Chapter Five

The biter's name was Avery Jessup. Twenty-three years old. He had priors, but they were all related to marijuana possession. No history of violence. Kind of surprising, considering the severity of the assault. I'd read the police report after we left the bonds office. The victim had been a homeless man in his early fifties. If the bite had been an inch further back, it would have hit the jugular and he wouldn't have made it to the hospital.

I'd never heard of someone with a history of marijuana use turning violent before. Usually they were pretty mellow. Didn't even resist arrest half the time.

Guess there was a first time for everything.

Jessup's address was listed on the third block of Stark Street. A rundown apartment building covered in graffiti, street toughs and runners hanging out on the front stoop with the collected trash that lined the gutters. They watched me and Lula was rapt attention until Hal stepped out of the SUV. Some of the runners took off. The rest just watched while we walked inside.

I went to the second floor and looked for apartment B. A young woman answered the door. Had to be the girlfriend who had bailed him out. She didn't look good. Didn't smell great either. Like a mix of cheap whiskey and cigarettes. I was also betting it had been a few days since she'd seen a shower. She stared at me through narrowed eyes. I thought it was more to get focus than it was out of annoyance.

"Are you Lorena Crawly?"

"Who wants to know?" she asked, her eyes raking Lula first in her shocking pink, then me, and then finally the mountain of a man behind me. That gave her pause.

"I work for your boyfriend's bail bondmen. He missed his court date yesterday and I've come to help him reschedule it." It wasn't entirely a lie. That was exactly what my job description entailed. What I didn't say was that there was a good chance he would end up waiting in jail until someone could bail him out again. Assuming there was someone that could. Lorena had used her car as collateral. Judging from the state of her apartment, she might not be able to afford bailing him out a second time. If she was even willing. Which I was doubting, given her expression.

"I hadn't seen that loser in weeks, and then he goes and bites some fool like he's out of his damn mind. I kicked his ass out the second they let him outta jail. I shoulda never got involved with this shit. Nuh-uh."

"Do you know where he is?"

"I don't wanna know where he is."

"I hate to tell you this, but you put up your car as collateral. If I don't find him fast enough, the bond's office will keep it."

"You're shitting me. Damn!"

I was betting she wasn't entirely sober herself when she'd bonded him out. "Does he have any family? Any friends he'd go to? You were on the only person listed on his bond agreement."

"No. But if I had to guess, he's probably back under that overpass getting lit like he always does when I kick his ass out. You catch him and throw his ass back in jail. I didn't sign up for this shit."

I thanked her and headed back downstairs.

The overpass wasn't far. It had been listed in the police report as the place the assault had happened. The garbage that usually collected along Stark Street paled in comparison to the trash heaps here. It was kind of ominous. Hard to tell which of the rat infested piles were just trash and which ones might be people sleeping like the dead under their makeshift homes. I took a careful step toward the nearest pile.

"Avery Jessup?"

Something stirred. Might have been a person. Might have been a big-ass rat.

"I'm looking for Avery Jessup. I work for his bail bondsmen, and I need to help him reschedule his court date. Do you know where I can find him?"

The shape buckled, the cardboard shifting enough that I could see a man. He was filthy. His baggy jeans and torn flannel shirt were so covered in dark stains that it was hard to tell what was dirt and what was other. His body didn't move quite right. He was struggling to get to his feet.

"Avery?"

He swung around on his heels and looked at us. It was Avery Jessup alright. I recognized him from the picture attached to his bond agreement. He just stared at us for a second. Nobody home. His face was covered in dark stains, just like his clothes. I was getting the heebie-jeebies. He started walking toward us in disconnected way.

"Oh God," Lula said. "He's one of those things! Like on that TV show with the dead people!"

"What show with the dead people?" I wanted to know. The way Jessup was stalking us was starting to freak me out. Lula wasn't helping.

"He's one of them zombies! Like the Walking Dead! I seen it happen just like this! He's gonna try and eat us!"

"That's ridiculous. Things like that don't happen in real life."

I suddenly lost interest in reason when Jessup started running for us. Lula hauled the Glock out of her handbag and pointed it at him before I could stop her. Most of her bullets went wide. Lula wasn't a great shot. But one of them clipped Jessup's shoulder. He didn't even feel it. Just kept coming, blood pouring down his arm in a steady stream. He tackled Lula. I could hear his teeth snapping in the struggle. Hal was on him a second later. Dragged him up off of Lula and threw him to the ground. I ran over and put cuffs on him while Hal was holding him down, his body bucking and squirming under Hal's weight. Hal was having trouble holding onto him. I slipped some flexi cuffs around his ankles to help stop the flailing.

Lula was rolling around in the dirt trying to get up. Covered in dust and grime from head to toe. Her shocking pink and white tank top was torn and streaked with red. I left Hal with Jessup and went to help her up. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay! I told you this was a bad idea! We go after a biter and he turns out to be a zombie! This is like that vampire all over again."

"That guy wasn't a vampire. He was just some old man with pointy dentures who didn't like the sun. You gotta stop watching so much television." Easy for me to say. My heart was still racing. I pulled her to her feet. "What's that on your arm?"

Lula looked down at the dark ring just below her shoulder. They looked suspiciously like teeth marks. "Oh my God. Oh Lord! I been bit! I been bit by a zombie, I'm gonna die!"

"You're not gonna die!" I said, trying desperately not to catch her panic. "We'll just clean it up. It might not have even broken the skin."

Lula wasn't listening. She'd crossed into full blown hysteria. I tried to hold her up, but her legs had turned to jelly and she flopped over on me. Hal was startled. He left Jessup floundering in the dirt and came to my rescue. He lifted Lula off me with little effort.

"You have to calm down!" I told her. "Remember when you thought you were turning into a werewolf from eating too much meat? Remember when you'd convinced yourself that you were in love with that moron just because you thought you drank a love potion? None of that was real, and neither are zombies."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who's gonna turn!"

Jessup was flapping around like mad. I heard it when the flexi cuffs snapped. Then something else snapped. It was a sickening sound. Cut right through my stomach. Jessup was on his feet and running away from us, one hand hanging limp at his side, the cuffs dangling from the other.

Lula was still beside herself, covered in dust and blood, clinging to Hal for dear life. He looked as terrified about that as she did. I couldn't tell if the blood was hers or Jessup's. I needed her to calm down, and I needed to clean her up so that we could assess the damage. "Maybe we should take her to the hospital," I suggested.

"No! No way I'm going to no hospital! They'll take one look and put me down before I can turn!"

"Hospitals don't do that." She didn't care. She wasn't going. I let out a sigh. "Is there a first aid kit in the Explorer?"

Hal shrugged. He didn't know.

"How about you take her to the Explorer. I'll pick up some first aid stuff from the drugstore on the corner and we can clean her up."

"I can't let you go alone. Tank'll kill me."

"I won't tell him, I promise." He was unconvinced. "Five minutes."

He looked down at Lula still clinging to his shirt. And then across the street to the drug store. Jessup had run in the other direction. Probably long gone by now. Hal hung his head. He'd just realized he didn't have much of a choice. I was going with or without his permission. "Five minutes."

I left him there and ran across the street. The store was empty. Only a Pakistani guy in a collared golf shirt stood behind the counter, watching a soccer game on the little television that hung in the corner next to the security monitors. I gave him a thin smile and headed for the first aid section.

I tossed what I needed into a little basket. Gauze, alcohol wipes, Band-Aids, antibacterial cream, medical tape. I was about to head to the register when my eyes landed on the pregnancy tests.

The panic hit again.

I looked around the store like someone might see me. Still empty. I did some quick thinking. I was outside the bubble. No one from the Burg would come down to a corner drug store on Stark. I bit my lip and dropped a test into the basket, covering it with the gauze so the clerk wouldn't see it.

I was tapping my foot while he rung me up. He paused when he saw the test, glancing up at me for a brief second and then down to the white tan line on my ring finger, then moved on.

The bell over the door rang to announce someone's entrance. I worried for a second that it was Hal. Turned out to be Mooner. I'd gone to high school with the Moon Man. We hadn't known each other well, but I've seen him around from time to time and I considered him a friend. He had a permanent state of mellowness about him that was kind of soothing. Came from so many years experimenting with herbs. He'd been clean for a while, from what I hear, but the stoner vibe persists. It was a personality trait.

He slouched up to me, catching sight of the pregnancy test. "Dude. Are you and Cop-man expecting? That's righteous."

Shit.

"It's for my sister. She thinks she might be pregnant again, but it's a secret. She doesn't want anyone to know yet."

"I can dig it. It's totally redacted."

"Thanks."

"No problemo. Are the bandages for your sister too?"

"No. They're for Lula. She kind of got bit by a skip."

"For real? That's lunar. Totally dark side."

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure he was high on something. I think he broke his wrist getting out the cuffs I'd put on him before he ran away. It was freaky."

"Dude. I heard there was some bad chronic out there. Really messing up the atmosphere, if you know what I mean. That's why I was homegrown back in the day. You gotta stay organic. Keep it local, you know. The stuff they've got coming up from Mexico has some bad juju on it."

The front door wrenched open, pouring daylight over us with the ringing bell. Hal was standing in the doorway. I snatched the test off the counter and tucked it in my back pocket. "Almost done."

Hal nodded, looking Mooner over. I swallowed. Added a candy bar to the pile of stuff for the clerk to ring up. It would help sooth my nerves. Then I added two more. One might not do it. And of course, Lula might want one. I tossed down six more. I got some raised eyebrows, but nobody questioned me. The clerk put everything in a plastic bag. I pulled out a couple candy bars and opened my messenger bag. Slipped the pregnancy test into it with the chocolate so that Hal wouldn't notice. I said goodbye to Mooner and followed Hal back out of the store.

Lula was sitting in the Explorer in a daze with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She twitched sometimes. Muttered to herself. Something about not wanting to eat brains.

At least she wasn't screaming anymore.

I cleaned her up with the alcohol wipes and was glad to find the teeth marks were only bruises. "He didn't break the skin."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

Lula threw her arms around my neck and crushed me. "Oh, thank you Jesus!" And then she flopped back on the seat and passed out.

Hal looked worried for a second. I waved him off. "She didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

He nodded, but he didn't look any more comfortable. Especially when Lula started snoring. I made sure she was buckled in and then took a step back to call Morelli.

"Hey. I was wondering if you could put out an APB for me. I kind of lost a skip."

"Shit, Stephanie. Didn't anybody tell you you're supposed to hold onto them?"

"It wasn't my fault."

"When is it ever your fault?"

"This was different. This was really not my fault. We took him down and I had cuffs on his hands and feet and he just snapped them off and ran away. I think he might have even broken his own wrist to do it." Morelli went quite for a second while he processed that. I thought he might be staring at his shoes, trying not to laugh. "It's not funny," I warned him.

"No, it's not. Not even a little bit. Who were you after?"

"Avery Jessup. We found him under the overpass near Stark Street. He was acting weird, and then he charged us and he bit Lula."

"Is she alright?"

"Yes. It's just a bruise. I thought it was worse than it was because she was covered in blood, but I guess it was all his."

"You wanna explain that to me?"

I bit my lip. "Off the record?"

"Shit. I hate when you say that."

"Lula kind of shot him. It looked like a flesh wound in his upper arm. At least I'd guess, since he didn't seem to feel it at all."

"Fuck." I heard some shuffling on the other end of the line. I thought he might be getting a pad and pencil. "Do you know which direction he was heading?"

"East I think."

"You still have Ranger's guy with you?"

"Yes."

"Good. Tell him to take you home and that I'll hold him personally responsible if he lets you anywhere near Avery Jessup. I got to go." And then he disconnected.

I looked at the phone for a beat with my mouth hanging open and then called him back.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Avery Jessup was psychotic when they arrested him for trying to rip a homeless man's throat out. From what you just told me, I'm pretty sure it's because he was high on PCP. I didn't see it a lot working vice because most people know what a fucking nightmare it is, but the times I did see it scared the crap out of me. You never forget something like that. I don't want you to go anywhere near him. Do you understand me?"

"You can't just say something like that and then hang up on me. I called you to ask for help, not a federal mandate."

"Yeah, well you're getting both."

"I can't believe this! You're worse than Tank. Doesn't anyone think I'm capable of taking care of myself?"

"Don't put that on me, Cupcake. I didn't ask a small army to monitor your every move."

"No, but you are telling me not to do my job."

"Don't get me started on your job. God! You don't listen to anyone. It's no wonder Rangeman follows you around like a band of guard dogs."

"I thought you hated that."

"I hate a lot of things about this situation, Cupcake, but that's not always one of them. Someone needs to keep you from getting yourself killed. Though, it doesn't exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy knowing Ranger gets a report every time you stay the night at my place."

"That doesn't happen."

"The hell it doesn't. Now, I've gotta go. Somebody has to find Avery Jessup before he kills someone or bleeds out in the streets." And he disconnected again.

I glared at the phone for a full minute trying to get a grip on my emotions.

Not my boyfriend. Definitely not my boyfriend.