Free The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) by Jeremy Croston

this. “Was his name Rev. Warren
Tucker?”
    “ Yes, that is him. How did
you know that?”
    “ Bibles with his name and
this church were found at an assault scene and a murder scene. The
crimes themselves were full of weird happenings as
well.”
    “ Would it have anything to
do with his obsession that werewolves, vampires, and their ilk are
among us? That is the mess I came into sheriff.”
    “ Oh, I don’t know anything
about that sort of thing, but in both cases the suspect used a
cactus branch as his signature.”
    “ Are you sure?” For a man
who was so calm a second ago, the mention of a cactus branch sure
did spook him.
    “ I’ve lived in New Mexico
my whole life Pastor; I know what cactus looks like.”
    “ Pastor Browne, what has
you looking so flush? I could swear I can almost hear your
heartbeat increase.” Elizabeth was right; I had also picked up on
that.
    “ Rev. Tucker used cactus
all the time in his sermons. He was famous for using them as an
analogy for his followers.”
    That was odd indeed. “Can
you give me an example of such?”
    “ Oh sure, he used to
compare us to the cactus. He would say much like the cactus
survived in a harsh world, it was our job to survive in the desert
of life and find water, or faith.”
    “ That is very interesting.”
These notes would make for a great read for the rest of the people
back in Full Moon.
    “ If you would expand on
your earlier point, Pastor Browne, you said Rev. Tucker had some
delusions of monsters living among us?” It was hard to tell if she
was being serious or having fun with him, but it was a good
question.
    “ I found some journals left
here when I took over, and yes, he had a very detailed delusion. In
the oldest ones he stated that vampires had infiltrated our way of
life and by the time you got to the most recent ones, it expanded
to werewolves. He was under the impression God had given him a
mission to exterminate the daemons.”
    “ You’ve given me a lot to
think about, Pastor Browne. Do you know where he went? Obviously,
you took over so there must have been some falling out?”
    “ I’d been retired for three
years and living up in Santa Fe when I got a phone call from an old
friend saying this church was in need of a steady hand. I asked
what was going on and he said I would see when I got
here.”
    “ Take your time sir, we’ve
got nothing but time.”
    “ When I got down here,
Warren was gone. His office was still filled with all of his stuff,
but he was nowhere to be found. I wish I knew more to tell you.
Even the congregation is at a loss here. One rumor, and I’m not
sure if it’ll even help, is that there’s a reason the basement to
this church has been locked up for years.”
    “ Rumors can just be that,
Pastor. Do you think it’s anything worth looking into?”
    “ Take it with a grain of
salt, but some of the elders swear they heard ghosts down
there.”
    I didn’t mean to but I
laughed a little. “Did you just say ghosts?”
    “ I know I know, it sounds
ridiculous but they swear they have heard strange sounds coming
from down there. I don’t have a key to open it to investigate, but
if you want to try and open it, be my guest.”
    With that invitation
extended, I stood up and Elizabeth followed my lead. “I thank you
for your time, Pastor. We will take you up on that offer and poke
around.”
    He extended his hand and we
shook. “I truly hope you do not find anything. To do so would be a
blight on this church.”
    We let ourselves out of his
office after Pastor Browne pointed us in the right direction. Once
we were out of earshot, I felt comfortable enough to talk. “It
seems we found our man. I glanced at the dates in his journal. The
timeline matches with your first murder.”
    “ Yes, I think you are
correct. My problem is how he found out in the first
place.”
    “ Well, maybe the ghosts
downstairs can enlighten us.”
    We walked outside and found
the basement door on the backside of the