The Naughty List (27 page)

Billy looked up with a grimace. “Can’t concentrate. I feel like a dog in a too small crate. I want to move. I want to hunt.” He flexed his fingers. “I want to rip Pearce’s little pencil neck right off his shoulders, but all I do is sit and stare at the wall.”

David stated the obvious. “You still have no pack leader.”

“Yeah.” Bitterness dripped from his voice. “We’re chained to the kennel while all the useful hounds are on assignment.”

The E.L.F. sat down next to him. “Liang’s death is not your fault.” David heard the whispers and noted the sideways glances the other hellhounds gave Billy. Not Sonia and Ramesh, of course. They didn’t blame him, but other packs weren’t so forgiving. His pack leader died right in front of Billy and he didn’t run the murderer to ground. They knew the demon was cloaked, but failure was unforgivable for a hellhound. No wonder none of the other groups came forward with an offer to incorporate the three of them into another pack.

Billy grunted. “My mind keeps drifting back to the woods. What could I have done differently? I hear the shot, smell Liang’s blood…” His scowl deepened. “Sorry, I’m not good company right now.”

“I’m not here for that.” He shifted The Book onto his lap.

Billy raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“I need a word.” David’s voice dropped. “In private.”

Billy eyed the E.L.F. with interest and ushered him to Liang’s private office. Once the door shut, David asked, “With no pack leader no one would wonder if you happened to, let’s say, disappear for a while.”

The hellhound’s eyes narrowed. “What do you have in mind?”

“I plan to break the law and need your help.”

The hellhound eyed him with interest. “Will your little misadventure bring us a step closer to running down Pearce?”

“I hope so.”

“I’m in.”

“You don’t even know—”

“I don’t care.” He motioned to a chair. “Take a seat. I’ll get Sonia and Ramesh. They’ll want in, too.” Seconds later they were in the office, clustered around David.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Sonia.

David placed the open Book on his lap. Then he reached into his pocket and retrieved a slip of paper with three names on it. “No one’s found any sign of Pearce. He’s in hiding and these three…” He tapped the sheet. “…went to join him.”

Ramesh scanned the names. “Jared Kaplan, Ernesto Salazar, and Allison Darby? I busted all three of them for petty theft. They’re not exactly criminal masterminds.”

“No, but they’re on the Naughty List. I know, nothing more serious than sticky fingers and a penchant for gambling and bar brawls, but they all sport a flagrant disregard for the rules, and will do about anything for a buck.” He called out Jared Kaplant J and a pe’s name. The Book’s pages flipped wildly until settling down with the heading Naughty List.

“Read the last entry,” David said.

“November 12
^th
,” intoned The Book, “swiped ten dollars out of a bartender’s tip jar.”

“Do you hear?” David eagerly asked the hellhounds, but they all gave him a puzzled look. “The Book’s voice is different, not as resonant. Underneath I make out a faint humming.”

Billy raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like the same old Book to me.”

“Maybe the anomaly is obvious to me because of my connection.” The E.L.F. ran his fingertips over the page. “The paper feels altered, too—less crisp, almost oily…like a coating.” He looked up at them. “Pearce’s page has the same texture.” He held up the slip of paper with the three names. “So do all of theirs. The Book reported no updates on any of them since soon after Anthony disappeared.”

“What do the wardens say?” asked Billy.

“They didn’t note a difference, either. They suggested the change is my imagination, even though Dad backed me up. The wardens are afraid to face the truth about Pearce.”

Ramesh frowned. “Not to put a damper on your theory, but couldn’t the fact that The Book has nothing new on them be a good thing? Maybe these three are lying low because everyone is on edge. The hounds were put on high alert since Liang died.”

“Except us, of course,” Sonia added tersely.

“The wardens agree with you,” David conceded, “but I don’t. In the past few years, these three never went more than a week without doing something stupid to land them on the Naughty List. Suddenly, they’re all as good as gold? I don’t buy it. Nothing makes sense unless The Book can’t give any updates, because Kaplan and the others are shielded.”

David shifted over to Liang’s desk and fired up her computer. “I want to show you something else. I’ve tracked crime reports in the Atlanta area to the South Carolina border, the last place you had a true fix on Pearce. Look at this.” The three hellhounds clustered around the screen. “This area of Atlanta saw an uptick in robberies lately. Three gold chains worth over a grand apiece suddenly disappeared from a jewelry store. And I mean suddenly…plainly visible on the security camera one second, gone the next.”

Sonia leaned in with interest. “What do the police say?”

“Glitch in the system. More likely an invisible demon in the system. Robberies with similar MOs are clustered in the same area.” The E.L.F. pointed to the screen. “Thefts here, here, and here with store windows shattered as if hit by a tornado.”

“Salazar is a kulkucan,” mused Billy. “A descendant of a Mayan wind god could make quick work of a pane of glass. Darby’s a medusa. Any reports of new statues suddenly popping up around town?”

“Not yet,” David admitted, “but read this report. A police officer answered a silent alarm from a liquor store in the middle of the day. She found the clerk weak and disoriented. He said the thief hit him with something because the last thing he remembered was taking a nosedive to the floor. The police think he was tased. The security tape only caught the image of a figure in a hoodie cleaning out the cash register and swiping several bottles of liquor.”

“Medusas sure don’t like those shiny surfaces, do they?” Sonia mused. “The clerk was lucky Darby didn’t get a good lock on him or he’d be a pigeon perch now.”

“Robbing stores in broad daylight?” Billy glowered. “If Kaplan and the others are responsible, they sure don’t give a damn about capture.”

“Why should they?” David asked. “The Atlanta police have no idea what they’re dealing with and the wardens still have their heads buried in the sand.” The E.L.F leaned over the desk, his expression grim. “Let me be clear, I don’t have a shred of proof. The wardens won’t let me call out the hounds for a legal snatch-and-grab, but I can’t shake a gut feeling these three are responsible for Atlanta’s new crime wave and Pearce is the mastermind.”

“David asked me to do a preliminary trace a while back,” Billy confessed. “I know. It was strictly unauthorized.”

“Hell, we’re not bothered by that,” Ramesh smirked, “only that you didn’t call us in. What did you find?”

“All three definitely left the city. Whatever they’re up to is not in New York.”

Ramesh blew his cheeks out in frustration. “So we’re right back to square one. How do we track them? Has Dominic found a way through the shield yet?”

“He hit a roadblock and hasn’t made any progress in days. He needs one of the shields Anthony altered or he could be stuck for months.”

Billy rubbed his chin, musing aloud. “We follow the others’ trails. The scent will lead us to the last place they were before the spell kicked in and they vanished.”

“What if they already left?” demanded Ramesh. “What do we do then?”

The door whipped open. “You look for other clues, pups,” Sadhri barked. “Pearce may block Integral senses, but we have different ways to track. David found good leads by scanning police, Internet, and news reports.”

David had no desire for a facedown with Sadhri. “How much did you hear?”

“Everything.”

“Purely a theoretical problem,” he back peddled nervously. “I’m not suggesting—”

She held up her hand. “Save it. Your Dad already figured out what you planned. I volunteered to come along as backup.”

“Packs hunt alone,” Billy huffed.

“You’re not a full pack, and I’m not giving you the option.” She drew herself up. “You think this is my first rodeo? I’m a shiva, young man, and not without battle experience. The blood of the destroyer runs through my veins.” She cast a fierce gaze over the others. “Anyone else have any objections?”

Sonia swallowed. “Ramesh and I are totally okay with the idea.”

Billy sighed with resignation. “All right. You can come.”

Sadhri inclined her head toward her nephew with a wry smile. “I accept your gracious invitation.”

The E.L.F. stood up. He had found his team. “Once I prove they’re working with Anthony every district will go on alert. As soon as you track them down, call me. I want to dash-away in for the snatch.”

Billy eyed him askance. “Dude, dashing in with only GPS coordinates is tricky at best, suicidal at worst.” David folded his hands with a resolute expression. Billy gave in. “Okay, they’re your body parts.”

“If the wardens find out before we catch any of them,” David cautioned, “they’ll stick our heads on a pike to parade around HQ with the Baal leading the way.”

“Dominic can kiss my ass,” grunted Sadhri.

“They won’t find out,” Billy assured himly ding the. “A hellhound knows how to be discreet. Liang taught us well.” At the mention of the pack leader, the other members of the pack set their expressions in steely determination. Billy rose to his feet. “Gear up, hounds. The hunt is on.”

David left to return The Book to the repository. Despite confidence in the theory, he wasn’t without a sense of nervous anticipation. He had just dragged a bunch of other people into his crazy idea and after securing The Book, he was about to drag in one more.

****

The hellhounds and Sadhri held a brief consultation. Sonia agreed to track Darby while Ramesh took Salazar. Each needed a fresh scent lock. As an unauthorized track, they had to break into the quarries’ apartments. Although a strict violation of regulations, no one felt any qualms about bringing Liang’s killer one step closer to justice. Sadhri volunteered to go with them. Breaking in to locked apartments posed no problem for a shiva with a knack for explosives.

Billy itched to run Jared Kaplan to ground. Kaplan was a hellhound, but a lone wolf not affiliated with a pack. In truth, no decent pack wanted him. He lived on the fringes with others who chafed at the restrictions imposed by the wardens. Usually they were nothing more than hot-headed trouble-makers, kept in check by The Book. They supported themselves by hiring out for quick jobs. Were things so bad, Billy wondered, that a two-bit thug like Kaplan willingly allied himself with a murderer?

An hour later, the four of them met in the garage. Billy noted a few stray flecks of plaster dust in Sonia’s hair. Sadhri shrugged. “The door in Darby’s apartment was reinforced. The wall was not.”

The three hellhounds set off in three different vehicles with Sadhri riding shotgun with Billy. They headed south on the same route. Billy’s hopes rose with each passing mile as the three separate trails converged on an identical course. Certain David was onto something, he convinced the others to abandon their cars and risk a flight to Atlanta, the closest airport to the last known whereabouts of Anthony Pearce. Losing the cars held a risk since hellhounds had a weakness. They could only concentrate on one scent at a time. If Kaplan, Darby, and Salazar split up, the hunt would be seriously compromised.

Billy fretted about running the quarry to ground. A full hunting pack always carried manacles for apprehension to deprive Integrals of their power, but on an unauthorized mission, a visit to the armory was out of the question. He pushed the concern to the back of his mind. When the time came, they’d be creative.

At the Atlanta airport they picked up a rental car. One quick scent check in the air and the hellhound’s spirits immediately rose. All three targets had been in the area recently, although each scent was far from fresh. That made sense, Billy thought with grim satisfaction, if the trio now had shields. He believed David was right. With luck, the hellhounds would corner all of them together at the last location. An hour of driving brought them across the street from a house in Decatur, the last spot where all three hellhounds discerned a clear scent.

Billy studied the layout. The house was set back well from the street on a large heavily wooded lot. Although the trees lost their leaves the scrubby untended brush surrounding the property provided good cover.
No prying eyes from the neighbors to worry about. Good for them. Good for us.
The window shades were drawn and the door to the garage closed.

Ramesh smirked. “Shall we knock?”

Sadhri peered around the street. “What backs up to the lot?”

Sonia whipped out her smart phone and pulled up a map ofed A full the area. “Strip mall.”

They drove the car out of the development and parked at the shopping center. Sadhri jumped out. “I’ll do recon.” She returned in five minutes with a full report. “In the back is a cinderblock wall bordering the property. I peeked over the top and saw right into the backyard. All the windows in the rear are shaded also. A rundown shed near the house makes good cover.” She glanced up. “The sky will be dark in an hour. We’ll make our move then.”

As soon as the sun set, they crept around the strip mall to the cinderblock wall. “Bear right when you hit the ground,” Sadhri murmured. One by one, they silently vaulted over the top, dropped lightly to the other side, and then darted behind the shed. The house was dark. No light filtered through the shaded windows.

Billy drew in a lungful of air searching for any fresh trace of Kaplan. He sensed nothing. For an instant, his confidence wavered.

“What now?” Ramesh whispered.

Suddenly, the back door swung open. The hellhounds and shiva crouched low. Jared Kaplan strode out onto the stoop. He wore a gold chain around his neck matching the description of one stolen several weeks ago. Kaplan lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and blew out the smoke. Billy curled his nose in disgust as his sensitive receptors immediately caught a whiff of tobacco. Smoking and drinking were strictly forbidden for a hellhound. They interfered with the gift. No wonder other packs held Kaplan in scorn.