Off in the distance, Lou heard sirens. “Damn, it took them long enough,” he said. “Okay, George, it’s time to get the hell out of here.”
“We need to catch him.”
“No! Now, I’m usually happy to let you take the lead, and I’ve let you give orders all day, but we need to leave! I’m not going to prison for this, do you understand? If you want to keep chasing him, fine, but you’re doing it on foot.”
George gave him a look of absolute fury, which immediately softened. Now he almost looked like he was going to cry. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll go. The cops’ll take him down.”
“You okay?”
“Should I be okay?”
Lou didn’t say anything. They kept to the speed limit to avoid attracting police attention, though of course it was entirely possible that the cops were also seeking a black van as a vehicle of interest in the disappearance of Michele. Much to Lou’s relief, they ended up making it out of the town and back onto Tamiami Trail without even driving past one of the cops or emergency vehicles.
George stared straight ahead as he drove, looking more spooked than Lou had ever seen him. That was only to be expected--Lou was more spooked than he’d ever been, too, and most likely Michele felt the same way. But George’s mental state seemed to go beyond simply “Holy shit! That werewolf almost killed me!”
“Do you need to go to the hospital?” Lou asked.
George shook his head.
“We can. I mean, if you’re that badly hurt. I can drop you off at the door, or I can come in with you if you need it, or whatever.”
“Do you know what he did?” George asked.
“What?”
“He killed the lady who lived in that house. Not just killed her--he made her talk about her family, and then he slashed her up, like it was a great big joke. Remember that hit we saw two years ago in Buffalo?”
“Yeah.”
“That guy laughed and it was frickin’ chilling, but that was an ‘I finally got revenge’ laugh. You could sort of understand where he was coming from. This was...it was just like ‘Look how much fun I’m having stabbing this woman.’ It was playtime.”
“Jesus.”
“He kept doing it after she was dead. He sat there stabbing her corpse. And her kid was in the house.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. He was hiding in the bedroom. This little kid. He’s already terrified, and he’s going to walk into the kitchen and find his mom in a great big pool of blood, stabbed to death by a madman. I should have gotten him out of there. Should’ve taken him to a neighbor or something. He’s five, Lou. He shouldn’t see that. What’s going to happen to him?”
“He should be okay, right? I mean, Ivan’s gone.”
“I’m not talking about whether or not he gets killed by a goddamn werewolf. I’m talking about him seeing his dead mom!”
“Okay, okay, I dunno what to tell you, George! It’s heartbreaking, but we didn’t have a choice. We couldn’t hang out there any more. Protecting the kid from psychological trauma isn’t worth going to prison, right?”
“I guess not.”
“No, no, don’t use the word ‘guess.’ This is a definite. I’m not going to jail for a kid.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“I am right, and we need to get this perfectly clear: we’re not heroes. If you wanna be sad about the kid, I completely understand--it’s disturbing as hell. But don’t sit there thinking that we should’ve taken him by the hand and led him over to the nice old lady who lives next door. You got me?”
“I’ve got you.”
“Good. I’m not a cold-hearted monster. I’m gonna have some sleepless nights over this whole thing, but the reason I’ll get to have those sleepless nights is that I’m still alive.”
“I said I’ve got you! Quit hammering in the goddamn point!”
“And now I think we should call Ricky.”
“Aw, shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s Ricky?” Michele asked.
“If we’re lucky, he’s going to be the guy who covers our butts.” George took his cell phone out of his pocket.
“You want me to do it?” Lou asked.
“Nah, I’ll take the heat.”
“Don’t throw up on the phone.”
“I won’t.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
A Difficult Confession
George took a deep breath, exhaled slowly in an effort to calm himself, then called Ricky. He hoped that the little prick didn’t give him any crap, because George was positively not in the mood for it.
Ricky answered. “George?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, I was half a second away from calling you. Your dog problem is on the news. I thought you were just yanking me, but I’m looking at it right now. Anyway, I just got off a conference call with Bateman and Dewey. Intense stuff.”
“Intense how?”
“Manic depressive intense. Anger and joy. I’m glad I only have to deal with them over the phone. So here’s the deaclass="underline" get off the road ASAP. Find someplace safe to hide out. Get as far off the beaten path as you can. They weren’t anticipating any problems like this, so they’re going to send out a bunch of reinforcements and collect the furball from you.”
“Oh.”
“Your voice sounds funny.”
“Yeah.”
“Just relax. It’s all going to be taken care of. Your buddy Ricky makes your headaches go away.”
“So, Ricky, what if there was another problem that they hadn’t anticipated?”
“What do you mean?”
George could almost feel the new ulcer burning into his stomach lining. “What if we lost our cargo?”
“Oh, shit, George. Don’t tell me that. Please don’t tell me that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You lost him? For real?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my God. This is--you’ve got to be--how the hell do you lose a guy in a cage?”
“He escaped! He changed into a werewolf and escaped!”
There was a long silence, and then Ricky let out a sigh of relief. “Ah, okay, you’re just screwing with me. Good one. I almost had a heart attack over that.”
“I am absolutely dead serious! He transformed into a wolfman and got out of the cage!” George didn’t see any reason to confess to his own starring role in the escape.
“What?”
“That’s what happened!”
“Listen to me. I’ve got to report back to Bateman and Dewey, and it’s fine if you want to goof around with me, I deserve it, but these men have no sense of humor and I need to know the truth: do you still have Ivan with you?”
“No.”
“Shit!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Shit! Oh, shit! How could you lose him? You idiot!”
George bristled. Whether he was an idiot or not, he didn’t appreciate being called one by a little punk like Ricky. “He changed into a wolf, that’s how I lost him! I wasn’t expecting it!”
“But everybody told you he was a werewolf! I know for a frickin’ fact that it came up in the conversation!”
“I didn’t believe it! You didn’t believe it either! Why the hell would I believe something like that? If there’s a real-life werewolf involved, that’s a concept you need to do a better job of selling! You need to give me pictures or video or expert testimony! I thought he was just some skinny guy in a cage! And it’s not even the full moon! The full moon was supposed to be a crucial element! I’m sorry things went bad like this, but we were not given enough information to successfully carry out this task!”
Ricky sounded as if he were about to hyperventilate. “You have no idea how bad this is. They’re going to execute you!”