Copycat (PG-13) chapter 4
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 7:26 pm
Here's the next part of the Jenna/francis collaboration.
Disclaimer still applies.
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Mick parked his car in the quiet suburban neighborhood and, keeping to the shadows, walked the last half mile on foot. An anonymous call had alerted him to this meeting, and while he had an innate distrust of anonymous calls, the information provided supported and augmented information he had received from other, more trusted sources -- that Gemma Tejada‘s organization was reforming again after staying under the radar for almost a year. After his violent rampage at the Hollenbeck bar that took Tejada out, they licked their wounds and remained leaderless for a time, but now a new leader had assumed control of the organization and was making contacts, probably in preparation for regaining their place in the L.A. crime community.
When Mick saw the dark figure standing beside an expensive, late model sports car on the docks, he quickly and silently hauled himself onto a narrow ledge. From there, he had a better vantage point to observe the meeting without being seen. He was just on time. Two Hispanic men approached in single file, one of them two steps behind. He was probably the bodyguard.
The man at the car held up his hand to stop the approach of the other two. “I thought we agreed that you would come alone.”
The man in the lead nodded to his companion who took a few steps back.
“He doesn’t count.”
Mick was surprised. The Hispanic drug lord wannabe was Tejada’s right hand man, Bustos. How was he out of jail already? Even more shocking was the identity of the other man. It was a local attorney, Reginald Leesome. He had been accused of being dirty, but there had never been proof. Mick took out his camera and zoomed in on their faces. It wasn’t easy to get a clear shot in the dark, but when Leesome lit a cigarette, and his face was briefly illuminated, Mick took his chance. Click.
The bodyguard whipped around and said something in Spanish. Bustos stepped around Leesome warily and scanned the shadows around them.
“We’re being watched. Could be police, could be competition. This meeting is over. Same time tomorrow at the other place.”
Leesome nodded as he got in his car. “I’ll stay in contact.”
They separated and disappeared in opposite directions.
Mick seethed. That bodyguard had good ears. He wished he could go after Bustos and this time end him one and for all, but he restrained himself. Back then, with Tejada, he had been driven by hot rage over the death of a good man, and Beth’s anguish. Further complicating the situation was that Mick had lied to Carl, and he was aware that this could resurface at any time. While his human sensibilities reacted with horror over what he had done to Tejada, the vampire within him had taken great pleasure in ripping his throat out and drinking his blood.
He hoped Beth would forgive him.
This time, he would let them go.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The next night Mick followed Leesome from his office to his house. When the attorney again left in his sports car, Mick followed. As they once again headed for a secluded area on docks, it became more and more of a challenge to tail Leesome without being seen as the streets grew empty of other cars except for the sports car and the dark green Mercedes. Fortunately, Leesome slowed and Mick parked the Mercedes and followed on foot.
The somewhat tarnished ’champion of justice’ waited without being approached for some time and Mick stood in the shadows and watched. He had learned patience over the years.
When a shot rang, the attorney dove behind his car and looked around, thinking that he had been the target. He wasn‘t. Mick, his face clearly reflecting his shock as he tried to quench the flow of blood from a bullet wound in his abdomen, turned around. A dark figure holding a gun stepped out of the warehouse entrance and strode quickly and purposefully toward where Mick stood. The second shot hit Mick in the shoulder and he staggered and fell to his knees. Silver! The shooter knew he was a vampire. As the figure came closer, Mick caught a whiff of his opponent -- another vampire.
“Hi, Mick!”
Mick groaned, he knew that voice. “If you plan to kill me, at least do it quickly.”
Mick had no weapon on him except for a pocket knife. He briefly considered the chances of his gaining leverage should another move be tried, then remembered that the other had learned some modern techniques in hand to hand combat from him and together, the two had adapted them to the speed and strength of a vampire. Damn. The silver was clouding his ability to think.
“If I wanted to kill you I would have done so already. No, I want the humans to kill you or the other vampires. Actually, I’m fine with it either way. I just want to destroy you for what you did to me.”
The gun disappeared from his hand into a pocket or a holster and Mick’s assailant grabbed an iron bar from a low windowsill. He hefted it and and approached Mick.
The last thing Mick saw before the world dissolved into blackness was that bar arcing down and towards his head.
When he came to, he lay beside the sports car. The attorney was a bloody mess next to him. Blood drew a crimson path across the street to this place, so obviously he had tried to flee but didn’t succeed. He was hunted down, dragged back to his car and murdered.
Mick‘s ears picked up the police sirens from half a mile away. He lurched to his feet and staggered toward where his car was parked. He couldn’t stay here.
Through sheer force of will, he forced the silver induced lethargy back into the background but knew that it would not stay there. Good thing the clouds opened and a steady downpour started to wash the crime scene of some of its incriminating evidence. He focused on making it to his car before the police arrived. He just hoped Beth was home.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Mick was irritated, soaking wet and oozing blood from two bullet wounds when he returned to the loft.
“What happened??” Beth asked.
“Ran into an old friend,” he quipped. “Can you give me a hand with this?”
Beth was getting proficient at removing bullets, but that was not a skill she wanted to cultivate.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have a professional do this?” she asked him, one last time.
“No, you will do fine. Just do it. Fast. In and out. Remember the mantra, getitoutgetitoutgetitout.”
“OK. Here goes.”
The bullets clinked into the glass jar. She then passed him a glass of blood when she was done.
“Where did this happen?” she asked. Rinsing the probe and scalpel and replaced them in his tool kit.
“I was on a stake-out when an old enemy of mine turned up.”
“Vampire?”
He nodded. “I was just watching someone and I get shot out of the dark. I suppose I stumbled across something I shouldn’t, I just wish I knew what it was. If it’s linked to the vigilante case you need to be careful, too.”
He walked into the living room, poured some scotch into a glass and brought it to her.
“You look like you need a drink.”
“Thanks,” she smiled. “but now it is your turn to need a shower and some sleep.”
Her phone beeped. “That was Carl. I will be back later.”
“I’d really rather you stayed away from the case until I can go with you,” he said.
“My hero,” she grinned. “I’m just going to the office. If I go outside, I’ll wear Kevlar.”
“There are a lot of areas Kevlar doesn’t cover,” he called after her and headed upstairs.
Disclaimer still applies.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mick parked his car in the quiet suburban neighborhood and, keeping to the shadows, walked the last half mile on foot. An anonymous call had alerted him to this meeting, and while he had an innate distrust of anonymous calls, the information provided supported and augmented information he had received from other, more trusted sources -- that Gemma Tejada‘s organization was reforming again after staying under the radar for almost a year. After his violent rampage at the Hollenbeck bar that took Tejada out, they licked their wounds and remained leaderless for a time, but now a new leader had assumed control of the organization and was making contacts, probably in preparation for regaining their place in the L.A. crime community.
When Mick saw the dark figure standing beside an expensive, late model sports car on the docks, he quickly and silently hauled himself onto a narrow ledge. From there, he had a better vantage point to observe the meeting without being seen. He was just on time. Two Hispanic men approached in single file, one of them two steps behind. He was probably the bodyguard.
The man at the car held up his hand to stop the approach of the other two. “I thought we agreed that you would come alone.”
The man in the lead nodded to his companion who took a few steps back.
“He doesn’t count.”
Mick was surprised. The Hispanic drug lord wannabe was Tejada’s right hand man, Bustos. How was he out of jail already? Even more shocking was the identity of the other man. It was a local attorney, Reginald Leesome. He had been accused of being dirty, but there had never been proof. Mick took out his camera and zoomed in on their faces. It wasn’t easy to get a clear shot in the dark, but when Leesome lit a cigarette, and his face was briefly illuminated, Mick took his chance. Click.
The bodyguard whipped around and said something in Spanish. Bustos stepped around Leesome warily and scanned the shadows around them.
“We’re being watched. Could be police, could be competition. This meeting is over. Same time tomorrow at the other place.”
Leesome nodded as he got in his car. “I’ll stay in contact.”
They separated and disappeared in opposite directions.
Mick seethed. That bodyguard had good ears. He wished he could go after Bustos and this time end him one and for all, but he restrained himself. Back then, with Tejada, he had been driven by hot rage over the death of a good man, and Beth’s anguish. Further complicating the situation was that Mick had lied to Carl, and he was aware that this could resurface at any time. While his human sensibilities reacted with horror over what he had done to Tejada, the vampire within him had taken great pleasure in ripping his throat out and drinking his blood.
He hoped Beth would forgive him.
This time, he would let them go.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The next night Mick followed Leesome from his office to his house. When the attorney again left in his sports car, Mick followed. As they once again headed for a secluded area on docks, it became more and more of a challenge to tail Leesome without being seen as the streets grew empty of other cars except for the sports car and the dark green Mercedes. Fortunately, Leesome slowed and Mick parked the Mercedes and followed on foot.
The somewhat tarnished ’champion of justice’ waited without being approached for some time and Mick stood in the shadows and watched. He had learned patience over the years.
When a shot rang, the attorney dove behind his car and looked around, thinking that he had been the target. He wasn‘t. Mick, his face clearly reflecting his shock as he tried to quench the flow of blood from a bullet wound in his abdomen, turned around. A dark figure holding a gun stepped out of the warehouse entrance and strode quickly and purposefully toward where Mick stood. The second shot hit Mick in the shoulder and he staggered and fell to his knees. Silver! The shooter knew he was a vampire. As the figure came closer, Mick caught a whiff of his opponent -- another vampire.
“Hi, Mick!”
Mick groaned, he knew that voice. “If you plan to kill me, at least do it quickly.”
Mick had no weapon on him except for a pocket knife. He briefly considered the chances of his gaining leverage should another move be tried, then remembered that the other had learned some modern techniques in hand to hand combat from him and together, the two had adapted them to the speed and strength of a vampire. Damn. The silver was clouding his ability to think.
“If I wanted to kill you I would have done so already. No, I want the humans to kill you or the other vampires. Actually, I’m fine with it either way. I just want to destroy you for what you did to me.”
The gun disappeared from his hand into a pocket or a holster and Mick’s assailant grabbed an iron bar from a low windowsill. He hefted it and and approached Mick.
The last thing Mick saw before the world dissolved into blackness was that bar arcing down and towards his head.
When he came to, he lay beside the sports car. The attorney was a bloody mess next to him. Blood drew a crimson path across the street to this place, so obviously he had tried to flee but didn’t succeed. He was hunted down, dragged back to his car and murdered.
Mick‘s ears picked up the police sirens from half a mile away. He lurched to his feet and staggered toward where his car was parked. He couldn’t stay here.
Through sheer force of will, he forced the silver induced lethargy back into the background but knew that it would not stay there. Good thing the clouds opened and a steady downpour started to wash the crime scene of some of its incriminating evidence. He focused on making it to his car before the police arrived. He just hoped Beth was home.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Mick was irritated, soaking wet and oozing blood from two bullet wounds when he returned to the loft.
“What happened??” Beth asked.
“Ran into an old friend,” he quipped. “Can you give me a hand with this?”
Beth was getting proficient at removing bullets, but that was not a skill she wanted to cultivate.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have a professional do this?” she asked him, one last time.
“No, you will do fine. Just do it. Fast. In and out. Remember the mantra, getitoutgetitoutgetitout.”
“OK. Here goes.”
The bullets clinked into the glass jar. She then passed him a glass of blood when she was done.
“Where did this happen?” she asked. Rinsing the probe and scalpel and replaced them in his tool kit.
“I was on a stake-out when an old enemy of mine turned up.”
“Vampire?”
He nodded. “I was just watching someone and I get shot out of the dark. I suppose I stumbled across something I shouldn’t, I just wish I knew what it was. If it’s linked to the vigilante case you need to be careful, too.”
He walked into the living room, poured some scotch into a glass and brought it to her.
“You look like you need a drink.”
“Thanks,” she smiled. “but now it is your turn to need a shower and some sleep.”
Her phone beeped. “That was Carl. I will be back later.”
“I’d really rather you stayed away from the case until I can go with you,” he said.
“My hero,” she grinned. “I’m just going to the office. If I go outside, I’ll wear Kevlar.”
“There are a lot of areas Kevlar doesn’t cover,” he called after her and headed upstairs.
Who could this other vamp be? Someone we know? eeeeek!!! 
It seems that Mick doesn't really connect this enemy vampire with Beth's case, or else he would make damn sure she wouldn't go unprotected.. I wonder what Mick has done to drive the other vampire so mad against him...
, Jenna 
She'll find some evidence that's where Mick got shot. 
Can't wait for next. Thanks guys. 
I'm going to stay here until it's safe. This story is fabulous.
Not only does he get shot, but he gets set up, as well. I have a feeling he's going to have some tricky questions to answer pretty soon...
