Hunting Werewolves in Miami

By Michael Joy

When something lurks in the dark, and blood has been shed. Some detectives follow procedure. If something is killing people and a police officers sidearm is unable to injure it. Then you want Detective Michael Hund on it's trail, and you don't want to question his methods.

Authors note: Some characters & events you will expect and enjoy. Others you feel virtuous for taking an instant dislike. The way situations evolve and characters adapt does sometimes even surprise the author.
Like most people I am fascinated by the concept
that there are other apex predators besides man the weapon user. One of the decisions is how to treat the motivations of this other group and what will we decide are their strengths and weaknesses.

Not many tree and no endangered species lost their lives in the production of this manuscript.
It's a novel about werewolves that lurk in the dark it allows scope for both sex and violence.
I hope this novel is as much fun to read as it was to write.
Powered by caffeine and sugar.

Michael Joy
[e-mail]

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Joy
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301705344

Michael Joy

As an author, I am presently involved in a career change. I am interested in writing both fiction and non fiction. Some of the theme's that I would like to explore are. A) Can we as a society make the decision to each reduce our world footprint please note I deliberately do not say Carbon footprint. B)

Book preview

Hunting Werewolves in Miami

Michael Joy

US Copyright March 2013

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook cannot be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Authors note: few trees and no endangered species were in fact destroyed in the creation of this novel. Powered by caffeine and sugar. Enjoy.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Evelyn Hickey for her assistance in proof reading and Jay Hickey for the cover image.

Table of Content

Hunter

Not Human

Not Communicating

To Live in the light

Ruling Class

Connections

Who

Helping

Allies

Preparation

Rescue

On the trail

Hunting Werewolves

Obsession

Hunter

I eased down into a crouch on the back of my heels. I could still clearly identify the scent of my quarry. I could smell the blood even over the reek of old sweat. I had to assume that he was still carrying the knife. He had stabbed his roommate half a dozen times. There would be at least some blood on him even if he threw the knife away; I would likely be able to smell the blood on that blade even at some distance. Therefore I would come back for the weapon, even though it would be considered important as evidence, the man was dangerous at least to civilians.

I had tracked him from the front yard where the altercation began, through the backyard of the rental and across the lane, then through an abandoned lot. He had now travelled over five blocks through the neighborhood.

At least one of the yards he had detoured through had some laundry hung on a line, and there was a gap on the line between two large work shirts. A witness said he was wearing a denim vest at the time of the attack. I was going to assume that had since been replaced. The scent trail now led me on a detour from the sidewalk, down the alley behind a small strip mall. The trail ended at the back door of a restaurant. The area immediately beside that door held a small pile of groundout cigarette butts, near the front tire of their delivery van. This was where the staff took their coffee breaks.

I eased the rear door open and listened. Out front in the serving area I could hear a male voice, loud and desperate. Hand me the keys or you get cut.

Well that was clear enough. I shrugged off my bulletproof vest and the windbreaker that read police. I decided I needed bait; I fished for the money roll in one pocket of my pants. I peeled off enough cash to look significant and slid it into the breast pocket of my shirt making sure just the corners of some bills were peeping out, at least one was a ten another a twenty. I started shuffling down the hallway, Where’s my god damn toilet paper? I’ve been waiting, can’t you people find anything? The patrons could see me moving in the convex mirror, angled so the cashier could tell if someone was trying to avoid paying.

They couldn’t see much, but I wove back and forth as if unsteady on my feet. I could tell there were four patrons seated and two people standing near the cash register. Focusing my attention for an instant I confirmed, a medium-size man, and a much smaller woman.

I look around as if bleary-eyed and ignored the man, I stared at the woman. Did you hear me? I want the toilet paper.

When you don’t look directly at a person, they tend to act as if they are invisible. The knife blade was fairly long; with the broad cutting blade people call a chef’s knife. It rose up slowly over her shoulder; he seemed to think it was getting closer to me. I kept my eyes on the woman focused on pretending he didn’t exist.

Who’s in charge here? I asked her.

I’m in charge. He replied brandishing the knife even higher in the air. I pulled back slightly, trying to look frightened. I pulled my head back as if retreating and dropped more weight onto my trailing leg. Really I was ready to spring forward. I put my left palm up, so that it almost obscured the cash, in that front pocket.

What do you want? I asked, still trying to look cowed.

His eyes flicked to the money and locked, a lot of people unconsciously allow the sight of cash to distract them. I fished the cash out of the pocket with my right hand, a great messy jumble of bills, and dropped it on the counter. His eyes followed the money and the knife point strayed farther from his hostage.

My other hand darted out and wrapped around his knife hand. Then I stepped backwards using my full body weight to haul the two of them off balance. My other hand reached down and helped pull his elbow straight out. Now I could ignore the knife as a weapon. His wrist was braced against my hip. I released one hand, grabbed his tangled hair and used it to peel him sideways off the counter, slamming him into the floor.

It was rough on his hostage. And I apologized to her while I got my handcuffs on him.

He was cursing and said something about getting me. Now that the cashier was clear of the violence, I briefly considered unlocking his cuffs and allowing him to take his best shot.

Then I had to use my cell phone, to contact the uniforms who were out searching for the suspect. My tactical radio was at the station. We used up close to half an hour, while the uniforms took my statement and secured the suspect in their cruiser. They would spend several more hours taking statements from the witnesses in the restaurant and then they would have to interview any witnesses back at the first crime scene.

It’s interesting. I heard the request for assistance on the radio in my personal vehicle, and it had taken me almost 5 minutes to arrive at the scene and be briefed. In that time he could’ve run. A couple of different bus routes ran within a few blocks, either one would’ve transported him miles away.

Instead he had walked about four or five minutes and then had attempted to add armed robbery to his resume. Even if he had gotten the keys to the restaurant delivery van, he would have only gained control of a beaten up vehicle, with the name of the restaurant emblazoned across the side. He would have made himself easier to find. Why did people assume that the only way to escape was to have a car?

I did give him one piece of good news. They tell me the person you stabbed was still breathing when he got to the emergency room.

I was almost late walking into the squad room, but my boss Lt. Severs was still studying his notes. I tried to figure out where to sit. There was still room near the group nicknamed the Brokers and I edged in that direction. Carp met my eyes and he started to talk about basketball, so I knew that they had some task force to get to, and didn’t want anyone over hearing. More specifically they didn’t want me overhearing. I sat anyway.

Severs cut it short not much was happening, but there had been a couple of advisories, bath tub EX had put two college students in the hospital last night and the Miami Chamber of Commerce wanted us to do a full court press. Spring break was still a month away, and even though all the flights were full and the rooms were booked we didn’t want any more incidents.

Hund, I want you with the Goth Squad tonight, try to fit in.

Usually I wait for one of the Sergeants to tell me, who wants to work with me each night, the boss doesn’t usually weigh in.

Yes sir I didn’t want to use up too much of his valuable time.

By the way, the precinct called to thank you for finding the suspect. He looked at me as if he wanted me to elaborate."

I was off shift, coming in early, I heard them asking for more units to search for a murderer and I offered to help.

They tell me it took about 10 minutes. So you thought that you would be doing a favor for homicide? He shook his head.

He was correct. Like a lot of plain clothes officers. I spent a lot of time sucking up to Homicide, and with even less chance of being brought into their fraternity. I followed the Goth Squad out to their cars.

Vance was dressed in a style I like to call prep school does gang banger. Beside him stood Jake Talbot. Tall, dark, with his nose offset from high school football, Talbot was dressed the same. Trev Fasino was slightly shorter with a dancers moves and he wore a black muscle shirt and black jeans. There was an old black suit coat, easily five sizes too big, hanging off his shoulders. I decided it was there to cover his side arm. Luke Grant was a light skinned Afro American mid- sized, wearing jeans and a basketball warm up jacket, he seemed quicker to take offence when I was in the room.

Most of them looked like university students ready to head out for an evenings recreation. No-one was dressed Goth but a couple of them probably had the basics in their duffle bags. Those they were throwing into the back of the dark colored SUV.

They were all relatively young the kids in Goth clubs were young. Fifty years ago it would have been the Hippy squad. They spent most of their energy on club drugs, low level pushers, street sex and other crimes the more established detectives couldn’t be bothered with.

The Brokers were clustered near a BMW and a Porsche; they were probably going after money launderers, or high level importers, so they tended to look significantly more upscale. I had a change of clothes for when I assisted them but usually they wanted me to look like a limo driver or a delivery man.

Could you change into something that makes you look less like a janitor? I looked down baggy dungarees, an oversized key chain, collarless shirt open at the neck. I walked over to the ‘Barge’, my late seventies Lincoln which was even bigger than the SUV. I pulled off the shirt and grabbed a hoodie off the top of my duffle, angling my tattooed shoulder away from them. Then I grabbed a pair of low rider jeans and walked back.

Vance had a tablet in one hand he was reviewing the information.

The day guys interviewed a couple of the friends at the hospital, nothing useful. They hear the pills came from a guy at a coffee shop near the beach.

I waved my hand at elbow level, Vance looked at me directly.

Do we want these dealers...or any dealers?

These kids are in rough shape, we want this batch off the street.

Right then we knew it was going to be a long, hard night; I walked back and got a broken-in pair of running shoes with gel insoles.

We have a good general idea of where these kids were.

I cut to the chase Do we have a sample of the product to inspect?

No.

Can I go by the evidence locker and look through recent acquisitions?

What? So you can sniff all of it? Not going to happen.

Can I go to the hospital and check their clothing and personal items?

It’s already been checked.

Humor me.

There are two different hospitals.

Which kid is sickest?

Vance opened one of the two manila envelopes under his arm and spilled the contents on the hood. A bottle cap, custom napkins from two different bars, and a tiny empty plastic envelope. There were two threads imbedded in the plastic; one red the other gold. I had seen a lot of heated embossing of animal faces and symbols on baggies but the threads I had not seen recently. I flipped over the napkins and read the names. Now, I knew which bars we would start at. Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, I lifted the envelope to my nose and breathed in. It smelled like regular EX, almost it was distinctive enough.

This helps, the baggies are pretty distinct. Would a public warning be worthwhile?

Vance was getting that attitude. I would have every shitty detail tonight even though he didn’t out rank me. He had been given the lead, because with Sargent Cole on leave, you want the person with the best paperwork in charge. He was also the size of a tank, intimidation by breathing. If we put out a warning based on the threads then they’ll change their packaging.

I thought that he was giving a bunch of low level pushers too much credit for initiative, and too little credit for how quickly social media could spread a warning through his generation.

The fifth member of their squad slid into the group. Kayla Sparks handed a full coffee cup to Vance and put her own on the hood of the SUV while she gathered her hair in an elastic band so her peripheral vision was clear. An athletic blond, my height, she was beautiful in that beach way. She fit right in everywhere. She wore Levi’s and a tank top, her gun in an Ames bag, specially designed to allow a plain clothes police woman to carry a firearm.

If I were a high level drug dealer, I would down load the Ames catalogue and those of their competitors, make sure all of my employees could recognize the products. On the other hand if I was an undercover police woman, I would chose to have something custom made for me.

I decided not to push too hard What do you want me to do?

Same for all of us, we hit these clubs. Ask questions, look for someone who is holding, look for probable cause and then get them to point us to the seller, then on up the chain.

What this meant was that, the lieutenant had known my skills would speed things up. I would go with them and I would spot, sniff really, someone holding the product. Then when I had gotten the lead, the other guys would close in and see if they could use their finely honed interrogation skills to produce results.

They were better at writing up, notes on an interrogation, he said-she said, they were masters of reading a synopsis of a new legal decision on admissibility of evidence and changing their approach. I was the odd guy out. Well they were masters in training, if they produced, then some day they might be working with the Brokers on major busts where great paperwork on their part would be matched against high powered attorneys.

While we drove there I considered the obvious differences between us, based on my finely tuned nose. I could tell what each of them had eaten before coming on shift, three had sex without showering afterwards, that was Kayla and Vance, and the other participant had not been with a woman. They had all taken criminal justice at college or even university; my file said that I had a high school equivalency and then only some courses in criminal justice at a college level. That means that people can’t pin you down on where you went to school. The last time I went to university was in Seattle; my fellow students were using the GI Bill in 1946. When I mentioned learning to read in a one room school I implied my parents were between jobs and I had been abandoned into foster care. I didn’t tell people it was in Oklahoma before it became a state. That isn’t strictly true, I had been taught to read before I went to school, and I had not read well.

I make these kinds of people uncomfortable in a number of ways, and they look more competent than I do on paper. This doesn’t mean that I don’t deal with technology or people well, but I like things hands on and results now. This job was a pretty good fit but the question was what would I be doing in ten years? That question was on my mind a certain amount these days. Fourteen years on the job, all things being equal I would stay till I got my twenty at least. The good part was that now I could have a pension payment go into a bank by direct deposit, that way no cashier would ask why a man who looked thirty five was collecting a retirement pension for twenty years. Years ago you would have to employ a lawyer who got to know you while he was young, that way he would still be in business in twenty years, then his office could be your mailing address.

There are always tales about people who are different, some stories come pretty close to the truth, often that is only by accident. People who know my history have referred to me as a crossbreed but not to my face.

Think of the others as being people with abilities that differ from the norm. I have a responsibility to the Council in Miami they want a couple of our people in uniform all the time. I have the night shift, most of Vice has the night shift by coincidence, and tonight that means dealing with the Goth Squad.

The first napkin led to a Latin bar that was playing wild Caribbean music when we walked in, by badging the bouncers. There was always a possibility that the bouncers would pass the word to people who had them on retainer. Waiting in line and paying a cover would waste too much time. That’s why two of our people were waiting at the exterior fire door, if anyone charged out like a scalded cat in the next couple of minutes, well sometimes you get lucky.

I started my sweep by getting over to near the waitress station, while the rest of the team gathered near the front door and then began circulating with shots of the two kids in their hospital beds. Asking whether anyone knew who they had scored from last night; I thought two of the waitresses would lead me to patrons with the scent on them.

My problem is that waitresses are often in each other’s space so a scent carried on one will quickly be on all their persons, in addition all of the young males are crowding into their space as well. The other source of the various scents is the money, when sweaty hands pick up a baggie and then touch money it gets swapped around.

I walked into their sections, the scent trail I was following became too faint in the first waitresses section, in the second area the scent was more distinct. I saw a ripple go through the crowd. As word that cops were asking questions slid across the floor, people who were chatting with members of the opposite sex suddenly shifted. They spoke to the friends they came with. In social sciences they call this participant observation. The kid, who is obviously the drunkest, always speaks directly with whoever holds the stash. Three patrons had a solid odour on them; two were at the same table. I aligned my position so that I could watch those two from close in and the other patron at a distance. As I watched one little girl pulled a couple of baggies from her purse, and casually tossed them under the table of the foursome beside her table.

She had a cherub face and a slim form which would have the boys paying attention, so she had practice looking through men. When I stepped up to the table she ignored me in a particularly blatant manner, just to be sure I tilted the empty chair at the next table so that the dim light fell on the discards. There were two threads on one baggie; and the other was covered by what looked like a pair of joints. Bingo.

You seemed to have dropped something. I said to her. I flashed my badge. The other team members had converged. That plastic should hold some nice prints.

Five minutes later my colleagues had been successful, we had an address and a vague description. Ten minutes after that I walked through the coffee shop she had pointed us to, the guy holding the product was a CI that I had not heard from in weeks.

He had forgotten to tell us about a new supplier in town, for some reason. There was great wailing and many promises to do better next time. The Goth squad dug out bullet proof vests and all the other gear and we went to a condo down town. I walked the hallway and checked doors for the scent of people while we waited for a warrant. The squad had an address in suite1212 but just to be sure while they raided that unit using the warrant. I knocked on the door of 1214, no-one answered my knock but after ten seconds with a pick gun I found that there was a substantial trove of pills and cash.

It took me a minute to toss about 5000 pills onto the balcony next door. Then I loaded about $40,000 in bills into an empty fanny pack and dropped it onto the bed of a pickup truck in the parking garage. I ducked out of the room, to check in with my team leader. I told everyone, I had not spotted any lookouts. They had only found a limited number of pills, personal use I assume, but then we happened to check the balcony again. The timing was good and someone else spotted the pills, so I excused myself for a phone call to another CI, really I ran downstairs and grabbed the fanny pack.

I got back to the station late; everyone says I have such lousy time management skills. But the only thing I had to write up was spotting the first girl ditching her stash, and I had taken the precaution of using my cell phone to do a small video of her in action, so there was not much for me to type up and I had proof. Even typing eight words a minute with all four fingers going I was done by just after four am. I then pleaded with my boss, that I needed to get to the bus station to meet another CI who might have big news.

Half way there, I decided to get lunch, while waiting in line for takeout I had second thoughts and I called Vance, "Vance I thought I had that video saved but I can’t find it now,