The Zombie Plagues (Book 2)

by Sweet, Dell

  "Mexico," Billy agreed.

  They were both silent for a while. Billy started to drift off into real sleep. April felt so good against his side. So won...

  "Billy?" she said softly; unwilling to wake him if he were sleeping.

  "Yeah?" Billy answered.

  "I want to build a house... I mean build it ourselves... And I want babies, Billy. I want babies."

  “We'll build one then," Billy said. "And we'll have babies."

  She snuggled closer to him and kissed his chest. In a few minutes both of them were fast asleep.

  Saturday morning

  Watertown Center

  Shop and Stock

  Sammy and Don

  "Last one," Sammy said.

  It was 2:00 AM and they had just come back from six hours of sleep to get a jump on the day. The last half hour they had been interviewing the people who worked the same shifts as April Evans.

  "Haley Mae," Sammy added.

  Don looked up and stopped writing in his little notebook. "How do you," spell her name, he had meant to ask Sammy, but she was right in front of him.

  "EM, A, E," she said with a smile.

  "Vietnamese?" Don asked. She was obviously mixed race, African American and Asian, he questioned himself.

  "Japanese," she told him.

  "Nice name," Sammy said, "Haley."

  Beautiful girl, Don thought. "Did you know April Evans? Sometimes works this shift?" he asked.

  "Not really," she answered. "I mean I met her, but only in passing... I just started here myself."

  She really was beautiful, Don thought. "You wouldn't know if she had a boyfriend... Other friends?" he asked.

  Haley shook her head. "Sorry," she said... "What has she done?"

  "Nothing. She's gone missing," Sammy supplied.

  "She was an eye witness to a serious case and then went missing," Don said. "She's not in trouble we just want to ask her a few questions... And, really make sure she's okay."

  Haley shook her head. "I just started here a few weeks back, and like I said, I don't really know her... But I heard it might be a girlfriend not a boyfriend though."

  Don looked at her. "You wouldn't know who?"

  "No. It's just a rumor. Someone said to me... I don't even remember who... But I've never seen her with a guy. And I have seen her with other girls... Maybe also the way she looked at me a few times... That's all I know. I hope you find her though. She seems like a nice girl," Haley said.

  “You don't seem the type for this... Bagging groceries at 2:00 am,” Don said.

  Haley laughed. “I had this idea of dancing... Tough to get a foot in a door though.”

  “Any good,” Sammy asked.

  “Excuse mister smooth there,” Don told her. Sammy feigned a hurt look and Haley laughed. “He meant have you done some dancing? I know somebody... Might be interested.”

  Haley arched her eyebrows. “I can dance. I just need to prove it to the right person.”

  “Probably start out serving drinks... Dance a little... Then if he likes you he'll put you in.”

  “I can do that,” she said slowly.

  Sammy passed her a white business card with his own name scrawled across the back. “Tell him I sent you... That's my name on the back.”

  “Jimmy Vincioni,” Haley asked.

  “Just V... Jimmy V. Good guy,” Sammy said.

  Haley nodded and tucked the card into her front jean pocket. “I'll call him... Thanks. Look...” Her voice dropped to a near whisper. “I'm pretty sure she had a girlfriend here... I just don't know who,” Haley added quietly.

  Don finished writing in his notebook, nodded once he met her eyes and then shook the hand she offered. She walked away.

  "Beautiful," Sammy said.

  "Absolutely," Don agreed. “You ain't getting none of that though.”

  “Yeah? But if Jimmy V hires her it'll be the next best thing.”

  Don shook his head and smiled. His eyes rose and watched as Haley walked away. “Guess I'll have to have a few drinks at the club if that happens.”

  Sammy chuckled low. “You and me both,” he agreed.

  They had spent most of the previous night at Billy Jingo's trailer. The techs hadn't picked up much, but what they had picked up was telling. Blood stains under the bed and beside one wall in the bedroom: A splatter of small pink stains that had tested positive for blood in the kitchen sink. Two rolled up socks drenched in blood in the kitchen garbage. Blood spatters in the bathroom sink and shower too. All his clothes seemed to be gone, or at least there were none in the battered dresser in the bedroom. There were dirty clothes in a hamper in the bathroom, blood spatter and what looked like bone flecks on the clothing. The forensic team had come up with two sets of fingerprints in the bedroom, his and someone else. Hair samples from the bed, from the couch in the living room. Foot prints out back and in the soft dirt of the front yard matched a pair of boots they had found in the bedroom. And best of all, a tech that had been sent back to get pictures put the girl in the trailer yesterday afternoon.

  The tech said the girl had seemed quiet, subdued, standing behind Jingo, like Jingo didn't want her to be seen.

  Questioning her friends was fill-in work while they waited on the warrant for her place. The tech that had put her at Jingo's trailer would probably clinch that. There had been bits of bone and brain matter along with the bloodstains under the bed and by the wall too. That bothered Don. It probably meant that something had happened. He didn't have a lot of hope of seeing April Evans alive again.

  He circled the word gay that he had written on his note pad. Maybe he had been asking the wrong questions.

  "This girl," Don said and underlined the name Alice Chambers in his notebook. "Knew her well: Or at least better than anyone else here; so why didn't she mention a possible lesbian thing?"

  "They were in high school together... She's still here working; maybe we should have a conversation with her again?" Sammy said.

  "Maybe," Don agreed. He looked up, spotted the girl working one of the checkouts and walked over to the manager; a young kid who didn't even look old enough to shave yet. The manager himself went over and relieved her and sent her over to Don and Sammy.

  It was clear as she made her way over to them that she was worried. "You be the bad guy," Don whispered to Sammy, "I'll be the understanding father figure." Sammy nodded almost imperceptibly.

  Alice Chambers smiled weakly as she walked up. Sammy scowled at her and her smile melted.

  "Don't worry," Don said. "I'm sure we'll get this cleared right up. Sit down, Alice."

  "Why is he so upset?" she asked looking at Sammy who continued to scowl.

  "Because I don't like being lied too, Missy," Sammy told her. "Pisses me off."

  "I didn't lie," Alice said, going on the defensive.

  "Yes you did," Sammy said, as he leaned toward her across the table. "You lied, and now you're lying about having lied."

  She cringed away from him, looking ready to cry.

  "Alice, I'm sure Sam here will be fine," Don told her. "We work around hardened criminals all the time. I guess he forgot you're a young lady, not a criminal." Don sent Sammy a potent stare, and Sammy sighed and turned away. "It's this lesbian thing... It's understandable that you wouldn't want to mention it, but this girl's life could be at stake..." He made eye contact with her and made her hold it. Her eyes filled up and began to overflow. "Alice?" Don asked. She looked back toward the front of the store where she had been working and then looked back at them, swiping at the tears with the back of her hand and she did. "You want to tell me?"Don asked. She nodded.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered. She took a few seconds, seeming to fight to gain control. Don left and came back with some tissues that he handed to her. She thanked him, blew her nose, and then took several deep breaths.

  Don mentally looked her over as she got herself under control. Alice Chambers was on the skinny side. Almost no breasts. A body like a boy, no hips, short, bobbed
blonde hair: Nose ring, tongue ring, probably a dozen other piercings in her ears and who knew where else. He had taken her look for punk, not gay, but now that he was really looking at her she seemed more boyish than girlish. It seemed like maybe it was more than just a subtle statement, and he had overlooked it. Read it wrong. It wasn't just that she didn't look all that attractive as a woman, she just looked more like a boy. And it looked like most of it was by choice.

  "We were together in high school," Alice said in a near whisper.

  Don nodded like he'd known it all along. "Here at work too?" he asked.

  "No... Of course not. April isn't... April's not... She likes boys... It was... It was just a thing for a little while... This guy..." She took a deep breath and swiped at her eyes. "This guy forced her, you know and so she stayed away from guys after that for a while." She focused on Don, refusing to look at Sammy.

  "This guy... Know his name? The one who raped her?" Don asked.

  "She didn't say raped, she said forced," Alice corrected.

  "Okay, forced... But you can see, Alice, that even if you don't say it is rape, it is still rape, right? Are you saying there was no intercourse?" Don asked.

  "No... There was," she admitted.

  "Then its rape, Alice. Let's not cut the guy any slack at all on that, okay?" Don asked.

  "Okay," Alice agreed.

  "So, his name?"

  "He's dead," Alice said. "Tyler Matthews, he died in an automobile crash a few months back, remember?"

  "Yeah... The local football star," Sammy said.

  Don just nodded. "So it was just the two of you. What came between you?" he asked.

  "I told you, guys. She's not like me," she looked down at the table and then back up. "But I don't know this Billy. I never heard her say anything about him. Maybe a cute guy that lived at the end of the road. And two guys on either side of the trailer who have been bothering her," Alice said.

  Sometimes you failed to ask the right questions, Don thought. Sometimes the answers were right there. "Okay... Tell me about this cute guy who lived at the end of the road? You mean the trailer park road or Lott road?" he asked.

  "Lott road: I don't know about him. She said she saw him a few times. She thought he was cute, but she couldn't get him to notice her," Alice said. She blew her nose once more. The tears seemed to be dried up, Don thought, at least for now. “We... We had a fight about him just the other night... Two nights ago... Mornings, Thursday morning, I guess,” Alice finished.

  "Anything else about him... Anything at all?" Don asked. He filed the fight. He would have to come back to it.

  "She said he worked nights... Drove a truck back and forth to work... That's all I know, honest," she looked over at Sammy who nodded; done with his bad cop routine.

  "Did you know Billy Jingo at all...? I can't remember if I asked you that before," Don said. He knew he had he simply wanted her to answer again.

  "No," Alice said.

  "Didn't know he lived at the end of Lott road... All the way at the end?" Don asked.

  She looked surprised. "No. I didn't know that. I guess that means it was him she thought was cute... Did he do something to her...? Is that it? Did he?" her voice rose slightly and panic crept into it.

  "I don't know... I certainly hope not, Alice, but I don't know," Don said. “He's a bad guy though... I can tell you that. Did time... If there's any other thing you remember I could use the help. He may have done something to her... We just don't know yet,” Don finished. Actually he was pretty sure that Billy Jingo had killed April Evans in the back bedroom of the trailer at the end of Lott road that he called home; all but positive. She saw the accident, gave a statement. She must have seen Jingo take some items from the car, who knew what all. She comes back, maybe just wants to talk it over, let him know she saw it, maybe wants a cut. Jingo panics and kills her. It was coming together in his head.

  Alice looked at him and her eyes began to spill over again. "I couldn't stand that," Alice whispered. "I couldn't."

  He nodded. “Alice... Was the fight just about the cute boy? Jingo?”

  Her eyes filled and then spilled over. “I...” She looked up and held Don's eyes. “I... She.” She sighed, lowered he head and spoke from there. “I thought she was confused... I thought she and I could work it out... I accused her of seeing him.” She looked up and shrugged her shoulders. “That was it... My own stupidity... Maybe it's my fault... Maybe...”

  Don stopped her.” Alice... No one can make decisions for someone else. You thought maybe you had a shot, you took it and she shot you down. Hurts, but it isn't a reason for her to do something stupid or you to take blame on yourself that doesn't belong to you.” He paused as she got herself back together. She bobbed her head after a few seconds.

  "You want me to talk to your boss, get you the rest of the day off, Alice?" Don asked.

  "No, no," she said. "I think I'll go have a cigarette... Then I'll be fine."

  "You know, I was thinking of having one too," Don said. He reached out and took her hand and she came to her feet, "Come on." He made his way to the front door taking her with him. Everyone in the store watched them walk out. The manager raised his hands slightly and looked at Sammy.

  Sammy made a calm down gesture with both hands. "It's fine," he said. "It's fine."

  Billy Jingo

  "Its 3:00 AM, we should probably get going," Billy said. April stirred beside him, circled one arm around him, and pulled him to her.

  "I don't think we really need to go right now," she said in a sleepy voice. Her face was against his chest and she took one nipple into her mouth and nibbled softly, holding it between her teeth.

  It turned out she was right.

  State Street

  Watertown New York

  Jimmy West

  Jimmy looked at his watch, 3:15 AM. He had been in the sleeping city of Watertown for two hours. He had spoken personally with Murphy's man in the Sheriff's department, and another he had in the city police department. Then he had taken a call on his other cell phone from Weston's girl Friday, Alice. He had often wondered about Alice: A woman who served one man only and who could order death like a chicken sandwich in a restaurant. What did she look like? What kind of woman was she in the sack? Maybe someday he would know.

  That phone call set everything in perspective for him: It didn't tell him what the item or items were, but it told him that somehow Tommy Murphy and Jefferson Prescott had managed to steal something damn important from the military base. How in hell they had worked that out was beyond him. How Weston thought he could keep it on the down low and get his missing items back was also beyond him. If he was looking for someone to take his money Jimmy could do that: As for returning the missing items, which thanks to Tommy he knew were hidden in the bales of pot; he would have to decide what to do when he came to that bridge. As for earning his money from Weston, he already had news for him. He wondered what he would do when Jimmy told his girl Friday that it was Jefferson Prescott and Tommy Murphy who were involved and that because of that the price just went up. Maybe he could squeeze a little more information out of him, via her, about what it was he was after. As for the rest of it, he was putting it together in his head.

  It was no mystery to him what had happened now. He had driven out to Billy Jingo's trailer. The cops were all over it. The kid was missing. And a young girl from down the road that had supposedly witnessed the crash was also missing. The money, the drugs, all gone: Blood, brain tissue and bone, found in Jingo's bedroom. The head and hands and the rest that was in the duffel bag that had been found in the woods behind the kid's trailer, he knew about that. He knew who Carlos Sanchez was, and he knew how he ended up in the duffel bag and why. It didn't concern him.

  What did concern him was that he had turned up behind the kid's trailer. The duffel bag should have been down the road at the Toyota crash site, or still in Neo's car. That meant someone had moved it, taken it. And that said to him that someone had taken everything the
y could grab from the Toyota before it caught fire and took it down the road to the kid's trailer, as well as the stuff from the Ford. That was the only thing that made sense.

  He had pushed his thinking a little further: The girl had told the cops she had witnessed the wreck, but she had said nothing at all about seeing anyone take anything from either car. The kid, Jingo, had also said he had seen part of the chase, and heard the wreck. They were both lying, had to be, because neither one of them had mentioned seeing anybody taking the drugs and money from the two cars, yet they were missing. And the head and hands had turned up right behind the kid's trailer. That was not coincidence.

  The cops had found the duffel bag behind the trailer, but they did not find the girl's body or Jingo's body. They thought he had killed her in the trailer, but Jimmy knew that the blood and the brain matter that had been found with it had more than likely come from the bags, not Jingo killing the girl; or the girl killing him, for that matter. Thus the two of them were working together; had to be.

  There had been a girl's body found in the woods nearby, and that had thrown him for a bit, but that, he had found when he asked, had been two days prior. That girl and this girl had nothing to do with each other at all. No, the girl and Jingo had to be in it together. He had wondered how that might have happened. Had they both come upon it and hooked up? Had they known beforehand? He doubted the later. Most likely they had both come running at the sound and made some sort of alliance right there on the spot.

  Jimmy smiled. He knew he had it figured out right and the cops had it all wrong. It was pretty hard to slip something by him. Let the cops sniff down their dead end road. He was already well on the way to getting some real information about where they might have gotten to.

  Jimmy sipped at his coffee. He was sitting in front of an all night doughnut shop on State Street, drinking his coffee and eating a pastry. It was where the cops hung out. His window was partially down. The air was cold, crisp, and it helped to keep him alert. It had been awhile since he had slept and would probably be awhile more. He dug two more small pills from his pocket, and popped them into his mouth. That would help. In about ten minutes he would be back on his game.