The Book of Death (19 page)

‘I fucking hate Pandas.’

Kacy butted in, hopeful of an
answer to Dante’s earlier question. ‘So can you help us get the Eye of the Moon
back from Gaius?’

The Kid frowned. ‘How the fuck
did a Mummy get his hands on the Eye of the Moon?’

‘They got it from Peto,’ said
Dante.

‘The monk?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And where’s he now?’

‘They cut his head off.’

‘Good,’ said the Kid. ‘That monk
was a cunt anyway.’

Kacy asked again. ‘Can you help
us or not?’

‘I got problems of my own. My
girlfriend is either dead or about to be dead. If she is alive, she’s at the
Casa de Ville,’ he started moving towards his car then added, ‘and from what
you’ve just told me, the place is gonna be a fucking fortress.’

Dante stepped aside to allow the
Kid to get to his vehicle. ‘It’s a bitch when someone’s holding your girlfriend
hostage, ain’t it?’ he remarked.

‘Guess it is.’ The Kid climbed
into the driver’s side of his car and reached out to the pull the door shut.
Dante grabbed a hold of it.

‘Hold on a minute,’ he said.
‘You want a hand rescuing your girlfriend?’

‘No.’

Kacy stepped forward and leaned
into the car. ‘If we help you, can you help us get the Eye of the Moon back
from this mummy?’

The Kid looked up at them both
and was obviously pondering their offer. After a few seconds he spoke up. ‘You
ain’t getting that Eye back. Ain’t no way that Gaius character is gonna let you
anywhere near it.’

‘Then we’ll have to kill him,
won’t we?’ said Dante.

‘Good luck with that,’ said the
Kid, tugging at the car door to pull it shut. Dante kept a firm grip on it much
to his obvious annoyance. ‘Let go the fucking door, man!’

‘Pull it shut,’ Dante challenged
him.

The Kid pulled hard at the door.
It didn’t budge. Dante was stronger than him and continued to hold it open with
ease.

‘See,’ said Dante. ‘You need us
as much as we need you. You ain’t the hardass you once were. Remember using the
Eye of the Moon to make yourself into a regular guy last night?’

‘Let go of the door.’

‘I’m stronger than you now. And
I’m guessing so is Kacy. You want to get your girlfriend back, you’re gonna
need our help. And in order to kill Rameses Gaius, we’re gonna need yours.’

The Kid looked somewhat
irritated at the suggestion that he was no longer the hardass he once was. Once
he came to terms with the fact Dante wasn’t going to let him shut the door he
stopped pulling at it. ‘Get in,’ he said.

Kacy didn’t need a second
invitation. She raced back around to the passenger side of the car. ‘Shotgun on
the front seat,’ she called out.

The Kid nodded at Dante. ‘Your
chick’s pretty sharp, huh?’

Kacy stood patiently waiting by the
passenger door, snow settling on her hair as she held the door open for Dante
to climb into the back seat. He climbed in and she slipped into the front seat
closing the door behind her.

The Kid pulled the car away from
the sidewalk and out into the icy street, then sped off down the middle of the
road. The heavy sleet, snow and some traces of hailstones crashed against the
windscreen, making visibility of the road ahead virtually impossible. Kacy made
a snap decision to put on her seatbelt.

After they had driven for a
couple of minutes, she made a polite observation. ‘Isn’t the Casa de Ville back
the other way?

‘Yeah. We gotta stop off at a
bar first.’

‘Why?’

‘I need a drink.’

Twenty-Two

Police work was proving to be
quite tiresome. Sanchez had spent a further hour in Beth Lansbury’s apartment
explaining to another officer exactly what he believed had happened there. A
camera crew from the local news station had also turned up to report on the
murders. He gave them a quick interview explaining how the Bourbon Kid had
murdered everyone but fled when he had burst in and scared him off. Everyone
seemed quite impressed and Sanchez was looking forward to seeing himself hailed
as a hero on the evening news. It was about time he received some recognition for
his public services.

It was early evening when he
arrived back at the police station to find Flake still alone in the reception
area. She was sitting behind the reception desk reading a book. She didn’t
notice him arrive and it wasn’t until he was only a few yards from the
reception desk that she looked up.

‘Hey Sanchez, how did it go?’
she asked.

He took his Stetson hat off and
wiped some sweat from his brow. Even though it wasn’t very bright in the
station he kept his sunglasses on because, well, they made him look cool. He
fanned himself with the hat a few times and rolled his tongue around in his
mouth to build up some tension before relaying the tales of his adventures to
Flake. Eventually when he was convinced she was desperate to hear what he had to
say he began to tell her about his action packed afternoon. ‘Well, I lost
Jessica, bumped into the Bourbon Kid and saw a whole load of dead bodies. You
know, the usual shit.’

Flake looked impressed. ‘Are you
being serious? Who’s dead? And what happened with the Bourbon Kid?’

Sanchez perched his ample butt
cheeks on the edge of her desk. ‘The ambulance crew and a couple more cops were
dead as well as the guy with the pink hair.’

‘Oh God
. Really?
’

‘Yeah. I had to put in a call
for some more ambulance people. Then I had to give an interview to the press,
y’know, ’cause they think I’m a hero an’ all that.’

‘Wow. Are you gonna be on the
news tonight?’

Sanchez shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

‘Cool. I hope you’ve remembered
all the details. And don’t forget you’ll have to file a report for the
Captain.’

‘You think?’

‘That’s protocol isn’t it?’

‘Well, a guy from forensics
turned up eventually and I left him to clear up the mess. He’ll probably do the
report. I’ll do one if Captain Harker asks me to, but it’s an open and shut case.
The Bourbon Kid killed everyone there and fucked off out the window when I
arrived. I scared him off I think.’

‘Wow,’ Flake gasped. ‘You’re
having quite a day!’

‘Much the same as any other,’
said Sanchez nonchalantly.

Flake slipped a thin black leather
bookmark onto the page she was reading and closed the book in order to give him
her full attention. ‘So what happened to Jessica? How did you lose her?’

‘She’d gone on ahead of me. She
must have seen the Kid and made a break for it in case he tried to kill her
again.’

‘Do you think she’s okay?’

‘I’m guessing she’s headed back
home to the Casa de Ville.’

‘You’re not going to go over
there tonight are you? What with the Bourbon Kid being on the loose again. And
the vampires!’

Sanchez shook his head. ‘No, not
tonight. I’ll get The Book of Death for her first. It’ll cheer her up if I turn
up there tomorrow with the book she’s been looking for.’

Flake looked unconvinced. ‘Do
you think you’ll be able to find it?’

‘I had it this morning.’

Flake laughed. ‘You’re so
funny.’

‘No, seriously. I borrowed it
from the library,’ he paused and looked around to check if anyone was nearby,
before adding, ‘without actually checking it out.’

Flake gasped. ‘Oh my God. You’re
the one who stole it!’

‘Shhh,’ said Sanchez looking
around again. ‘I gave it to Rick to take back to the library this morning, just
before you made my breakfast.’

‘Why give it to Rick?’

‘So I didn’t have to face the
wrath of that librarian bitch Ulrika. Why d’ya think?’

‘Oh, of course.’

Flake took in a deep breath
through gritted teeth, in the manner of a mechanic who was about to give a
quote for some new brakes. ‘I’d be wary about being seen with that Book of
Death if I was you,’ she warned.

‘What do you mean?’

She pointed at the thick
hardback book that she had been so engrossed in reading when he entered. ‘I’ve
been reading this book,’ she said. ‘And it’s got a bit in it about a book
called The Book of Death.’

‘Really? What does it say?’

She opened the book and began
flicking back through the pages. ‘It says it’s an ancient Egyptian book that
was used to record the names of the dead,’ she said, struggling to find the
page she was looking for. ‘It also says that there was an ancient ruler of
Egypt who dabbled in the dark arts. Apparently he found a way to write the
names of the dead in it before they actually died.’

Sanchez slid off the desk and
stood beside Flake, peering over her shoulder at the book. ‘How could he do
that?’ he asked.

Flake continued to flick through
the pages until she eventually found the passage she was looking for. ‘Look
here,’ she said pointing at a short paragraph at the beginning of one of the
chapters. ‘It says here that he used to write the names of his enemies in The
Book of Death. According to this, his enemies would then be cursed to die on
the date specified on the page in the book.’

Sanchez scratched his chin and
thought about what Flake was saying. ‘The Book of Death that I gave to Rick was
full of names, and there were dates on the top of each page, but they were all
in roman numerals or something. I couldn’t work them out.’

Flake shook her head. ‘Don’t you
think a book like that should be destroyed?’

‘I dunno,’ said Sanchez. He
nodded at the book on the desk. ‘What’s this one you’re reading anyway?’

‘It’s that one I used to kill
the librarian.’

‘What’s it called again?’

‘It’s doesn’t have a name.’

Sanchez stepped back from the
desk. ‘Oh my God! You’re reading The Book With No Name?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Fuck! You never told me earlier
that it was The Book With No Name.’

‘Why? What difference does it
make?’

‘That book was mentioned in the
news a while back. Everyone who ever read it died. The cops never figured out
why. I was looking for a copy of it at the library yesterday when I picked up
The Book of Death instead.’

‘I’ve read about a hundred pages
of it now,’ said Flake. ‘Does that mean I’m going to die?’

‘It might. I don’t know.’

‘Weird, isn’t it?’

‘What?’

‘There’s two books that seem to
be causing people to die.’

Sanchez thought about it for a
few seconds. ‘I suppose,’ he agreed eventually.

‘Which one’s worse, do you
think?’ Flake asked.

‘I figure they’re both pretty
bad.’

Flake grimaced. She looked
genuinely concerned for her wellbeing. ‘I think I’d rather have read the first
hundred or so pages of The Book With No Name, than have my name written down in
The Book of Death,’ she decided eventually.

Sanchez took off his sunglasses
and slipped them into his breast pocket to take a better look at The Book With
No Name. ‘Have you told Captain Harker about this?’ he asked.

‘No. He’s real busy with some
kind of child killer case. He’s been on the news all day talking about it.’

‘Child killer, eh?’

‘Yeah, someone’s been poisoning
kids and draining their blood.’

‘Bloody vampire, I’ll bet.’

Flake nodded in agreement.
‘Yeah. Harker reckons there could be hundreds of victims, mostly orphans.’

‘Well, we’re lucky we’re adults,
aren’t we?’ said Sanchez finding something positive to take from the
distressing news.

‘Terrible though, isn’t it?’

‘Absolutely. What happens when
he runs out of kids to kill? He might move on to adults. Then we’ll be in
trouble.’

Flake frowned. ‘I hope he does
try his luck with us. We’ve got this book that kills vampires, remember.’

‘Oh yeah, good thinking,’ said
Sanchez. Flake really was pretty smart sometimes, for a waitress. He glanced at
his watch. ‘The library will be closed now. I’ll go tomorrow morning and take
back another book I borrowed yesterday. I’ll look for The Book of Death while
I’m there.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Flake
offered.

‘It’s okay. That’s not
necessary.’

‘You could pop by the Ole Au
Lait first and we could have breakfast together,’ Flake suggested.

Sanchez slipped his hat back on
as he contemplated her offer. She clearly had plans to share in the reward on
offer for returning The Book of Death to Jessica. He slipped his sunglasses
back on to hide the deceit in his eyes.

‘Yeah, okay. See you there at
about nine o’clock tomorrow morning.’

‘Great!’ she beamed. She
continued babbling on about something or other as Sanchez made his way out of
the station. He had no intention of stopping off at the Ole Au Lait for
breakfast. Getting to the library first thing in the morning was his top
priority.