Crane, R [ Southern Watch 03] Corrupted by Robert J. Crane Page A

unassuming,” Hendricks said, and she could see him adjust the brim of his hat over his eyes. He was projecting the aura like he was old hand at this—which he was, obviously.
    “What the kid means with his twenty-dollar words,” Lerner said before Erin could ask him to clarify—it still annoyed her the demon did that shit—“is that if a demon did this, there’s no guarantee they’re going to look any different than a normal human when they’re just walking around among you. It’s not like they’re carrying the muscle mass of Brock Lesnar—it could look like a twelve year-old girl, for all we know.” He chucked a twisted smile at Hendricks. “Or like he said, unassuming.”
    “How did it look?” Duncan asked. For a second, Erin thought she saw irritation flash on Lerner’s face, but it was gone in half a beat.
    “The scene?” Arch answered. He always seemed to like to take the lead in these things, as best he could. Made sense; he’d been a leader around these parts for as long as she could remember. “Like I said, hit and run wouldn’t have been too out of place. Body got hit, went flying about a hundred feet or so—”
    “Whoa,” Lerner said, lips pursed in an “o” and eyes all squinted. “Like a fucking field goal.”
    “That’s a hundred yards,” Duncan murmured.
    “Who was it?” Alison asked, finally coming out of her shell a little. She looked reserved to Erin, like she was just taking it all in.
    “Tim Connor,” Arch said. “Got him on a jog.”
    “Ohh,” Alison looked pained. “He used to come into the store all the time asking for organic chicken breasts. We didn’t get too many of them in, just a few, because almost nobody bought them—”
    “I’m sure this going somewhere lovely, princess,” Lerner said, and there was that dickishness again, “but rather than eulogizing the poor bastard, maybe we should start looking for what killed him.” He snapped to face Arch, who didn’t look none too pleased at Lerner’s behavior toward Alison. “Where did this happen?”
    “Berg Street,” Erin answered after a few seconds of silence in which Arch did not speak. “The sheriff has the scene cordoned off.”
    “We’ll take a peek after sundown,” Lerner said, stretching. She frowned at the demon—Hendricks had said that they were all just bags of contained essence. Why would he need to stretch? Unless he was just trying to look human in his movements? She was tempted to ask him but didn’t. Because he was an ass. “Come on, Duncan, let’s vamoose on back to the motel.”
    “Gonna catch some shut eye?” Hendricks asked. She couldn’t tell if he was joking.
    “Nah, there’s a new episode of World’s Deadliest Catch on that I’ve been wanting to see, and since we don’t have a DVR …” Lerner shot him a toxic smile. “If the world goes to hell, give us a call. Otherwise we’ll be at the scene after dark.”
    “And then?” Arch asked. He was most definitely not sounding happy, at least not to Erin’s ears.
    “And then we deal with the next thing, and the next thing,” Lerner said, already turning away to head back to his town car. “It’s always gonna be something here until things calm down.”
    “When will that be?” Erin felt her irritation with the demon dissolve just enough for her to slip that out.
    Lerner actually turned around to face her when he answered. “Hopefully it’ll last for a while yet.” He wore a kind of twisted grimace that held not one ounce of pleasure. “Because the likelihood is that when it’s done, the town is done right along with it.”
    ***
    “God, what a cheery fucker,” Erin said as the OOCs drove away. She had shuffled closer to Hendricks, and he could smell her light perfume as she slipped an arm into his drover coat and around his waist.
    “He’s got a point,” Hendricks said, watching the town car kick up dust in the driveway. “I’ve been to enough hotspots the last few years to know. Most of ’em tend