Transylvania's Most Wanted (18 page)

The concierge began telling him there were
several tours he could take if he liked, that would visit one of
more of these places.

“I think I would like to visit the Draculia
part of the valley,” Mr. Slang told the concierge.

“There is a guided bus tour that makes
several stops out that way.”

“Could you show me on this map what spots it
would visit?”

The concierge pointed out on the map the
several places.

“What about dinner? Does it stop someplace
for dinner?”

“Yes of course,” she said. “It stops for
dinner at The Depths, a lively if somewhat run down pub that also
serves dinner.”

“And where might that be?” Mr. Slang asked
holding his map out for her to point out the location.

“Here,” she said placing her long, elegant
finger down where Appian Way met Horseshoe Road.

“That will do nicely,” Mr. Slang said.
“Where do I catch this bus?”

The concierge pulled out a schedule provided
by The Transylvania Metropolitan Bus Tour Company and looked at
it.

“You can catch a bus leaving for the
Draculia region just outside Train Station #1 at the top of the
hour.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Slang said looking at his
watch. “One last thing,” he said as he tipped the vampiress
generously. “I need to get up quite early tomorrow. Could the hotel
lend me an alarm clock?”

“A bellhop can come and knock on your door
if you prefer?”

“I really would like an alarm clock.”

“Very well. I’ll have one brought up to your
room in a few minutes.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Slang said. “Room 211.”

Chapter 32

Late that afternoon and into the early part
of the evening, Mr. Darcy, along with his fellow tour bus patrons,
visited the Transylvania Metropolitan Cemetery, made a brief stop
at the Vamp’s Mill, where he had a small glass of vamp’s at the
visitor center, and then was driven out into the Draculia region of
the valley. Out there his group stopped at the gates of Dracula
Manor and was allowed to walk around the grounds briefly before
they returned to their bus and headed for The Depths to have
dinner.

The group was told they would have one hour
there before the bus would leave to take them to a spot along the
Black River where they could view a majestic waterfall. From there
they would return to the city.

After one hour, the tour guide called three
times for her group to board the bus. Mr. Slang heard her all three
times, but he did not re-board the bus. Instead he slipped out the
back of The Depths and into the dark woods.

Well out into the woods he waited and
watched and then one of the three detectives, the oldest one,
stepped out back of the tavern looking for him. The detective
discreetly looked around a few moments, but tossed his hat down on
the ground when he realized he’d lost Mr. Darcy. It did not really
matter though. He would meet up with them back at the Strigoi Hotel
in a few hours.

Chapter 33

After about an hour inside The Rock Slide
Tom decided Stone was not there. He got back in his car and headed
back toward the city.

It was after 4 o’clock when he arrived at
the inspectors’ offices. Red was on the phone in his office so he
checked in with Miss Kensington. He told her the trip out to
Harper’s Junction had been a waste of time. Red poked his head out
of his office then and asked him to step in there.

“
I didn’t turn up any sign
of Stone out at Harper’s Junction,” Tom told him.

“Oh, too bad. I thought
maybe we were onto something,” Red said. “Chief Rogers called a
little while ago. Judge Hopkins rendered his verdict. Count Vasili
is to be sent back to the U.R.R.K. to stand trial. We are to take
him out there tomorrow morning to be put on the
Dauntless
.”

“Okay.”

“That’s not all. They want you and me to
escort him all the way to the U.R.R.K. He’s our responsibility
until we turn him over to the Administration there. One of us will
have to sit with him on the zeppelin until the princess is
returned.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Wish I was. That’s not all. Colonel Popov
asked that we meet him before then out there with Krakov’s body. I
guess his brother asked that his body be shipped back to the
U.R.R.K. and Colonel Popov okayed it.”

“Krakov has a brother?”

“Apparently,” Red said. “Why don’t you head
home and pack a bag. Show up here at eight tomorrow so we can
deliver Krakov’s body out there.”

“All right,” Tom said. “Has Fixx called
in?”

“Uh, no,” Red said. “I’ll send a constable
around to your house if he calls in saying Stone showed up.”

“I guess I’ll head on home then.”

“You do that. I’ll see you first thing
tomorrow.”

As Tom was headed toward his desk to get his
hat and coat he heard the phone in Red’s office ring. At his desk
he could see inside Red’s office and he watched Red pick up the
phone, listen a moment, and then write something down.

As Tom went by his door on his way out the
building, Red was putting his coat on, about to head out somewhere.
Tom knew he was keeping something from him and he was determined to
find out what.

He hurried to his car and pulled around the
building just as Red was coming out the front, headed for his car
parked on the street.

Red drove up Appian Way and turned at Queen
Anne’s when he came to the round-about where the two streets
intersected. He was headed east. He drove another three blocks and
turned. Tom kept a few cars behind him. When Tom came around the
corner, Red was stepping out his car. He started toward a small
shop and Tom drove past slowly as Red opened the shop’s door and
headed inside. He could see inside the shop through the window. The
shop sold clocks and the like.

Tom saw Red flash the store owner his badge
when he stepped out from the back of the store to greet him. Tom
drove down the block and parked, watching the front of the store n
his review mirror. A couple of minutes later Red came out holding
an alarm clock. He looked it over on the sidewalk, as he stood
rubbing his mustache.

He got back in his car then, drove a couple
of blocks and pulled into the parking lot of a small grocery store.
Tom waited. A few minutes later Red came out with a small ice cream
cone, but also a note pad. He threw the cone away before he got
back in his car and drove down a side street and parked. Best Tom
could tell, as he spied on him from a half block away, was that Red
seemed to be writing a letter. He had the light inside his car on,
because it was getting dark outside.

Red started his car then and things took an
even more mysterious turn when he drove to the Shadows Hotel and
parked out front. Tom waited down the block. He watched the bulbs
on the neon hotel sign blinking like a bad bulb does as he tried to
come up with a reason why Red would need to be there. All he could
come up with was that Fixx lived there, but right then Fixx should
have been out at The Wolf’s Fang.

Chapter 34

Mr. Slang figured he had come a mile through
unfamiliar woods. The fact that wolves and even a bear or two was
known to roam this neck of the valley concerned him, so he held his
pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other as he walked. The
fact that a few witches, some supposedly not of sound mind and not
having been seen for years, were known to inhabit these dark woods,
concerned him even more. He’d seen a sign warning visitors not to
go hiking out in the woods this part of the valley. At least it was
not a full moon. Many unfamiliar, frightening even sounds came to
him as he walked through the dark forest, which was rapidly
becoming dark as the last bit of sunlight withdrew. No one likes
being out in the dark woods of Transylvania alone, especially at
night, and that included Mr. Slang.

When he came to a dirt road, his spirits
soared. He checked his map and figured it was the road that would
lead him to the mouth of the Tunnel Like Hell mine. He had only
another mile to go. He walked along the edge of the woods, just in
case a car should pass by.

Once he was in sight of the entrance to the
mine, he watched the guard shack stationed on the road that led up
to the mine. There was just the one guard it appeared.

Mr. Slang stepped out into the road and
began walking toward there, making no effort at stealth. The guard,
who was listening to a radio, did not become aware of him until he
was nearly there and then he stepped out holding a lantern.

“Who’s there?” the guard shouted.

“My car has broken down,” Mr. Slang shouted
back. “I saw your light here.”

“I can call for a tow truck,” the guard said
as Mr. Slang neared him.

“Would you?”

“Just stay there,” the guard said.

“What?” Mr. Slang asked coming closer.

“Just stay there in the road,” the guard
said, finally becoming suspicious.

“Is that a witch?” Mr. Slang asked pointing
behind the guard and when the guard turned his head – Mr. Slang
brought the small club out his pocket and knocked the man
unconscious.

Now Mr. Slang was particularly adept at
knocking men unconscious. Once, in a past lifetime, he had lined
thirty prisoners up in a row and forced them to kneel. Then he went
along behind them with a small club and promptly knocked each one
of them silly.

He had a desire to learn how to knock men
out cold without permanently injuring them, and he, long ago, had
perfected this most useful of skills. Few men knew how to
consistently, effectively knock men unconscious. He figured the
guard would be out about an hour, which is about as long as you can
knock someone out without causing permanent damage. That was all
the time he needed.

After placing a coat under the guard’s head
to make him comfortable, and a small blanket he found in the shack,
over him to keep him warm, Mr. Slang took from the guard his keys
and lantern. He walked up to the fence and looked at the pad lock
and chain locking the gate and let himself in. He figured the mine
would have been better served if there had been no one guarding it
at all.

He walked up the gravel road and discovered
the guard had not been given a key to the offices there. He
promptly kicked the door in. Once inside, Mr. Slang began looking
around. What he was searching for was easy enough to locate. A
bright orange and black sign with skull and cross bones showed him
the storage room where dynamite was kept. The steel door was locked
though.

Mr. Slang expected this. He brought out his
lock picks and went about unlocking the door and before much time
had passed he was standing inside the storage room looking over the
mine’s supply of dynamite and nitroglycerin, percussion caps, fuses
and the like. He opened a box of dynamite and removed a
considerable number of sticks. He then helped himself to a small
supply of nitroglycerin and several percussion caps and fuses. He
put it all in a sack he had brought with him and then he left.

He went back to the guard lying in the road,
who was beginning to stir and knocked him on the head once again,
not very violently, just hard enough to knock him out again. He
clipped his keys back on him and placed the lantern next to him,
just in case someone should drive up the road, and not seeing him,
run over him.

Chapter 35

It was full on dark when Red came out of the
Shadow’s Hotel. Sure enough he had Fixx with him. Tom couldn’t
really see for sure it was Fixx, but he had Fixx’s same coat, hat
and thin build. They jumped in Red’s car and drove toward the TCPD
building. A half block from there, Red pulled over and Fixx stepped
out of the car. Then Red drove to the front of the station, parked
and went inside.

Tom turned on Mulberry and parked part way
up the block. He stood on the car’s bumper so he would be able to
see inside the front windows of the TCPD building. He saw Red
approach the desk sergeant, say something to him and then both of
them headed for further back into the station where constables sat
at desks to file reports and the like. A moment later, Fixx came
down the sidewalk and slipped into the building.

Tom watched him place a letter on the desk
sergeant’s desk and then slip right back out without being
seen.

A minute later Red and the desk sergeant
returned, and Red headed upstairs. Tom watched the desk sergeant.
He spotted the letter left on his desk, opened it and read it. He
immediately yelled back into the offices behind him. A sergeant
came out and read the letter. He ordered the desk sergeant onto the
phone and then he sent a constable upstairs. It wasn’t long before
Red came downstairs and acted like he had no idea what was written
on the letter.

Almost immediately Red sent two constables
out the building. Tom stood by his car and watched them walk a
block down to the train station. He decided to enter the building
then.

“We received a second ransom note,” Red told
him as soon as he spotted him coming inside the station.

“
What’d the note
say?”

“Pandora wants some prohibited items brought
here, nothing too wicked though, but she must have some potion in
mind.”

“Are we going to deliver it to her?”

“That’s for Chief Rogers and King Havel to
decide, but I sent a couple of constables down to Essex to bring
the items back just in case. What’d you come back for?”

“Uh, forgot my house key actually.” Tom
said. “It’s in my desk drawer.”

Tom headed upstairs like he was going to
retrieve his key and then he left the TCPD building and headed for
his car. He’d decided to go have a talk with the shop owner off of
Queen Anne’s Way.