LA
After a few weeks of research, Andrew Cole finally located a link to Alamo Joe Rogan. His old friend had proven surprisingly elusive. One might have thought the Bounty Hunter had dropped off the face of the earth.
Except for his connection to Eddie Armonni.
Cole found his way to Armonni's office. The Bail Bondsman was on the phone as Cole waited patiently.
"Yeah…" Armonni was speaking into the phone. "Caleb Yates is a real piece of work. He's got the whole deal…Robbery, Assault, and multiple murder. You, and your Associate bring him in, you'll net a cool fifteen grand…Be armed though…Like I said, he's a real piece of work…. Yeah…I know…Just take care. He's a nasty one. I'll fax everything over to you. Where are you now?"
Armonni wrote something on a crumpled-looking Post-it…
"Yeah," he spoke again. "I'll fax everything over ASAP."
Armonni put the phone back in its cradle.
"Hey!" he stood. "Nice of you to wait."
"Eddie Armonni," he held out a hand.
"Andrew Cole, out of Houston," Cole shook the proffered hand. "I've been trying to track an old Air Force buddy; heard you might know the guy. Joe Rogan…Alamo Joe to his friends."
"Wow…" Armonni laughed. "Talk about coincidences. I was just on the phone with him when you came in. Speaking of which, I need to fax his job details over to him. If you want to wait a bit?"
"Sure," Cole nodded. "I can wait here while you do what you need to."
Armonni nodded, hurried off to the Fax machine. While his back was turned, Andrew Cole leaned over, took a quick peek at the yellow Post-it lying face-up on Armonni's messy desk.
Tangled Gulch, Sheriff's Office
Hm…I've been there before…
It had been a messy case, ten years ago, a…sordid one too. A wife had thought her husband was having an affair with another woman.
She was half right.
There had been an affair. But the lover had been a man. And her boss.
And how everyone managed to keep that secret-until I came along-is an enigma I'll never understand…
"Done!" Armonni's voice brought him back around. "You knew Alamo Joe back in the day?"
"Yeah…" Cole nodded. "We were both pilots before we joined the Air Force. Loved flying, being up in the air."
"Tell me more," Armonni suggested. "Rogan never talks about himself…"
…..
Tangled Gulch
"According to Armonni, this Caleb Yates is bad news," Alamo Joe Rogan looked over at Eric Cord. "So, you'd better be packing heat for this."
Eric Cord nodded. He had taken the courses Rogan had suggested, had gotten the firearms license. Now, he was an official, all-forms-signed Bounty Hunter.
Not quite the career he had originally planned for himself…
He had his gun, in a shoulder-holster, under a denim jacket.
Now, they were parked near a small diner, a Mom-and-Pop operation just on the outskirts of town. Yates could be seen through the window, sitting at a booth, chowing down on a heaping helping of chili con carne
"We'll wait until he comes outside to detain him," Rogan had announced. "Don't want a repeat of what went down at Paul's Roadhouse…"
No…we don't, Eric Cord agreed.
Especially if that meant Alamo Joe getting shot again…
Fortunately, the wait wasn't long. Roughly thirty minutes later, Yates paid his tab, then exited the building, heading for his rusty-looking truck.
"Yates!" Rogan was already out of his car, shotgun out, cocked, and ready.
Cord positioned himself to block Yates' escape route back into the diner.
Fived minutes later, Caleb Yates was handcuffed, and packed into the back of Rogan's truck. A twenty-minute drive later, he had been delivered into the custody of the local Sheriff, and all was done.
Now, all Cord and Rogan had to do was wait until the check cleared, and they could move on to the next case…
…..
Nicholas Remy was perplexed. That was a feeling he wasn't really accustomed to, and he didn't like it.
"Are you sure?" he growled at one of his thralls, a new werewolf, one who had only been a member of the Pack for around five years.
"Yes!" the young man cringed as he spoke, anxious to avoid Remy's wrath.
"That old fart wants Rogan? Not Eric Cord?" It didn't make sense. Why would Harmon Teller, a man apparently obsessed with immortality want Rogan, and not a werewolf, with all the attributes of a werewolf?
"I don't know, my Lord," the younger man groveled. "As far as Mr. Teller knows, I'm just a lowly gardener. He doesn't worry about what he says in front of me. He said to his doctor that it was Rogan who had immortality on his blood, and that he wants it. Maybe he doesn't know Eric Cord is a werewolf."
"But that does beg the question…" Remy sat at his desk. "Harmon Teller is no fool. Where did he get the notion that Rogan, of all people, is immortal?"
"Think there was a shooting…at a roadside diner…" the young man spoke timidly.
"A…shooting…" Nicholas Remy regarded the young man. "Find out what happened. We cannot act if we don't have information…"
The young man scurried off to do Remy's bidding. Remy sat there, thinking.
Perhaps there's more to the Bounty Hunter than I expected…