The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (9 page)

“
You’ve given me a lot to
think about, Pastor Browne. Do you know where he went? Obviously,
you took over so there must have been some falling out?”

“
I’d been retired for three
years and living up in Santa Fe when I got a phone call from an old
friend saying this church was in need of a steady hand. I asked
what was going on and he said I would see when I got
here.”

“
Take your time sir, we’ve
got nothing but time.”

“
When I got down here,
Warren was gone. His office was still filled with all of his stuff,
but he was nowhere to be found. I wish I knew more to tell you.
Even the congregation is at a loss here. One rumor, and I’m not
sure if it’ll even help, is that there’s a reason the basement to
this church has been locked up for years.”

“
Rumors can just be that,
Pastor. Do you think it’s anything worth looking into?”

“
Take it with a grain of
salt, but some of the elders swear they heard ghosts down
there.”

I didn’t mean to but I
laughed a little. “Did you just say ghosts?”

“
I know I know, it sounds
ridiculous but they swear they have heard strange sounds coming
from down there. I don’t have a key to open it to investigate, but
if you want to try and open it, be my guest.”

With that invitation
extended, I stood up and Elizabeth followed my lead. “I thank you
for your time, Pastor. We will take you up on that offer and poke
around.”

He extended his hand and we
shook. “I truly hope you do not find anything. To do so would be a
blight on this church.”

We let ourselves out of his
office after Pastor Browne pointed us in the right direction. Once
we were out of earshot, I felt comfortable enough to talk. “It
seems we found our man. I glanced at the dates in his journal. The
timeline matches with your first murder.”

“
Yes, I think you are
correct. My problem is how he found out in the first
place.”

“
Well, maybe the ghosts
downstairs can enlighten us.”

We walked outside and found
the basement door on the backside of the church, right before the
entrance to the cemetery. It was a big wooden door with an old
style lock on it. It looked like it hadn’t been used in
years.

“
A door this thick would
definitely keep people out. Would you like the honors
ma’am?”

“
I told you knock it out
with the ma’am nonsense.” That didn’t stop her from gabbing the
door and one good pull later, it was wide open. As soon as it
opened, I was blasted with the same musky smell that had been at
every scene. Elizabeth picked up on it right away too.

I glared into the darkness.
“Let’s go tell Lawrence it’s going to be awhile. I think we are in
the right place.” 

The farther down we went,
the more concerned I became. Not long after walking in, we found a
staircase that led further down and it seemed to go on forever.
Elizabeth had a Zippo and I was currently holding it high so we
could see where we were going. I heard no other sounds besides us
and the musky scent was becoming worse.

“
How many more steps do we
have to go down? These heels are killing my feet.”

“
On our next investigation,
might I suggest some more appropriate attire?”

“
How about on our next
investigation, I just send you down with a radio and you can relay
what you find?”

Thankfully the stairs ended
not too much later so I didn’t have to endure anymore complaining.
At the bottom landing we came to a door that was much more modern.
Some dust had collected on the keypad, but this was certainly a new
edition to the original church.

“
Any ideas on how we get
through this contraption?”

In her seemingly endless
pockets, she pulled out a flash drive. I backed out of the way and
let her go to work. Computers weren’t my thing and I am sure
whatever she was doing would make no sense to me. I pulled out my
cell phone and saw there was no reception this deep. I wasn’t
surprised, but I should have sent Billy a text before coming down
here.

“
We are in.” She turned
around and smiled brightly. The door cracked open and she gave it a
push.

We walked in, but it was
really dark. Using the lighter I was able to find a switch on the
wall, so I flipped it. Bright lights filled the room and revealed
everything.

“
Just what was happening
here?”

I had no idea myself, but I
am pretty sure nothing humane was being conducted. Blood covered
the walls and surgical instruments were laying everywhere. Cages
and test tubes were also prevalent, a lot of them smashed open or
broken. The worst part though were the human bones lying in random
places. Someone had turned this basement into a butcher
shop.

We split up and started
snapping pictures. The smell covered everything and it was hard to
pick out where it might be originating. I found copies of notes
that I think were written in Latin. I collected everything I could
and put them in evidence bags.

“
Vic, you might want to
come over here.”

She was at the far end of
this devil’s workshop, staring at the wall. I went over and she
motioned me to look at an engraving in the wall. It looked like a
hammer crudely chiseled it in with some more Latin underneath
it.

“
Can you read what it
says?”

“
I am quite fluent in Latin
actually. This is weird though, it says ‘The Hammer of Jehovah.’
Unfortunately, that means nothing to me.”

I snapped a picture of that
as well. “Everything I have found is in Latin. I think you are
going to have your hands full when we get back partner.”

She just rolled her eyes at
me, and we finished our search. I collected up some of the
instruments and hoped that Dr. Tello might be able to make some
sense from this.

“
I think we got enough
here. Anything else jump out at you Elizabeth?”

“
I have some suspicions,
but I will hold off on them until I read the notes. I do not need
to freak you out unless the situation warrants it.”

“
I appreciate that, I
think.” I gave one last look around and nothing new seemed to be
here. “Well let’s head on back to fresh air. This place is giving
me a headache.”

We were walking back to the
security door when I heard it.

“
Help…”

“
Did you hear that?” It was
the faintest whisper, but I knew I heard something.

“
Hear what?” She turned and
looked all over the room. “I think your mind is playing tricks on
you.”

“
Help me…”

“
No, there is definitely
someone here with us.” It was a male’s voice; weak but just loud
enough that I could pick up on it. I followed it to the northeast
corner of the room. There wasn’t anything back here, but I knew the
sound had come from the area.

“
What are you looking for
Vic? I truly am at a loss here.”

“
I hear someone, they need
help and it is coming from back here. Maybe there is a secret door
or something.”

We kept looking but even
after a good ten minutes of searching, nothing came up. I was
getting irritated and I punched the wall in frustration. My hand
went through the plaster and smacked right into a piece of
metal.

“
Blasted that
hurt!”

Elizabeth wasn’t concerned
with my hurt hand. She immediately went over to the wall and gave
it a few more good punches. By the time she was finished her
knuckles were bleeding, but our hidden door was
revealed.

“
I am truly sorry I doubted
you. Shall we open this up and see what is inside?”

“
We should. If someone
needs our help, we have to give it to them.”

I pulled on the handle and
this door opened pretty easily. I wish I could say the scene that
met us was as easy to handle, but it was far from it. The smell of
decaying bodies poured out like a flood and within a second I was
on my knees trying not to vomit. Elizabeth pushed me back into the
main room and streaked in and came back out quicker than a flash of
light. Slamming the door shut, the smell started to go away and I
was able to become useful again. The poor man she dragged out of
that room I doubt would be so lucky.

“
Can you speak? Can you
tell me what happened here?” Elizabeth was trying to get him to
stay coherent, but he was in bad shape.

His skin was green and
there were wounds all over his body. Whoever tried to patch him up
did a terrible job as his wounds were all infected. He looked
almost like the monster that attacked us last night. He was close
to a state of shock by now, death would be preferable.

“
He…left us to…to do his
work. Please…please kill…me. Make the sin…stop.”

I wondered what this man
had been through to end up in such a state. He started to convulse
and I knew nothing more was to be gained here. I pulled Roscoe out
and gave the man his final wish. I felt sick to my stomach, but no
one deserved to suffer in such a way.

“
We can’t leave him here;
the locals might want to take over the investigation. We need to
bring him back to Full Moon so Dr. Tello can examine the body. I
don’t even want to know what they did to these people.”

“
What about the basement,
what should we do here?”

“
Tonight, I think it would
be wise if Reno and Phil came back and destroyed everything. No one
needs to know and it would save the community a lot of heartache.
We have everything we need and, more importantly, all those dead
souls in that room need some closure.”

She nodded and we gathered
up all the evidence. I carried the body back up to the top and
gently set him down against the wall. We devised a plan where I
would take the body to the car while Elizabeth went in and kept
Pastor Browne busy. I did not want this on his
conscious.

Within the half hour, we
were back on the road, heading home. I made the calls with our
discoveries to the Alphas and Dr. Tello. I was going to drop the
body off with her and she was going to start tonight on the
autopsy. Hopefully we would get some leads to point us in the right
direction in our investigation.

I think Argent knew just
how much the whole scene and my actions, the mercy killing of the
man in the church, disturbed me and told me to take the rest of the
afternoon off. It really had been a rough few days and the down
time would be good. Having to put that man down like a wounded
animal hurt, but I took heart in that his suffering was
over.

“
You did the right thing
Vic. You honored his request and gave him peace. I can assure you,
what you did saved him much pain.”

“
I know, trust me I do. The
thing is that this Tucker now has me having to do these things. He
will truly regret the day he started this war.”

The rest of the car ride
and subsequent evening was quiet. Elizabeth respected my wishes but
still kept me company and we drank a few beers in silence. When the
sun set and Reno and Phil came down from their room, she gave them
the instructions. Both nodded and went on their way. It was about
eleven o’clock when they got back, their mission a success. No one
would ever know the horrors that happened under the
church. 

“
So I read most of the
documents we found last evening. This Warren Tucker is quite
delusional.”

“
Did you go to bed at all?
You’ve gotta be running on fumes Elizabeth.”

“
Trust me, I am going to be
fine for a few more days before I need to rest. And when will you
stop being so formal. I told you before you can just call me
Beth.”

“
Beth doesn’t really seem
to suit you very well.” I took a sip of my coffee and began to
think. “What about Liz? That has a better ring to it.”

She didn’t say anything for
a second. She seemed to be lost in a memory or thought. “You know,
I think that will do.”

“
I’m glad that is settled.
So what did you find out from those weird papers?”

She put a few pages on the
table and pointed to the first. “This one talks about the Hammer of
Jehovah and how our friend Tucker was chosen by him to do God’s
work. It was dated in December of 1977, just a few months before
the first murder.”

“
Do you think someone put
him up to this?”

“
It is very hard to tell if
this is some delusion he came to believe or if this Hammer of
Jehovah is a real person. He considers him an archangel and that
his will is God’s will.”

The possibility of another
nutcase out there gave me chills. “So besides that ominous fact,
what else did you learn?”

“
He was very vague is most
places. I take it in context when he talks about vanquishing
daemons he is referring to the vampire murders. There is nothing of
real interest to help us until we get to the most recent
page.”

She shuffled to the top a
paper that you could tell was pretty recent. The paper wasn’t faded
and the ink was still bright black. “Is this a confession we can
use?”