"I hope you catch the culprit soon," Red replied as he shook her hand.
"As do we," Leno agreed as she shook my hand in turn. "You two have a safe night now."
Red showed the pair to the door and shut it behind them. I went to the kitchen and pulled out a box of cereal. He followed me to the kitchen.
His voice was tense. "Why'd you lie to them?"
I poured a bowl and went to the fridge. "Because their photo was a fake," I told him as I opened the fridge door. "I could see the photoshop cutting on the hairs beneath his ears."
"So what?" he returned.
I spun around and glared at him. "You knew, and you were still going to tell them?" I snapped.
"He tried to kill both of us, remember?" Red pointed out.
My eyes narrowed. "What if you're wrong? What if Mortale was the other one? The one that saved me?"
Red started back. His eyes widened a moment before his eyebrows crashed down. "Even if he was the other one that'd still make him a monster."
"That's what I'm going to find out," I replied. I forsook the cereal and swept past him towards the front door.
He grabbed my arm and looked into my eyes. "And if it is? What then? He's still a monster."
I shrugged out of his grasp and glared back at him. "I'll figure that out when I find him. You can either help or stay out of my way."
He searched my face for a moment before he sighed and nodded. "Fine, I'm coming with you. You don't know what the hell you're doing, anyway." He stalked past me and into his room. The door was left open, and I followed him to the doorway.
"What the hell does that mean?" I questioned him.
Red knelt beside the bed and pulled out a metal box from beneath the frame. His hands left smudges on the dusty cover. He placed the box on the sheets, unlocked the heavy lock on the front and opened the lid. Inside was a 9mm handgun with four clips. The clips were already loaded, and there was a fifth clip in the chamber. He popped it out before shoving it back inside.
"You're not supposed to keep those things loaded," I pointed out.
He stood and pocketed all but one of the clips. "And we're not supposed to be hunting werewolves, but we are."
I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. "Werewolves? Seriously?"
"You wanna tell me what else that thing could've been?" he dared me. I frowned, but didn't argue. I couldn't, not when I had no idea what those things had been. He tossed me the last clip. "You're going to need those."
I looked at the bullets. They were a light gray color. "Silver bullets?" I guessed.
"What else?" he returned.
I nodded at the tin box. "How long have you had these bullets in there?"
"You're not the only one who's been doing some work today," he explained.
"Right," I replied as I pocketed the clip.
"So where do we go from here, Miss Detective?" he asked me.
I pulled out the receipt I'd kept with me all day and held it up between two fingers. "Here."
CHAPTER 3
A quick online search told us the River Diner was an apt name. The business was located on the east side of the river and opposite the old industrial factories.
I drove us out there and parked on the worn-gravel outside the double doors. The neighborhood was rough. The city's infrastructure department hadn't touched the area in decades. The road that passed by the diner was deeply rutted, and the electric poles leaned. Garbage littered the ditches and there were no manholes that led to the sewers. There were no streetlights so the area was consumed by the night that surrounded us.
We stepped out of the car. Red glanced over the top and at me. "You sure you want to do this? We could just forget about this whole thing and go out to a movie, instead."
I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I can't forget, and we're going in."
I shut my door and strode up to the entrance. Red sighed and followed suit. We entered.
The diner was one of those old-fashioned, nineteen-fifties models with the row of stools and a narrow row of booths with faded, patched cushions. The place was old, but clean, with crystal-clear counter tops and swept floors. The lady who handled the counter chain-smoked her way up and down the stools. She wore a white apron over her plain pink shirt and calve-length skirt, and somehow got through those long days in short heels. Her silver-streaked hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her well-manicured hands rang up the price of meals faster than any hacker.
She plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and smiled at us. "Good evening. What can I get for you two?"
I took a seat on a stool and Red took the one beside me. "I'll have a hamburger with fries and a coke."
She wrote the list down and turned to red. "What about you, hun?"
"Got anything with regret?" he asked her. I glared at him.
"Pardon?" the woman wondered.
He smiled and shook his head. "Just give me the same."
She walked over to the window between the back of the counter and the kitchen. "Two cows between two wheats with everything and a side of deep-fried potatoes!"
"I heard 'em just fine!" called back an older gentleman. He stood at the hot grills with his back turned to us.
"Then why aren't they done yet?" she snapped.
"We didn't order everything," Red spoke up.
The woman turned and scoffed. "If it ain't everything than it ain't worth it," she retorted.
Red smiled and shrugged. "Hard to argue with that."
I leaned my elbows on the counter and took in the sights. The other tables and stools were empty. There were only two exits, one at the rear and the front door.
The woman leaned an elbow on the counter and studied us as I had studied the diner. "I know all the faces around here, and I never saw yours before. What brings you around this dump?"
"Are you snooping again, Matilda?" the older man scolded her.
She glared at him. "I'm just trying to be friendly, Jeff, so shut your pie-hole and make some more of them. We won't have enough tomorrow."
The man turned to us and waved his greasy spatula at Red and me. He punctuated his words with a downward swing that flung bits of grease across the floor in our direction. "Never get married to a troll on a full moon. She'll never give you a break between Blue Moons."
"You got your raise, and you asked," she reminded him.
"We actually came here looking for a friend," I spoke up.
Matilda turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "What's the name?"
"Mortale," I answered.
Jeff's eyes flickered to Matilda. She frowned and shrugged. "Can't say I know it."
"Are you sure?" I persisted.
She narrowed her eyes. "Are you two cops?"
I shook my head. "No, but-"
"Then what right have you to be bothering my customers?" she snapped.
One of the corners of my mouth twitched up. "Then he was here?"
Matilda straightened and glared at me. "Listen here. I don't know what you want, but-"
"We just want to talk to Mortale," I swore.
The woman's eyes flickered to Red. She jerked her head at him. "And him?"
"I'm here to make sure it stays a talk," he assured her.
"Then that's all I wanted to hear. You two get out of here right now," she ordered us.
I placed my palms on the diner counter. "But-"
"No buts." The woman jabbed her finger at the door. "Out."
"But our hamburgers aren't done," Red reminded her.
"You're not getting them, and I'm not charging you for anything, so get out before I call the real cops," she warned us.
I slid off the stool and grabbed Red's arm. "Come on. We're not wanted."
Red followed me outside to the car. I started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot of weeds.
"Not very friendly, were they?" Red commented.
"They're hiding something," I replied as I drove us onto the bumpy road.
Red raised an eyebrow. "You thi
nk it's him?"
I focused on the road, but my eyes narrowed. Mortale. We were going to a lot of trouble to find him, but something inside me told me it would be worth the effort."
Red slumped in his chair and sighed. "So what now? We call it a night?"
I shook my head. "Not by a long shot."
We passed by an abandoned railroad car and I turned off the road behind it. I parked the car so we faced the road. The entrance to the diner parking lot was only fifty yards to our left and down a dead-end road.
I shut off the engine and leaned back. "Now we wait."
Red frowned. "Wait? For what?"
"For them to take us to Mortale," I told him.
"That could take all night!" he protested.
I turned and glared at him. "You can go home, but you'll have to walk."
"Is this guy really worth getting us killed in a vehicle crash, or worse, sued for stalking?" Red asked me.
"That's what I want to find out," I replied.
Red pursed his lips and his eyes swept over me. "What is it that attracts you to him?"
I frowned. "I'm not attracted to him."
"You're certainly acting like a lovesick idiot," he retorted.
"I just want to find the truth," I argued.
"And you think that's going to make you happy?" he challenged me. He shifted in his seat so he faced me. "You think knowing what those things in the alley were is going to-"
"I don't know anything!" I snapped. Red started back and his eyes widened. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Listen, I just know I need to find the truth. I need to know the truth. I can't explain it any better than that."
Red relaxed and slumped in his seat. A small smile spread across his lips. He folded his arms across his chest and chuckled. "I hope you brought a pack of cards."
I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because while you were focused on finding that guy, I read the hours on the door. They close at midnight," he told me.
I checked my watch. It was almost seven. "Then we've got a long wait."
CHAPTER 4
We wiled away the hours with alternating silence and idle chat. Sometimes we napped. There was a slight benefit to the primitive state of the area. The stars, uninterrupted by streetlights and traffic, flickered above us in the bright, clear sky. I leaned forward across the top of the steering wheel and looked up at the pale moon. It was a god among its many worshipers.
"You're not going to try to find out the secrets of the moon, are you?" Red teased me.
I shifted my head atop my hands and raised an eyebrow at him. "What makes you say that?"
"Because you had that same determined look on your face, the one that's gotten us into this mess," he explained.
I looked ahead and sighed. "Maybe I am being an idiot, but I-" The glare from a pair of headlights caught my attention. I glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Ten minutes after midnight. "Duck!"
We slid down our seats and were hidden by the dashboard as the car drove by. I peeked over the edge and caught sight of two people in an old station wagon. Matilda was at the wheel.
I sat up and started the car. "Time to go see what they know."
I followed the station wagon at a safe distance. They led us to the dingy section of the suburbs where sat the first houses that were swallowed by the city expansion a couple of decades before I was born. The white paint had pealed off their siding when I was ten, and the roofs needed replacing five years after that. The white picket fences were long gone, replaced with tall weeds and cars torn apart to their shells.
Our targets parked in the driveway of one of the better-kept homes. The windows were all in one piece and there was even some grass between the old siding and the cracked sidewalk. A large window to the right of the front door dominated the front of the house. The weak light of a single lamp shone through the thick curtains that covered the window.
The man and woman stepped out of the car. The woman slammed her door shut and hurried around the car. She spoke a few words to her husband and they both hurried inside. More lights flicked on. The two shadowy forms of our pursued stepped into the window frame from the left. A third shadow joined them from the right.
"Bingo," I whispered. I grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. "You stay here and be the watch. I'll see what's up."
"Do you know how insane this is?" he asked me.
"Yep," I quipped as I scuttled out the mouth of the alley. I ducked behind the garbage can, and Red appeared beside me. "What the hell are you doing?" I hissed.
"Like I'm going to be left behind while you get yourself killed," he replied.
I narrowed my eyes. "He's not going to kill me."
Red studied me. His voice was soft but tense. "How can you be so sure? Or are you just blinded by some weird infatuation for him?"
I turned my face away from his prying eyes. "He's not going to kill me because I'm not going to give him the chance."
Red snorted. "You're doing a damn good job of giving him a chance."
I scooted around the edge of the garbage can. "Then stay here if you want. I'm going in."
I hurried across the sidewalk and lawn. Red followed close behind me. We covered the grass and slipped onto the small, square step that stood in front of the door. Voices floated through the door. My heart jumped when I thought I recognized Mortale' familiar muttering. We stood straight, and I knocked loudly on the door.
The voices stopped. The faint sound of footsteps approached the door. I could imagine them looking through the peephole in the door. There was some hushed whispering. Footsteps retreated deeper into the house. The deadbolt was unlocked and the door opened to reveal the woman from the diner. She frowned at both of us.
"Didn't I tell you two to-" I pushed past her and into the large living room.
I swept the room for any signs of him. He was gone. I turned to the woman as her husband stepped up beside her. "We know he's here. Where are you hiding him?"
She crossed her arms over her ample chest and glared at us. "That's none of your business, now get out before we call the cops."
"You wouldn't want to do that. Not when you're harboring him," I warned her.
The woman's scowl deepened. She pointed a finger at the door. "Get out right now or-" A soft, mumbling voice interrupted her.
"It's all right."
A opening to a hallway stood to our left and divided the house down the middle. Mortale stepped out from the shadows. His head hung down and he stared at the floor.
Matilda walked over to Mortale and put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't owe these people nothing. From what you told us they're practically strangers."
"He owes me an explanation," I spoke up. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the broken necklace. "This was torn from the neck of the thing that killed those guys last night. Was it you who did it?"
Mortale cringed and shook his head. "I didn't kill anyone."
"Then what did you do? Give them a love tap that was a little too hard?" I quipped.
"I didn't do anything! I wasn't there!" he insisted.
I started back. Those were my very words to Fox and Reggie.
Red was unmoved. He raised an eyebrow. "You were there. You attacked me, remember?"
Mortale clutched the sides of his head and shook his head. "I wasn't there!"
"Then where were you? And why did I find this necklace nearby?" I questioned him.
Matilda stepped between Mortale and us, and she narrowed her eyes. "You two get out now."
The woman moved towards us, and Red slid between her and me. His eyes narrowed and his lips curled back in a snarl.
"Don't you dare-"
"Ah!"
The sound that interrupted Red came from Mortale. He clutched his stomach and was doubled over. The woman abandoned her threats and hurried over to him. She put her hands on his shoulders.
"What's the matter, Vince?" she asked him. Vince. That must've been his first name.
&nbs
p; He ground his teeth together and shook his head. "There's. . .it feels like my gut's on fire."
"Let's get you to the bathroom. Maybe it was something you ate," she suggested.
"Like your cooking," the old man commented.
She whipped her head up and glared at him. "This ain't the time for jokes, Jeff." She jerked her head towards us. "Get them out of here while I help Vince."
Matilda escorted Vincent down the hall. My eyes flickered to the ill man. He hung his head, but I could see his eyes were wide and scared. Those eyes. They were always that brilliant green color.
Jeff turned to us and shooed us with his hands. "Come on, you heard the woman."
Red snorted. "If that's a woman then I'm a leprechaun."
"Then you can just get back to your pot of gold and leave us alone," Jeff retorted.
I ducked around Red and beneath Jeff's outstretched arms. They both tried to grab me, but they missed and I slipped into the hall.
"Hey!" both men yelled.
The hallway was short, maybe thirty feet, and halfway down on the right side was a plain white door. The door was ajar and I saw the rear end of Matilda. She stepped back and held the door knob in her hand.
"Now just stay there and I'll be right back after I toss those two into the dumpster out back," she assured him. She paused and whipped her head to me. Her eyes narrowed and she slammed the door shut. "You just git out of here!" she ordered me.
I ducked around her thick arms and slipped behind her so I stood in front of the doorway.
"I just want to get answers," I told her.
"Then go shake to a Magic 8 ball because he ain't talking!" she snapped as she stalked towards me.
I grabbed the knob and flung open the door. The room revealed was a long, narrow bathroom. An empty bathroom. The window at the rear of the room was wide open, and the curtains fluttered in a soft breeze.
"Damn it," I muttered.
Matilda stopped in the doorway and her eyes widened. "What the hell!"
Hell is what we entered as a crash came from the living room. We bumped into each other like pin balls in a machine as we tried to get to the hallway opening. The room was a dark disaster. Glass littered the carpet, and the lamps were knocked down and broken. Jeff lay on the ground near the broken front window. Red tussled with two figures near the front door. The intruders wore full-length black suits with ski masks over their faces except for their eyes. Their punches were swung so fast that I could barely follow them.
"Jeff!" Matilda yelled.
She dove at him and knelt by his side. The two dark figures got off a couple of good punches in Red's face and got a hold of his arms. They locked them behind his back so he faced me. His eyes fell on me and he nodded towards the hallway behind me.