like to beat people up." Keeping this in mind, Crow worked on a plan for the first hours. He decided at last on whining.
He whined about being shut up in the jail, about being cheated by all "those rich guys who think they're such a big deal 'cause they got money." He whined about the food - or lack of it - claiming he was starving. He whined about the taste of the water and the smell of the chamber pot and suggested a connection.
He said his fingers hurt, sucked them loudly and often, held them up to show how swollen they were, and demanded to see a doctor.
The third time the deputy told him to shut up it was a snarl.
Crow's reply was equally ferocious. "Make me, fatso!" he snapped back but dropped his eyes when he did.
The deputy smiled, and stood with the flashlight in hand. He stepped around the desk smacking the weapon rhythmically into his fat palm.
"Maybe I will," he purred menacingly.
Crow took a half-step back from the bars, appeared to catch himself, stepped back up, and declared, "I ain't scared of you!" in the least convincing tone he could muster.
It was bully heaven. The deputy's little pig eyes gleamed as he reached for the keys. His yellow front teeth - all three of them - were bared with delight as he saw the prisoner backing to the far wall of the cell. But when he opened the door of the cell his raspy fat-punk voice changed from a smug chortle to a clear-bell high-pitched scream.
Crow bounced him across the desktop.
The deputy pulled himself up off the splintered remains of the desk chair and peeked over the desk in shock. He couldn't believe this was happening to him.
It was.
Crow didn't hurt him. He just dribbled him about the office floor long enough to make him start to cry. Then he put him in the cell.
From the middle desk drawer he took an army Colt and an extra clip. He looked longingly at the telephone, wanting desperately to talk to Cat. But there was no way of telling who would answer the phone at the motel. Hell, he hadn't heard from the rest of his team the whole time he'd been in the slammer. There should have been the usual effort to get him... Then he remembered his braying at Cat about not needing help. But surely Cat hadn't listened. On the other hand, Cherry Cat had the most infuriating habit of obeying him at the worst conceivable times. Damn.
He forgot the idea of calling. Best just get the hell away from the damn police station. He stuck the automatic down deep in his belt and headed to the door. He gave the deputy a little salute. "See ya, Homer. It's been real."
"How," whimpered the deputy like the blob he was, "did you know my name was Homer?"
Crow laughed and eyed the heavens. "There is a God," he whispered to himself. "And He's got a sense of humor."
Then he dropped all other thoughts. He keyed off the lights in the room, took a deep breath, and put his hand on the door.
"All right," he hissed, "rock and roll, dammit!" and jerked it open.
On the sidewalk outside the jail stood every cop in the world.
It was not Jack's best moment.
"Stop him, please!" cried a man Crow recognized as Banker Foster, and the cops surged forward en masse. Crow thought about the automatic in his belt, thought about the odds of winning, about the idea of shooting any policeman under any circumstances, muttered "Shit," and lifted his arms over his head.
"No! No!" shouted the mayor, elbowing his way through the eager constables, "not him!" He grabbed Crow by the upper arm and tugged on it like a child. "Mr. Crow, stop him!" he pleaded and turned and pointed across the street to the town square.
The crowd parted with the gesture and Crow could see, at last, his team. They had the crane set up on its highest elevation clamped onto their longest pike, which ran straight down from the starry sky into the chest of a vampire writhing and hissing on the base of the statue of the town's founder.
Anthony, standing on the hood of the Jeep, had his arm poised meaningfully in the air ready to signal the crane operator, who was even now taking out the slack in the cable.
"Let him go!" roared Anthony, "or we'll start your troubles all over again!"