by D V Wolfe
“Huh,” June said, “you sound like a cop.”
Noah gave her a funny look. “I do?”
She chuckled. “Yeah. Leads? Investigating? Sounds like a cop to me. Sure you don’t want to join the force? Apparently, they’re hiring.”
The double glass doors to the office part of the plant had opened and a group of men in pressed suits came out, followed by two men in rumpled suits talking to a couple of men in police uniforms. I scanned the crowd and found the man from the night before walking in the middle of the pack. The men weren’t happy, that was obvious. They were muttering to each other, not a smile between them.
They reached their vehicles and started piling in. I was scanning from face to face, hoping one of them would reveal something and tell me what we were hunting. Most of them already had their shades back on. The guy from last night was the last one into one of the Crown Vics. He opened the passenger side door and then he paused. He turned to look behind him and I felt his gaze lock onto me. I held my breath. He blinked and through the binoculars, I swear I saw his eyes glow red. Demons it was. The Crown Vics backed out of their spots and preceded the plainclothes detective and squad car out of the lot. I dropped the binoculars and looked over at Noah and June. Last night, Noah and I had hidden anything related to hunting under the seat and in the toolbox. And Noah and I had had a long talk, deciding that we were only going to tell June that we were investigating his mom’s disappearance. She knew about Noah’s hands and had asked him a lot of questions on the drive over about how he could do it and why, which Noah hadn’t been able to answer. Despite that, she wasn’t pulling away from him. I liked June. I was afraid she might end up being a liability, but I liked her just the same. June was still head down, reading the paper. I looked at Noah who seemed to be on the same page as me. “Demon,” I mouthed. His eyes grew wide and he turned to stare, open-mouthed, at the line of cars leaving the lot. “Demon?” he mouthed back at me. I nodded and then cleared my throat.
“Oh well, at least we tried,” I said. “Thanks for your help with this, June.”
June looked up at me. “That’s it?”
I shrugged. “Unless Noah’s mom decided to get a job there and is being held captive, this is where the lead runs cold.”
June nodded. “I'm sorry there wasn’t anything stranger to look into here. Do you think she’s still in town but like, under a different name or something? Or do you think the Feds put her in the witness protection program? Or maybe they kidnapped her and are trying to scrub her memory?”
I raised an eyebrow at June. “TV,” she said, “lots of it. When I got back to Bellum and found out most of my friends had moved away sometime during high school,” she nudged Noah. “I pretty much spent a month of depression in front of the TV. Now I skate around town to break up the depression TV binges.”
I nodded. “Good to have hobbies.”
June had us drop her off by a skate park and she gave Noah her cell number. He saved it in my phone and promised her that he’d call her if we found anything out. She probably would have gone with us if we asked her, but I felt like Noah and I were in agreement that it was not a good idea to spill everything to an innocent about why we were actually in Bellum.
We cruised over to the police station and saw the line of Crown Vics taking up the parallel spots on one side of the street. We moved a block down and across and I parked kitty-corner on a side street. We were pretty far away, but we could see the station front doors with the binoculars.
“So, we’re here because, demons?” Noah asked.
I pulled out the binoculars and nodded. “I saw one of the guys flash his fiery-reds outside of the Copia place. And last night, he was at the restaurant, watching us.”
“So this is the plan?” Noah asked. “Wait for him to come out and then follow him?”
I shrugged. “Wait for him to come out or wait for more evidence that the whole cop shop is demon-infested so we don’t have to worry about innocent casualties when we charge in there. A little of column A, more of column B.”
We took turns watching with the binoculars and getting out of the truck to stretch our legs.
“How sure are we that these guys are the demons making Walter shake?” Noah asked.
“Well, they are demons. At least one of them is anyway, and that’s the best lead we’ve had since we hit town.”
The day dragged on and I was beginning to join Noah on the opinion that we might have been spinning our wheels and wasting our time staking them out when we could be doing something, anything else. What if this demon was a diversion and something much worse was going on somewhere else in town? June had been watching TV and skateboarding. Strange occurrences might not have made it to her block yet. I grabbed the newspaper off the seat and looked for any mentions of missing persons. I scanned the crime beat. Nothing out of the ordinary. I finally just moved, headline to headline, story to story, looking for anything that might be able to be called, “supernatural” or an unexplained happening. Nothing. Plain, white-collar Bellum. Too boring to even have a crime beat that took up a whole column on a newspaper page.
“Hey, we got movement,” Noah said. It was late afternoon at this point and it had to be close to quitting time.
“Feds or cops?” I asked. I was squinting too, but the cop shop was west of us and the sun was starting its descent.
“Not positive,” Noah said. “There are a bunch of them piling into the cars though.” I took the binoculars from him and searched the men getting into the cars. Feds. I didn’t see our red-eyed friend among them.
All but one of the Crown Vics started driving away.
“Was the demon you saw in that crew that just drove off?” Noah asked.
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Ok, so now what?” Noah asked.
“Now we wait,” I said.
“What if more demons are riding those other guys?” Noah asked.
I shook my head. “We can’t divide. But, we can gamble on them or stick to the one who’s already shown us what he is.”
“Right,” Noah muttered. “I hope June doesn’t think I was ditching her.”
I cut my eyes to him. “But we did ditch her.” Noah looked pained. I sighed. “We didn’t have a choice, Noah. This is too much crazy to just dump in some innocent’s lap.”
“I handled it,” Noah muttered.
“You were a special case,” I said. Noah started to protest and I turned to look at him. “Noah, I’ve been doing this for a while. In the early days, I didn’t know my ass from a hole in the ground and I was fast and loose with information on what I was doing. That was what started the ball rolling with the Feds who then took a personal interest in the archeology of my digestive tract and eventually led to my detainment, arrest, imprisonment, transfer to psychiatric care and escape. Sure, Stacks helped, but I was kind of already a ‘person of interest’ when he dropped the hammer on me. That is a road we don’t have time to go down again with June. Ok?” Noah nodded but he still looked annoyed. “I promise, this is for the best. If you can think of a good excuse for everything we have to do that doesn’t mean telling June that we’re hunting demons, go for it.” Noah looked stumped and after a minute he crossed his arms to sulk.
It was after eight and I was gnawing on a stale Peep while Noah groaned in disgust, when a flash of light caught our attention. The light had been reflected by the opening of the glass door on the front of the cop shop. Noah and I leaned forward. It was our guy. He was alone and he looked up and down the street before crossing to the last remaining Crown Vic and beeping it unlocked.
I stuffed the rest of the Peep in my mouth and turned the key in Lucy’s ignition. The lights of the Crown Vic blinked on, but I left Lucy’s off. The sun hadn’t completely set and only about half of the cars on the street had their lights on. The Vic headed west and I waited until it was a few more blocks ahead of us before pulling out and turning down the street after it. Where was he taking us now?
We fol
lowed four blocks back through the streets of Bellum and we both let out disappointed sighs when we saw the Crown Vic turn into the Holiday Inn parking lot.
“Fancy digs,” I said. “Our tax dollars at work.”
Noah turned to look at me. “What do you mean ‘our’ tax dollars? Weren’t you declared dead as a minor after everything that happened in Ashley?”
I backed into a spot at the back of the lot where we could still see the Crown Vic around one side of the hotel.
“Fair point,” I said as we watched the guy get out of the car and head for one of the side doors into the hotel.
“Hey,” Noah said. “What about your Empty Houses? Don’t they owe taxes?”
I leaned back in my seat. “Well, considering the first one was declared dead by her husband after he threw her off their boat, and when I was picked up by fishermen, they didn’t report me because they didn’t want the authorities breathing down their necks, I’d say she’s in the clear. Then, the second one was declared dead in the hospital before I woke up wearing him in the morgue and booked it out of there. This one,” I looked down at myself and I sighed. I was hard on these Houses. “She’s reported missing in Alaska, so, I probably would owe taxes for her if I was in Alaska, but I also don’t have any income. Well, any topside-taxable income. Trust me, I’d much rather pay the topside taxes than whatever those taxes are going to look like in a few months.”
We were quiet after that, scanning the lot and the entrances to the hotel.
“Are you still scared?” Noah asked me. It wasn’t the first time he asked, but after leveling with him on the way to St. Louis, I tried to never let the question get passed the top layer in my psyche. There were all these other feelings attached to my impending demise beyond fear and I really didn’t want to unpack them.
“Shitless,” I said. I picked up my cell and decided to change the subject. I handed Noah the binoculars. “Keep an eye out in case he comes back out to go get some grub or something. I’m going to call Stacks and see if he’s made any progress with our hard-earned photographic endeavors.”
Noah nodded and picked up the binoculars. I was kind of proud of him. He’d been with me long enough to know when I wasn’t going to answer any more questions. It was weird. Two months ago, I was happy as a clam hunting by myself. Well not happy, I mean, but content. Content as someone going to Hell in five months could be. But now, I think it would feel weird to not have Noah in the truck with me. I hit the three on speed dial and waited for Stacks to pick up.
“What!” Stacks snapped.
“Did you start doing Tai Chi again?” I asked. “Because you sound really mellow.”
“What do you want?” Stacks asked, tone not improving.
“To push your buttons,” I said. “How goes the unraveling of the ancient Sumerian?”
“Well, after the six hours it took to download the ridiculous amount of photos you sent,” Stacks started.
“Hey, you told me you needed good ones. I was in the middle of committing a criminal act. I figured quantity over quality.”
“Well, you figured wrong. I’m still trying to piece them all together. It’s like the world’s worst jigsaw puzzle and somebody lost the box.”
“So,” I said, “progress, but nothing to write home about.”
“Yeah,” Stacks said, “thanks for summing that up. Anything else?”
“Not really,” I said. “We’re staking out a demon wearing a Fed suit in Bellum and I just thought I’d call you so we could watch Sleepless in Seattle together while we wait. Well, you could watch it. You’d have to describe what’s happening to me and repeat the captions. Oh! And do the voices.”
“A demon Fed?” Stacks asked and I knew I’d caught his attention. “Holy shit, that would explain so much…”
I decided it was best to cut him off before he got into a full rant about JFK, the moon landing, 9/11, and Castro’s exploding cigars.
“Gonna hang up now,” I said. Stacks was already talking more to himself than to me. “So, good luck with your Sumerian puzzle.”
I hung up and Noah grinned at me. “Did you do that on purpose?”
“What?”
“Mention the demon we’re tracking is a Fed?”
I shook my head. “Forgot who I was talking to for a minute. Maybe it’s for the best. He’s been trying to piece together the pictures we sent him and this probably made his night.”
“He’s a strange man,” Noah muttered. We sat in silence for another hour as the night grew dark around us. The glass door on the side of the hotel opened and we saw our guy come back out. He was wearing jeans but still had on a sports coat.
“Trendy,” I said. “Must be a demon that’s been topside long enough to have an inkling of modern fashions.”
Noah snorted next to me and I turned to look at him.
“Bane, how do you know what the modern fashions are?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been around. I’ve seen guys.”
“Whatever. Hey, he’s on the move.”
I had my hand on the key in the ignition, expecting him to head back for the Crown Vic. Instead, he started strolling around the hotel, away from us.
“Where’s he going?” Noah asked.
“No idea,” I said. “But we better hurry or we’re going to lose him.” I couldn’t bring the gun with me. Not if we were going to follow him to dinner or something. I strapped on the sword, feeling the weight anchoring me down. Beside me, Noah stuffed a roll of salted tape into a pocket of his cargo shorts for restraining him and pocketed a water bottle filled with holy water. We took off after the guy, running wide around the parking lot to avoid the floodlights’ reach. I could see our guy up ahead, strolling along. He wasn’t moving like he knew he was being followed. We were trying to be quiet, but Noah and I were far from cat-like. To keep out of sight in case he turned to look back, we’d had to climb up onto the retaining wall around the lot which was lined with shrubs along the front and a chain-link fence behind it.
Even if he couldn’t see us, he would still be able to hear us. When we got closer to the road, there was a moment when we had to stop and hold our breaths. The guy had paused and looked to his left and right. When he continued on, I threw caution to the wind and jerked Noah with me, out of the shrubs, and back onto the concrete. If we were exposed for a minute or two, so be it. Better than getting made because of our noise.
The guy jogged across the street and into darkness. We were a block over from the neon lights of the main drag which hadn’t bothered wasting any glam or glitz or even security light on their rears, which faced the Holiday Inn. From this angle, it was like looking at the backside of a chorus line. I squinted into the darkness and I couldn’t make out his silhouette. There was a crunching of footsteps on loose gravel somewhere ahead of me and so I focused on that, Noah coming up behind me. I tried to keep him behind so that I could single out the footsteps in front of us. We were getting closer to the strip. Another few feet and his silhouette would be framed by artificial light. Noah kicked a rock and I felt it ping off the back of my leg. I reached back and grabbed him by the front of the shirt.
“Sorry,” he breathed.
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t care about the rock. I’d lost the sound of footsteps. We stood stock still while I strained to hear them. Maybe he was off the gravel now and we’d missed it.
Something knocked me back, a sharp pain shooting through my gut as I involuntarily expelled all the air in my system.
A foot. That had been a kick to my diaphragm. I put my hands up and another kick hit my forearm. I lunged forward and I got a handful of suit jacket. The guy gave a startled yell and I felt us both falling. He was falling backward and I was still attached to his suit jacket, falling on top of him. Then we were rolling around in the dirt. Every time I tried to reach back to draw the sword, he’d knock away the arm I was holding him with and I’d have to redouble my grip. Then he’d knock me sideways and roll over on top of me. I could hear Noah scrambl
ing around in the dirt and I knew what was going to happen a second before it did.
Noah tripped over us in the dark and I felt a boney knee connect with the side of my head. The guy yelled in pain and I wasn’t sure what part of Noah’s frame had connected with him. Noah swore and then all three of us were in a pile. I let go of the guy’s chest and searched with my hands around his belt and ass, looking for a weapon. I felt a small Maglite in his back pocket and I pulled it out. He was breathing hard and groaning in pain and I took advantage and knocked him over, rolling on top of him and pinning him beneath me. I fumbled with the Maglite and blinded myself and Noah before I was able to turn it down to shine on him. He was scratched up and bleeding on the side of his neck and one cheek and he looked pissed. His eyes were dilated to pinpricks, but they were brown at the moment. Not surprising. I grabbed his ear and folded it forward, looking for the pentagon. None. So he was possessed. With no Gabe here to rattle off the exorcism, I was going to need the damn book which was back in the truck.
“Spray him,” I said to Noah. Noah was sprawled in the dirt next to us.
“I’m a federal agent,” the guy wheezed. “Assaulting me is a federal crime.”
“Is it?” I asked, looking up at Noah. Noah was twisting the cap off of the water bottle and he just shrugged.
“Get off me,” the guy tried again.
“When we have what we need,” I said. “Noah, let ‘er rip.”
Noah poured half the bottle on the guy’s head. He sputtered and closed his eyes.
No melting, screaming, or black smoke. Ok...
“You morons. That’s not how you waterboard someone,” the guy choked.
I knew that some of the higher up demons wouldn’t have much of a reaction to holy water. “Tape,” I said to Noah. He ripped off a piece and stuck it to the guy’s forehead.
“What the fuck,” the guy groaned. I still hadn’t moved and he was pinned, my whole weight on his chest. He glared up at Noah and me, tape covering his eyebrows and most of his forehead. Nothing, no screaming, smoking, or melting.