Misery County

Chapter 6 - Part 2

"What werewolf house?"

"The house where I killed an alpha werewolf the other night."

"I can't tell if you're fucking with me or not."

"Nope. Your Little Miss Inexperienced was taking on the baddest of the bad before you came along."

"Wow, I'm impressed. So how did you do it?"

"Silver bullet, of course. How else?"

"I must be missing something. We didn't get a chance to talk about this last night, but I can only assume that you're in Missouri County because you heard about all the unnatural killings."

"Yes, that's correct." Cassie didn't like where this was going.

"And somehow, you found a werewolf. Not just any werewolf, but an alpha, no less. This is just a guess on my part, but I'd say that him being an alpha meant that he was probably quite high up in the ranks of whatever's going on here."

"Yeah, he said."

"Oh, he did say, did he? I take it this was before you killed him." Eric was now beginning to sound far more serious than Cassie liked him to be.

"I commend you on that astute observation."

"But you ended up killing him anyway, is that right?"

"Well, he did attack me. Or he was going to, at least. I think he was going to." Cassie was now fumbling. "I sprayed him in the face with colloidal silver, then he started transforming into his wolf form."

"And pray tell, why did you spray him in the face?"

"I thought that he was going to attack me," Cassie stuttered. "He seemed to be getting, you know, a bit weird."

"And was this after or before the interrogation?" Eric's tone was now downright hostile.

"It was kind of meant to kick-start the interrogation."

"But you said that was when he attacked you."

"Yes." Cassie could feel her cheeks burning red hot.

"So there was no interrogation?"

"No."

"And then you killed him?"

"Did you miss the part where I said he was trying to kill me? What was I supposed to do? Let him snaffle me up like a quick snack?"

"Cassie, I'm sure you understand that what's going on here is bigger than one werewolf, so why the hell would you take our only lead and just kill him without getting any useful information out of him first?"

"I tried to get information!" Cassie's voice was quavering as tears welled up in her eyes. "He could fight against the effects of the silver on his face. What was I supposed to do? I thought that would take him down and make him putty in my hands."

"Maybe if you had –"

"And what's all this 'our' business?" Cassie interrupted. "He wasn't our lead. He was my lead. I found him. I tracked him down. I –"

"You killed him without advancing the investigation any further, and not to mention the risk you put yourself in. You could have died. Think about that. Just think about that for a moment. You thought your little trick would work, but all it did was leave you hanging at the worst time possible."

"It doesn't matter. I got him in the end."

"Why do I have to say this again and again? You can't judge how well you did by the result. You made it out alive, and I'm glad about that, but it sounds to me like that was more down to dumb luck than proper planning."

"OK, Jesus, Eric, I get it. I'm dumb and you're smart. I fuck up while you get it right. I don't get leads while you – oh, yeah, that's right – you've got absolutely nothing since you arrived here."

Eric seemed genuinely frazzled. "I've been here all of two days, and I've spent them all with you."

"Well, not all of them. Little Eric got to spend –"

"Goddamnit, will you stop referring to my gentleman part as 'Little Eric.' He has a name – Reynaldo."

"Sorry, I won't forget it again," Cassie said through a chuckle, appreciating the welcome change in tone. "Here we are." She pulled the car over near the house where she fought and left Chopper.

Eric looked around. "Quite the charming neighborhood. I can see why a werewolf would settle down here."

"You have to give him credit," Cassie said as she turned the car off and climbed out. "If there's one place where he could operate without getting unwanted attention, it's here."

"You're not wrong there," Eric said, following suit.

"I know he's dead, but maybe we can find something on his corpse or in the house that can set us on the right path."

"We can certainly try. Uh, Cassie, I think someone's beaten us to it." Eric manhandled the padlock on the outside of the door.

"Nope, that's one of mine."

"Maybe I didn't give you enough credit. Locking down the scene of the crime is good thinking."

"That's almost a compliment. I'm touched," Cassie teased as she opened up the door.

A stomach-turning whiff of air came from inside the house as they stood at the threshold.