The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (19 page)

“
Victor Inglewood, a
pleasure to see you again.” He stuck his big old hand out and I
gave him my best handshake.

“
Chief Greenfoot, I hope
our lovely mayor didn’t put you to sleep in there.”

“
Pack politics will always
be the same, no matter who is running the show. Your mayor’s
concern for the wellbeing of all of the packs is
refreshing.”

“
Can’t argue that; he’s
always been a pack over individual kind of guy.”

“
I also was glad to see his
faith in you. If there is one thing I think we can all agree on is
that you are close to ending this madman’s run of
terror.”

“
I sure hope so Chief, I
wish I could have stopped him by now at any point.”

He put a hand on my
shoulder, “You are learning from each encounter. You will get him,
so do not be so hard on yourself.” A big grin came across his face,
“Besides, you owe me a drink. Now come, your father Callum has
already promised everyone the first round is on you.”

“
He did what?”

Liz must have heard as she
started laughing. As she was waving bye to me, Chief Greenfoot was
dragging me to the bar. I made a mental note to slap dad upside the
head when I saw him. I doubted my bank account could handle the
drinking habits of these guys.

Hangovers are the worst. I
had a vague recollection of how I got home, but I am pretty sure I
drunk dialed Liz at two thirty and ten minutes later, I was being
chastised by all the guys about being picked up. I’m also pretty
sure she paid off the tab the Alphas had gathered under my name.
When I opened my eyes, the world was so bright.

“
Rise and shine tall, dark,
and smelly.”

A cup of coffee was placed
in my hand and soon the world became more tolerable. “I don’t even
want to know, do I?”

“
Probably not. Suffice to
say, under the influence of alcohol makes you even happier and you
were throwing around flattery like it was going out of style. I
appreciate how much you appreciate my butt though, not necessarily
charming but it did make me feel young again.”

I just groaned in dismay.
Caught between embarrassment and possible vomiting, I rolled out of
bed and went straight for the shower. Once the water was hot, I let
it take over and tried to wash away both the smell and memories of
what I may or may not have said last night in my drunken
stupor.

“
Vic, your phone is
ringing. It looks like it is William calling. Would you like me to
answer it?”

“
Yeah go ahead, I’m in no
hurry to get out of here.”

I zoned out as the water
was hitting me, only to be brought out of my daze by Liz’s
voice.

“
Victor, are you paying
attention to me?”

“
Huh? What did you
say?”

“
William just received a
call from Sheriff Munoz. Early this morning one of his officers
picked up a suspicious looking man on the side of the road. When
they brought him back down to their office, they discovered a Bible
that had the name Warren Tucker written in it. Sheriff Munoz is
bringing him down right now for us to interrogate.”

That snapped me out of my
lull. Could we finally have a solid lead to go on? I didn’t want to
get my hopes up, Tucker had already proven he was willing to use
his followers as time bombs, so there was a chance this was just
another sneak attack.

An hour later, Liz and I
were at the office along with Chaz, Argent, and dad. Liz had called
Cristof and he would be there as soon as he could. Just as we were
finishing setting up the interrogation room, Munoz showed up with
the guy. When I saw him, it gave me chills. He was incredibly tall
and built, shaved head, and his eyes were sunken so far back in his
head. He had the look of a man who could make the Devil himself
blink.

Munoz handed him off to
dad, who led him in where I was waiting. The man sat down and
seemed to give little resistance. He reeked of that musky scent we
had come to associate with Tucker’s holy water.

“
I’m Chief Inspector Victor
Inglewood and this is Sheriff Callum Inglewood. You are currently
in the town of Full Moon. We have some questions for you based on a
Bible found on your person with the name of Warren
Tucker.”

As soon as I said Tucker’s
name, the man started breaking down. “Don’t make me go back there.
Don’t make me relive what I’ve seen.”

I looked at dad, just what
in the world had Tucker done to break a man like this. “You’re safe
here, Tucker will never know anything you say.”

“
Don’t you get it nowhere
is safe. He is worse than the monsters he rallied us against. He
knows everything. The Hammer of Jehovah makes sure of
it.”

“
Who is this Hammer of
Jehovah?”

He looked up at me, his
dark eyes pleading with me not to continue. “Please, don’t make me
talk, he knows.”

“
We can’t stop him unless
we know what we are up against. Can you tell us something, anything
to go on?”

He closed his eyes. I
thought we had lost him, but then he started talking again. “The
Hammer of Jehovah calls himself one of God’s chosen. In the
beginning, I believed it. But then I saw what they did to my
fellows. Then what they did to me. He is not one of God’s chosen;
he is one of the true daemons!”

Just how deep was Tucker
going here? “What do you mean by true daemon?”

“
Vampires and werewolves
are just the front line soldiers in the coming war against
humanity, at least that is what Rev. Tucker told us. He said they
were being led by the true daemons, fallen angels who wanted
revenge. But I think the Hammer is one of them, my God would never
do what they do.”

I needed to keep this guy
talking, “What did they do to you?”

“
They injected us with Holy
Water, to give us the strength to fight back. But so many of us
died, our bodies not able to handle it. And if we showed weakness,
they would torture us, if not just kill us.”

“
Is Tucker still in the
Sacramentos? Tell us so we can bring him to justice for what he has
done.”

His eyes started darting
all over the room, looking for bugs. Then in barely a whisper,
“Yes, his camp is at Benson Ridge.”

We found him. I looked up
at dad and he was smiling. I wish I could have, but that nagging
feeling was still gnawing at me. And then right on cue, my phone
rang. I didn’t even have to look, so I left the room and
answered.

“
Hello Tucker, what can I
do for you this fine day?”

“
I suppose you found Hunter
Mosley, one of my lost sheep.”

“
Somehow I am not surprised
you know he’s here. So back to my question, what can I do for you,
Tucker?”

“
You can do exactly what
you are planning on doing. I’m ready to show you what I have been
doing. Come to my base of operations on Benson Ridge, Victor and
meet with me under the truce of parlay.”

“
We aren’t pirates; we are
coming to end this.”

“
I think not. Right now I
have three of my most trusted agents in very highly populated areas
in different cities. Now unless you want me to unleash them to
prove just how serious I am, you and one other will meet with me
and my second. I will see you tomorrow evening at dusk; do not be
late.”

The phone disconnected. I
guess the look on my face told the story. “Me and one other have to
meet Tucker tomorrow evening at Benson Ridge under the white flag.
If we don’t, he will send his monsters into major cities and
probably kill.”

“
You can’t be serious, it
is a suicide mission!” Chaz was the first to speak his opinion, as
always.

Liz turned to him,
“Charles, if we do not go, innocent lives will be lost. I have too
much blood on my hands from past indiscretions, I will not add more
to it.”

No one else said anything.
Argent just quietly nodded his head, knowing that we had to do
this. Dad and Munoz took Mosley and locked him up, more for his own
safety. Cristof asked to have a word with Liz and I went to dad’s
office and waited for him. It didn’t take him long to come
in.

“
I don’t like it son, not
one bit. We need to think of a way to have back-up in the
area.”

Could we even risk it, the
guy somehow knew everything. I did not want to endanger any lives
if I could help it. “I’m not sure dad. If he finds out and sends
his monsters on a rampage, there is no way we can stop
it.”

“
Son, you are asking me to
send you into the fire with no back-up. I’m not speaking as the
sheriff right now, but as a father.”

“
I know dad, but when we
took these positions in life, we did so to protect others. I have
to do my job, no matter the cost.”

He knew he had lost. His
eyes got that resigned look to them. “Your mother is going to kill
me for letting you do this.”

“
I’m pretty sure she scares
me more than Tucker or the mysterious Hammer of Jehovah. Tell her I
will be fine, I’ll have Liz with me.”

Dad got a stupid smile on
his face, “Yes you will. That lass is one tough one and I can see
it in her eyes. She would break the hand that touches
you.”

“
Hey, I’m not entirely
helpless you know. I have Roscoe and grandpa’s tanto too. You never
know, it might be me saving her ass this time.”

“
You already have son, more
than you probably know. But enough of this. I have a pile of
paperwork Billy is insisting I do and you have a fool’s errand to
prepare for.”

He was right, I needed to
get with Liz and put together a plan. We couldn’t go up there and
get caught with our pants down. “I’ll call you and go over
everything with you, down to the letter.”

“
You better, so at the very
least, I can tell your mother something.”

We shook hands and I went
outside to find Liz. I found her leaning up against my car, texting
someone I think.

“
Hey good looking, what are
you doing tomorrow night?”

She looked up and smiled,
“Oh, I do not know. I was maybe thinking we could go on a romantic
evening stroll.”

“
I hear there is a
beautiful view up on Benson Ridge. Would you do me the honors and
accompany me?”

“
I will have to check my
calendar, but I think I am free.”

As I walked by, I gave her
a kick to the ass. It left a nice dusty footprint there. “Victor,
you will be paying for these pants to be dry cleaned!”

“
That’s what you get for
pretending you have any other dates besides me. Now get in the car,
we have some planning to do.” 

The four vampires sitting
in my kitchen were all looking at me. Not one of them had offered a
single thought to this process, which was a bit of a letdown.
Weren’t these bums all at least hundreds of years older than me? It
felt more like I was the adult here and they were my
charges.

“
Alright, we all know that
this is probably a set-up. Fact is, we don’t have a choice in going
either, else he sends his goons out and compromises civilian
targets.”

“
I thought his issue was
with the supernatural community, not his own?”

“
The man is downright
insane, Reno. I don’t think for a second he cares what he has to do
to achieve his end game. His type always justifies the means to
reach an end.” That brought back his encounter with his son.
Everything was a tool.

“
What we need to do is make
sure we have an escape route planned. I do not think it would be
wise to try to engage him when he has the advantage.” Liz was
right, getting into any altercation was a fool’s errand.

“
Victor, what do you think
he hopes to gain from this meeting?”

“
If I had to take a wild
guess Cristof, I’d say he hopes to kill Liz at the very least. His
actions so far have shown more disdain towards her than me but, I
reckon you never know.”

“
My problem with all of
this is there is no reward for us, only the chance something bad is
going to happen.” Reno turned directly to Liz, “When you gave me a
chance all those years ago, I took a vow to protect you as best I
could. Letting you run into this guy’s trap just doesn’t sit well
with me.”

“
Trust in myself and Vic,
we will come back alive. And the opportunity to actually see this
Warren Tucker face to face offers plenty of incentive for us to
go.”

I could tell Reno was still
opposed to anything. He folded his arms and silently fumed, but
also knowing it was not worth arguing further. Phil still hadn’t
said anything and appeared to be fine with any decision
made.

“
So that part is settled,
Victor and Elizabeth will go meet with Warren Tucker tomorrow
evening. Now then, Reno and Phil, where should the three of us be
in accordance to offer proper back-up?”

“
Wait just a second boss
man, if he knows you guys are out there, he will send out the
monsters! We have already been over this.”