The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

tell you what I am sure of. If we
try to get the Eye out of his head, we’ll most likely get killed. But if we
don’t get it out of his head, the whole world is gonna end.’
    Kacy looked around at the cheering
mob of vampires surrounding them. ‘This is very bad,’ she muttered.

 
    Seven

 
    Upon arriving at the police
station for his first morning as the new captain, Dan Harker was disappointed
to find that the place was a horrible mess. The aftermath of the previous day’s
massacre was still in evidence. Although there were no dead bodies around, the
reception area was still covered in blood. An elevator at the back of reception
was covered in blood and faeces.
    He eyed the elevator warily and
took the stairs on his way to the Forensics department on the third floor. Most
of the forensics guys had survived the previous night’s massacre and one of
them, William Clay, had even turned up for work. Harker found Clay at the first
desk inside the office.
    Clay was a tall, gangly,
socially awkward scientist type with round glasses and a shaved head that
neatly disguised a thinning patch on the top of his head. He was sitting behind
his desk in the same long white coat he wore every day. As Harker came through
the door, he looked up and then immediately closed down a window on his
computer monitor.
    Harker greeted him cordially.
‘Hi, Bill,’ he said. ‘Is this a bad time?’
    Clay smiled. ‘Nah, fine. You
caught me by surprise. What can I do for you, Lieutenant Dan?’
    ‘It’s Captain Harker from today,
thank you.’
    ‘I know, just kidding.
Congratulations by the way. You pleased?’
    ‘Ecstatic.’
    ‘I’ll bet. Get a good raise?’
    ‘I did okay.’
    ‘Good, ’cause you know the last
two Captains were killed by the Bourbon Kid. Let’s hope he’s not looking for a
hat trick.’
    ‘Don’t you watch the news?
Bourbon Kid’s dead.’
    Clay peered over the top of his
glasses. ‘He’s not though, is he? I can tell just by the look on your face.’
    Harker pushed the door shut
behind him and walked over to Clay’s desk. ‘It looks like he somehow faked his
death. An hour or so after he was beheaded he showed up at the museum and
killed Bertram Cromwell.’
    ‘How do you fake having your
head cut off?’
    ‘You get someone who looks like
you to take your place.’
    ‘I’m not sure I’ve got a friend
that would give up their head to save me.’
    ‘Me either. But the Bourbon Kid
had one. I have no idea who it was. Just another John Doe to add to the list of
victims, I suppose.’
    ‘Which includes most of our
colleagues,’ Clay sighed.
    ‘Not all of whom will be
missed.’
    ‘That’s harsh.’
    Harker rubbed his chin. There
was no easy way to make his next revelation without Clay thinking he was
insane, so he decided to simply blurt it out. ‘Did you know the last Police
Captain was a vampire?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I said –’
    ‘I heard what you said.’ Clay
frowned. ‘You just implied that Captain De La Cruz was a vampire.’
    ‘I didn’t imply it. I came right
out and said it.’
    Clay looked shocked, and unsure
of whether or not he was being teased. ‘You mean vampire, as in, sucks blood
and turns into a bat?’
    Harker looked around the room
and spotted a plastic chair nearby. He grabbed it and sat down opposite Clay.
‘I don’t imagine the bat thing is real, but he was definitely a blood sucker.’
    ‘Seriously, you think he was
drinking people’s blood?’
    ‘I know he was.’
    ‘I hear the rumours of vampires
in the town all the time, but I assumed it was at worst just a group of
people drinking blood and pretending to be vampires or something like that.’
    ‘It’s very real.’
    Clay didn’t look convinced. ‘So
I could have killed De La Cruz with a crucifix or some garlic then?’ he said
with a hint of sarcasm.
    ‘He would probably have
preferred that to the way he was killed last night.’
    ‘Yeah, I heard. A shotgun up the
asshole. Shitty way to go.’
    ‘Yeah, his lunch is all over the
elevator. I’m gonna have to get some poor sucker to clean that up later.’
    ‘Don’t look at me.’
    ‘Don’t piss me off then. Anyway,
I didn’t come here just to talk to you about dirty elevators and vampire’s
assholes.’
    ‘So what can I do for you?’
    ‘I spent half an hour on my laptop
this morning going through De La Cruz’s private files. There’s one particular
case he was working on that stood out. I can’t work out how it’s never been