Dead Mann Walking

Now I knew it wasn’t, and I had a real good idea who it was.

I got to my feet, screaming. I staggered out onto the highway, still screaming.

What a sight that must have been, zombie dirt monster raging in the middle of the highway. Cars zoomed by. I’m sure someone would’ve hit me if they weren’t worried about ruining their finishes.

One asshole driving an old Civic must have been text-ing or watching a DVD. By the time he saw me, he had to turn the wheel so hard, he nearly flipped his car. Instead, tires squealing, it spun and came to a halt on the shoulder. The air bag popped and he was just stupid enough to be angry about it.

Face in a fierce snarl, he pushed the air bag away, popped the door, and stormed toward me. He was early twenties, hair baked blond and dried like the field, a football player, someone who’d kick a boulder in his way rather than walk around it.

“You stupid mother . . .”

I guess he hadn’t noticed I was dead and howling until about then. I saw no reason to stop screaming for his sake.

“Holy shit!” He backed up, put the car between us. I came forward, getting louder. I wasn’t feral, but I wasn’t real happy, either.

He thought about getting back in his car, but I hopped up on the hood and gave him a real loud one, nearly tore out my vocal cords. He started backing up. He didn’t want to give up the car, but he didn’t want to die, either.

With a final, “Oh, shit!” he turned and started running.

I got behind the wheel. The engine still running, I put it in gear and drove past him.

I won’t take credit for planning any of it. It just sort of happened. But you should have seen the look on his face. Wish I’d had a camera.

I did about eighty until I spotted some state troopers and had to slow down. The Humvee was long gone. No way I’d catch up, and I didn’t know where he was headed. Aside from everything else eating at me, now I had the sick feeling I couldn’t save Nell.

The only other lead I had was that other chak, and right now I couldn’t even remember his name. I did remember the notes I’d made with Ashby, so I tried working the recorder while driving with one hand. Couldn’t manage that, so I had to pull over, lose even more time.

Took me about five minutes to find it, my creaky voice saying, “Odell Jenkins, works for Hammer Rejuvenations, LLC.”

Ashby gave off a little heh in the background. Funny, it was nice to hear him again.

After a lot of twisting and yanking at the dried muck on me, I even found my cell phone. As I pulled back onto the road, I hit 1 on the speed dial.

Misty answered on the first ring. “Hess, where the hell are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m not so bad, considering. I figured out who killed my wife, and I’ve got a new car.”

Rather than give her the details, I gave her the name of the remediation company, asked them to inquire about Jenkins and call me back as soon as she knew anything. The sooner I got to Turgeon’s last potential victim, the better chance I had of finding him.

And then what?

As I drove, I tried to come up with a plan. Part of me wished I still had the gun. Then I could shoot Turgeon over and over until the only thing that made him twitch would be the impact of the bullets. Partly I wanted to play “good cop.” I wanted to nab him, bring him in, have him arrested, tried, and fried, with me in the audience.

The missing gun mooted the first option. Being a chak put the odds against the second. By the time I reached the Bones, Misty still hadn’t called back, so I headed to the office. The phone was in her hand as I walked in. There was some poster board and markers on her desk, so I figured she’d been making signs for Jonesey.

I thought she’d have a harder time guessing what I’d been up to, but as she rose for a better look at my makeover, she said, “You look like you’ve been sleeping in the bottom of a swamp.”

“Close. Colby Green’s swimming pool.”

She grabbed a spork from her lunch and used it to scrape off the bigger chunks of dirt. While she worked, I filled her in on the details. By the end of it, she looked more upset than I was. I wanted to thank her for that. Instead, I asked if she’d made any headway on Odell Jenkins.

“Yeah, he’s at a job site.”

“Good. Did you get a number? Can we call him?”

“Already tried. His boss said he keeps his cell off while he’s working. Doesn’t want to get distracted using power tools.”

“Makes sense. What’s the address? I’ve got to get over there.”

“Wait. Hess, what if you run into Turgeon? You can’t go.”

I gave her a look. “I can’t not. Put aside Wilson, Boyle, Parker, and their spouses, which probably doesn’t scratch the surface of his victim list, Misty— this guy killed Lenore.”

“And if you make one wrong move, he’ll cut your head off and put it in a bag!”

“He’s going to try to do that anyway.”

“We can move out of the state. I’m still half-packed.”

“I’d go feral on the bus, knowing he was out there.”

“Then . . . then . . . call Booth.”

I thought about that one. He loved Lenore, too. He’d want to find her real killer. But he was sure he already had.

“I’d need proof, Misty, and even then, last time I saw him, he’d hired someone to break my legs. Look, it’s a long shot he’ll go after Jenkins right now.”

She pursed her lips. “Unless he’s in a hurry because Colby Green is after him.”

“Who’s the detective, you or me? Fine, maybe it’s fifty-fifty, but all the more reason I’ve got to try to get to him fast.”

She shook her head. “You don’t even have a gun.”

“No, but I’ve got something else. It’s the reason I came back, other than seeing your pretty face, of course.” I nodded her into my office.

There, I pulled out the cash drawer, then checked the false bottom where I’d kept the Walther. I had something else in there, a little glass vial full of oily liquid as green as Nell Parker’s eyes. I held it up for Misty to see, but warned her not to get too close.

“What the hell is that?” she asked.

“VX, deadliest nerve agent on the planet. Last year, anyway—I’m sure they’ve got something worse by now.”

She took a few more steps back. “And that’s been here all along, while I sleep in the next room, you crazy bastard? Fuck, Hess, how’d you even get something like that?”

“I used to be a cop, remember? Anyway, one night we raided a big drug dealer and found out he was also dealing arms, guns so big you needed three men to pick them up, missile launchers, too—and this. I thought it was some new kind of drug. Shoved it in my pocket, thinking I’d look it up later; things came up; I forgot about it. It was still in my pocket the day I was arrested for Lenore’s murder. I handed it over along with my wallet and the clerk took it for perfume. I didn’t find out what it was until after I came back. Always meant to turn it in; never figured out how to do it without getting arrested.”

She kept shaking her head. “You’re an idiot alive or dead.”

I raised my hands in surrender. “Guilty as charged, but dead, I can drink the shit, no harm, no foul. One whiff would kill a liveblood, though. So, if I did run into Turgeon, all I’d have to do is put it in my mouth, get close enough, bite down on the glass, and blow. And I know how to blow.”

“What about everybody else in the city?”

“Far as I know, they’ll go on being a bunch of idiots.” I held up the vial and tilted it so she could see how slowly it flowed. “It’s not exactly a gas; it’s viscous, like an oil. Maybe it was just a sample or something they’d use in a spray gun. On top of that, it’s supposed to break up in the air after a few minutes. That’s why the trick is getting in close. So where’s Odell Jenkins doing his nine-to-five?”