I felt such rage at Floyd and his asshole sidekicks, and such compassion for this small woman who just wanted to preserve her own life for the sake of her child’s future. I shook my head.
“No, Sally, you absolutely did the right thing. I don’t trust that guy, or his pack, and I don’t want you to ever feel like your life is threatened by anyone, much less someone who doesn’t deserve to breathe the same free air you do.”
She deflated right in front of me, and I could feel the relief bleeding out of every pore. “Thanks, Sheriff. So, tell me what happened when Floyd and the asshole brigade turned up.”
“Floyd spotted Sam right off and he came over and threatened him. He told him he was already in violation of pack law and that he’d be punished which I guess involves some sort of horrible scourging or something.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s some medieval stuff. I’ve seen what remains of a scourged werewolf. It’s not pretty.”
“You have? Lately?” I frowned deeply.
“No, not lately. It was maybe four or five years ago. Floyd had one of the pack females scourged for rejecting him. She lost an eye and a foot. Sheriff Willis helped get her admitted to a hospital in Stockton, but she never recovered. When she got out, the sheriff told me she took her own life. It was all Floyd’s doing. He’s a brutal bastard.”
“Asshole.”
“You’ve got his number,” she said. “So, anyway, tell me what happened last night.”
“Greg came over to the table when Floyd and his bunch started giving his friend a hard time. I was kind of impressed by the way he stood up for Sam. Needless to say, it didn’t go over well with Floyd. He fired Greg, and then threw them both out of the pack. He also confiscated all of their goods, including Sam’s car. We’re going over to Frederick later today to pick everything up. I’m not letting Floyd get away with that crap. He can’t break the law and steal from Sam, pack rules or not.”
Sally’s eyes widened. “Wow. Well, good for Greg, but then again, I’m not surprised by that. Secretly, I think those two wolves will always be there for each other. As far as Floyd goes, I’m itchin’ to go over there with you but before we do, I’m giving you some silver bullets.” Sally smiled widely. “I’d kind of like to see you use your magic on Floyd again, though. That was pretty awesome.”
“Okay, I’ll take you up on that.” I stood up. “Let’s get out there.”
Sally stood also. “You were going to tell me about something that happened after the dustup, right?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about the really weird thing.” We walked out of my office to the locked door that held the armory. I’d seen it that first day but wasn’t too impressed with the selection of guns and ammunition. Since then, I’d had Dave do a complete inventory of the contents of the small room, so Precious could order some weapons I wanted to keep on hand. The previous sheriff hadn’t been an especially broad thinker when it came to gearing up, but then again, he’d been fully human, so he wouldn’t have known why—for example—we should have silver bullets on hand.
As we gathered the ammunition, I told Sally about Vincent’s weird experience and what he’d witnessed at the drive-in. She listened silently, and I had the idea that there wasn’t a thing I could tell Sally that would surprise her about this town. To me, it was clear that Prosper Woods had at least one small ghost and at most, hundreds of them who wanted to make their presence known. As Sally locked up, and we bid Precious goodbye until later, giving her our destination, we headed out to the street and got in Sally’s Blazer.
“What do you think? Were you aware we had ghosts or at least that we had one small one?” I asked as soon as we were headed out toward Frederick.
She shook her head as she drove. “I’m not shocked in the least. I’m not sure about the crowd Mr. Lasco spotted at the drive-in. What I mean is, I don’t know why they were there. I didn’t mean I don’t believe he saw them.”
“So, what wasn’t shocking then?” I asked.
“About three years ago, a small boy vanished from a run-down squatter’s camp at the town limits. We never found him, and the sheriff gave up the search after a week.”
“Why?” I asked, startled. “I mean, first of all, I didn’t realize we have a squatter’s camp, and second, why on earth would the sheriff give up the search? Why weren’t the Feds called in? The FBI specializes in finding missing and lost kids. They even have a rapid response team who will drive into town or even fly here if necessary.”
“The sheriff dismantled the camp once the boy went missing. He ran them off, oddly enough, with the help of Floyd and his enforcers. They weren’t more than a few families of homeless folks—hobos really. I think they were migrant farm laborers who moved up and down the state, only staying in one place for a week at a time and following the harvests. They were harmless but the sheriff wanted them gone after the boy was reported missing. Honestly…” Sally sighed deeply. “I
