The Baron Blasko Mysteries (Book 1): Fangs

by Howe, A. E.

  Forcing Clarence’s head to the side and exposing his neck, Blasko bit into him and drank, feeling the life force flow into him. His wounds would take a day or two to fully heal, but he was already feeling relief from the pain. He forced himself to stop drinking just before he crossed the line that would have ended Clarence’s life.

  “I can’t stay here and there’s no time to get back to the house. I need to go someplace where I’ll be safe for the day,” Blasko said, standing to face Josephine as he wiped the blood from his lips. He could already feel the heat of the rising sun, even though it was still a quarter of an hour before it would crest the tree line.

  “Where?” Against her will, Josephine was already feeling a sense of dread at being separated from him.

  “Not far,” Blasko said, acknowledging their blood bond. “But away from here. They might search the grounds.”

  “What do I tell them?” Josephine asked, looking down at Clarence’s unconscious body.

  “Tell them what happened, only without me in the story,” he said with a small smile, then trotted off into the woods.

  Josephine took a deep breath and walked up to the warehouse. She managed to undo the jury-rigged lock from the sheriff’s earlier break-in, then slipped in to use the phone. Once she got ahold of Bobby Tucker, she told him her location and that she’d been attacked by Clarence. Josephine hung up before Bobby could ask too many questions.

  A mile away, Blasko found an old wooden shack raised just off the ground on pilings. He crawled underneath and dug as much of a hole as he could. Spreading the dirt he’d brought from his coffin into the hole, he crawled in after it and lay face down. Soon he fell into the light trance that engulfed him every day as the sun took over from the night.

  No one really believed Josephine’s story, but they couldn’t get her to change it. And the fact that she was giving them the killers went a long way toward quelling their suspicions. By midday, Dr. McGuire had managed to revive a still weak Clarence, who was too groggy to deny the murders and implicated Lucy within an hour.

  That afternoon in the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Logan and Bobby Tucker grilled Josephine one more time.

  “I’m still trying to understand this. You overpowered Clarence and got his gun away from him? Is that what you want me to believe?” Bobby asked her.

  “Bobby, you saw how he was. I don’t think he was in his right mind when he found me.” Josephine tried to sound as honest as possible. “I don’t know if he’d been drinking or what.”

  “Why the hell did you go back out to the warehouse?”

  Sheriff Logan was sitting on the edge of his desk, watching Josephine. He hadn’t gotten anywhere with the woman himself, so he’d asked Deputy Tucker to take over the questioning. He knew they had a history and thought that maybe Bobby could use their relationship to get her to tell the truth. For his part, Logan hated questioning women. He wasn’t even sure when his own wife was telling the truth, let alone a strange woman. And as far as he was concerned, Josephine Nicolson was one of the strangest.

  “I thought that I saw a flash from below the loading dock when y’all shot Carrie. So I decided to go back and investigate.”

  At the mention of Carrie, she saw both men cringe. They now knew that Carrie was innocent, which meant that her death was at their hands. Neither of the men liked to think they had shot a defenseless woman.

  “Did your friend Baron Blasko go with you?”

  “No. I told him what I’d seen and he agreed that it was odd. As you know, he already had his own suspicions about the whole thing. But he told me to wait and go back today for a look around.”

  “Then why didn’t you do that?”

  “I just couldn’t go to sleep thinking about it. I thought if I went out there and looked around, then I could get it out of my head and finally get some sleep.”

  “Then Clarence showed up and pointed a gun at you?” the sheriff interjected.

  “That’s right. He started babbling about the murders. He seemed delirious.”

  The sheriff and deputy exchanged looks. Clarence had certainly been half out of his mind when they found him. He hadn’t been able to tell them anything about that night. Dr. McGuire had put it down to a concussion received from the shotgun blast. Luckily, the two small marks on Clarence’s throat were chalked up to powder burns.

  “This whole thing is screwy as hell,” Logan said. “And that blasted baron’s ‘suspicions!’ Tell me again how he knew that Lucy had gone to the bathroom after attacking her husband.”

  “He didn’t know it was Lucy. He just knew that someone had, and he figured it was probably someone who felt comfortable in the house.”

  “You said he saw that the sink was wet?” Bobby said.

  “That’s right.” Josephine certainly wasn’t going to tell them that Blasko could smell the blood trail from the bedroom to the washroom.

  “And Blasko suspected Clarence and Lucy of working together?” Bobby asked, still very uncomfortable with the relationship between Clarence and his stepmother.

  “Not a first. But when he realized that Clarence could hear after having the shotgun fired off so close to his head, everything fell into place. Because if Clarence was lying about what happened that night, then Lucy had to be in on it too. I admit, when I realized he was right, I could remember a few times when Lucy and Clarence had acted a bit strange together.”

  “And exactly when did Blasko tell you all of this?”

  “Like I told you, Sheriff, he followed me out to the warehouse. He heard me when I left the house and realized where I was going.”

  “But he showed up after you’d clobbered Clarence.” Logan’s eyes were just slim slits of suspicion at this point.

  “That’s right. By the time he was able to get a ride out there, it was all over. But that’s when he told me his theories.”

  “Who drove him out there?” Bobby asked.

  “Thomas Kelly,” Josephine said without hesitation. She had called Kelly after she hung up with Bobby. After she had explained everything, he was more than willing help them out by saying that he’d driven Blasko down to Cotton Dock. By that point, Josephine had been pretty sure the gossipy operator would have been too busy connecting calls for the sheriff’s office to listen in.

  “So with the killer tied up, the baron just decided to go about his business and leave you to handle the aftermath?” Bobby said in disbelief. “Where the hell is he now, anyway?”

  “He had an emergency out of town, but he’ll be back soon. I’m sure he’ll be able to answer all of your questions once he returns.” One thing Josephine was sure of was that Blasko would be able to come up with enough half truths and possible truths to satisfy them. After all, they had their killers.

  “Humph!” Logan muttered. He wasn’t entirely happy with the situation, but he didn’t feel like he could pressure Josephine any further. Besides, things were wrapping up in a pretty convenient, if somewhat odd, package that would make his office look good in the eyes of the townsfolk. The office of sheriff was an elected position, so he always had to keep his eye on the prize.

  Logan looked over at Bobby, who gazed back with a What the hell can we do? expression on his face. “Show Miss Josephine out,” Logan finally said. But looking at Josephine, he added, “That will be all for now, but make sure that the baron comes in here as soon as he gets back, or I swear to the almighty I’ll put a warrant out for his arrest.”

  Bobby turned to Josephine once they were out in the hall.

  “I don’t know what sort of hold Blasko has over you, but always know that, if you ever need help, I’m here.”

  “I’m fine,” Josephine said. “I appreciate your concern, Bobby, really.”

  “You should know that other people have voiced some concerns about the baron.”

  “Whatever you’ve heard, you can forget it. I’m fine and the baron is… fine.” Josephine wondered who’d been talking. Her nosey neighbor Evangeline? Could Grace have gone to Bobby? Maybe
. Maybe it was both of them. But then she had to admit that Blasko didn’t exactly hold himself back. It was possible he’d pushed any number of people too far.

  “You bitch!”

  Bobby and Josephine looked down the hall to see Deputy Willard Paige dragging a struggling Lucy to a cell. She’d spotted Josephine and wasn’t going to miss the chance to tell her what she thought of her investigative skills.

  “You and that foreign freak will burn in hell! Clarence loves me and we’ll kill you all if we get the chance.” After every other word, she slapped at Paige.

  “To hell with this,” Bobby said, reaching back and slugging Lucy hard enough to cause her head to snap. She rubbed her jaw sullenly, finally allowing Deputy Paige to drag her down the hall to a cell.

  Bobby looked back at Josephine. “Clarence is still chained to a bed at Doc McGuire’s. We’re hoping his memory might improve as he recovers.”

  That would be very awkward, Josephine thought, hoping that Blasko was right about how much Clarence would forget.

  Epilogue

  Josephine faced a harsher critic at home. Grace met her at the door with squinted eyes and pursed lips.

  “I hope we’ve seen the last of him.”

  Josephine was exhausted, but she knew she had to deal with this now. “Blasko solved this murder. He’s helped us and the whole town without taking any credit. You’ve made it very clear how you feel about him, but I’m telling you right now, I want you to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  “I don’t know if…” Grace shook her head.

  Josephine didn’t have the energy to argue with her. “He’s coming back, so you need to wrap you head around that. I appreciate the fact that you’ve kept your word. I know we can work everything out, but you have to meet Blasko halfway.”

  “Now Miss Josephine, you know I’ve only ever looked out for you. You’ve been kind to me, and I thank you for that. I just wish… I don’t know that I can stay here if he’s comin’ back. I just don’t.”

  Josephine was well aware of Grace’s moods and she knew she was being sincere about her fears.

  “I know he’s different. Maybe even… worrisome. However, he’s here to stay. I can’t ask him to leave and, after what he’s done, I don’t want to. So you’ll have to decide what you need to do.”

  Josephine turned and went upstairs, leaving Grace standing at the foot of the stairs.

  Blasko returned home two nights later. His clothes were filthy.

  “How are you?” Josephine asked. She had hurried down to his room as soon as she heard him enter the house. For the past two days, she’d felt an emptiness inside her that was relieved only by his return.

  He took off his coat and opened his shirt. “I’m healing.”

  The bullet wounds were red and swollen, but closed over. Josephine’s eyes widened as she noticed all of the other scars on his body. In places there seemed to be scars on top of scars. She reached out and touched an old jagged line across his abdomen.

  “A Turkish kilij. The man was very brave, but had no clue what he was up against. When his sword slashed me, I grabbed it and pulled him off balance. He stumbled and I rammed a dagger into his back. Sadly, I had to toss his body off of the parapet down amongst his men in order to convince them that the battle was over.”

  “Do you remember them all?” Josephine asked softly, tracing another old wound with her finger.

  “No. I remember the brave men and the strong women, but not the rest.”

  He reached out and took her hand. His eyes held a strange fire as he looked at her. “Josie, we cannot let ourselves be at odds. Good can come from our union, but only destruction from our strife.”

  Josephine didn’t resist as he lowered his lips to her own. Her mind may have been conflicted, but not her heart.

  THE END

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  Baron Blasko and Josephine return in:

  KNIVES

  The Baron Blasko Mysteries–Book 2

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  Other Books by this Author

  The Larry Macklin Mystery Series

  The job of criminal investigator in a rural Florida county is never easy, but it’s even harder when your father is the sheriff, your “brother” is an unruly Great Dane and your confidential informant is a drug-addled cross-dresser.

  Join Larry Macklin as he deals with departmental corruption, serial killers, treasure hunters and enough murders to fill a BBC mystery series.

  Books in this series include:

  For more details, visit the author’s page on Amazon.

  About the Author

  A. E. Howe lives and writes on a farm in the wilds of north Florida with his wife, horses and more cats than he can count. He received a degree in English Education from the University of Georgia and is a produced screenwriter and playwright. The first book in his Larry Macklin Mystery series, November’s Past, was awarded two silver medals in the 2017 President’s Book Awards, presented by the Florida Authors & Publishers Association. The Baron Blasko Mysteries are his first entries into the world of the paranormal, though he’s long been a fan of the genre. A member of the Mystery Writers of America, Howe is also the co-host of the “Guns of Hollywood” podcast, part of the Firearms Radio Network. When not writing or podcasting, Howe enjoys riding, competitive shooting and working on the farm.

  Copyright © 2018 by A. E. Howe

  All rights reserved.

  Original Cover Art by Carmen Design & Photography

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, persons or animals, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.