by David
Diane caught up with him just then, and directed her pistol toward the exit into a hallway as Lee stepped through the opening into the office. A chair was wedged against the knob of a narrow office door, probably a closet judging from the location. He could hear tapping and muffled speech within.
He took a quick look around. Elka wasn't hiding behind the desk, and except for the closet, there were no other places to conceal herself. The curtain was askew.
Lee had to use quite a bit of force to yank the chair away from the closet door. Huddled together on the floor inside were a man and woman, bound and gagged, in their nightclothes.
While Diane kept watch on the hall, Lee cut the couple's bonds with his dagger, then helped them to their feet and out of the closet. The couple, Hispanics in their early fifties, took off their own gags.
"Anyone else here besides you?" Lee whispered to the man.
"Just that bitch who did this to us," the woman whispered back harshly before her husband could speak.
"Go down the street to a neighbor's house and get inside. More police are coming," Lee whispered, turning the woman toward the opening he'd created in the door. They left immediately, slipping through the damaged door without comment.
Lee joined Diane in the short hallway leading to the rest of the house and took a quick look around the corner. It was dark, at least for nonvampires. Ahead was a longer hall leading to a central area, possibly a den or the living room.
Halfway down the hall on the opposite side Lee could smell scented soap. The open doorway probably led into a laundry room. He tiptoed down the carpeted hall, keeping his pistol pointed toward the doorway. Diane was crouched low on the opposite side to the hall, covering the far end of the hall and the central space beyond.
Using hand signals, Lee indicated that he was going to check out the scented room. In a heartbeat he was crouched by the entrance. He took a quick look, ducking back before a trigger could be pulled. It was obviously a laundry room with updated appliances and other high-end features, but there were no humans or vampires hiding inside.
Lee turned and looked at Diane, shaking his head. Advancing to the end of the hall, Diane covering him, Lee looked out into a large den or family room. An enormous television and bookshelf filled most of a flagstone wall, and on the opposite side of the room was a large sofa unit and several easy chairs. In the center of the floor was a standard pool table, and in the corner a wide stairway with oak steps circled up to a wide landing with a dark railing. At the base of the stairs was another door, leading to the garage based upon its location.
"I was hoping you two wouldn't wait for the others to arrive. After all, you're probably the only ones who know how important it is to really kill me," Elka called down the stairwell from one of the upper floors. "You'd better hurry. If you don't kill me before the others arrive, I might just surrender to someone else and let them take me to jail."
Lee and Diane exchanged glances as she moved forward, even with him now. There were two more floors, based upon the windows they'd seen when driving up, but the voice had been faint. She could have been on the third floor, but had to have been close to the stairwell to hear them at all.
"I heard you release the Moras. They seem like such a loving couple. I hated putting them in the closet, But I didn't want them to get in the way when you two arrived," Elka said.
Lee moved up the stairs quickly. At the top of the landing was a huge living room with a big fireplace. In one direction was an open area containing a dining table, and beyond, a shiny, expensive kitchen. At the opposite end were a glass wall and sliding doors leading out to a balcony overlooking the valley to the west.
"Up here, children," Elka called from the third floor.
Lee glanced up the stairwell, but no one was visible. Taking very light steps, he inched upward. Once his head was just above the level of the third floor, which was hardwood, Lee stopped and looked around cautiously. Down the hall on his right was a set of double doors, possibly the master bedroom.
In the opposite direction was another, almost identical hall, but with three open doorways, one on either side, and a third at the end. That room appeared to be almost empty except for the edge of a barely visible metal contraption that reminded him of exercise equipment. Moving off the stairs, he flattened himself against the wall of the hallway containing the open doors and waited, keeping his pistol ready. He wasn't worried about the closed doors at the moment.
Diane, fast but not nearly as quick or light on her feet, came up now, took a look, then stepped off the stairs and took a position against the opposite wall. She was crouched, pistol ready, covering the open doors ahead of them.
He waited for her to catch her breath.
"You're pretty light on your feet for a human, Agent Lopez, but I can tell the difference," Elka said. "Until now I didn't know that Nez hadn't turned you."
Lee and Diane waited, not saying a word. Two minutes went by while they listened, trying to detect any movement that would verify exactly where she was. Lee thought she might be in the second room down, but he couldn't be certain.
"You know why I killed Rogers, don't you? He was the worst kind of man—weak, a user. I let him shoot me, then scraped him with my bloody fingernail. Fool, he was so grateful I was shot and not him that he probably never even noticed what I'd done. Did you see it? He went up in flames like the Hindenberg." Elka laughed. This time her voice was strong and steady, full of purpose.
They waited for Elka to speak again and it didn't take long. "I could be gone by now, you know. I was going to retire. But I just had to try and see if I could get you too, Nez. Even if I don't, it won't really matter that much. I've had a good, very long life. And I still won. I've already killed the man who destroyed my family."
Lee heard a vehicle pull up outside, then maybe two or three more.
Elka heard them too. The hardwood floor creaked slightly, and then the tip of a pistol barrel appeared beside the doorjamb at waist level. Diane had been looking in just the right direction. She fired one shot, hitting the pistol close to the muzzle and knocking it out of Elka's hand.
Lee ran forward and dove into the room, coming to his feet in a roll with his pistol up just as a figure in a blue jumpsuit ran through an adjoining door into the end room. He followed Elka at a run, thinking she wouldn't expect immediate pursuit.
Elka flashed across the brightly lit exercise room, enhanced by two wide, nearly ceiling-height windows on each of the exterior walls. Diane fired from back down the hall as Elka passed across her sights, missing Elka by a few inches and striking the wall between windows.
The tall, red-haired vampire drew a backup pistol from her pocket and fired two shots as she ducked behind what looked like a juice bar on casters. Lee dodged, firing back. He missed Elka but a blender exploded on the counter and the window behind the bar broke, cascading down to the floor like a waterfall of glass.
Diane appeared beside the hall door, low to the ground, straining to locate Elka. Lee moved forward again, pistol aimed at the bar. If Elka poked her head out, she was dead.
"Cover me!" he shouted. Lee jammed his pistol back in the holster and dove into the room.
Elka risked a quick look and Diane snapped off a shot. The bullet missed, taking out the biggest remaining sliver of the six-foot-high window.
Lee rose from the floor and charged like an offensive tackle, striking the bar with his shoulder and pushing it toward the window. Elka grunted from the impact and stuck her pistol out, firing blindly. Bullets erupted from through the wood panel, and Lee felt the impact of one striking his vest. He churned forward, driving with his legs and shoulder, forcing the bar all the way to the wall. Elka screamed as she crashed into the window opening, but Lee kept pushing.
Diane arrived just then and jammed her shoulder into the bar, adding to the pressure, forcing the bar forward. Elka lost the contest, slipping on the glass-littered carpet. She toppled out of the window backward. The portable bar followed her down the o
utside of the building, taking part of the window frame with it.
Lee looked out and saw Elka hit the gravel just before the bar did. The heavy piece of furniture struck her on the head and upper body before shattering into pieces.
He felt his neck getting warm and ducked back inside out of the direct sunlight. He'd lost his cap in the other room.
Elka tried to scream, perhaps, but her head had been sliced open by the impact of the bar top and the cry came out muffled, as if her mouth were half full. Then she lay still and silent, apparently unconscious. Four officers in blue raid jackets ran up, aiming their assault weapons and pistols at the woman. No one fired, but they kept their distance, waiting and watching, apparently respecting what they'd all heard concerning Elka's resilience. Finally someone yelled, "Medic!" Still, nobody moved any closer.
Within seconds Elka's head began to darken, her hair shriveling into black coils. Then came smoke. Everyone below took a step back. Suddenly the wounds on her face burst into flames, spreading quickly. There was a loud moan, more like a rumble as she began to thrash around wildly; then the sound died abruptly. Lee stepped back, deciding it was time to find his cap, but Diane remained at the window for a moment.
"All clear," she shouted down to the officers, then turned back to Lee, who'd found his cap. "You sure you're wearing enough sunblock?"
He nodded. "I'll find a way to stand in the shade, though."
"Let's try to do the debrief inside, just in case. I've seen enough roasting flesh today to last me a lifetime." Diane looked at him anxiously.
"You think Elka really thought she could kill me—us—before the rest of the officers arrived?" Lee asked her. "She sure didn't go out of that window easily. Hell of a fighter."
"We may never know for sure what was really going through her mind. But she couldn't have gone far on foot. You notice she wasn't even wearing a hat? Maybe she did plan on surrendering—taking her chances later with a jail-break once the sun went down," Diane said with a shrug. "All in all, I don't think she was really suicidal."
Five hours later Diane and Lee drove away from the crime scene. "If we hadn't taken out Elka, we'd be on suspension for not waiting until backup arrived and coordinating efforts with them," Diane said.
"If we hadn't played it like we did, we probably wouldn't have been around to have this conversation," Lee countered, driving west toward the Interstate from Placitas.
"Yeah, and Elka might have gotten away. Considering the ski mask and gloves we found in her jumpsuit pockets, and the motorcycle hidden behind the house, escape was a definite part of her plan. She'd have gone up that forest service road and disappeared long before a search party arrived."
"I think she planned on jumping from the second-story balcony. That's where the motorcycle helmet was sitting," Lee reminded her. "But I wasn't about to suggest that to Logan or Richmond."
"At least they have something to be happy about. After the human-torch video and the shortest presidential visit on record, catching and killing an international terrorist at least brings New Mexico back into the win column. They're already discussing the obvious connection between the way Elka and Rogers died, but they'll never be able to prove anything conclusively. The best forensic experts won't be able to help either. Vampire tissue loses its unique structure when it goes up in flames, right?"
Lee nodded.
"I guess we can finally start breathing normally again," she said. "Let's close down our business operations and write up those reports while we still remember what we told them last night," Diane added, leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes. "Wake me up when we get there, okay?"
Hours later, Lee and Diane left the FBI office downtown, having turned over their business records, supplies, and inventory to the bean counters and filled out their final written reports. Copies were ready for Lieutenant Richmond, who was scheduled to pick them up later.
"The sun's been down almost an hour now," Lee said. "You think Bridget will still be at your apartment?"
Diane was in the passenger seat topping off her pistol clip with fresh rounds while Lee drove. "I'm not sure. There's something not quite right about her, you know?"
Lee's cell phone rang. "Crap."
"Now what?" she muttered.
He grabbed the phone from atop the seat cushion. "Yes?"
"Officer Hawk?" It was Iris, the night dispatcher from the Las Cruces state police office.
"Yes, Iris. What's going on?"
"Something weird, Officer Hawk. I just got a call from the Cruces PD. The landlord at your apartment complex entered your apartment to check out complaints of a strong odor and found a body inside. A Native American or Hispanic man with his head cut off."
"Decapitated? In my apartment?" Lee noticed Diane looking at him closely.
"That's what I said, Lee. And he'd apparently been shot several times. From what we've been told, the man has been dead two or three days. His body and his head were both in your bathtub."
"Has Cruces PD been able to ID the body?" Lee suddenly knew who'd killed the man. "Bridget," he mouthed to Diane, who was staring at him now questioningly.
"They found a New Mexico operator's license for a San Juan County man named Clarence Atso. But we don't have a confirmation for sure. The body's in pretty bad shape," Iris replied.
"Clarence Atso? We've been looking for him. Does Lieutenant Richmond know about this yet?" Lee asked, noting Diane's eyebrows going up at the mention of the skinwalker's name.
"He's my next call. You'll probably be hearing from a Cruces detective within the hour, but they'll have to go though channels."
"Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be contacting Richmond myself later," Lee added, then ended the call.
"Clarence Atso was found dead in your Las Cruces apartment? Bridget went there too, didn't she?" Diane shook her head. "Maybe they were both looking for you and found each other instead."
"And Bridget thought it was me, so she shot him and cut off his head. She did try to kill me," he said slowly. He hadn't wanted to believe that. Actually, he'd hoped like hell that he'd finally found just the opposite—a vampire who had kept their sense of right and wrong despite the lure of power they'd inherited along with the nightwalker curse. It would have meant actually having an ally who shared his fate, living in that dark world his human companions would never really know.
"Bridget got the wrong Navajo. But now what do we do with her?" Diane still had her pistol in her hand. She looked at it for a moment, then jammed the weapon back into the holster.
"You know what we would have done had we found Atso first. The way I see it, she ended up doing us a favor," Lee said.
"And Atso was there to kill you, so there's justice in how he died," she said quietly. "But what really sucks is that she's been lying to us all along."
"About that, yes." He took a deep breath then let it out again. "Let's see if she's still there, then play it by ear." Lee slowed the vehicle, realizing that the apartment complex was just a block farther down the street.
"Act normal?" Diane said.
"Yeah. But be ready for anything," Lee said, pulling into one of the parking slots close to the building.
Diane looked up at her apartment window. "Lights are out and the TV doesn't seem to be on. Maybe Bridget's really gone now. She had to know the body would be discovered within a few days. It's summer, and dead things get ripe even in an air-conditioned apartment."
They stepped out of Lee's car, looked around carefully one more time, then climbed the stairs.
"Let me go first," Lee insisted, taking the key from her hand.
"You've seen too many old movies, Lee," Diane whispered.
"And I want us to be around to see them again on DVD." He unlocked the door, then eased it open, peering inside, his hand on the butt of his pistol. "Looks okay." He flipped on the inside light for Diane's benefit, then walked quickly toward the doors leading to the bathroom and bedroom.
Diane followed, locking the door behind her befo
re checking out the kitchen area.
"Nobody here but us," Lee announced, stepping out of the bedroom.
"There's a note on the table," Diane said, picking up the single page. "Want me to read it?"
"Sure."
Diane looked at the paper for about ten seconds.
"Out loud!"
Diane laughed. "Okay."
" 'Guys, I'm taking a cab to the place where I've stashed some money and new ID, then I'm outta here. I heard what happened at Placitas and I'm glad to hear you two are okay. Thanks for giving me a chance to get my life back again. I promise I'll do better this time.'" Diane paused, then added, "She signed it 'Me.'"
Diane looked over at Lee. "Lose a life or two, save one—maybe. It's up to her now."
Lee nodded, then sat down on the sofa. Leaning way back against the cushions, he looked over at her through weary eyes. "It's been tough lately, hasn't it?"
"You look dead tired, Lee. I never thought I'd see it. You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm not physically tired. It's just that being a nightwalker gets to me at times. I'm tired in spirit, if you know what I mean. What I really need is a change of pace—a new outlook. What do you say we clean up and go out for some dinner? Maybe a place with some music."
"You mean like a date?" Diane replied, smiling.
"Kinda like that, yeah."
"I don't dance, but I do know a little restaurant in Old Town that has a fine guitarist. No country-Western, but some great Spanish classical music."
"Sounds good."
Diane looked at the clothes she was wearing. "We dressing up or down tonight, Lee?"
"You own a dress?" he teased.
"Not since college, smartass. How about something that coordinates with the essential law-enforcement accessories?" Diane struck a modeling pose, opening her jacket enough to show her handgun.
"Fashionably dangerous. My kind of woman."
