The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (23 page)

“
I hope we are able to pull
this together. I do not think Warren will wait too much longer
before he makes his final move. So much is at stake and there are
so many questions that need to be answered.”

“
Just believe in what we
started and trust that our friends will be on board.” I gave her a
wink and a smile. She just rolled her eyes, but I think for the
time being, her stress level started to go down.

“
I am going to call Gregory
right now. The sooner I can talk to him and find out if we can
count on him, the better.” Liz walked in and soon I heard her
talking to someone. I could make out his voice and it seemed
incredibly happy. Hopefully, we could count on him to come and help
us out.

A familiar scent hit me and
soon I was joined on the deck by Reno. “Bailed you out again,
furball! Soon I might have to open a tab for you.”

“
You mean like the one I
opened a few days ago for room and board for you?”

“
That’s why I like you, a
smart jibe for everything. Don’t get too used to all this action,
our jobs are actually pretty boring most days.”

Boring, what was that? “I
think I might be looking forward to some down time. You vampires
pretty much have burnt me out since you’ve been here.”

He put his hands up, “Whoa
there, it’s this Tucker bozo who has you all worked up, not us.
Besides, this is your investigation, not my fault you haven’t
wrapped it up yet.”

“
Hmph, I’ll remember that
when there is glory to go around. It’ll all be mine and poor Reno
can watch from the sidelines.” He followed up with a punch to my
arm.

“
I prefer the sidelines.
Too much attention can get you even more work. Consider that a tip
from your good buddy here.”

He was right; attention
attracted more work and even more attention. Not all of it was from
admirers too. “It’s getting early, don’t you need to go get ready
for bed?”

He looked up towards the
sky, “Before I was a vampire, dawn was my favorite time of
day.”

“
Any reason for
that?”

“
When I was a kid, my
sister and I would wake up before my parents and go outside and
play. We grew up on a farm and as soon as dad was awake, it was off
to work. But the short time right before the sun cracked over the
horizon was our time.”

I didn’t want to interrupt
him. As I sat there, it struck me that most of the vampires that
were turned seemed to carry it almost as a curse. “Do you regret
being turned?”

“
I would’ve died that day
if Lady Swansea hadn’t done what she did. I’ll be forever grateful
for that because I wasn’t ready to leave this life yet. Now, after
all the years, I’m not sure I want to live forever.”

“
A lot of people would kill
for the chance to live forever.”

“
Yeah, it seems like a
great gig, but ask yourself this; when do you stop living and just
start to exist?”

Whoa, that was deep. I had
no answer for what Reno just said and after a moment, he got up and
headed towards his room. I looked down and saw that it was now
getting close to five-thirty and the sun would be up before we all
knew it. Following his lead, I too went into the house.

Liz was still in the
kitchen on the phone and I told her I was off to take a short nap.
She nodded that she heard and within moments I crashed. Sleep came
but it was restless. I woke up two or three times and by nine
o’clock I had given up on trying.

I found myself alone in the
kitchen which was a surprise. Normally, Liz was up doing something,
with the very least coffee made. It didn’t take long to find my
answer; I walked into my living room and found her asleep on the
couch. I poked her once or twice and no reaction. She was good and
out; it was well deserved after our last set of
misadventures.

Taking advantage of the
silence, I went back and fired up the coffee and shot a group
message out to everyone. After a quick overview of what we found at
Tucker’s, I told them to meet me at my house tonight around seven
if they wanted to be part of the task force to end this once and
for all. As morning turned to afternoon, I received all the
confirmations that everyone would be here and ready to do their
part.

I also had time to catch up
on some television, watching the sports channel mostly to see if
Arizona had done anything to improve the ball team this year. Much
to my surprise, we got a power hitting first baseman and a couple
of decent pitchers. I guess my over excitement of the baseball team
was a little loud, as I heard Liz groan.

“
Must you be so loud? I was
just trying to take a quick nap.”

I chuckled for a second and
got an evil look. “A quick nap? It’s almost three in the afternoon.
You’ve been out quite awhile.”

I don’t think she believed
me, but a quick glance at her phone confirmed what I had said. “Why
did you let me sleep so long?”

“
I tried to wake you up a
few times, but you were out cold. But cut to the chase, is Gregory
coming?”

She shook the cobwebs out
and gave me a smile, “Yes, he said he would be on the first
available flight to Albuquerque. With any luck, he will be here as
soon as tonight.”

“
That is good. I have some
news to pass on too.”

“
I already heard, we got
that first baseman from Texas.”

“
No, not that stupid. We
are having guests tonight. I sent out a message with a short
explanation and the wolves are ready to do our part.”

Her face lit up, “Everyone
is on board then?”

“
You can ask them yourself
tonight. You may want to call Cristof and make sure he and Phil are
here.” She grabbed her phone and started texting. With any luck,
tonight was the night we put together our own plan, one to put
Tucker and friends down for good. 

It almost felt like I was
having a dinner party. Mom had brought over a ton of food and next
thing I know, dad was grilling up burgers and hot dogs as well. As
more people showed up, what I figured would have been a pretty
serious time, seemed to actually get more relaxed. It didn’t take
long and everyone who I expected was here; mom and dad, Bernard,
Billy, Chaz, Dr. Tello, Pastor Browne, Mayor Argent and his wife,
Josh Greenfoot and his second in command, Liz, Reno, Phil and
Cristof. According to Bernard, Felix was pretty ticked off about
not being able to come too. Mom had put her foot down and told him
in no uncertain terms was he allowed to take part in any of this
nonsense.

The two faces that were
missing were Sheriff Munoz, who had to go back to Howling Canyon
and file his report, and Talia. Her death still lingered like a bad
taste in my mouth. She would have been a great asset to have and I
hope wherever she was, she knew she was still greatly
missed.

“
Alright everyone, can we
settle down a bit? Believe it or not you aren’t all here to eat,
drink and be merry.”

Someone started booing me
(Bernard) and it didn’t take long for everyone to join in. I swear,
it’s like dealing with high schoolers. And of course Liz was no
help either. She was right there with everyone else. I was actually
surprised when Mayor Argent came to my aid.

“
Okay everyone, we have had
enough fun at Vic’s expense. I feel he is right and that we need to
get down to business.”

“
Thank you, Mayor.” I gave
everyone else the evil eye, but all it did was amuse them further.
“As you all know by my text messages this morning, last night when
Liz and I met with Warren Tucker, and we discovered he had created
some sort of monster army.”

“
But you guys blew that
place sky high right?” Bernard had a love of all things
explosive.

“
Yeah, but a few were able
to escape with the help of his super powered goon. Liz, if you
wouldn’t mind sharing your thoughts about him.”

Liz got out of her chair
and continued on, “Warren called him Fortuna and even though I have
never heard that name before, I can safely guess that he is an
elder vampire.”

You could see the werewolf
side was a bit confused, but the vampires’ look of despair sobered
the mood. Chaz spoke up, “What exactly does that mean?”

“
Myself and Cristof are
considered elder vampires, both of us being over one thousand years
old. The older a vampire gets, the more powerful they potentially
become. This Fortuna was able to easily over power myself and
Victor. My full power was not strong enough to slow him
down.”

“
So we wouldn’t even stand
a chance?”

“
In my opinion Charles,
this vampire would be able to slay this whole community without a
second thought. I also believe he is the one responsible for the
majority of the Cactus Killer murders.”

“
He might be the tool, but
Tucker is the one who wields him.” Even as I said it, something
popped into my mind. “If this vampire is so powerful, why is he
following Tucker so blindly?”

Both Cristof and Liz just
looked at me, like I had just asked how to explain nuclear fusion.
“That is the million dollar question, Vic. None of this makes any
sense to us right now.”

“
I have a question.”
Everyone turned and looked at Billy. “Doesn’t it seem odd that this
is all taking place in a pretty remote part of the
world?”

We all kind of looked at
him for a minute. “What do you mean, Billy?”

“
Think about it Vic, New
Mexico doesn’t exactly have the largest population of vampires and
werewolves. When Tucker upped his game and started picking off more
and more, it was only a matter of time before someone figured it
out. Now if he was in a more heavily populated area, think about
how much longer he could have gone before anyone really put it all
together.”

“
What if we are thinking
about this all wrong; what if this Warren Tucker was not the
mastermind, but the tool? Someone could be pulling the strings and
using him to accomplish their end game.”

Mom didn’t speak often, but
when she did it was usually well thought out. “So what you think is
their target is something or someone here and finding Tucker was
just an added bonus?”

“
Well, it is obvious,
whoever it is wants to kill Liz, c’mon people.”

I’m not sure how long Felix
had been hanging around or where exactly he was hiding, but sure
enough he was right there. It didn’t take mom long to have a
coronary and the next ten minutes were a complete waste as mom
ripped him a new one and eventually grabbed him by the back of the
neck and escorted him home.

“
You know guys; I think
Felix may have a point. Maybe we have been looking too big in all
of this when the answer was right in front of us.”

“
I agree with Billy.” I
turned over and looked at Liz, “On a personal level, do you know
anyone who would want to do this to you?”

Reno started laughing, but
Liz silenced him quickly with that death stare. “Yes, there are
plenty of vampires who do not care for me. The only problem with
that theory is whoever is behind the curtains has the faith of an
incredibly powerful elder. We tend not to fall in line with those
weaker than us.”

“
So on top of everything
else, you think there is another vampire elder pulling Fortuna and
Tucker’s strings? Well there goes my theory that the Hammer of
Jehovah isn’t the real threat.”

“
I think it is time
everyone calmed down.” Dad was standing now and we all brought our
attention to him. “We have one problem in front of us right now.
Until we get rid of that one, it does not matter who the man in the
shadows is.”

Well, that sounded awfully
familiar. I’m pretty sure I used that same logic with Liz the night
Rod and Jonathan called her and told her about the defacing of her
parents’ tomb. How quickly one forgets their own advice is
surprising.

Dad took our silence to
continue on, “We know Tucker is going to want revenge for what Vic
and Elizabeth did and we will all need to be there to help. I, for
one, am tired of fighting on his turf. I think it is time to make
Warren Tucker do the chasing.”

“
That would be wonderful
Callum, but how do you plan to do that?”

Dad’s grin was downright
feral. “Easy Archibald, we have the two people that he is now after
the most. All we have to do is send him the invite and be as
arrogant as possible about it. It’ll be like a fly to
honey.”

“
But once he is here, then
what will the plan entail? As Elizabeth and Victor have already
said, just his hired muscle is enough to take out the town. He also
still has five monsters and three ‘agents’ out there.”

It was my turn, “Cristof,
you’re the most powerful vampire in North America,
correct?”

He shrugged his shoulders,
“I don’t know about powerful, but until recently, I was without a
doubt the oldest one here.”

I pressed on, “Would it be
fair to say if you had a fairly skilled werewolf or two with you,
that maybe you could give this Fortuna a run for his
money?”