The Hunt

"What the... is you some kind o' street magician?"

She finished putting on the rubber sheath, then shuffled herself on her knees closer to him and raised herself up.

"'Course, Sugar. Think the daughter of a traiteur and a relative of Madam Laveau wouldn't have a few tricks?"

She grabbed his cock and rubbed it between her legs a few times, coating the head of the condom with her juices, then she sank slowly onto him, her breath hissing out as he filled her.

She started grinding her hips down against his, then she reached behind her head and untied her mask. She pulled it off, the silk ribbons trailing almost reluctantly out of her hair, and tossed onto the chair on top of his coat and tie. Her brown eyes were molten pools of arousal while she rode him.

Etienne gripped her hips and thrust himself up to meet her movements, eliciting a growl of approval from her. After a few minutes of them staring wordlessly at each other while Josephine bounced on his lap, he pulled her down on top of him and rolled them over.

"Oop! Nice move Sugar!" she breathed. He kissed her then started thrusting into her as she wrapped her legs around him.

After a few minutes of heavy breathing from the both of them, Josephine started moaning and he felt her nails rake along his back, none too gently.

"I'm close," he panted.

"Oh no, Sugar, need you t' hang on a lil' longer," she replied. She reached up and caressed the side of his face with one hand and she muttered a word that sounded like French Creole, but he couldn't quite get his mind to latch onto it. Suddenly the urge to come vanished, yet he felt himself grow harder. Almost painfully so.

He slowed down, looking into her eyes. "What did you do?" he whispered.

"I tol' you Cher, ah'm really good at mah job." She used her heels on his butt to press him into her once more as she kissed him, then pushed him off. She quickly flipped over onto her stomach, arched her shapely behind at him and said, "Now c'mon, Sugar, give it to me."

Etienne needed no further encouragement. He rose to his knees, grabbed his cock, and guided himself into her again. She groaned in appreciation as he grabbed her hips and began thrusting. Her moans turned quickly into cries to accompany the rhythmic sounds of their flesh smacking together, to the point he was sure her voice would be heard out on the street. She reached down between her legs with one hand and rubbed herself as he fucked her.

Her cries quickly reached a crescendo as she pushed back at him, then she froze, her muscles vibrating like a violin string. Etienne heard her mutter a syllable that, again, he couldn't quite get his mind to latch onto.

It was as if a dam broke. Suddenly he was coming, his orgasm rushing through him. He groaned loudly, slamming into her one last time and held her hips tightly against his groin as his cock pulsed and filled the condom with his seed. After a moment he released her hips, and she fell away from him as he slipped out of her with a wet sound.

He flopped down next to her as she rolled over.

"Damn Josephine... just... damn."

She leaned up, one hand cradling her head as the other pulled the condom off of him, then she gently caressed his slippery cock while it slowly deflated. More slowly than he was used to.

"Tol' ya ah's good at this," she said, with a grin.

"Sure you weren't lyin'."

"We'll give this handsom lil' guy a rest then ah bet yo' kin go again".

He sat up, sliding back to lean back against the headboard and reached for a cigarette from the wooden box on the nightstand. He offered her one, which she declined with a shake of her head. He lit his with the heavy glass lighter on the table and took a long drag.

"Josephine, crazy as it's gon' sound, I need you to explain to me how you do all the things you do."

"Whatcha mean, Sugar?" she said. The expression on her face told him she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"C'mon now. How you pulled that condom outta thin air. How you just... disappear when you want to. Fuck, whatever it was you did just now to keep me from coming. Are you..." he couldn't believe he was going to ask what he needed to. "Are you some kinda... witch? A voodoo priestess?"

He expected her to laugh. She didn't. She released her grip on his manhood and looked at him, her soulful eyes full of knowledge and secrets.

"Ah tol' you, Etienne, I have some tricks. Some might call 'em powers."

"Powers."

"I don't call 'em that."

"You just did."

She did laugh then. "I can do a few things. Things my momma taught me when she'd come 'round. Things I guess I... inherited from my daddy."

"Uh huh. Is that how you gonna take down The Monster if you find him? With some sorta tricks?"

"Maybe."

He sighed and took another drag of his smoke, deciding not to press her further lest he offend the beautiful guest in his bed by challenging her insane-sounding claims of magic. He couldn't deny, some of the tricks she'd pulled in front of him seemed nothing short of supernatural. "Sho' I could use a trick or two finding this guy. I was so close the other night."

"You prolly coulda got 'em if you'd been willing to let Alice die, you know. But that's not you. You's a good man, like ah said."

"He was right there. And he slipped away. And now he's still out there. Walking free. Ready to kill someone else. And I hardly have any evidence. Almost nothing."

She narrowed her eyes. "Almost nothing means yo' gots somet'in. What do you gots on him?"

"Found a button. That's it. One lousy button, in the alley where Alice was attacked. I got nothing except a single button from a suit."

Josephine sat bolt upright in bed. "Yo' tellin' me yo' got a piece of The Monstah's clothes? Where is it?"

"Calm down. It's just a button. I don't even know for sure if it's his."

"Where is it?!" she asked again urgently, "Is it at yo' station house? Could yo' gets it fo' me tonight?"

He suddenly was aware of how keenly she was looking at him.

"'Gets' you my only piece of evidence? Why would I 'gets' you police evidence'?"

His eyes involuntarily flicked to the cigar box on his dresser. She caught his glance. She sprang out of the bed, stepped over to the dresser and opened the lid, peering eagerly into the box.

"Josephine, I can't let you--" he stopped when she lifted his gun out of the box, still in the leather holster. "Josephine, listen real careful to me now. I need you to put my gun back down nice and slow."

She made no move to obey him, instead she lifted the tiny envelope out of the box. Closing her eyes, she trailed it under her nose, inhaling like she was smelling a fine cigar. She opened her eyes and for a second, Etienne could have sworn they were... green, until she blinked, then her dark brown eyes pierced his.

"Sugar," she said, her voice hissing with pleasure, "you jes gave me what I needs to get The Monstah. He's as good as mine now."

"Josephine, I need you to put the gun down and give me the envelope. Right now."

"It's been too long, Cher, and I lost too many people to let this chance go." She moved toward the door of the bedroom. He started to rise from the bed, but she pulled the gun from the holster, dropping the leather case to the floor as she wrapped her slim fingers around the butt. "Nah-uh-uh, Sugar. Don' push me none."

She backed unhurriedly into the living room. The gun was not aimed at him, but neither was it more than an eye blink away from being so. Etienne got out of the bed and followed her slowly, his hands raised. He expected her to try and hold the gun on him while she got dressed and went out his apartment door.

Instead he was confused to see her move towards his balcony, still naked.

"Ah's sorry to cut our night short, Sugar," she said with a grin. "Ah's bettin' you coulda gone least once or twice more. I know ah'd have enjoyed findin' out."

"Josephine, listen, don't--"

"Thanks fo' this, Cher," she said, holding up the envelope. "Won't be needin' this tho', he'ah ya go Sugar."

She tossed him the gun, which he caught as carefully as he could while she moved through the balcony door and out of his sight. Etienne, cocked the hammer on the revolver and quickly moved to the door. The balcony was deserted.

"What the hell?" he hissed. Taking a step out of the door, he looked up and down the street but there was no sign of her. There were still quite a few people walking about, though, and as he noticed one or two looking up at him he suddenly realized he was still completely naked.

He quickly stepped back from the doorway, carefully lowering the hammer on his revolver as he did. He looked around. Something seemed out of place. It took him a moment to realize Josephine's dress wasn't draped over his couch anymore. It was had vanished. So had her shoes.

He moved quickly back to his bedroom. The only thing she'd left behind was her feline domino mask. Except it wasn't in the chair where she'd tossed it. The mask was propped up on his pillows, staring mockingly at him. The phrase his momma used to say to ward off evil spirits sprang to his lips unbidden as he crossed himself.

"Je Vous Salue Marie!"

~~ Saturday, October 31st, All Hallows' Eve ~~

Etienne sat at his desk, looking through his personal, unofficial file on The Monster. He was grumpy, not having slept at all. He'd put an A.P.B. out on Josephine as soon as he'd gotten to the precinct to have the beat cops in The Quarter on the lookout for her. He expected it to be about as useful as a fart in a hurricane.

He threw the folder on the desk in frustration. He had nothing on The Monster now. Literally nothing, now that he'd somehow let a prostitute into his home to seduce him and then he'd let her steal the one piece of evidence he'd managed to find.

"Morning Etienne."

He looked up to see Captain Landry walking up to his desk.

"Morning Captain." He pulled a smoke out of the pack on his desk then offered the pack to his commanding officer, who took out a cigarette for himself.

"I just stopped by The Clover to have a word with you," he said after they'd both lit up. "Lo and behold, I find out you've been declared persona non grata at the precinct's favorite breakfast place. What gives?"

Etienne shrugged. "Difference of opinion with Red is all."

"Would this difference of opinion be whether to enforce the laws of this town? Because I don't need to tell you that the city council takes the whites-only ordinances pretty seriously."

"Cap, there's a... well, there was a waitress there who sometimes feeds some of the less fortunate girls in the middle of the night when no one else is there. For some reason Red popped in and caught her. I happened to be there."

"And you refused to arrest the girls?"

Etienne frowned. "Yeah, I did. Because Red was a half-second from caving in one of their skulls with a frying pan, and I stopped him. The ordinances are the law, but the punishment isn't the death penalty, especially not administered by a pissed off diner owner. I stopped him and he took a swing at me. I figured the girls were scared enough as a punishment, so I told him if he wanted me to put my cop hat on, I'd arrest them, but I'd have to take him in as well for assaulting me and being drunk and disorderly. He was three sheets to the wind."

Captain Landry eyed him through a cloud of smoke. "Red's pretty incensed. Was raging at me on and on about those 'colored whores not knowing their place'. Also said something 'bout you needin' to be watching your back if you keep taking the colored's side against the upstanding white business owners of the Quarter."

Etienne shrugged. "I made my call."

Landry paused for a moment longer then nodded as he stubbed out his smoke in Etienne's ashtray. "Fair 'nuff. I've known Red for probably fifteen years, eating at The Clover. He's a hothead, but basically harmless, I think. I told him he'd better watch his mouth, threatening one of my detectives like that. I trust your judgment. Which is why I wanted to see you anyhow."

"What's up?"

"I need you to help cover homicide for a few days. Gill's out sick. Thinks he has pneumonia. And Johnson is out of town."

"Ronaldo can't do that?"

"I need at least two detectives on call. Ronaldo's primary, but you're his backup. He's out doing some interviews on Bourbon Street on that hold-up at Mary's Bar where the bartender was shot when things went sideways, so I imagine he'll be out of the station all day."

"Alright, whatever you need Cap."

"You can take Gill's desk and phone for the next few days. Any murder calls come in, you're on the hook for the scene. Also, this means you have full access to their files. If you know what I'm talking 'bout." Landry gave Etienne a significant look.

"Okay," Etienne said, slowly.

"You're gonna be ready for the big leagues soon, Etienne. I trust you to handle this." He held out a small ring of keys.

"Thanks Cap," he said, stubbing out his smoke and taking the key ring. "Appreciate it."

Landry slapped him on the shoulder as he usually did, then headed into his office. Etienne got up and went over to Gill Chartre's desk, which was next to Ronaldo's, took off his jacket and draped it over the back of the chair.

Ronaldo kept a large, antique wooden coat rack next to his desk as an affectation. Etienne found the right key, then pushed the sleeve of one of Ronaldo's spare jackets out of the way, opened the top drawer and started thumbing through the files.

The case file was actually labeled "The Monster", to Etienne's annoyance. It was pathetically thin. There was almost no physical evidence from any of the scenes. No footprints, fingerprints, eyewitnesses, nothing. A few used condoms, but after the attack on Alice, Etienne would bet those were from the customers the girls took into the alley before being attacked, not from The Monster.

He sat at Ronaldo's desk and read through the entire file three times. It took less than twenty minutes. No other detectives were in the bullpen, so he sat there, staring into space.

Wonder if all his files are this half-assed, he thought as he pushed himself out of the chair. He put the case file back and started thumbing through the other cases.

Every other file was at least twice as thick, with notes, interview forms, and evidence logs.

The Monster is either really good, or really lucky, he thought. I'm missing something. Something right in front of me.

He rolled his head back and forth to loosen his muscles. I'm not getting anywhere with this. He sat back down and returned to the file for The Monster. There were lots of interview forms, but precious few evidence logs. Just photographs from the scenes.

If I hadn't let my dick do my thinking last night, I'd have that button which would be at least one piece of evidence to--

He froze, looking up.

"The button. Torn from the sleeve of a suit jacket," he whispered.

He made a call to the desk sergeant then jumped out of his chair, throwing on his jacket. He almost ran over Captain Landry as he turned to leave.

"Careful, Cheval."

"I have to find Ronaldo! It's about The Monster! If you hear from him let me know right away!" Etienne said.

"The Monster? What--" Landry started but Etienne had already run out of the bullpen.

Etienne spent the next few hours searching the Quarter. His first stop had been Mary's Bar, but the manager said Ronaldo had come and gone two hours ago. His next stop was The Clover Diner, but to his surprise, the diner was closed, locked up tight with the lights off. A sign on the door said Closed Temporarily for Re-staffing.

Setting his jaw grimly, he headed back the way he came into The Quarter. He navigated streets thick with drunken people celebrating Halloween. None of the working girls seemed to be on the streets tonight, thank god.

He also couldn't shake the feeling he was being followed around the Quarter. A subtle itch between his shoulder blades.

Hours after sunset he found himself near where Alice had been attacked. He walked back into the alley, not flicking on his lighter this time. The moon was close to full, and the alley wasn't pitch black as it had been the night he'd gotten so close to The Monster.

I should have looked at this like I was The Monster the first time, not a detective. I can't sneak in from the far end of the alley while they're at it, I'd have had to have been waiting in the shadows. Patience. He has patience. I can't believe it took me until tonight to figure this out!

If he hadn't been so tired, if he'd slept even a little the night before, he might've reacted faster. He heard the whisper of shoe leather on the alley floor and started to whirl around when something hard slammed into the back of his head. Stars filled his vision and he fell to his knees. Immediately, a weight came down on the back of his legs, keeping him from rising and a powerful arm wrapped around his neck.

He struggled to throw off his attacker, but he was woozy from the blow to his head and the man behind him was kneeling on the back of his calves. The arm tightened even more and his lungs started to scream for air. He threw an elbow into the ribs of the man behind him, to little effect. The second elbow he threw was noticeably weaker. He flailed for some kind of leverage, trying to reach the small of his back for his gun, but the man had it trapped between their bodies.

The all-too-familiar voice rasped in his ear, "The balls on you, thinkin' you can stop me! I'm the fuckin' Monster! Ain't no one can stop me from doing what needs doing!"

Etienne's vision shrank to a narrow tunnel, and he felt his movements slow. As he started to feel bitter disappointment that he wasn't going to bring The Monster to justice, he saw movement at the edge of his vision. A huge blob of shadow detached itself from the alley wall and flew right at him. It struck with a violent impact and both Etienne and the man behind him flew across the alley into the far wall.

While Etienne's body didn't appreciate being flung into a brick wall, he did appreciate the lungful of air he was able to suck in after being separated from his assailant. He couldn't do much more than get to his knees, but The Monster had regained his feet almost instantly. The Monster turned and faced the blob of shadows which quickly coalesced into...

Josephine...

And yet... not Josephine. Her hair was loose again, and wilder than ever, her green satin dress looking a little less elegant. She crouched to face The Monster, and bared her teeth in a snarl. Etienne blinked but it wasn't a trick of the light. Her teeth were long and sharp, and her eyes... her eyes were glowing green, the pupils were slitted like those of a giant cat. She hissed at The Monster, who took a step back, dropped the leather cosh he'd hit Etienne with, reached into his suit jacket and drew out a Saturday Night Special, cocking the hammer on the small revolver.

"Who the fuck are you?" The Monster gasped.

"Tu peux m'appeler vengeance!" she hissed back. Her voice was unearthly, inhuman.

The Monster raised his gun.

"Don't!" Etienne shouted. Before The Monster could fire, Josephine disappeared into a mass of shadows again. Swirling darkness rushed forward to envelop the killer, and shadows began swirling around him like a storm, wind suddenly howling in the alley like a hurricane coming ashore. Then, as suddenly as it started, everything was still.

Etienne was alone in the alley. He made the sign of the cross.

"Je Vous Salue Marie!" he said for the second time in twenty-four hours.

The Monster sat up and tried to look around. Wherever he was, it was pitch black, he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. He quickly pulled out his lighter, struck the flame, and held it up over his head. He was in a large workspace or warehouse. Getting to his feet he spun in a circle, but he appeared to be alone. He saw there were metal workbenches and piles of scraps around him. He was both surprised and grateful that his gun was still in his hand.