The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

eventually.
    ‘Which one’s worse, do you
think?’ Flake asked.
    ‘I figure they’re both pretty
bad.’
    Flake grimaced. She looked
genuinely concerned for her wellbeing. ‘I think I’d rather have read the first
hundred or so pages of The Book With No Name, than have my name written down in
The Book of Death,’ she decided eventually.
    Sanchez took off his sunglasses
and slipped them into his breast pocket to take a better look at The Book With
No Name. ‘Have you told Captain Harker about this?’ he asked.
    ‘No. He’s real busy with some
kind of child killer case. He’s been on the news all day talking about it.’
    ‘Child killer, eh?’
    ‘Yeah, someone’s been poisoning
kids and draining their blood.’
    ‘Bloody vampire, I’ll bet.’
    Flake nodded in agreement.
‘Yeah. Harker reckons there could be hundreds of victims, mostly orphans.’
    ‘Well, we’re lucky we’re adults,
aren’t we?’ said Sanchez finding something positive to take from the
distressing news.
    ‘Terrible though, isn’t it?’
    ‘Absolutely. What happens when
he runs out of kids to kill? He might move on to adults. Then we’ll be in
trouble.’
    Flake frowned. ‘I hope he does
try his luck with us. We’ve got this book that kills vampires, remember.’
    ‘Oh yeah, good thinking,’ said
Sanchez. Flake really was pretty smart sometimes, for a waitress. He glanced at
his watch. ‘The library will be closed now. I’ll go tomorrow morning and take
back another book I borrowed yesterday. I’ll look for The Book of Death while
I’m there.’
    ‘I’ll come with you,’ Flake
offered.
    ‘It’s okay. That’s not
necessary.’
    ‘You could pop by the Ole Au
Lait first and we could have breakfast together,’ Flake suggested.
    Sanchez slipped his hat back on
as he contemplated her offer. She clearly had plans to share in the reward on
offer for returning The Book of Death to Jessica. He slipped his sunglasses
back on to hide the deceit in his eyes.
    ‘Yeah, okay. See you there at
about nine o’clock tomorrow morning.’
    ‘Great!’ she beamed. She
continued babbling on about something or other as Sanchez made his way out of
the station. He had no intention of stopping off at the Ole Au Lait for
breakfast. Getting to the library first thing in the morning was his top
priority.

 
    Twenty-Three

 
    Kacy hadn’t set foot in the
Tapioca for a long time. The place hadn’t changed much. It was still a
shithole. The walls were a disgusting yellow colour, it stank of cigarette
smoke and although it wasn’t very busy, everyone in there looked like a
criminal. The only major difference was that there wasn’t a fat guy behind the
bar this time.
    She followed Dante and the
Bourbon Kid up to the bar. Before they had even taken a seat, the Kid called
out to the barmaid.
    ‘Get me a bourbon. And fill the
glass.’
    Kacy grabbed a stool and sat
down at the bar. The barmaid set a whisky glass down on the bar and began
filling it to the top with bourbon from a dirty brown bottle of Jim Beam.
    Dante nudged Kacy. ‘Watch what
happens once he’s downed it. Those four guys at the table in the corner are
most likely gonna get wasted.’
    Kacy glanced over at the table
in question and saw four greasy lowlifes supping at bottles of beer. She made
eye contact with one of them and immediately looked back to the bar. The Kid
had thrown a five-dollar bill at the barmaid.
    ‘Keep the change,’ he muttered.
    As the barmaid began ringing the
sale up in the till at the back of the bar, he picked up the glass of bourbon
and took a long hard look at it, inspecting the contents. The glass wasn’t
particularly clean and the bourbon didn’t look particularly special, but he was
definitely going to drink it. He put the glass to his lips and poured the
contents down his throat. Then he slammed it back down on the bar.
    From all that she had heard
about him, Kacy expected to see him turn into a giant psycho, or pull out an
arsenal of weapons. What actually happened was distinctly underwhelming. He
simply stared down into the empty glass, deep in thought.
    Eventually he looked over at
them. ‘I feel nothing,’ he said. ‘Something’s gone. Right now I should be
looking at those four guys in the corner and deciding on how I’m gonna kill
’em.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ Dante asked.
    ‘I can’t think of a good reason
to kill them.’
    ‘Since when did you need a
reason?’
    ‘Since now.’
    Kacy gestured over to a table