Misery County

Chapter 18 - Part 2

"Wait, wait, wait. What the hell evidence do you have linking me to that?"

"Oh, gee, where do I start? We've got a photo from a red light camera showing you with him just minutes before his death."

"No, we were –"

"And what else? Let's see, we got Deputy Snyder's body cam sitting in your motel room?"

"Wh-"

"Yes, you dumb shit. They've got GPS in them and it's battery-powered. Our only mistake was not putting the pieces together and tracking it the day the murder happened, but we ain't all perfect, are we?"

"You sure as hell ain't, Captain Kirk."

Deputy Bill landed a good punch right in Eric's right kidney. "I told you, asshole – different spelling."

Eric took in a deep breath. Maybe this was the right time to keep quiet.

"I have to give you credit," Deputy Bill began to ramble, "you did use yet another fake identity to sign into the motel, but guess what? They had you on CCTV. How fortunate it was that I was the one to look over the tapes and spot your dumb, drooling mug."

"Now, let's not say things we're going to regret the morning after," Eric said weakly, still shouldering the pain in his kidney.

"Shut up! You think you're so fuckin' tough, don't you? You think you're some big, bad killer operating outside of the law? Well guess what. The law's caught up with you now, son."

"You know I'm not a killer! You wouldn't have come up to my car so casually if you thought I was. Or are you really that inept of a cop? I mean, Jesus, I only worked security, and I sure as hell know that ain't no way to approach a suspect that you believe is killing cops."

"You worked security, huh? That's interesting. The boys doing the background check on you now that we have your real name can look into that."

"Look, Deputy Schattner, let me square with you."

"Oh, please do."

"Jerry Snyder was a friend of mine."

"Was he?"

"Yes, he was. We were in Iraq together. You can look that up when you do your background check."

"So your quarrel precedes this reunion."

"No, you dingleberry! There was never any quarrel. We were friends. I didn't kill Jerry." Eric took a deep breath. "Werewolves did."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence during which Eric prayed to any and every power-that-be that his words get taken seriously.

"Man, shut the fuck up. You're just embarrassing yourself now," the deputy said as he hoisted Eric back off of his car and led him to the patrol car.

"No, listen to me. You've got the body camera, right? So look at the footage on it."

"Oh, we intend to. We'll get right onto that on Monday."

"Monday?"

"Our IT technicians get three-day weekends. They don't work Friday to Sunday."

"What the fuck kind of Mickey Mouse operation do you people –"

Once again, Eric's words were interrupted by a punch to his lower back.

"A bit keen, aren't we?" Eric coughed.

"Let's just say I don't take too kindly to cop killers."

"I'm pretty sure," Eric wheezed, "that your actions right now are totally killing any chance in hell that your case has in court."

"And who's going to believe you? I ain't wearing no body camera, and the dash cam in the car is off. In fact, just for bringing it up..." Deputy Bill landed yet another punch, this time on Eric's left kidney. "Do you have anything more to say?"

"No, sir," Eric whispered.