05 - She Is The Widow Maker

Series - The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone

Chapter One Life Goes On Laena, a Drow, meets with four other Drow to consider the problem of Alison on Earth. They know her mother is dead, and that her wish might cause greed among humans who would wish to acquire it. They want to retrieve her, bring her to Oriceran ASAP, but a Light Elf advises them that if they try to do it too rapidly, it might cause problems for Oricerans on Earth, and for them as well, as Alison is protected by James Brownstone. They decide to send the Widow Maker after Brownstone. (Drow never listen!)

Alison calls Brownstone with a request to take a summer trip somewhere Brownstone is in his truck, and sees eight Demon Generals coming toward the truck. He ends the call, and gets out to warn them away. They’re after Trey and his Grandmother, and aren’t leaving. Brownstone take most of them down, and the others decide to leave after all, after receiving warnings to not show up again, or they wouldn’t BE leaving!

Chapter Two Trey thanks Brownstone for handling the Demon Generals. Checked his email, found lots of BBQ notices, and a note from the lawyer about Alison’s adoption. Sgt. Mack asked him to go after a Level One bounty who might turn on someone else, and James asked Trey if he’d like to work for him, and do it. Trey says yes, and Brownstone talks about setting up the Brownstone Agency, and incorporating the gang into it, somehow, like information collection, so none of your boys are doing anything that might get the cops on them. Thinks it would benefit him, the neighborhood and the cops. Tyler, bar owner and pool-betting entrepreneur, meets the Widowmaker, who comes into the Black Sun looking for information about Brownstone. He tells her lies, so she won’t get into trouble, and watches as two cops come into the bar. Have a couple of drinks, and warn one of the customers that they’ll be looking for him in ten minutes.

Chapter Three Business Matters Brownstone has an appointment with Douglas Nestor, at his bank, about setting up Brownstone Agency. Nestor is surprised at his rough looks, and shows it. Just wants to set up accounts for the new business. Goes to lawyer to set up business, an S corporation. Lawyer is worries about his rather tenuous grasp on some of the employment regulations. So much for keeping it simple. Between visits to the bank, the police department, city hall, and the lawyer, he’d burned off a few days accomplishing not much of anything other than paying people for the privilege of condescending to him. The lawyer suggested hiring a reputable HR firm to handle the day-to-day work. Given his unique needs, the lawyer narrows the list of reputable HR management firms down to those who have some experience in dealing with the interface of magic and employment law. You just have to pay them and sign things on occasion then.”

Gets a call from Shay, in Australia. She’ll be going into the outback, so don’t expect to hear from her for a few days. Shay might be fighting strange warlocks or monsters in the Australian Outback, but James had been facing the deadliest of foes for the last few days: bankers, bureaucrats, and lawyers.

Chapter Four The Widow Makerhad rented a spacious home in the Hills while she searched for Brownstone. Watching TV, and decides to change her disguise, so draws on her blood to reform her to look like Angelina Jolie, the actress. . Time to harvest and improve Earth…one man at a time. She visited a local bar/dance club, and had many possibilities, but she needed someone unworthy, not just any horny man. Widow Maker grinned and moved forward, shaking her hips and moving with the music as she passed through the crowd and closed on a lone businessman. The wounded male ego was always the easiest to manipulate. It didn’t matter what species the male was. A glint of gold on his finger caught her attention. A married man. That meant her little jaunt wouldn’t be a waste of time. Others might find her methods brutal, but her limited choice of targets spoke to her restraint; an elegant choice that reinforced the importance of honor. All he has to do is honor his vows. He’ll make his own choice. It’ll be his own fault. Chuck decided to go with her, and ended up dead on her bed, a smile on his face, and his throat slashed, his blood empowering her. She then set his body to the in-between world.

Maria Hall, having a moment of free time from her AET duties, reviewed the picture of Shay she had from other activities concerning Brownstone, and she decided to track her down.

Chapters Five, Six An FBI contact calls Hall, giving her the info that the picture is of a dead woman named Lisa Sellers. She ended up being killed by another hitman. They burned her house to try and cover up the crime.” Hall requests all info re Sellers, and gets it. She’ll take it from there. No, this killer was still alive. She was running around LA helping Brownstone kill people, and Maria would track both their asses down and catch them in the middle of a crime. Even if her department didn’t focus on normal killers, she could use resources related to enhanced threats and their associates. I’ll be able to bring in your floozy killer friend, who is already supposed to be dead, and I’ll bet that pisses you off enough that you do something stupid I can finally grab you for.” Chuck’s friends report him missing to Sgt. Mack, who makes notes, and reassures them he’ll be back in good time. Another good-looking woman comes into Tyler’s bar, looking for Brownstone info, and exits with an Italian Mafia.

Chapter Seven DPD Call 7 Brownstone gets a call from Sgt .Mack, who had a call from AET who had a call from Detroit AET requesting Brownstone’s help on a Level 5 bounty pick-up. Brownstone will go the next day, so Mack will call DPD and tell them he’s on his way. Mack calls Trey to get a level One for him – a good test case. Name is Jack Conners, a con artist and low-level street hustler. Not known to be all that violent, but you never know if cornered rats will bite.” “Not even a gangster? This’ll be easier than I thought. I can scare this asshole into coming with me.” “This is serious, Trey, even if the guy’s not all that important. If he goes to ground or we lose him it’ll hurt some of our investigations. Just bring him in. If this goes well, we can really ramp up bounties for you.”

Trey goes to a local info broker, and buys Connor’s address. “Conners is there now, but he won’t stay there long. He moves every week, from what I’ve heard.” Trey knocked on the door, and Jack answered. After some persuasion, Jack went with Trey to the Police station, Brownstone’s name having been used a lot during the conversation.

Chapter Eight Success Brownstone with DPD, getting info from Lieutenant Walsh on Jacob Leesom a necromancer. Zombies? “Not that kind of necromancer, thank God, but he’s nasty in another way. You see, he can switch into new bodies. He can’t just hop instantly—it requires some effort and like a day from what we understand, so you don’t have to worry about him jumping from body to body—but it means we have no idea what Leesom currently looks like. He could be a man or a woman. Elf or human. Young or old. How do you know he’s here?” A police image of a withered husk of a body popped onto a screen in the front of the room. The cracked and dried corpse looked like it might turn to dust at a touch. “This body was found in an empty apartment a few days ago after someone started complaining about the smell. We brought in some specialists to do some testing, and their results, both magical and medical, are consistent with previous tests of Leesom’s victims. This was probably his previous host or whatever you want to call it.” Hijacking another person’s body to wear them like a suit? Leesom had found a way to make necromancy even more disgusting. Anything else I have to know? “Yeah. Because the bodies aren’t technically alive by the time he switches into them, they are hard to kill. Just shooting them in the head or heart won’t work. You have to…” The lieutenant paled and averted his eyes. “You have to remove the head from the body.” “This guy’s a monster. Anything you can do to help us stop him would be appreciated. Yeah, but to be clear, we need the body. All parts of it, including the head. We’re going to have a magic specialist confirm he’s dead. You know, dead-dead. Not just undead.” “Decapitate the fucker, bag ‘im, and bring ‘im in. Understood, Lieutenant.” James had no idea how to proceed. A search of the apartment had turned up nothing, so he called Peyton, and asked if he could help. Peyton said sure, for $5K, and Brownstone agreed. Peyton’s digging had turned up some unusual financial activity associated with the Eternal Shores Funeral Home and an account linked to the apartment. The cops hadn’t looked closely enough. Based on what Peyton had explained, James suspected Leesom had been using the place on and off for years under different names. The rental and occupancy patterns were odd and erratic on the surface, but when cross-referenced with Leesom’s reported activities in other cities they made sense. Brownstone goes inside, and actually talks with/finds Leesom, says. “I wonder what I could do with a body like yours, Brownstone.” Leesom threw the podium at Brownstone and rushed into the back room, ran. Leesom attacks Brownstone, who pulls a machete and decapitates him. Dead for good.

Chapter Nine The Aftermath Brownstone brings the corpse to the DPD, and is interviewed live by Cara Lamont.” Do you have any comment on people who think you might occasionally go too far?” “I don’t go too far.” The bounty hunter shrugged. “I go after bounties. If people don’t want me after them, they shouldn’t get bounties on their heads. Leesom was a bounty. I brought him in. Simple as that. I think Detroit PD is putting their lives on the line every day for the people of your city, and Detroit AET isn’t given the funding they need to do their damned jobs. I’m saying you need to give your cops the fucking tools they need.” Look, if the politicians won’t do right by your cops, the people should. Hell, I’ll throw down half my bounty from Leeson as a donation to the Detroit AET to help them out.

Walsh responded, I want to thank Mr. Brownstone for his assistance with the apprehension of Jacob Leesom and his generous donation. I consider him a true friend of Detroit police and police officers everywhere.”Cara looked into her camera. “There you have it. A six-figure spontaneous donation by James Brownstone to the Detroit AET and a dangerous criminal off the streets. I know that I, for one, will sleep a little better tonight. This is Cara Lamont with Action First News.” Brownstone goes out for beer with the DPD after the interview.

Mack calls him, tells him Trey’s doing well, three bounties in two days, and compliments him on staying with and supporting his neighborhood, And when he was out with the PDP, two Marine corps Lance corporals came up to buy him a beer for all of the publicity they had received from the Pendleton incident. Recruitment was up all over the country. Walsh admits to having been in the Army, and was almost kicked out for composing too many ribald cadences. See Chapter Nine for several of them.