There are a few injokes in this story that will probably go overlooked if I don't explain them. I can't recall them all, but the primary one is the lead police character's name: Lucien Constanzo. He takes his name from another infamous Constanzo--Adolfo Constanzo, who led a palo mayombe cult which kidnapped and murdered an American in Matamoros, Mexico, on the Texas border. The name of the character "Darrell Howett" (who didn't get to appear yet) was similar to that of Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh (real name Vernon Howell), but I don't know if that was done on purpose or not. The character "Catera" was, I believe, named after a car, the ads for which I kept seeing on TV around the time of this writing. And the presence of the DEA agents (who, again, didn't get to show up in this writing) was also inspired by the Waco incident. There may be other little pokes in there, but I don't recall them at the moment. Bonus tidbit: For a time I actually FORGOT the title of this story!! In that brief interim, it became known as Galveston, until I located the original title and put it back in its place. Eep!!
Please feel free to compare this story to Minot, which was a later attempt I made at much the same thing, and which turned out a lot more successfully (and which has inspired its own unwritten spinoff series!). And see the note on Sidekicks (second draft) regarding typos, and additional formatting notes within the text.
This version, from the same file as the second draft of Sidekicks, may be a copy of a copy, typed up from a hardcopy text, OR it may be the original text itself. The file's last edit date is August 2001, but this story predates that by a while. I likely did NOT start the writing in 1993, but it likely predates 2000. I think I might tentatively place it between 1995-97, though I could be a little bit off either way.
Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2
MOONLIGHT TRANSFORMED THE BEACH INTO A SLICK SILVER STRAND, LAPPED at by waves rolling in from the Gulf. If anyone had had the mind to be watching that late at night perhaps they would have seen the first figure pop up over a rise and drop onto the sand, wave its hand, and wait for a second figure to drop down beside it, nearly falling on its face. The first figure stood and loped across the damp sand with its head ducked. The second simply tromped along behind, glancing this way and that.
"C'mon," the first one hissed, waving his hand. He stopped and tried to whistle through his teeth, not quite successfully. "It's s'posed to be down here somewheres, he said."
"He who?" The second figure joined the first, brushing sand from his elbows. He wore a baseball cap, reading GALVESTON HURRICANES, turned backwards, which during the daytime blocked the sun; right now he pulled it off and carelessly brushed back his unruly black hair, scanning the beach. His shorter companion tugged his arm.
"I'm not s'posed to say. Anyways I don't know him too well. But he said it should be somewheres nearby."
"What is it exactly?"
"He told me I should call you, whatever it is."
Lucien Constanzo let out a sound that was half-snort, half-sigh. He was tired of traipsing around on the beach in the middle of the night, even if he ended up doing it a lot; but doing it with Travis as a guide wasn't anything he was too happy about. "Did he at least give you any kinda clue?" he asked, Travis waving his hand again impatiently for him to follow. He did, one foot sinking into an unusually wet spot. He pulled it out with a long sucking sound, shook his sandal off.
"I told you. He didn't tell me much, said it was somethin' I might wanna tell you about. I wanna see what it is. Hey, there's something, right over there--"
Lucien attempted to clamber up the little rise Travis had reached, bumped into him from behind. "Wha--?"
Travis's breath hissed out between his teeth, this time presenting a pretty decent whistle. "Wow," he whispered.
Lucien just stared for a moment, then descended the rise and headed for the object on the beach, partly hidden in shadow. As he neared it he could see the pool around its head, glinting dimly in the moonlight; he half hoped it might just be a small puddle of water gathering there, maybe this was one of those silly tourists fallen asleep on the beach again, like he'd had to rout out several times last year--
But no such luck. Travis came down and hovered at his elbow while he knelt and turned the person over. Quick as a bird Travis jumped back, right on top of the sandbank, as if he were a bird. [Note--sorry for the double bird reference.] He clapped a hand to his chest as if to keep his heart from darting out between his ribs. Lucien drew his hand back slowly and stared wide eyed at the person staring back up, not at him but at the midnight sky, his own eyes wide as well as his mouth and the ragged red slash running directly across his throat.
"Jee-eez! Who is he, d'ya think, Cons?"
Lucien stared at the body for a moment more and let out his breath in what might have been a sigh, might not. He balanced an arm on his knee. No, the features weren't familiar. He didn't know who it was. But that didn't matter if he knew who it was or not, it was still a dead person lying on the beach with his throat cut.
Were you out walking, and caught from behind? Or did somebody bring you out here afterwards? Where you from, anyway?
He didn't ask any questions. The dead couldn't talk, anyway. He half wished they did, it would make his life a whole lot easier.
He just pushed his hat further back, shaking his head as Travis's shadow hovered over him. "Not again," Lucien sighed.
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