“You know that spare of yours look pretty shot,” the patrolman said as he leaned down and examined the temporary tire. “Where you headed?”
“Austin,” Avery said as he impatiently watched the gas meter, praying it would hurry up.
“You might want to think twice about that. I bet you don’t have twenty miles left on that thing,” the patrolman said.
“Thank you, sir,” Avery replied. “I’ll be sure and keep an eye on it.”
“You got some kind of dead animal in there,” the patrolman said as he looked into the back seat of the car and shined his flashlight in.
“Uh, family pet,” Avery said as the meter stopped at thirty dollars. “Taking it home to rest in peace.”
“You mind if I take a look?” the patrolman said as he walked around to Avery’s side of the vehicle and looked in the back window.
“It’s not exactly fresh. Getting kind of putrid, actually,” Avery said as he scrambled to come up with an excuse to not open the car door.
“Why don’t you just open the door, boy?” the patrolman asked with authority in his voice.
“Okay, but please don’t touch it. It’s very valuable,” Avery said as he opened the door for the patrolman. “I mean, valuable to the family and everything.” The patrolman bent over to examine the animal.
“Ugliest damned dog I ever saw,” the patrolman said as he gazed at the bundled-up remains. “You want your shirt, boy?” the patrolman said as he reached for the yellow tracksuit top, covering the stacks of cash.
“No! That’s okay,” Avery said as he leaned in the back with the patrolman and stopped him from picking up the tracksuit. “Driving like this…it uh…helps me stay awake.”
“Hell, the stink from that dead mutt will keep you awake by itself,” replied the patrolman as he backed away from the car door.
“Yes, thank you, officer,” Avery said as he closed the door. “Really should be on my way. Don’t want to be late for the funeral.”
“Funeral?” the patrolman inquired.
“Uh, burial, that it,” Avery said as he climbed into the front seat. “Cherished family pet, it was.”
“All right, then,” the patrolman said. “But watch your speed and get that spare tire looked at. Pronto.”
“Yes, sir,” Avery replied as he closed the door and pulled out of the filling station. The highway patrolman watched Avery intently as he drove back out onto the highway.
Avery made the fastest time home he could without getting pulled over. He didn’t even stop to pull another Mountain Dew from his ice chest. Hours later, the familiar outskirts of Austin approached. Just as the sun was coming up, Avery pulled into the garage behind the big white house. Dumping the extra soda bottles from his ice chest, Avery wedged the animal corpse into the cooler with the remainder of the ice. Retrieving a lawn bag from the garage workbench, Avery crammed the stacks of money from the floorboard into it. Putting his tracksuit top back on, he took the cooler and the bag of money and sneaked as quietly as he could into the house. From the top of the main staircase, Max glared down at Avery as he tiptoed up the steps with his heavy load.
“Move it,” Avery said as he brushed past the little white dog and headed for his room. Max sniffed the strange odor emanating from the ice chest as Avery barged past him. Following Avery down the hall, Max stuck his pug nose under the door that Avery had closed behind him. After taking a few short whiffs, Max sneezed and shook his head before returning to bed with Bennett.
Inside the dimly lit room, Avery pushed the cooler into the corner and threw a blanket over it. Then he stashed the money sack under his bed. Firing up his computer, he pulled up the “MonsterTruthersMessageBoard” and logged in as NinjaMan. HammerheadSam and Cannibal520 were in the chat room.
From: NinjaMan – I found it!
From: Cannibal520 – Found what?
From: NinjaMan – A chupacabra corpse!
From: HammerheadSam – OMG! No way. For real?
From: NinjaMan – Real.
From: Cannibal520 – Post a picture!
From: NinjaMan – Not yet. I need to work out my strategy for getting this discovery out to the press. I’m not sure if I should do Sixty Minutes or Good Morning America first.
From: HammerheadSam – Try The View first. It’ll blow those chicks’ minds. LOL.
From: NinjaMan – I’ll consider it, but I’m not sure about their scientific or journalistic integrity. Until then, don’t speak of this to anyone outside the group, and watch out for the black helicopters. Logging off now.
Avery shut down his computer. Stumbling toward his small bed, he fell face first onto the mattress. He was sound asleep instantly.
Later that morning, in an El Paso–area hospital room, Agent Maria Diaz woke up as she heard the sound of her partner fumbling with the tubes connected to his arm.
“Hank, take it easy,” she said as she rose to her feet and placed her hand on Hank’s to stop him from pulling the tubes out.
“Get this junk off me,” Agent Hank Martin said, his voice groggy.
“Nurse,” Agent Diaz called into the hallway as she sat on the edge of Hank’s hospital bed and held his hand still. “Settle down, partner. It’s going to be all right. You’re in the hospital. Your leg is in pretty bad shape, but the doctor says you’ll be back in the saddle in no time.”
“Well, good morning, Agent Martin,” the nurse said as she entered the small room. “Let’s make sure you didn’t do anything naughty here.” She checked his tubes and monitors. “You just rest a little. The doctor will be in shortly to take a look at you.”
“I don’t need a damn doctor,” said Hank. “What I do need are my boots and gun. There’s a big Mexican I need to have a little private conversation with.”
“Well, that may need to wait a little while, agent,” the nurse said as she made a note on his bed chart. “You’re going to have to stay off that leg of yours for a while until you’re healed up.”
“Only need one good one,” Hank replied gruffly.
“Is that so?” a senior-looking border patrol agent asked as he entered the room. “By God, Hank, you’re a hell of an agent, but you really don’t know when you’re licked.”
“He’s right, Hank,” said Maria. “Listen to the boss.”
“I’m not sitting around in here while the bastard that shot me and my partner is running loose out there,” Hank protested.
“Well, he might not be running as fast as you think,” the senior agent replied. “Got a call last night from a Billy Willingham. Also goes by the name of one Private Zulu. Belongs to that militia group you ran into out in the desert. Says he found a body in their headquarters down around Tornillo. I just came from downtown with the report.”
“Was it a big Mexican?” Hank asked.
“Well, he used to be pretty tall at some point in his life,” the senior agent replied. “Seems to have been shortened recently by about the length of his head.”
“Was he a bodybuilder?” Maria asked.
“I imagine he preferred to spend his free time in tattoo parlors rather than gymnasiums,” the senior agent replied as he took a stack of crime scene photos from a manila envelope and handed them to Agent Diaz.
“That’s not our guy,” Maria said as she examined the photos of the headless man covered in tattoos. “Did you get a chance to interview Private Zulu about what might have happened?”
“Yeah, we questioned him a little,” the senior agent explained. “He was really shaken up, but said he was there to meet an Avery Pendleton from Austin about some kind of dead dog he found in the desert. Says Pendleton wasn’t there when he showed up, but that the dog was gone. We’ve got all sorts of prints and forensics from the place, but it’s going to take some time getting them sorted out. The militia’s got seven members that spend a lot of time in the building.”