The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

the pool hall and leapt over the
landing, jumping down three flights of stairs to the ground below.

 

 
    Thirty-Five

 
    Dan Harker had spent much of the
morning at his desk staring at his computer monitor, trawling through the
previously top secret files of the previous captain, Michael De La Cruz. Almost
every single one of them related to either the child killer or the Bourbon Kid.
The child murders had never been investigated. Every single one of them had
been filed under the list of Bourbon Kid victims. This wasn’t just lazy police work,
this was blatant corruption. It had been started by Archibald Somers and
continued by De La Cruz. But why had they been so keen to pin every murder on
the Bourbon Kid? Was it just because he was an easy target? Or was he an enemy
of theirs? An enemy to the undead?
    After an hour of viewing
countless files containing almost identical details, Harker came across De La
Cruz’s file for the death of Archie Somers. And this one was interesting. It
was the only case with any evidence to prove that the Kid had murdered the
victim in question. It contained a link to some CCTV footage too. He brought it
up onto the screen and moved his face closer to the monitor to get a good look
at what was a rather grainy picture. The film footage showed the Bourbon Kid
turning up at the police station and gunning down all of the on duty police
officers. The only survivor initially was a receptionist named Amy Webster. The
camera was positioned behind the Kid and showed the look of terror on Miss
Webster’s face as she followed his instructions. Unfortunately there was no
audio, so Harker could only speculate on what was being discussed. It looked as
though the Kid was dictating to Amy what to say on the phone. Eventually, after
she replaced the phone on its handset, he issued one more instruction. Amy
closed her eyes and a second later he fired a bullet through the middle of her
face. Maybe it was this kind of behaviour that made Somers and De La Cruz
decide to pin every unsolved murder on the Kid? After all, he was clearly a merciless
killer.
    Harker skipped forward through
twenty minutes of film where nothing happened. He resumed play again when
Archie Somers showed up at the station to confront the Kid. It proved to be
fascinating viewing. Harker had to rewind and watch it several times to make
sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him. After a minute of heated discussion
between the two, Somers transformed into a vampire and flew at the Bourbon Kid,
grabbing him and plunging his teeth into his neck. The Kid embraced Somers and
held him tightly, but then came the strangest part. A puff of smoke appeared
from in between the two men. More words were exchanged and then Somers
staggered back. He had a large hardback book stuck to his chest. A small cloud
of smoke was emanating from beneath the book. Somers tugged at the book,
desperately trying to rip it from his chest. The damn thing wasn’t shifting
though. It stayed glued to him, smouldering for a while until suddenly Somers
literally exploded into a ball of flames, waving his arms wildly and screaming.
Moments later he disintegrated into a pile of smoking ash on the floor. So,
Somers the vampire had met a grisly end, but what was the deal with the Kid?
Was he some kind of vampire slayer? And if so, why did he also kill innocent
people, like Amy Webster?
    As Harker pondered the answers
to a multitude of questions, he heard a knock on his office door. Stood at the
glass door wearing a long white coat was Bill Clay from the Forensics
department. Harker gestured to him to enter. Clay pushed at the door a few
times with no success before finally kicking it at the bottom and forcing it
open. He walked in and closed it behind him with another kick and then turned
to face the Captain.
    ‘Hey Cap, how you doin’?’
    ‘What can I do for you, Bill?’
Harker asked.
    ‘Switchboard is going nuts down
there. Flake can’t cope with all the calls.’
    ‘Get her buddy Sanchez to help
her.’
    ‘Don’t you think he’d just annoy
people?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Harker shrugging.
‘Then they’ll hang up. He’s perfect for it.’
    Clay smiled. ‘Well there’s one
small problem. Sanchez hasn’t showed up for work. In fact Flake’s only just
come in herself.’
    ‘Lazy assholes.’
    ‘Yeah, but there’s a reason for
their lateness.’
    ‘It better be good.’
    ‘It’s not bad. Flake says they
bumped into your child killer this