The Serpent and the Crow

Book 1: Chapter Ten

The Camaro slowed down at a stoplight. Solemn looked different in the daytime. The streets looked like they would if there was a Solemn Templar's game on, empty. It looked like the place you would drive through. There was more action at Coyote Hills, even though the hills were still smouldering from the burning coal underground.

Wade was haggard, as if he were up all night. He loaded up his six-shooter with '45 LC ammo.

"Why don't you use your PD issue, Glock? You'd have nine extra. It makes no sense."

"Of course, it doesn't, until you realise you only need six bullets. The rest is for people that can't shoot for shit. Is that why you got one?"

"A personally acquired firearm don't get a tax writeoff. But, I do."

"I used to have two of these suckers, named them Death and Taxes."

The light turned green, and Douglas put pressure on the accelerator. Wade looked out the shattered window and saw various missing person flyers flapping in the wind.

"Where's the other gun?"

"I had to pay my taxes." Wade held up his Colt, "But, I kept Death."

"Man, you talk a lot of shit. I bet you'll run out of all six on one guy. And, then big Poppa Doug is going to save your ass with my nine extra friends."

"Keep disbelieving. But, when it all goes down."

"If it ever goes down, and that's a big IF. It ain't going to go down the way you say it does. How will it go down if you face to face with him, the killer?"

It's the same story told again and again in Solemn Pines. Circumstantial evidence. Police coercion. Tampering with evidence. Lack of witnesses, and motive, can all lead to this guy getting off.

"How certain are you that things will go down the way you want it, Wade?"

"The only thing certain in life lies in my holster... You can't tax someone if they're dead."

Perhaps Wade assumed they were on the same page. But Douglas was not. It was the answer he expected but didn't want to hear. Douglas thought Wade was full of shit most times.

But Douglas was sure that Wade meant what he said and would do just about anything to see justice done, no matter how it's done. Douglas thought twice about what he understood, and when the time came, what choice he would make.

The dispatcher said, "Detective Nez and Derringer, come in. Over."

Wade picked up the horn, "10-5. Over."

"Received a 10-21. A Doctor Ray Lee, Wayne from the Herpetological Society, report to the Zoo in Trepidation 14 miles from Solemn. Urgent. Over."