The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

just show me the CCTV
tapes please? Then I’ll be on my way. I’ve got a hell of a busy day ahead.’
    ‘Of course.’  
    Inside the security office,
sitting in a rather knackered looking blue chair was a guard in a grey uniform.
He was watching a bank of television monitors on the wall in front of him. He
was a big, broad shouldered fellow with blond wavy hair and striking blue eyes.
Simmonds strolled over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
    ‘James, did you manage to make a
copy of the murder footage for the police?’
    The security guard sat upright.
‘Sure did, sir.’ He picked up a CD in a plastic case that was on the desk in
front of him. ‘It’s all on there.’
    Simmonds took the CD and held it
out for Harker.
    ‘Thanks,’ said Harker, snatching
the CD away from him. He peered over the security guard’s shoulder at the bank
of monitors he was watching. They showed live footage of the goings on all
around the museum.
    ‘Say, James,’ Harker said. ‘Could
you get the footage of the murder up on screen for me now? Be useful if I could
take a quick look at it before I leave, just in case I spot anything I’d like
to ask you guys about. I wouldn’t wanna be two miles away watching it and
wishing I could ask you what I’m looking at.’
    ‘Sure thing sir,’ said James. He
pressed a few keys on a keyboard on the desk in front of him and then pointed
up at a monitor on the right. ‘Should be coming up on this screen here.’
    Harker leaned over James’s
shoulder to get a closer look at the footage on the black and white monitor.
The image wasn’t especially clear. He was able to make out the figure of
Bertram Cromwell sitting in a comfy chair in the museum’s staff room. The
professor was watching the news on a television. After about ten seconds,
Harker saw a tall figure in a hooded robe enter the room. Cromwell stood up
from his chair and a brief exchange of dialogue followed, none of which was
available due to the lack of audio provided by the CCTV camera. The dark hooded
figure of the Bourbon Kid then pulled a machete out from within his robe.
Harker winced as he watched the Kid hack Cromwell to pieces. It was as violent
a death as the new Police Captain had ever witnessed, and he had seen a fair
bit of violence in his time. It seemed like an extremely unjust way for such a
decent man to die. At the end of the slaying, the Kid walked calmly out of the
room. James the security guard pressed a button on his keyboard and the image
froze on screen showing Cromwell’s dead body lying in a pool of his own blood
on the floor.
    ‘It gets worse every time I see
it,’ said Simmonds, visibly shuddering.
    ‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ said Harker.
Something had caught his eye at the bottom of the screen. He stared closely at
it for a moment, recalling something the Mayor had said when they had spoken
earlier. ‘Is that clock right?’ he asked, pointing at the time display in the
bottom corner of the screen.
    James the security guard nodded.
‘Yep. Two thirty-seven. That’s about right I think. I saw the Professor about
twenty minutes before that. I recommended that he go home but he was totally
glued to the news, watching all the updates about the murders and stuff.’
    ‘Interesting,’ said Harker,
scratching his chin. ‘The Bourbon Kid was reported dead not long after
midnight. We got a whole bunch of eyewitnesses to back that up too.’
    Simmonds looked surprised.
‘Really?’
    ‘Yeah. He was gunned down and
beheaded by a bunch of military guys in an apartment block. I was under the
assumption that Cromwell was one of his last victims before they caught him.
This kind of complicates things.’
    ‘So the Bourbon Kid is still
alive?’
    Harker nodded. ‘So it would seem.
I’ll take this CD and be on my way. If the Bourbon Kid is still at large I’d better
make sure the press are aware. The public have a right to know that the streets
are still unsafe.’
    ‘You might want to tell those
military guys that they beheaded the wrong person too.’
    Harker smiled. ‘I’m hoping they’ll
see it on the news before they leave town, if they’re even still around.’

 
    Six

 
    Snow was falling from the skies
over Santa Mondega for the first time that Dante could remember. He marvelled
at it as Vanity drove him and Kacy to the Casa de Ville.  
    “Cool car, ain’t it, babe?” Dante
heard Vanity say to Kacy.   “Ford
Ranger.   Brand new, too.”
    “Pity it’s blue,” Kacy said