Werewolf (part III)

"Sorry I cockblocked you there, Lieutenant."

"Huh?"

"Right now, back in the yard..." He opened the car window, "it's just that I've been spending a lot of energy on aiming practice, you know... I know that you and Ewalyn..."

"You keep imagining things," I interrupted, "I'm married."

" ..."

I scratched my chop.

"Anyway..." I said, changing the subject, "now we have one case solved. We're just left with what? Five? Four if we count that Sanford's is gonna be transferred back to the DEA."

"Is it?"

"Everything seems to be converging to that. Howard's pulling the strings over at Silverbay. Sarah texted me."

"And what's the captain doing there all this time?"

"The idea was to take care of the real Cooper case. That first one still. But I suspect she might be doing something else. She always solves cases out there that I didn't even know existed."

"Surely she must know something we don't. She was more involved with those politicians from Silverbay, wasn't she?"

Joey drummed his fingers on the open glass beside him.

"You look like you're bothered with something...?"

"Me? Not exactly... Something with the captain maybe."

"Sarah? What about Sarah?"

"It's just a stupid theory..."

"Huh?"

It took him a while to formulate the hook to say what he wanted to say.

Lieutenant... Do you remember that day at the airport?

"When we brought Sarah? It was last Tuesday."

"That. And I commented on a parasyte roach The lieutenant assumed I was talking about the robber..."

I ain't gonna say it took me a while to associate two and two... I'm not an idiot. I had already figured it the same day Joey talked about it after he came home. When I got home myself, I understood what he really meant. But I stopped thinking about it because I believed it was just bullshit. Bullshit that didn't even deserve to be thought about.

'They are small. They eat little. They don't talk much about the past. But above all, they eat humans.'

It's the parasyte roaches. We've been over this. Joey said those words after little Sarah refused to comment on where her knowledge of the Arena came from, while leaving more than half of her miserable Lily's Boutique snack on the table.

If you're implying that the captain is a parasyte roach... That's ridiculous! She's the damn SAD capt'n! She's under the radar of every big head in Silverbay, FBI, Sproustown County... Of course she must have passed every physiological test before they appointed her to such an important position.

I know, but... Isn't it because she's being protected, er... 'watched over' by the bosses, that they could hide such a trait? Like... It could be something only the big guys know about.

"That captain? A parasyte roach?"

And what would they get out of it? Parasyte roaches need to eat human beings to survive. It's different from a werewolf like Crane. Crane only attacks people unconsciously and only at a rare moment when her head is messy and she's transformed at the same time... Yet she can't feed on their flesh. It makes sense to use a werewolf as a warlike power, but why the hell would they employ a being who has to do just the opposite of the department's overall goal to even stay alive?

"But a roach only needs to eat human flesh if it has to use the sano, no? The captain... She's no longer part of the research teams... She just takes care of the inside job."

"You're implying... Someone put her on the inside job just to keep her from killing people? But if they knew she belonged to that race, why didn't they just arrest her?"

"Maybe because... So that someone has something to tie up the captain if necessary?"

"Political blackmail? In our department? Our department does what it wants the most here in Sproustown, Joey. It doesn't make sense... I can't imagine that Sarah eating human flesh on Sundays anyway.

Joey almost laughed.

"Yep... True. Not 'that' captain. Like I said... It's just a stupid theory."

Yes... It was just a stupid theory.

We had crossed the tunnel on the main avenue, which separated Cheawuld Garden from downtown.

"Speaking of stupid theory..." Joey continued, " I was investigating your conjecture... that Richard James Galloway was the sender of the poisoned chocolates."

"Gotta say I didn't like the use of the adjective 'stupid' to describe my conjecture, but I abstained from commenting.

"And...?"

"I met him the other day 'by chance' at Blackbean Bier. So I brought it up. He said he didn't do it."

"Of course he's gonna deny it was him, Joey!"

"Yeah but I didn't just ask the question and leave, Lieutenant... Or are you doubting my detective skills?"

"So you did more than that? And what exactly happened? Elaborate."

"I took a seat in front of him. He was looking kind of down. So I was casually commenting on how it was a big coincidence to find Emma's boyfriend there and stuff like that. Then I said there was a bad vibe at the SAD. And he said, 'Why?' And I said it was because of the chocolate. And I made the addendum: You heard about the chocolate, right?"

"And he...?"

"Naturally, he knew about it. He's her boyfriend after all. He said he tried to visit her after the episode, but Jenna and the others wouldn't let him."

"That's for the better."

"Then I kind of commented that amidst the laughter something like this: 'the lieutenant in our department was almost thinking it was you who had sent it'."

"Almost?"

"You know... I commented casually just to observe the reaction."

"And he?"

"He seemed to start getting angry. Then he said he thought there was someone trying to get him away from Emma... And then he started saying he didn't know if it was safe to stay with her or not... I mean, safe for her and not for him."

"That 'someone' according to him... Is it someone who's connected to the traffic?"

"I think so."

We reached Joey's alley, where we'd split up. I parked quietly, right on the sidewalk.

Weird, huh? Everybody's connected to the traffic. You don't want to throw the hypothesis away, considering where Chapman met the bloke...

Joey gave me a look of disapproval.

"What about you?" I continued "What did you think of the whole thing? Was he telling the truth?"

"I have no reason to believe he wasn't. And before you intermediate anything, yes... I watched his facial expression the whole time. I made a fair judgement. No... He didn't seem particularly lying. If he is, he's a great liar. I'd say there's over ninety percent chance it's all true. I say that not based on what I want to believe, but on my diagnosis of facial expression alone."

"Um... Then on a second thought, maybe it's not really Galloway."

"You mean he can stop hiding from you, Lieutenant? That you won't go out there screaming and chasing him with a baton the next time you see him?"

"I'd still like to do that, even if it wasn't him the responsible..."

I threw my cigarette butt out the window. Then I said:

"It's not just because of your report right now, but also for the circumstances of the last few days. If Galloway really had done that, I think he'd have tried something else while Crane has been fine for the last five days... Although as far as my understanding goes they haven't met again, have they?"

"Considering that over the weekend she decided to become a werewolf..."

"Does he even know she's a werewolf?"

"I think he's the type who doesn't even know about paranormal beings."

"Or he says he doesn't... Even so... He never attacked Crane again..." I started swinging my body back and forth unconsciously.

"You can light another one, Lieutenant. I don't care." Joey said as he watched me.

"Rreally...? Then excuse me..." I actually took another one out of my wallet.

"So there's just the cases of the Johnson's house long-haired invader, the invasion of the office, the serial killer, the sender of the poison and the guy of the Friday open?" Joey lifted one finger from his hand on each case he mentioned, "what's left for us, Lieutenant? Which one will you pick up on Monday?"

"I think for the media... The serial killer case is the most urgent. I think we have more leads on the sender's case, though."

"How so? Are you going to insist on Galloway?"

"No, I was just thinking..." I tasted my new cigarette for the first time "You gave me an idea: assuming it wasn't Galloway who sent the chocolate... That means it was someone related to the attack last Monday, necessarily."

"Necessarily?"

"Yes. Why would they kill Crane? Because they thought she might reveal something, and that's because she was the only one who saw the faces of the three evildoers. Turns out that after the attempt failed and after they found out she didn't understand anything they thought she would... They didn't try anymore."

"Maybe they just haven't had a chance to try again..."

"She's been bad all week, Joey. Opportunity was the one thing they didn't lack. Even if that guy who beat you Friday was in on it... If he was in on it, he would've killed her instead of leaving her on the ground when he ran off with Alexander Sprohic."

"Which means either they found out that Emma didn't pick up the message on the day of the attack that they thought she had picked up, discarding her as harmless... Or the Friday paranormal agent is unrelated. Pierre and Bad Boy confirmed Cole's statement that there are three gangs handing out Deluxes in Sproustown... If everybody had a mercenary, there'd be a lot of paranormal cases going on... I think the lieutenant must be right and probably the first option... Okay, I think I'll go down now."

Joey started pushing the car door.

That guy who beat you two was pretty good by the way, huh? You of all people fired the shots... And missed them.

"If I missed, modesty aside, no one would get a hit... He's almost as agile as that hairy guy in the Johnson's house."

"Yeah! Almost like him!"

"Later, lieutenant!"

Joey said goodbye and got out of the car. Still in front of the door, he took a few seconds to check his pockets to see if he had forgotten anything in the car seat, as usual, and then I lost sight of him entering into his alley.

I was stuck with my realization - a dark realization - that I should go to my home, where Jane was. There was no choice but to face her now.

My house was less than a five-minute drive from there. I parked in the garage as usual and went around to the concrete staircase, which I climbed; and once upstairs I opened the door and entered my house. It was not uncommon for Jane to be awake complaining about how late I had arrived, just behind the door. Did she stay there all day? Was she like some kind of scenery npc whose job was to annoy me? Didn't she have anything better to do? And worst of all was the noise my boots made when I climbed the ladder... There was no way she wouldn't hear me coming with those.

Unfortunately it was Saturday night, I had no other excuse not to come back home now.

I went upstairs and as usual I heard her voice, more annoying than ever coming from the other side:

" Henry? Is that you?"

But before I turned the key, my phone rang. I decided to answer it. It wasn't Jane. She already knew I was here.

I answered the phone, holding it with my left hand while I locked the door and went in. Jane started mumbling something, but I was paying attention to the conversation on the other end of the line. Really a great time to get a call! An excuse not to listen to Jane's blabbeering!. After a few 'hums' and 'aham's I turned off my cell phone and headed to the room, completely ignoring my wife.

I called Joey.

"Lieutenant?"

"Hey Joey, Chapman just called me!"

" Chapman?"

"Looks like the Johnson's long-haired suspect case is gonna be next after all. He found the bastard!