Nocturnal (25 page)

Bryan quickly walked to the door, followed Pookie out, and the two all but ran down the stairs.

“Fuck Verde,” Pookie said. “He’ll get my notes, but when I’m damn good and ready to give them up.”

“Doesn’t work that way, Pooks. He’s the lead. Give him your info.”

“Yeah-yeah-yeah,” Pookie said. “He’ll get Hood’s notes, for starters. Of course I’ll give him mine, but I’ll make him say
please
first. That will drive him crazy.”

They reached the ground floor and stopped in the building’s entryway.

Pookie looked at his notepad, read something, then looked at Bryan. “You know that old biddy’s story is nuckingfuts,” he said. “She took the express train to Looney Land.”

Bryan nodded. “Totally crazy.”

Pookie rubbed his chin. Bryan could barely breathe.

Pookie slapped the notepad against his open palm. “I mean, guys scaling down the wall, and back up again? I’m supposed to assume it was … I don’t know … stuntmen in Halloween costumes snatching a kid?”

Pookie stared at the notepad again. Bryan waited, letting his partner work through this. Tiffany’s testimony was close to Bryan’s dreams, too close for coincidence. After her description, if Pookie
still
didn’t believe, he probably never would.

“Pooks, she used the words
snake-face
. I didn’t prompt her — you know that, right?”

Pookie nodded, slowly. “Yeah. Kind of specific. Not the same thing as saying
it was a black guy
.”

Bryan needed Pookie to believe him, believe
in
him. If Pookie did not, Bryan would truly be in this all alone.

Pookie sighed, smiled, looked to the ceiling. “I’ve got the testimony of a senile old woman who was probably tripping on acid, who saw something for three seconds, and I’ve got your dreams. I’d have to be an idiot to believe you.”

“She’s not senile,” Bryan said. “And I didn’t see any Deadhead stickers in there.”

Pookie took a deep breath and let it out in a cheek-puffing huff. “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Maybe I need to take the short bus to work, but I believe you. This doesn’t mean it’s a guy with an actual face of a snake, Bri-Bri. These are dudes in costumes. I can’t explain your dreams, but the scaling the building thing? It was late at night, Tiffany could have missed cables, ropes, your general circus paraphernalia.”

Bryan nodded, but he knew there hadn’t been ropes. And he knew there hadn’t been costumes. That didn’t matter — what mattered was that Pookie believed he wasn’t crazy. For now, that was enough.

Pookie’s cell phone buzzed. He checked the caller ID, then answered.

“Black Mister Burns,” he said. “Why are you calling me at five-thirty in the morning?”

Bryan waited as Pookie listened.

“Yeah, almost done here,” Pookie said. “No, just tell me. For real? Sure, no problem. Know where Pinecrest Diner is? No, genius, the diner is closed and I want to hang out by its front door like a skater kid. Of course they’re open. Fine. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

He hung up.

“What’s happening?” Bryan asked. “He figure something out with those symbols?”

Pookie held up a
just wait a second
finger as he dialed another number with his thumb. He smiled as he waited for the other end to pick up.

“Hi, it’s Pookie,” he said, then paused to listen. “Oh please, you were
probably about to get up anyway. Listen, Bryan wanted me to call. He’s on his way over for breakfast.”

“Hey,” Bryan said. “Don’t promise someone that—”

“Twenty minutes? Great. He’s looking forward to it. Bye-bye.”

Pookie folded the phone and slid it back into his pocket. “Black Mister Burns has something he wants to share. He doesn’t feel good broadcasting it over the police radio.”

“Cool, let’s go.”

Pookie shook his head. “Nope, just me. You need to chill out for a bit and get a bite to eat.”

“Pooks, I’m not in the mood for breakfast. I still feel like I got hit by a steamroller, and you think I can
chill
after all this?”

Pookie shrugged. “Whether you can or you can’t doesn’t matter. Mike Clauser sounded excited. He’s probably already cooking the kielbasa.”

Bryan’s teeth clenched tight. Sometimes Pookie thought he knew better than anyone else. “You told my dad I was coming over for fucking breakfast?”

Pookie shrugged. “You need a break, man. I know you didn’t do these things, okay? I know it. You need to
stop thinking
about all this for a couple of hours. You need to unplug for a bit. Go or stay, but you know how fired up Mike gets.”

Bryan’s father would already be excited to have his son drop by for a visit. If Bryan didn’t go, Mike Clauser would be crushed.

“Hey, Pooks,” Bryan said. “You suck cock.”

Pookie smiled. “All I can get.”

They heard three sets of heavy footsteps on the stairs a few flights up.

“Polyester returns,” Pookie said. “Seriously, man, just go hang with your pops for a bit. I’m off. Catch a cab.”

Pookie walked quickly out of the building and headed for his car.

Bryan thought about chasing him, trying to go with him, but Pookie was right — Mike Clauser would already be cooking the only dish he knew how to make.

“Asshole,” Bryan said once more, then walked out of the building.

T
he sound of rattling machinery and chains dragging across stone brought Aggie out of a cold sleep. He had to
move —
he fought nausea and disorientation as he crawled toward the white wall. He didn’t make it in time before the chain drew tight, yanking on his neck and dragging him across the floor. He got his feet under him just in time to stand and turn his back to the flange.

The collar clanged home.

The white door opened, and this time it wasn’t the little old babushka lady.

Five white-hooded, white-robed monster-men came through. The last two carried a long pole, from which hung an unconscious man tied to it by his wrists and ankles. He looked like one of those old guys from Chinatown — sun-wrinkled face, black hair flecked with strands of gray, red flannel shirt over a faded Super Bowl XXI shirt, blue jeans and well-worn brown work boots.

Like Aggie and the Mexicans, the man had a metal collar around his neck.

Aggie stared at the monster-men. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. He’d been high as fuck last time. He wasn’t high now.

Those weren’t monster faces … they were rubber Halloween masks. A pig and a wolf, like before, but now he saw the goblin was one of those green-faced things that guarded Jabba the Hut in
Return of the Jedi
. There was also a Hellboy with the red skin and stubby horns, and a white-faced, black-whiskered Hello Kitty.

The robed men wasted no time. Hellboy had that remote-control thing and used it to get some slack from a chain to Aggie’s right. Pig-Face and Hello Kitty untied the man’s wrists, hooked the chain to the man’s collar, then left him lying on the floor.

He lay there, unmoving.

The masked men turned and walked toward the Mexican couple, who had been pulled to their respective places along the wall.

“Devuélvame a mi hijo,” said the Mexican man, his tone a plea thick with despair. “A Dios le pido!”

The robed men said nothing. Their monster masks showed no emotion. They ignored the Mexican man.

Instead, they closed in on his wife.

Five sets of black-gloved hands reached for her, grabbing at arms and feet. She screamed.

“No!”
the man shouted. “Déjenla en paz!”

She tried to fight, but she had no chance.

 … His wife … Aggie remembered his own wife … remembered the gunshot … the blood
 …

The Mexican man’s voice betrayed shredding vocal cords. “Chinga a tu madre!” Spit flew from his mouth. His eyes blazed wide with murderous insanity. “Le mataré!
Le mataré!
”

Hellboy hit a button on the remote control. The woman’s chain went slack, just as it had with her son. The masked men dragged her to the ground, her body half hidden by their white robes.

Aggie stood there, helpless. He couldn’t help her. All he could do was draw attention to himself, and if he did they might take him instead. He stood as still as he could.

The Mexican man’s fingers clawed at his collar. He pulled, tried to slide his fingers inside the metal and leather. He lurched forward, choking himself. His eyes bulged from rage, from a lack of oxygen.

The woman’s bloodied hand shot up through the pile of white robes, clawing at air, reaching for her man.

“Hector!”

The Mexican man —
Hector —
could not help her.

Hellboy pocketed the remote control. He picked up the wooden pole, then stuck the end of it into the pile of wiggling bodies and hooked the woman’s collar. Like a trained work crew, the masked men quickly grabbed the pole and dragged her across the floor.

Hector shouted a stuttering something that wasn’t a word in any language. He lurched again and again, trying to pull at a collar that would not give. Threads of blood flew from his screaming mouth. Every vein on his face stood out in bas-relief. His wet lips pulled back in a sneer of helpless anguish.

The white-robed men walked out of the jail-cell door, dragging the woman out of sight.

The cage door shut. The chains went slack.

Chest heaving, a nonsensical roar rolling from his mouth, Hector ran forward at full speed. He made it ten steps, just past the shit hole, before the chain snapped taut with an accompanying ring of metal. His feet shot out from under him and he landed hard on his left side.

Hector didn’t try to get up. He started to cry.

The woman’s screams echoed, steadily growing fainter, fainter, until they faded away for good.

Aggie slowly shook his head from side to side. This couldn’t be happening.
Couldn’t be
. But it was, and he was stone-cold sober.

This was real.

He was fucked. Totally fucked.

P
ookie and Bryan usually worked the wee hours of the morning, when most restaurants had closed for the night. Pinecrest Diner was open twenty-four hours a day. The place had become their go-to spot when they needed to sit and talk through a case. Pinecrest was a little touristy during the day, but at two or three in the morning you could avoid the dozen people wearing
I ♥ SAN FRANCISCO
or
ALCATRAZ PSYCHO WARD OUTPATIENT
shirts.

Pookie hoped Black Mr. Burns had good info. They needed a break in this case something awful. Ball-Puller Boyd hadn’t been able to track down Alex Panos or Issac Moses — both were still missing. Those boys were either already dead, their bodies waiting to be found, or they were in hiding. Pookie guessed the latter.

And Bryan … a couple of hours of downtime with his old man would do wonders. Mike Clauser had a way of making you forget about everything but Mike Clauser. Bottom line: Bryan hadn’t killed those boys. Now that Pookie believed in his partner’s innocence, he needed Bryan to stop moping and get back on his A-game.

Pookie walked into the diner and saw Black Mr. Burns sitting at a booth, a tablet computer in front of him. John’s shoulders were up, his head was down — even coming to a public place like this was hard for him. Once upon a time John Smith had been a standout cop. Now he was afraid of his own shadow, and that was a genuine tragedy. The man had unwittingly provided his own comic relief, though: he wore a dark-purple motorcycle jacket.

A few other patrons were in the place. Three working-class guys sat in a booth, getting a carb-loaded head start on the day. A trio of hipsters sat on the diner’s round stools, leaning on the black stone counter. The latest trendy after-hours spot — that you probably haven’t heard about, because it’s so obscure — must have finally shut down, and these fellas wanted to finish off the night with a stack of pancakes.

Pookie slid into the seat across from his old partner. “What’s up, Purple Rain?”

“Huh?”

“The jacket,” Pookie said. “You rode your hog here and you’re wearing purple? Hello?”

John sighed. “So a black man in a purple jacket
has
to look like Prince?”

Pookie nodded. “Exactly. How’s Apollonia and those crazy kids in the New Power Generation?”

“Your minority-on-minority hate is a sad thing,” John said. “You’re letting the white man pull your strings. Listen, I have some serious business to talk about. I found some odd stuff.”

“Odd
stuff
? You know, you can swear around me. I’m not going to tell the teacher.”

“I’m family friendly.”

“Some things never change. So what couldn’t you tell me over the phone? I have to admit, in fifteen years of police work, this is the first time someone has called me for a sneaky-spy meeting. Except for your mom, of course.”

“Yeah, she told me about that,” John said. “She said you had a small penis.”

Pookie shook his head. John tried to partake in witty repartee, but the guy was just such a flaming nerd. “Try it with a little more slang next time, BMB. You can’t put humor on a spreadsheet.”

John shrugged. “Yeah, well, whatever. I got the info on that New York City case. Not much there. The killer targeted women in their twenties. He got four that they know of. Maybe more, because he targeted working girls, usually ones that operated solo. That triangle-circle symbol was at each crime scene. Seems he liked to eat their fingers.”

“Delightful,” Pookie said. “What was his name?”

“They never found out who he was,” John said. “Media called him the Ladyfinger Killer.”

“Cute.”

“Very. Anyway, when they found the fourth body, they also found the killer. He was just as dead as his victim.”

“How did he die?”

“Asphyxiated.
His
fingers had been cut off, and he choked on them.”

Poetic justice. “So we have the symbols clearly associated with a serial killer in New York. Anywhere else?”

“That’s it,” John said. “No other cases before or since. Now, here’s the sneaky-spy part.” He leaned closer. “Remember how I told you it looked like the files that included those symbols had been accidentally erased from the SFPD system?”