The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

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The chief was excited. "That fuckin' bloodhound took off...damned if I know what made him do it, but that's just what he did! Now this Ollie fellow who owns him wants my department to reimburse him for the animal if he can't retrieve him. The dog sure was spooked after he sniffed out the body, shit...and I don't blame him, but I told the guy we're on a tight budget and he can forget about us paying him for some damn dog. The fuckin' thing got away from his chum besides. He took off in the direction that the guard Crumpler possibly went. I sent some of my guys over to the golf course and around some of the roads around there, but all they found was Crumpler's flashlight. We couldn't go any further, it's not my jurisdiction as you well know. And to be honest with you we just couldn't afford the man-hours it's bound to cost. I knew I had to call on the county. But I sure didn't expect to find the SBI and the feds on the scene." He was saying to Special Agent Mabry as he led the caravan of cars into the town of Billings. Mabry had dismissed his driver informing him that he would find transportation back to Sayerville when he required it.

"You say this truck driver has neck wounds, is that right?" Mabry asked Howell. "Yeah, ugly lookin' things...two perfect circles almost." Howell said stabbing the air with the index finger of his right hand.

Mabry opened the folder to the files on the case. He withdrew some photos of the motel victims. "Wounds like these?" he asked. Howell took the photos and looked at them briefly out of the corner of his eyes. "Oh yeah...mercy...yeah just like them!" he said with a pained expression. "These gals the ones they found at the motel?" he then asked. "Yes."Mabry said taking the pictures back.

"You know Mr. Mabry if I didn't know better I'd swear we had us a dad gum vampire on our hands?" the chief said with a hint of facetiousness. 

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 Mabry gave him a faint smile, but in that brief instant Howell thought he saw an expression of resignation in the Special Agent's eyes and for a moment he thought his reference to vampires carried more weight than one might expect. Mabry had simply smiled at the suggestion never once denouncing it.

And then Howell got that gregarious look on his face that so endeared him to his fellow townspeople. "Well now you sure got in on this thing fast?"  he said his curiosity quite apparent. "Merely serendipitous. Trumbo got in touch with Carter and he in turn with me." Mabry said with an air of officiousness. "Damn lucky I'd say, shit man you look even smarter than Efrem Zimbalist Jr." Howell said with a broad grin in an attempt to deflate the federal agent. Mabry couldn't control himself, he began to rumble with laughter with Howell's reaction to is pompousness. He turned to the cop still chuckling. "Well now chief I sure appreciate such an astute observation. I surely do." he managed to say between bouts of laughter. The rest of the trip was rather enjoyable for Mabry with the topics of discussion ranging from their work to their respective family relations.

After awhile they made it to town and soon enough Howell made a right turn onto a well-manicured street, which seemed to be zoned for business at this end and gave way to neat wooden homes with nice trimmed lawns and white washed pickett fences where yapping mongrels raced after cats, squirrels, and each other.

A long low brick building was laid out on the left side of the street from the beginning of the intersection. It was considerably large for the street with a broad driveway that passed through an equally broad passageway that led from some wide double doors, that opened up to the chapel of the funeral home.

They parked at the rear of the building near some funeral limousines and utility vehicles which the business used and soon exited. They all followed Howell to a rear door painted a light metallic green. He pressed a red button set into the border of the door. They could hear the buzzer as it sounded inside the building as if it housed some state secrets rather than the remains of the recently deceased white people from the surrounding community.