The Blood Eagle in the Big Easy (16 page)

It wasn’t worth the effort or the breath it would have taken to even try to point out that they had the wrong guy. If George was still around he would make short work of whoever found him and they too would wind up broken heaps of flesh like the security guard.

Two of NOPD’s less than finest tossed me in an interrogation room, which was small, dimly lit and filthy. A large puddle of urine pooled in the furthest corner near the observation window causing me to cough at the stench. “Hold out your wrists!” The officer bellowed and, in the hopes that the man was about to remove my shackles I cooperated. He must have been counting on my line of thought as he gave me a wicked grin before yanking me forward to secure me to the metal ring on the table. “Comfortable?” His dark smile grew  and before I could answer his question he yanked my wrists again. “I asked if you were comfortable!”

“Lawyer.” Why did I always have to wind up with the tough guy with the little dick? They always seemed to have something to prove. Looking up at him I gave him one of my patented fuck you smiles. The cuffs were a notch too tight and being yanked around like an abused dog didn’t make me happy but I wasn’t about to give this sack of shit the pleasure of knowing it.

The officer walked around the table stopping a couple of steps away. “You murdered that man this morning.” Like he cared. He was just looking for someone to beat on without any repercussions. He pulled his fist back in a slow dramatic fashion to let me know what he was about to do hoping to have me beg for mercy. When he didn’t get it he swung hard catching me in the jaw. He couldn’t hit worth a damn as it barely moved my head. The sound of one of his fingers breaking on impact brought a smile to my face as he grunted and cursed. “God damn it!” He howled as he jumped back holding his hand. “What do you have in there, a steel plate?”

Letting my smile spread across my face I gave the little bastard a wink for good measure.  “Lawyer.”

“Fuck you!” He growled as he strode by, kicking my chair as he passed and glaring at me the entire way. He finally slammed the door behind him leaving me blissfully alone.

I thought that went well all things considered. Using my shields to break the lock in the cuffs I could finally sit here in at least semi comfort. I didn’t bother getting up or even try remove the broken shackles as there was no need to antagonize the NOPD anymore than necessary. The call I placed earlier was to the company attorney asking him to pull whatever strings he needed to collect all the surveillance between Creepy George’s place and the Beauregard Keyes House. After that he would need to contact Gregory and let him know what was happening to see if we couldn’t expedite my release.

Keeping an eye on the clock on the wall I watched as the hours passed, falling asleep somewhere around ten in the morning. The turning of the lock in the door brought me out of my slumber about two thirty in the afternoon. My lawyer, Henry, strolled through the open door with the precinct captain in tow. Henry stood just over five feet tall, with a stocky build to compensate for his stature. His shiny bald head gleamed even in the dim lighting of the room, his face was cleanly shaven not needing a beard to accentuate his angular features. His steel gray eyes swept the room thoroughly appraising the situation. “Captain, I believe Mr. Warden has been detained long enough.”

The captain nearly tripped over himself when he tried to walk around Henry without bumping into him. “Mr. Warden, I would like to apologize on behalf of the NOPD for any inconvenience we may have caused you today.” He fumbled at his keyring as he looked for the proper key.

Pulling my hands free of the broken shackles I decided to save the poor guy the trouble. Looking over at Henry who gave me the slightest nod. “I take it you were able to prove my innocence.”

Henry chuckled. “Innocence is a stretch don’t you think?” He pulled out a notepad and thumbed through it. “The NOPD has graciously agreed not to press charges against you for disturbing the peace.” Henry looked at the captain shaking his head. “Really? You were going to go with disturbing the peace with the plethora of other charges?” He laughed as he continued thumbing through his notes. “Breaking and entering, destruction of public property, unlawful discharge of a firearm.” Henry looked over at the captain who seemed to visibly shrink. “Since when is self defense unlawful?” The captain started to open his mouth when Henry waved him off. “The list goes on and on like this so you kind of see my point.”

“Don’t I pay you well enough?” Rubbing my wrists from where the cuffs had dug in earlier felt good, like finally getting to that itch you hadn’t been able to scratch. “I thought I was your favorite client.”

Henry pocketed his notepad and gave me a grave look. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Henry was exceptionally good at his job and perhaps more than a little terrifying. The one thing missing from his repertoire was a sense of humor. “Never mind.” I laughed taking a step toward the door as I gave the captain a nasty little smirk. “I am free to go, right?”

“Oh yes sir everythings been taken care of” the captain stammered.

Henry and I walked through the corridors and out the front door where Gregory was waiting for me, leaning against a light post. “Well Mr. Warden this is where I shall leave you” as Henry stuck out his hand. “Mr. Aaron has asked to speak with you and has offered to drive you home.”

Shaking his hand Henry gave me the briefest of smiles. “Thanks Henry, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I suspect you would spend many a year behind bars sir.” Henry waved as he crossed the street.

As I said before Henry didn’t exactly have a sense of humor so the thought of prison time pretty much depressed me. But that was neither here nor there as Gregory made his way over to me with a look of both amusement and concern written across his face. “How did they treat you?”

“The NOPD always has the finest accommodations.” I looked at his face trying to discern what kind of mood he was in. “How was your day?”

Something about the question brought a big smile to his face. “Pretty good actually! I got to watch a lot of very entertaining video.” Gregory’s eyes sparkled as he spoke. He was enjoying this far too much. “Did you know that you flailed through the air before you bounced off the pavement?”

“Glad I could amuse you.” Turning to follow him down the street I clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to make him take a couple of quick steps to keep his balance. “Did you learn anything of any importance?” I inquired.

“Like you getting thrown around like a rag doll or the fact you really can take a punch?” His amusement suddenly faded away as if someone had hit an off switch as he stopped to face me once more. “The poor guy inside the Beauregard Keyes House didn’t stand a chance.” Gregory choked back the nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. “He didn’t even slow down when the guard fired. He just slammed into him with such force it broke nearly every bone in the man’s body.”

The good news had been that the guard hadn’t suffered. “Sorry about that.” Anger crept through my soul as I thought about how cheap Creepy George valued the lives of others. “He will answer for all of his crimes as soon as we get our hands on him.”

Gregory turned and walked further down the street in silence. “So it’s back to ‘we’ is it?”

“More like a figure of speech” I hoped that Gregory realized how dangerous George was. Going after him with the SOG or any standard law enforcement would end in more deaths. “This man is too dangerous to be brought in by the normal authorities, and he’s too dangerous to go into the formal justice system.” What can I say? I’d hoped this conversation could have waited until Gregory was acclimated to the way things were done here but from the dark expression on his face I knew it wasn’t possible. “You obviously saw what he did when he encountered that guard. Just what do you think would have changed if you or your men were along for the ride other than more deaths?” Not waiting for the sting to wear off I pressed on. “Creepy George is basically in my weight class and look how well that worked out for me. Would you have preferred that to be one of your men on the autopsy table today?”

Gregory sadly shook his head. “No, not at all.” He sighed as he pulled his keys out clicking the button to unlock the SUV. “I’ve been the one everyone turns too when they need help.” He turned and leaned against the front wheelwell as he trembled. “I’m scared, I’ve never been this close to whatever this is.”

I propped myself against the car next to him as he spoke. “You should have died last night.” He looked at me with suspicion in his eyes. “You bounced off the street for god’s sake!”

“I’m sure I did.” Opening the passengers side door I gestured for him to get in so we could get whatever this was on the road. “It’s a long story that I suppose is overdue.”

He climbed in after me and started the car before giving me a worried look. “How bad is this going to get?”

“Depends on how much you really want to know.” Gregory was due for some truth but I wanted to give him a chance to slowly step into the pool before he drowned by suddenly jumping into the deep end. “Before you say you want to know everything, you really might want to try and take it in small chunks.”

“How about we start with how you survived last night?” Gregory kept his eyes on the traffic trying to act casual even as excitement built in his voice. “You were thrown through a window and took a huge chunk of wrought iron railing with you when as you went... and you bounced!”

“Oh for heavens sake!” After thinking about it I must have looked pretty amusing as I skipped across the asphalts surface. “I assure you it was much less amusing last night!” I relaxed into my seat trying to figure out where to start. Finally I decided on my course of action as I took a deep breath. “I suppose we should start with a few basics.”

“Sure, talk down to me, that’s really going to win me over!” Gregory snarked. “Kidding... Please continue.”

“First thing you need to accept is that there are things that we just don’t understand.” I gestured at the world around us. “Some people call it magic, I call it science.”

Gregory slammed on his breaks as he nearly rear ended the car in front of us. “So you’re telling me magic is real?” He pulled off the road and into a nearby parking lot. “So you survived last night due to magic? That’s what you’re going to tell me?”

Taking a deep breath as I waited for him to run out of steam I shook my head slowly. This is why I prefer to wait and let things sink in slowly. No one ever takes it well in big chunks. “Hold on... As I was saying I call it a science, and in this particular case you can think of it as a personal force shield...”

“Like in the story Dune?” Gregory demanded as he opened the door and stepped out needing room to think.

Wrapping my shields around me as opened my door I met him at the front of the truck. Catching sight of a broken two by four laying in a garbage heap from some half completed renovation project I motioned for him to pick it up. “Pick that up and swing it at me.”

He marched over, snatching it up before turning back to me in a fury. “Don’t tempt me after the day I’ve had.”

The thing about being around for as many centuries as I have is you get tired of all the indignation thrown your way. Gregory however was a special case and I tried to keep calm and explain it to him. “Look, this is easier with a show and tell scenario, so just swing the toothpick at me already.”

He stood there working up the courage to take a swing. Taking a running start he drew back for all he was worth and swung it hard at my head. Lifting my forearm I blocked the blow that was meant to cave in my skull, snapping it in two. Quickly grabbing him by his shirt I easily lifted him off the ground. “See, it wasn’t all that hard to do was it?” Smirking as I let his feet touch the ground once more he stumbled back and almost fell over in surprise.

Gregory’s mouth was agape as he inspected my arm expecting to find abrasions at the very least. “How?”

Now that was the million dollar question and one I barely understood myself. “To be perfectly honest it’s sort of a mystery to me as well.” Leaning against the grill of the truck I shrugged. “It protects me from most things, including bullets before you ask” as I waved off this obvious question. “They don’t stay up forever and they weaken over time depending on how much damage they take.”

“So if I were to hit you with my car you would just stand there?” Gregory asked mystified.

The thought of that made me laugh pretty hard. “First off, I would run like hell to get out of the way.” Pushing myself off the truck I walked off a few feet, lost in thought, trying to find the right words to explain all of this to him properly. “I don’t weigh more than anyone else so if you were to hit me with the car, I might not break any bones but I would certainly be thrown from the impact.”

“So superman you’re not!” Gregory chuckled. “Closer than most of us though I suppose.”

“Anything else you want to know?” Watching Gregory try to wrap his mind around what he had just learned, I was reminded just how resilient most people are.

Gregory shook his head. “I think that’s about all I can handle right now.” He looked at me and smiled. “Thanks for trusting me.” He gestured for me to get back in the car. “We should talk about George.”

“I suppose we should.” I climbed back in as he started the SUV. “What do you know so far?”