The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (3 page)

“
Vic, I’m so sorry to wake
you!” It was Billy. “But you need to get down to the hospital
quick. The lady vampire who was here to see you today has been
attacked and is in critical condition!”

Wasting no time, I told
Billy I’d see him soon. I got dressed and grabbed my gun. I had a
bad feeling about this. It was a quick drive through town to the
hospital. I flashed my badge and one of the nurses led me to the
room. Elizabeth was a mess, but she was still alive.

“
Billy, is she
responsive?”

“
Barely, she lost a lot of
blood, but so far she has reacted poorly to any werewolf blood
transfusion. I think she needs to feed on a human!” He whispered
that last part like it was some taboo subject.

“
Doctor, can you wake her?”
He shook his head yes and I turned to Billy. “We can’t let her die,
no way no how. Go down to the station and inform the mayor and DA
of the situation. I will stay here and oversee the
operation.”

With Billy gone and
Elizabeth finally coming to, I also asked the doctor to leave. He
started to protest but I told him I had a plan and it wasn’t going
to be pretty. It dawned on him what I was planning to do and he
said he would be right outside should I need immediate
attention.

“
Elizabeth, are you
there?”

“
Vic…” She started coughing
up more blood.

“
Don’t talk okay? Just do
what I say. I’m going to put my arm down and I need you to take
what you can. You aren’t dying on my watch.”

Before she had time to say
no, I put my forearm in front of her mouth. Instincts must have
taken over and her fangs latched on. I wish I could say it didn’t
hurt and I took it like a man, but it hurt like hell. The only good
thing is I wasn’t conscious very long. After a few minutes, I too
must have lost enough blood and blacked out. 

The sun came glaring in and
it woke me up. As my eyes came into focus, I noticed I was in a
hospital bed hooked up to an IV. Sitting in the corner asleep were
my parents and younger brother Felix. Dad must have heard me
rustle, as he started to sit up. Soon the entire family was
coherent.

“
Son, you saved that
vampire lady. You’re a bloody idiot, but you did your job and
well.”

Before I could even
respond, Felix wanted to know all the gory details. At sixteen
years old, the gore and blood fascinated him. I did my best to give
him the PG version for mom’s sake, but we were soon interrupted by
Mayor Argent.

“
Callum, Moria, a pleasure
as always. Might I trouble all of you for a word with
Victor?”

“
Of course mayor, we were
going to go grab something to eat. Victor, we will see you this
afternoon.”

When they left, Argent
pulled a chair up to the bed. “The situation has gone from
concerning to serious overnight. Whoever is attacking vampires just
attacked a territory ambassador in a werewolf community. Thank God
she survived or we would be up the creek bad. Vic, whoever this is
needs to be put down no matter the cost. As soon as you get out of
here, Operation Cactus Killer goes into effect.”

I did my best not to roll
my eyes at his ridiculous code name for the serial killer and
instead told the mayor I would start as soon as possible. He told
me to heal up and went to get all the information possible on last
night’s attack. He said it would be on my desk as soon as he had
it. My stay in the hospital was uneventful and Doctor Higgins
released me around noon. I sent a text to my family and Billy
telling them I was heading home. When I got to my Mustang though, I
was in for a surprise.

“
There is no way you can be
healed that quickly.” Elizabeth looked like nothing had happened to
her. I remember very vividly her condition last night; she was
covered in cuts and bruises.

“
What you did for me was
unexpected and will never be forgotten. I am not sure why your
blood worked, but it accelerated my already fast healing
process.”

“
You are a guest in my
town; saving your life was never a question. The fact that it was
required is a problem. It seems that maybe your friend has tracked
you here.”

“
I am not sure how this
person found me, but they did not finish the job last night.
Something tells me they will not stop until they do.”

She was right. Once a
serial killer chooses their target, they generally don’t stop until
they are successful. “Right now we need to get you down to the
office for a statement. Plus, we need to get a safe house set up.
This operation is now going to take place in Full Moon and until we
get this guy, you are under my protective custody.”

I took out my cell phone
and gave Billy a call. I told him to get Jacobs in and that I would
be down to the station soon with the victim from last night’s
attack. I knew he wanted more information, but I told him to wait,
there was more going on than I felt comfortable sharing on the
phone. After I finished the call, I tossed Elizabeth my
phone.

“
I’m sure you have people
to get a hold of too. Use my phone until we get your stuff back
okay?”

“
Thank you, once again you
are on top of matters. My faith in you was well placed I
see.”

I sure hoped it was. We got
into my car and the entire drive down she was letting different
people know what was going on. When she asked me if I had
international calling, I nearly choked but she promised to pay back
any bills incurred. I knew for a fact my phone never dialed an area
code outside the state, let alone country.

“
Everyone of importance
knows what is going on. If it is okay with you sheriff, I have
asked for two of my top men to come in and assist you. Consider
them field agents to be used at your disposal.”

“
If they can help us, I
have no problem with that. Now when we get to the station, just
give your official statement to Billy and we can go from
there.”

“
Should I inform them I was
at your house last evening?”

That would get me some
looks but, we could not start this investigation off with any lies.
“Tell them everything. What I do on my time is none of their
business.”

When we got to the station
everyone was there. I sent Elizabeth into our conference room with
Billy to give her statement. As she started her story with leaving
my back deck, I got all sorts of looks from the mayor, DA, and
Talia, but I told them to knock it off. My personal life was not
going to catch a killer.

After leaving, Elizabeth
was on her way back to where she was staying which turned out to be
the White Fang Motel on the edge of town. It gets some travelers
here and there, but it is far enough away from town that no one
ever wonders in.

It was the dark patch of
road between the city limits and the motel where the attack
happened. She was hit by a car and knocked down into the ditch. Her
attacker then got out and started slicing her up, trying to bleed
her out. The only good thing is he did not know how old a vampire
she was. Elizabeth was able to collect herself just long enough to
punch him in the side and break a few ribs. The attacker relented
but not before dropping the cactus branch that Billy found at the
scene. As the first responder on the scene, it was just luck he was
driving out there at that time.

“
So Vic, what do you think
we are dealing with here? Do you really think a human could be
capable of pulling this off?”

“
That I don’t know, mayor.
We could be dealing with a very well organized one that has known
about the community for a while now or maybe we need to consider
this is an internal vampire problem. Either way, they are in Full
Moon now and they aren’t leaving. Not until she is dead
anyway.”

“
I don’t like it, not at
all. Either option is not desirable but at least if it is a rogue
vampire, we don’t have to worry about further
discovery.”

“
Let’s not worry about what
could happen. I’m going to head out to the crime scene and take a
look, see if I can pick up anything. While I do that, can you set
up a safe house for our vampire friend?”

“
Of course, I actually
think I have a good place in mind.” He kind of stared off into
space for a second before coming back down. “Once you give the
scene a good look over, give me a call. You’re the best at this
Vic, don’t forget that. Our perp doesn’t know what he is messing
with.”

The mayor and I shook hands
and we were both off. Billy said he would keep an eye on Elizabeth
until the mayor got her set up. I hopped into my car and was off to
the crime scene. It didn’t take too long to get there, and once out
of the car I walked the scene.

You could see the tire
marks where the car hit its brakes after initial contact. Dried
blood was everywhere as well. The amount of blood she must’ve lost
was incredible. Now that I was here, I closed my eyes and took in
the scene through my other senses. Once I was able to get passed
the smell of blood, I noticed a few things. The strongest was the
smell of garlic, which I thought was a bit odd. Also, lingering was
gas, some sort of scented oil, and burning rubber from the
tires.

I followed the smell of
garlic over into the grass where the majority of the attack
happened. Once in the grass and off the road, I picked up the musky
scent that would have belonged to the attacker. I took a detour and
followed that for a ways until I came back to the road, about a
mile from the scene. It seemed two people were in on this, a driver
as well as the attacker.

Just as I was getting ready
to head back, something caught my eye a bit further back. It looked
like someone threw something back off the road. I walked over and
lying on the ground was the last thing I would’ve guessed to see
here. Our first clue in this whole investigation was a well worn
King James Bible. I opened it up, and sure enough there was a name
and even a church listed. It seemed I would be heading up to
Elephant Butte and paying Rev. Warren Tucker of Holy Methodist a
visit. 

“
You did what, Mayor
Argent?” It took all my self-restraint not to tell this man
off.

“
Calm down Vic, it is only
temporary. Besides, you are the one who said it needed to be the
safest place in Full Moon. No one would be stupid enough to try and
murder someone in the sheriff’s own home.”

You got it; the mayor’s
idea of a safe house was my house. “Where is the ambassador right
now?”

He was trying not to laugh.
“Your mother picked her up from the station. She was taking her
over to your house to get her settled.”

“
Thank you for that lovely
surprise, mayor. I will email you the report with everything we
went over from the crime scene tonight.”

He was now laughing at my
displeasure as I hung up. I was driving home and could only imagine
what awaited me there. My mom, the Alpha female, and a thousand
year old vampire were in my house doing who knows what to my stuff.
Argent would get his one day; I would make sure of that.

I made good time and when I
arrived at my house, I didn’t see my mom’s car in the driveway. I
assumed she wanted to get out of Dodge before I got home. I quickly
sent her a snarky text and got out of my car. I grabbed all the
samples of evidence from the crime scene and came in to find dinner
was already made. I was too taken aback to start
complaining.

“
Your brother, Felix told
me the best way to get on your good side was to make sure I had
lots of fresh meat cooked up. I hope you like hot dogs and
something called tater tots. It was all I could find.”

“
Well you certainly know
how to diffuse a situation.” I couldn’t help but laugh; I loved hot
dogs and tater tots. “Let’s not let all this food go to waste. We
can talk about what I found after dinner.”

I literally wolfed (bad pun
intended) down four hot dogs and the entire tray of tater tots.
Elizabeth politely declined any food, saying she needed to stay on
a liquid diet to keep her figure. I shrugged my shoulders and
continued to eat away. After gorging myself and getting us two
beers, I went over what I found.

“
I found a Bible tossed off
to the side, belong to a Rev. Warren Tucker from Elephant Butte.
Does the name mean anything to you?”

“
Sorry Vic, I have known
many people in my life, but I can safely say I do not know a Pastor
by that name.”

I figured she wouldn’t, but
it was worth a shot. Hopefully, once we met Rev. Tucker he could
shed some light on the situation and give us a lead we could
follow.

“
There were quite a few odd
scents at the scene too. The two strongest were garlic and
gasoline. I can’t make heads or tails of that odd combination. Does
either of those make sense to you?”

“
Both actually make some
sense. In human folklore, the smell of garlic is supposed to ward
off vampires and, of course, burning us ends our lives.”

Of course, the gasoline was
going to be used to burn her. I should’ve picked up on that, but
the garlic superstition was new to me. “I’m going to shoot it
straight with you. I have two theories and neither is good. We
either have a deranged human who discovered our little secret
society or a vampire is hitting off their own and covering it up to
make it look like a human.”