M Sellars - Blood Moon

With a quizzical look on his face, Ben reached out and gave me a hand up. “What’s up, you see another dead swan or somethin’ over in la-la land?”

“No,” I said as I focused on the grainy memory looping through my mind and rushed to get the words out in a frantic declaration. “I saw the killer’s address.”

“Is Judith all right?” Captain Albright demanded.

I had barely finished blurting out the revelation about the address to Ben when her words came at me from behind. I turned to find her staring at me with the same look of concern she had been wearing earlier, but there was no mistaking the thread of hopefulness in her voice.

“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head. “I didn’t see her.”

“What do you mean you didn’t see her?” she insisted.

“I mean I didn’t see her,” I replied before swinging back around to face Ben and fire off, “Twenty-three oh two South Millston Street. The killer is there. Right now.”

“You sure?” Ben asked.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said.

Albright stepped around and grabbed me by the collar. With urgent panic in her tone, she shouted, “Damn you, Gant! Where is my daughter?”

I reached up and grasped her wrists as I started to respond, but the moment the question sank in I hesitated. Instead of struggling, I simply stood there motionless and stared back into her contorted face. Her outburst brought an instantaneous halt to all conversation around me, or so it seemed.

After a few seconds that felt as if they dragged on for minutes, Ben cleared his throat and said, “Um, Captain… Don’t ya’ mean niece?”

Albright didn’t even bother to look at him. A dim flicker of realization over her slip showed in her eyes, but rather than respond to my friend’s question, she let out a small shriek then pushed me. I stumbled back but maintained my footing.

“Is Judith with the killer?” she spat.

“Maybe…” I replied, shaking my head. “I don’t know. All I can say is that I think he had someone…”

She cut me off. “You think?”

“Barbara, I told you I didn’t see her. I just heard the killer talking to someone.”

“Are you certain it wasn’t Judith?”

“Whoever it was didn’t say anything,” I replied. “But, you’re missing the point here. I saw the killer’s address and yes, he has someone with him. Don’t you think you should send someone to at least check out what I’m telling you?”

She huffed out a heavy breath and glared at me. After a moment she looked over to my friend and said, “He’s your devil worshipper, Storm. Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

I sighed and dropped my forehead into my hand. I couldn’t win with this woman no matter what I did. I had to bite my tongue, but I knew getting into another altercation with her would just be wasting valuable time.

“Listen, Row… This address you gave me. Is it around here?” Ben asked, gesturing with a sweep of his arm.

“I don’t know,” I told him.

“But you’re sure about the number and the street?”

“Yes.” I nodded vigorously. “Absolutely.”

“Okay, what I can do is call it in and have dispatch run a search on Millston Streets,” he offered. “But here’s the problem-we either need a warrant or some serious probable cause to kick down a door. Like I’ve told ya’ before, you and the Twilight Zone don’t qualify on either count.”

“Hey, if I remember correctly, it was the police who insisted on my involvement in this,” I countered. “Especially you, Barbara.”

“I know,” my friend replied. “I’m just sayin’ this is a sticky situation. And if you’re wrong and what we end up with is a grandma sittin’ there readin’ ‘er Bible…”

“I’m not wrong, Ben,” I appealed before he could finish. “Besides, it’s an old, boarded up house. It looked like it had been burned at one time, so you aren’t going to find a grandma with a Bible there. Just a killer and a potential victim, unless you keep screwing around and let her become a statistic.”

“Chill out… Now, you’re sure about all this?”

“Goddammit, will you stop asking me that?” I shot back. “Why the hell are you doubting me all of a sudden?”

He reached up and smoothed back his hair then rested his hand on the side of his neck while gesturing with the other. “No offense, white man, but this ain’t how you usually work. Normally, ya’ don’t just hand us an address and say go get the bad guy. Ya’ tell me somethin’ like ya’ saw a bunch of blood and a flash of light, or a spirit makes ya’ write bad poems and ya’ have nightmares about flyin’ monkeys or some shit.” He shrugged. “Somethin’ off the wall like that… Ya’know… Twilight Zone…”

“So maybe I’m getting better at this,” I snapped. “Are you going to completely discount what I’m saying just because I’m being specific this time?”

“Okay… Okay… Calm down.”

“How can I calm down? I just told you where to find the killer and that he has someone with him. But instead of doing something about it, you’re just standing here giving me the third degree.”

He glanced over at Albright who was remaining completely silent.

“Look, Row, I told ya’, we’ll check it out,” he replied, turning back to me and pulling out his notebook. “Gimme that exact address again.”

“Twenty-three oh two South Millston Street,” I repeated.

“Twenty-three oh two…” he mumbled back to me. “You’re…”

My frustrated retort was already poised on the end of my tongue, but fortunately he stopped himself before completing the question.

“Yeah, I know,” he muttered as he scribbled. “You’re sure.” He turned and looked toward some of the other cops a few feet away. “Hey… Yeah, you. Is there a South Millston Street around here anywhere?”

“No,” the deputy replied, shaking his head. “Don’t know of one in the immediate area. Maybe in Saint Charles.”

“Okay, thanks.” Ben pulled out his phone and directed himself back to me. “I’m gonna call in and have dispatch run a search for me. Just so ya’ know, this is prob’ly gonna take a coupl’a minutes, so ya’ need ta’ just get a grip and calm down.”

I stooped and snatched up my jacket from the asphalt where it had been dropped during the earlier havoc. I slipped into it while he started punching a number into the keypad of his cell. I wasn’t excited about the delay, but there was nothing else I could do. At least he was starting the ball rolling instead of interrogating me further.

I let out a heavy sigh then glanced around and spotted Felicity leaning against a light standard in the distance, well on the opposite side of the crime scene tape. If there was going to be a wait, then now was as good a time as any for me to start my own ball down the lane.

“Well let me know what you find out,” I said to my friend, my voice unintentionally sharp. I nodded my head in the direction of my sulking wife then added, “I’ll be over there finding out how long I’m going to be sleeping on the couch.”

“Why do you have to be so reckless, then?” Felicity asked, her voice calm but still betraying a definite subtext of annoyance.

I had taken it as a good sign that she didn’t simply walk away when I approached. She was still leaning back against the light standard, and I was next to her doing the same, more or less sitting on the edge of the large concrete base and pressing the back of my head against the cold post. At first it seemed to afford a little relief from the pain in my skull, but as expected it didn’t last long.

We had been standing in silence for a long measure. I was keeping an eye on Ben as he talked on the phone while at the same time trying to focus my aching brain on a suitable apology I could offer my wife. I certainly wasn’t going to say something empty just to get myself out of hot water. I wanted to honestly attempt to make amends to her. I just wasn’t sure where to start except to simply say I was sorry, which seemed a bit lame under any circumstances.