The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (4 page)

“
I too have been wondering
if this is an inside job as they say. Some of the other territory
leaders believe me to be paranoid, but you do not stay alive for so
long by not watching your back.”

“
Is there anyone that would
benefit from you biting the big one?”

“
Was that a pun, Vic?” She
smiled wide enough to show off her fangs. Show off, bad puns were
my thing.

“
I do believe it was.” I
chuckled at my own vampire humor. “But in all seriousness, who
would gain the most?”

“
The next in line to take
over for me would, but seeing how it is my brother Jonathan, I
doubt it is him.”

Family is always a touchy
subject, but here goes. “Just to cover all the bases in this
investigation, why do you think he is innocent in this?”

“
He enjoys Europe too much.
He spends three quarters of his time there and if he were to
inherit the southwest, let us just say that it would go to hell
rather quickly.”

She seemed one hundred
percent certain of that. “Fair enough, I just had to ask. That does
bring an interesting point up. Could someone want you gone so he
does take over?”

That one caught her off
guard a bit. She took her time before giving me an answer. “I never
thought of it like that. If Jonathan was in charge, more freedoms
would be had. I have a no tolerance policy on unprovoked attacks on
humans. He would not be around nearly enough to enforce such
measures.”

Good enough reason in my
mind for someone wanting to take her out. Privately, I was hoping
it was one of hers up to this. Still I had a bad feeling nagging me
that this was something worse. I changed the subject and we began
talking baseball again. You never want to go to bed on sour notes,
so after a spirited debate that took two hours about all-time
greats (which, ironically enough for me, she had witnessed all of
them playing while they were alive), we called it a
night.

I found my way to my bed,
only after making sure she was comfortable in one of my spare
bedrooms. I hoped the mayor’s assessment was right and no one would
be stupid enough to take a crack at her while she was here. It
didn’t matter though, between my state of the art alarm system and
my senses I figured we were both safe enough tonight. Still, Roscoe
sat on my dresser loaded and cocked.

It was all for naught
though, nothing happened during the night. I didn’t even know if
she slept, but I woke up around six thirty feeling good. It didn’t
hurt that the smell of eggs and bacon hit me like a ton of bricks
and soon I was back at the table.

“
I assumed there would be
no point in talking about our day before you had your intake of
fried meats, so I took the liberty of cooking them up for
you.”

With as much dignity as one
could muster with a mouthful of food, I muffled my thanks and kept
going. Werewolves like to eat and we do it well. She sat there
drinking her coffee with an amused look the entire time. When I was
finished, it was time for business.

“
Will your people be here
today then?”

“
Yes, but unlike me, they
are not as energetic in the sun and will not be here until later
this evening. It looks like it is just you and me today, sheriff.
Can you appoint me as an honorary deputy or something?”

“
You got the something part
right. Now grab your coffee and let’s go. I think we should take a
drive and meet the good reverend himself.”

“
Hold on there, I cannot go
out like this. Settle your horses, cowboy and give me ten minutes!”
Elizabeth didn’t even give me a chance to respond and rushed out of
the kitchen. I sighed and grabbed a cup of coffee myself. I must
have dozed off because before I knew it she was back in all of her
business attire splendor. Plus, she was as tall as me now, so I
figured she was ready.

“
Now we can go. Hurry up
Vic, time is wasting.” This was going to be painful.

Out in the driveway, I sat
my coffee on top of the car so I could unlock the doors. Nothing
automatic about my car, she was all vintage. As I inserted the key
to unlock the doors, the faint smell of smoke touched my
nose.

“
Elizabeth, get
down!”

I dropped to the ground and
I hoped she did too. A quick glance confirmed this as she curled up
like a ball. A split second later, the sound of a high caliber
rifle filled the air and my coffee cup exploded. I hopped back up
with Roscoe cocked and ready. Tracing the sounds back to the
origin, I saw a figure dressed in black about three hundred yards
away on a side street.

“
Get in the car, quickly! I
got a beat on this guy!”

We both hopped in and the
engine roared to life. I saw neighbors sticking their heads out the
door from the sound of a gunshot, but I didn’t have time to quell
any fears. Pushing the Mustang as fast as she’d go, we were off.
Turning down the side street, I saw the shooter hop into a black
SUV and it took off as well. I saw the outline of two men again.
With the windows down, I could also pick up the scent and it was
the same musky smell from the crime scene. If these boys wanted a
good old fashion car chase, I was about to give it to
them. 

I had Elizabeth call Billy
and brief him on the situation as I was caught up in the moment. It
had been a good long time since I was able to chase a fleeing
suspect and I was enjoying it. The SUV had turned south on the old
auxiliary road into town and I knew exactly where they were going.
At the end of this road was the silver mine that still was in use.
Little known fact about werewolves is that even though we have a
silver allergy, we are pretty good at working with the metal. Some
of the finest silver jewelry you’ve seen probably came from our
town.

“
Just how far does this
little dirt road go, Vic?”

I looked over and my new
partner was clinging for dear life to whatever she could get her
hands on. “Come on, this is the fun part!” She didn’t seem to be
having fun. “This road ends at the silver mine, maybe another two
miles down the road. I plan to catch them before they get
there.”

In front of us was a good
straight stretch that I could use to my advantage. With dirt and
rocks flying all over the place, I was giving Elizabeth the real
deal. All that was missing was some tumbleweed rolling across the
desert.

I pushed down on the
accelerator and made my final push. We were getting close when the
passenger stuck his head out the window and lowered his rifle at my
car. I swerved out of the way at the last minute and the shot
missed, but he succeeded in slowing us down. No matter, I knew
where there were going.

“
On second thought, we are
just going to tail them to the mine. We can get them inside and
corner them.” I didn’t hear a response so I looked over. Her eyes
were closed but she was nodding at me.

We managed to make up some
ground and got to the mine just as they were fleeing the SUV. The
guy with the rifle fired in our direction again, but due to him
trying to run at the same time, missed. I hopped out and got two
shots off and clipped the driver in the leg. Not enough to put him
down, but I slowed him up to a limp as they fled into the mine
opening.

Elizabeth, by this time,
was walking up beside me. “Ugh, look at my shoes! Sheriff, I am
charging your town for my dry cleaning and shoe
polishing!”

“
If we catch this guy now,
I will pay just about any bill you want. One of those asshats
nearly took my head off this morning.”

“
Just how deep is this
mine?”

The old stories told us
that it went almost to the center of the earth. Obviously that was
a load of shit, but I figured it went on for quite a ways. “I’m
sure it goes down pretty far. Did Billy say how long before back up
will be here?”

“
William told me to tell
you it would be twenty to thirty minutes before he and Detective
Jacobs would arrive on scene. What should we do?”

“
I’m not the most patient
of men. Let’s go give the visitors a proper welcome. Are you
onboard with that, Ambassador?”

Her smile scared me. For
the first time since I met her, I saw her fangs in their full glory
and they were blasted Bowie knives. Just as I was about to comment
on it, I noticed that her eyes had turned red too. I figured it was
time to keep the wit to a minimum.

I reloaded Roscoe and put
an extra handful of bullets in my pocket. Every bullet I own is
silver. So it didn’t matter if these bozos were human, werewolf, or
vampire; these bullets would hurt. I gave the signal and we made
our want into the mine as well. I was about to curse myself for not
grabbing a flashlight, when a light shined brightly behind
me.

“
What in blue blazes is
that?” Was she holding up her cell phone?

“
It is a flashlight app.
Someone here has to be prepared.”

Fair enough, so I nodded
and we kept walking. Between the blood and the musky odor, this was
almost too easy to track these guys. They were still moving quite
quickly for one of them being injured, but the two of us were
catching up. Within five minutes I could actually hear them
breathing heavily.

“
They are right up there,
maybe just a few hundred feet in front of us in the mine shaft.” I
tried to whisper, but I also needed her to hear me.

“
What do you suggest we
do?”

“
We should be cautious how
many shots we take, or it might cause the mine to cave in on us. We
need to try and get these guys talking. Maybe disarm them or if we
are lucky they will slip and tell us what’s going on.”

“
I will follow your lead,
Sheriff.”

We kept walking and came to
a large cavern, one of the earlier sites where they excavated the
silver. I could smell both of them clearly now. They were hiding at
the back of the cavern, behind an old mine cart on the makeshift
track.

“
This is Sheriff Victor
Inglewood of the Full Moon Police Department. You have nowhere to
go, so I suggest you surrender without further
violence.”

“
You shall not command us,
daemon! Your kind has no place amongst the righteous!”

Oh great, religious
fanatics. “Listen up, at least one of you is injured and within
five minutes, this entire mine will be surrounded. I am giving you
one last chance to come out peacefully.”

My answer was another rifle
shot. Again, I was able to see the shooter pop out and grabbed
cover before the shot ever got off, but I took that as his
answer.

“
They do not seem to want
to cooperate, Vic. What is plan B?”

I never liked to use lethal
force, but unfortunately this situation didn’t lend me much choice.
“It’s not ideal, but I think we might need to use lethal force. Let
us hope the autopsies can give us some information, because they
aren’t.”

Elizabeth nodded and once
again her eyes went red and her fangs came into full view. I cocked
Roscoe and it was time to make a move. With my gun, I pointed it at
her to go to the left and I would go to the right. If I could get
these two to focus on me, maybe she could incapacitate
them.

I carefully walked down the
cave wall, closer to where these guys were holed up. I only caught
glimpses of shadows, but I had a feeling Elizabeth was much closer
than I. To give her a better chance, I took a shot at their
direction. The shot ricocheted off the cart they were clutching
behind and they scurried to get a better position to shoot at me.
Taking the cue, I got behind a small mass of rocks and prepared
myself for a shootout.

The first rifle shot went
high and I thought it was a mistake until I heard rocks falling
from the ceiling. I dove out of the way but they were able to get
another shot off with a smaller pistol and clipped me in the
shoulder. It didn’t get too deep but it sure did sting. I fired
another shot while the guy was reloading and hit him in the arm. He
went down and the rifle man was about to return fire when my
vampire friend made her move.

It was over quickly. The
shooter with the pistol tried to fire once more but a short quick
scream told me his life was now over. The second goon with the
rifle tried to make a run for it, but I put another bullet in his
leg. He dropped like a sack of potatoes and I walked over to
him.

“
It’s over, so drop the
rifle.”

He dropped the rifle
alright and opened up his vest. This dude was strapped down with so
much TNT; he could put a hole in heaven. “You are right daemon, it
is over!”

I didn’t have time to
think. I put two in him before he had time to activate the bomb. I
was upset that it had come to this, but I took some relief in the
fact that this guy was planning on dying anyway.

“
Are you okay,
Vic?”

“
Yeah, I’m just
disappointed that we couldn’t get either guy out of here alive.” I
looked down one last time and there was a smile on his face. The
air was filled with the musky scent too. This was the guy that
attacked her the other night.

“
So we killed The Cactus
Killer, as your mayor dubbed him?”