leaned in close to him and whispered, “I
didn’t come all this way to be killed.”
In a flash the bald man’s hand was around the guy’s throat
and he snarled, “You’ll stand here like the rest of us or I’ll kill you
myself.”
“Mr. Whitman. I see you’re back.”
The fat man let go of the man’s throat. “Mayor, I told you I
would be.”
Ruby pushed thought the crowd with twelve men carrying the
three coffins behind her.
Jennet pointed. “Set them in front of Mr. Whitman.”
The men carefully set the coffins down in front of the bald
man.
Mr. Whitman opened each casket briefly to examine the
contents and then looked over at the Mayor.
“Mr. Whitman,” Jennet said. “I was wrong for not giving you
Bill Taylor the first time you were here. I hope you understand how much trouble
it would have been to get his body out of town, much less across two state
lines.”
“We were willing to try.”
Jennet walked over and handed him a folder. “There’s the
paper work for three bodies. Now you won’t have any problems.”
“You kill five of us and you think we’re just going to leave
with these three? Grant you, Bill there was a bad apple. I was coming to talk to
you, but his brothers, Mickey and Robert, tried to kill you the first night we
got into town. I told them not to. I told them to leave you alone. But they
were hard- headed just like their brother. Then your Pax went and killed John
and Randy. So where are their bodies”?
“Well, you killed Miranda!” Jay yelled from behind Jennet.
“Miranda? Are you talking about the girl in the alley?
Thomas told us they had to kill her. She was already going nuts like she had
rabies. He said she’d been eating those rats at first then started on the old
man. She was snapping and trying to bite anything she could.”
Jennet signaled
for Travis to bring her the prisoners. “Here are the four guards and the two
from the safe house.”
“Randy! John!
We thought you two were dead,” Whitman said, placing a hand on John’s shoulder.
“We would be if
they hadn’t taken care of us. I can’t believe you left us and never even came
back to check. I’m going home. You and the rest of the pax can stay here if you
want to.”
“John, can I
get a ride with you?” Randy asked.
“Sure, glad to
have the company.” John stopped and looked at Jennet. “Thank you. Come on,
Randy. We’re burning daylight.”
Randy reached
into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “Danny, if you’re still alive
later, drive Robert’s truck home. Here’s the keys.” He tossed them to a young
man.
Whitman called
out, “Wait! We need you.”
“You still
don’t understand. You don’t need us. You never needed us. All you had to do was
ask for Bill’s body!”
“Okay, here’s
the deal, Whitman,” Jennet interrupted. “You pick up those three coffins and
all of your people go home or we’ll bury you and your whole pax out there in
the woods.”
Whitman looked
around at the eighty plus men and women surrounding them. He could see fear on
each of his men’s faces. He pointed to the coffins. “Get these things loaded.
Mayor, you saved two of us, but we probably saved your whole pax by stopping
that girl from running around mad the other night so you still owe us a favor.”
Jennet looked
Whitman in the eyes. She could tell he was just trying to save face in front of
his men. “Fine, we owe you a favor, but only one that our Pax Council will
agree to.”
Whitman looked
around at his men. “What are the rest of you waiting for? Go get in your
trucks. We have what we came for. We’re going home.”
Jennet was
lying in bed when the phone rang. “Hello.”
“Hi, honey. My
roommate said you called. Is everything okay?”
“It is now.
Jack Moore, when are you coming home? You have no idea how much I’ve missed
you.”
“I’ll be home
tomorrow night. You sound like you’ve had a rough time. Are you sure
everything’s okay?”
“It will be if you bring home a case of Cabernet Sauvignon
and some new glasses. After the first bottle or two, I’ll tell you all about
it.”
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