Kobe (18 page)

Chapter XXI

The Seamstress

              The furry orange and tan spiders take turns biting into Skaggs' flesh, trading his blood for their venom. It replenishes their powers, making them quicker, stronger, and deadlier to their prey.

              With this next batch of blood in their fangs, it'll be more than bats flying in terror. In turn, Skaggs heals much quicker. His temperature levels out and his fever lets loose.

              All of the baby fist-sized spiders burrow into the ground when they hear her coming, the female of the species that gave birth to them months ago, and let them crawl on her back.

              With her legs all the way out, their mother boasts over two feet in diameter. Her back is light brown with flecks of black and orange, a beautiful creature with carnivorous cravings. 

              When the large female spider first pierced into Hunter's flesh she immediately changed. Her legs grew wider, her exoskeleton became tougher, and her thirst became greater.

              Instead of bugs, she hunted squirrels, mice, rabbits. She hollowed them out completely until they turned to dust. When she became stronger, she bit Hunter again, with new venom.

              Now she prepares for a new batch of human blood and the sharing of her gift.

              Her eight legs tap across Skaggs' body. She stops at each gash and uses her silk to surgically tie his flesh back together. On the larger wounds, she drips her purple poison to cauterize the wound. The skin curls back together before she sews it shut.

              She pierces the bottom of Skaggs' neck with her thick off-white fangs. The dime-sized holes fill with her venom.

              Skaggs is another creature she and Hunter can track, that will allow her babies access to morsels wandering through the cave.

              Human morsels.

* * * * *

              Jaybird and Quinn walk down the dilapidated hallway to apartment 1408. The ruffian realtor knocks on Billy's door.

              "Billy? You in there?"

              Something stirs around inside the apartment, and the gorgeous stripper opens the door.

              "Hi, boys!" She glances at Quinn and stares at Jaybird. She puts her hand on Jay's chest and gently pushes him out of her way, "I'd love to stay and chat, but I gotta dash."

              Jaybird and Quinn walk past her into Billy's apartment.

              "What's up guys," Jaybird fist bumps Roc and Billy.

              Quinn does the same.

              "Sorry boutcha mom, Quinn," Roc says, "I ain't never met a woman so nice to ignorant ass niggas like me and my homie Billy. Rest in peace," Roc nods his head and does the sign of the cross.

              Quinn accepts the condolence with a nod back.

              "Have either of you seen Skaggs?" Jaybird asks.

              "I sold him some smack, went out to breakfast, and the cocksucker robbed my crib. I've been lookin' for him ever since," Billy says.

              "Where do you think he went?"Jaybird looks around the apartment, searching for any sign or clue.

              "Gotta be the woods, ain't nowhere else to go," Roc tells him.

              "Nobody in the Bay?"

              "Naw, cops looked everywhere, knocked on every door," Roc says.

              "With warrants?"

              "I don't think they searched the apartments, they just tried to shake down the tenants," Billy says.

              "Guess we'll meet you out there," Jaybird says, "From what I've seen driving around, the Bay is covered and just about every cop in the city is looking for this guy right now in the streets and any kind of public area. The woods seem like the best option."

              "You wanna hop in the car with us?' Billy asks.

              "I'm good, and I sure as hell ain't letting you bums ride in my Escalade," Jaybird chuckles, as do the two hooligans. However, the joke has more truth than fiction.

              "Meet us at Devil's rock in about an hour?" Billy asks.

              "Sounds good to me," Jaybird says, "I'll grab some burgers from Pete's. I have to pay my respects anyway. Be there in exactly an hour. You two know I don't like to wait," Jaybird and Quinn walk back into the hallway.

* * * * *

              Judd walks into Travis' room, "hey, partner he pulls up a chair next to the hospital bed and sits down.

              Travis is wired to machines that keep him hydrated and breathing. As well as a mechanism to keep him high from a drug drip.

              "We got em, didn't we, Judd?" Travis asks.

              "Yeah Travis, we did," Judd puts his hand on Travis' shoulder.

              "I'm sorry, Boss, I really am. The last thing I wanted to find in that cabin was her body."

              "I know, hoss," the sheriff says softly.

              "What's gonna happen next?"

              "He's gonna go to trial. Innocent until proven, you know that better than anyone else. I 'spose he's gonna heal up first. And yer gonna get better, come back to the force and take it easy for once."

              A nurse knocks on the door, "Sheriff Boesh?"

              Judd turns around to look at the pretty caramel colored nurse with the warm Asian eyes.

              "Yes, ma'am?" Judd smiles.

              "I'm sorry but visiting hours are over."

              "Sure thing," the nurse lets the door close.

              "Guess I'll see ya tomorrow, hoss," he pats his partner on the shin. He turns from Travis and grabs the door knob.

              "Hey, Judd?" Travis asks.

              "Yeah?"

              "Why'd you cut out your brother's tongue?"

              Judd chuckles, "they must got you really doped up, Travis."

              "That may be true, but it don't change the fact he was talking to you when we got there, and he went silent moments after you went in the basement."

              "Crazy fucker cut it out himself," Judd says.

              "He cussed when you shot him. There'd be no way he could cut out his own tongue after that."

              "I'm not gonna argue with ya Trav', but I know what I did. Get some rest."

              Judd exits the hospital room, cool as a cucumber.

* * * * *

              Marley and Daniels search through the woods with their gear on their backs. Both ex-boy scouts, hunters, and lifers on the force, they know how to comb a forest. It's possible that Skaggs high tailed it as far south as possible, but every stone must be turned.

              Marley and Daniels are the heart of the Kobe police force.

              Sure Judd sticks his neck out and makes sure that justice is done, but he shakes hands more than he arrests low-lifes. He's the sheriff. His main goal is PR work.

              It's sufficient to say the two detectives have a special sort of hatred for Skaggs McDermott. Not that the rest of the town doesn't, but they want justice, not death. A trial, a jury, and jail time. By the book. Killing scum like Skaggs only makes it seem like his pain is in the present, and not in the future.

* * * * *

              Bert is dressed to the nines in hunting gear with a backpack full of essentials. He throws everything in the back of his pick-up truck and starts the engine.

              Ain't no way this asshole's gonna get past me. I'll show all them fuckers who's king-cop in Kobe. And that whore too. She'll be beggin' for me back in no time, but I ain't givin' in, she can keep that dope slangin' cocksucker Jaybird for all I care, I'm gonna get me one of them nice lookin' numbers from Aces, rub it all in that bitch's face.

* * * * *

              Charlotte, the mother spider finishes her work and crawls to the ceiling, waiting for Skaggs to wake up.

              The process used to take three whole days, but the venom acts as a healing agent and a steroid, the transformation is nearly complete. The razor blades in his fingers are secure. His muscles tighten, swell, and enlarge.

              Skaggs' legs at one time looked like sticks, but now they are thick and strong, but not from just muscle. Charlotte's venom causes the bones to double or even triple in diameter making them nearly impossible to break.

              She waits as time ticks by.

* * * * *

              Austin gets out of bed, Krystal tries to hold him back, but the struggle is too much for her tired body to bear. Ecstasy is a hell of a drug, that's for sure.

              He looks down at his... friend of sorts. Her perfect body that accompanies her beautiful mind, she is truly a work of art.

              He opens the safe and removes his cell phone. She trusts him completely, at least enough to give him access to a safe in her home. But not access to the title of being her boyfriend.

              He scrolls through and sees a zillion text messages and missed calls. He starts at the top with his Uncle Judd. Not that he's in any shape to call him, but he knows it must be important. Judd isn't the type of guy to check up on you.

             
'Can't nobody make ya be a man, gotta earn it yourself.'

             
Judd's words trickle down his brain stem from time to time. Austin feels good about the place he's in, as a man. He owes it to the one who raised him along with his two cousins.

              By Example.

              Not just words out of his mouth that didn't mean anything.

              Austin presses on a phone icon next to Judd's name and hears it dial.

Chapter XXII

Forgotten Son

As told by Austin

             
'Nice guys may finish last, but they get the best reward'.
My Uncle Judd always told me that. I call him dad, because, well, Curt didn't play that role. Another phrase that really stuck with me was
'It don't cost nuttin' to be nice to people'.
Or however his redneck tongue works. He's a great man. A person I respect and I'm proud to say raised me.

              I'm not sure how it happened, or why. It was like finding out about the Easter bunny or Santa Clause, it was just a lie to help me live easier.

              I was about ten, Judd didn't say anything about it, but my Aunt Karen wears the pants in the house so she told me. It was hard for her, I know. Telling me my mom left for another life, one without me. That my dad was too fucked in the head to raise me right or just didn't feel like he could do it.

              I would go over to Curt's house sometimes, spend the weekend or whatever. It wasn't like I never knew him. We lived in the same town. Well, I guess live is a more proper term, but I don't think he'll be living much longer.

              Curt was always busy with work, out of town for meetings or trying to pitch a novel. I don't think he was fit to be a dad after my mom left. But Judd was.

              Judd treated me just as well as he did Johnny and Rob. He taught me how to play football and shoot my first gun. He was a great dad and I have it good.

              Judd's the damn king of the town, at least one of them, and that means I get special treatment everywhere I go. Is it a bit fucked up? Sure. Would you take a free burger at Pete's? I'll bet you would.

              Now it looks a lot different being a Boesh. We got a killer in the family. A fucking psycho shares my bloodline. My biological father killed, and then fucked a girl that gave me free beer.

              A girl that took shots with us after close. 

              I was always weirded out when my dad would hang out waiting for her. He was twice her age. I didn't know they hooked up. I just knew that he would come in and see her from time to time. It never crossed my mind that my dad Ed Geine'd a woman I worked with.

              Now talk is stirring that he might've killed my mom. I love Karen, with everything I got, but it would still have been nice to have a
real
mom. I did once. Now I find out that instead of running away from me, her secret got her killed.

              People cheat because they stop loving someone else, it's not worthy of the death penalty. That's what she got though. At least it looks that way.

              Curt can't confess to anything, and no one's found her body yet, so there's still a chance my mom was just a two-bit tramp, and not the dead woman that could've raised me.