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  Demon padded away, briefly turning and straightening on his hind legs, while doing a shunning gesture with one paw to the side of his face. “See what you’ve done, Ripper. Dead to me!”

  Mongo and Mike shared stifled amusement for a long moment over poor prankster Demon getting a taste of his own type ridicule. “I think D cares for Abby. He didn’t get her pregnant, so Bluto need not worry about complications. He did get chased by Abby’s owner with a broom.”

  Mongo turned outraged in a heartbeat. “Why is this the first I have heard of Abby and the ferocious Dark Bluto being chased by an angry woman with a broomstick?”

  “Denny was there too. We forgot to mention the episode of Broomstick Bluto. So many things happened since then, the memory took a backseat to Haunt wars and Middle Earth fears.”

  Mongo grinned. “This will be glorious, El Capitan Darkness. The fall of the Dark Bluto.”

  Chapter Seven

  Walk in the Park

  Mike awakened each of his prisoners as Alisha Navarone and her partner, Manny Ruiz entered the house. “I woke them for you. The woman’s the baby killer, and the baby was not her first, isn’t that so, Dottie?”

  Dottie kept her head down. “Yes. I’ve done horrible things. I want to confess.”

  “So, do I,” Kenny added. “We deserve to be in prison.”

  Their fellow house invaders muttered threats in stunned tones for Dottie and Kenny to keep quiet. Mike helped Dottie and then Kenny to their feet. “I think these two will help you to solve this mess quickly. Their safe in the den contains a lot of incriminating material, along with stolen valuables. I opened it for you.”

  “Great job, Mike,” Manny said. “I’ll take these two out now and keep them separate from the others.”

  “We passed Fluffy on the way in. He gave us the brush off,” Alisha said as Mongo and Mike helped the others to their feet. “What’s his problem?”

  “Mongo and I had a humorous remembrance of D’s past incidents he took exception to, nothing important. Can I leave everything to you now? I have the weapons and personal belongings bagged and sorted against the wall. I used my gloves.”

  “You can go. Thank you for this. Colemeyer will be very pleased. I’ve noticed the ability to restrain your powers has improved dramatically.”

  “I’m working on it daily. Thanks for taking this over. It started by accident. The guy Manny took out burglarized his ex-girlfriend’s apartment. She teaches English at Arroyo High School. Denny and Joanie attend her classes. Her name is Loretta Kincaid. She asked Demon Inc to find her belongings. Denny traced them here. She’s out in my Buick if you want to talk with her.”

  “Text me her phone number. I’ll personally call her when we can release her belongings and get a statement. What’s the killer’s full name?”

  “Dottie Cavanaugh,” Mike answered. “They didn’t expect to be caught, so they had all their phones, tablets, and personal belongings on them.”

  “How did Denny find who did the boyfriend?”

  “He traced a video Ms. Kincaid owned to an IP address here. Kincaid recognized the house. It belonged to Vinson’s parents. We came to ask for the video and her stuff back. Mongo did a recon on the inside, saw the weapons and house full of stolen goods, and we captured the home invaders. I’ll have Denny send you the video and synopsis of what happened.”

  “Great,” Alisha replied. “I should be able to word the report to work done by a special FBI unit as we discussed. I’ll call if I need more.”

  “Okay.” Mike gestured Mongo to follow him. “Talk to you soon.”

  Driving home, Mike explained the situation to Denny and Loretta. “Agent Navarone will contact you when she needs a statement and can release your belongings.”

  “Can you guys help me with getting my stuff and bringing it to my apartment?”

  “Sure. We’ll help,” Mike replied. “We’re stopping by Demon Inc before going to visit my folks. D wants to take some sipping whiskey to Bonaire Park near my parents’ house.”

  “After the Kenny experience, I think I’ll go home and clean. Thanks for getting my DVD back. I’ll break it into pieces when I get home.”

  “That would be wise,” Mike replied. “You were the key to catching a dangerous home invasion crew. I know Agent Navarone was grateful. I am sorry this turned into a lot more than stealing things from you. Kenny will be testifying against his companions so I’m certain he will get some lenience because of that.”

  Denny was suspicious about the silence, but knew better than to dive into anything with Loretta in the Buick. They continued home with the radio playing music at low volume. When they reached Demon Inc, Nazer opened the gate to allow them in. Mike projected Nazer should leave the gate open.

  Denny, Demon, and Mongo exited the Buick for the entrance to Demon Inc. Mike escorted Loretta to her car. “Let us know when you want help moving your belongings.”

  “Can I visit you before then?”

  “I have no objections. I’m sorry this wasn’t a great beginning for a romantic relationship. I’ll be seeing you in school too. We’re friends. You will, of course, be Ms. Kincaid.”

  “And you will be El Capitan Darkness.”

  “If you knew how many names I get called at school, you’d think El Capitan Darkness was a compliment.” Mike opened her car door.

  Loretta kissed Mike gently before slipping into her driver’s seat. “Knowing how many fights you’ve gotten into at school, it’s a wonder the other students don’t call you Sir whenever they pass you on school grounds.”

  “Fortunately, or unfortunately, when someone projects an emotional feeling at me, the epithet comes with it.”

  “Really? What am I thinking now?”

  The vision of Loretta riding him like a bull at the rodeo shot into Mike’s head. He blocked it and did a shaming gesture at her. “Bad Loretta… bad.”

  Kincaid smiled and drove away.

  Inside Demon Inc, Demon awaited him with Mongo at his side. “Joanie and Denny want to come with us. Naz wants to visit Sandy. The Frog Brothers, Aunty Em, and Brandy left a note they’re grocery shopping for their place. Mongo has our drinking utensils and booze in the bag. Frodo and Gidget will be joining us at the Buick.”

  “Good update, D. You’re not mad anymore?”

  “No… I’m over it. This is what happens if I see Gail a couple days in a row. I get as caustic as she is. Thanks for filling in Mongo about my flight from Abby’s owner. Broomstick Bluto? Really?”

  “Anytime, BB.” Mike held the door open for his friends.

  * * *

  “Oh look, Dan, it’s the prodigal son come to visit,” Jenny Rawlins exclaimed in overly cheerful tone. “He brought back the daughter, the Hobbit, Fluffy the wonder dog, and Gizmo.”

  “Very funny, Mrs. R,” Demon replied as Mike hugged his mom. “Is that a new perfume you’re wearing? You smell like a clove of garlic. Are you expecting a vampire attack?”

  Dan shook hands with Mike, Denny, and Mongo while enjoying Demon’s verbal shot. “Jen’s cooking meat sauce for the spaghetti.”

  “I was going to invite you bunch to dinner, but I’m all out of dog food,” Jenny added. “That’s okay. We’ll tie Fluffy out back until dinner’s over. I don’t want to torture him with spaghetti and meatballs.”

  “You’re going to make me cry,” Demon retorted. “When I cry, I sound like a castrated coyote. You’ll be sorry. The coyote cry I emit when missing meatballs rivals that of the dreaded banshee.”

  “How about you, Gizmo?”

  “You always smell wonderful, Mrs. Rawlins,” Mongo replied.

  Jenny chuckled appreciatively. “Okay, you’re all invited for dinner, including coyote ugly. Where are you headed now?”

  “We’re going to the park and play ball. D wants to work out some issues,” Mike replied.

  “He’s hittin’ the Irish Setter in the back of the park, huh? Bad Fluffy… bad.” Jenny shamed Demon.

  Mongo gestured in comical o
utrage once again as everyone, including Demon, enjoyed Jenny’s pronouncement. “Does everyone, but me, know about the fall of the Dark Bluto, now known as Broomstick Bluto.”

  Mike herded his crew out while his parents were still amused. “We’ll be back for dinner, Mom. Thanks.”

  “We have a lot of adventures to share, Mrs. R, but they will require extra meatballs,” Demon promised.

  “I can hardly wait.”

  * * *

  “That was like old times,” Joanie remarked as Mike drove to the park. “Mom and Dad miss you guys. I think they’re beginning to suffer empty nest syndrome.”

  “I think they can’t wait until you get out, Gidget,” Demon zonked her.

  “Enough,” Mike warned. “We’ll make sure to visit more often. We have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas on the horizon. We’re taking the kids ‘Trick or Treating’ like before.”

  “Tina and Jimmy contacted me several times,” Denny said. “They think we’ll leave them out of our annual Halloween trek. Maybe we should see if our coma rescues want to go with us.”

  “Good one, Frodo,” Demon agreed. “I bet we could let Mongo ride me as Baby Groot. No one will believe he’s real. The people we pass will think we have a specially made doll.”

  “We’ll do it,” Mike said. “The kids will love it. When we go visit the house with everything decorating the lawns and house, D can stand there for a while with Mongo waving as Baby Groot. All he has to answer is ‘I am Groot’.”

  “I am officially hyped about Halloween now,” Joanie replied. “I… oh crap… look Mike.”

  A group of loudly partying young men and women, playing Latin hip/hop music, blaring from an expensive remote player, owned the tables at the right of the main park playground.

  “Looks okay to me, Sis,” Mike said. “They’re partying. After today, Mongo, D, and I plan to sip one before D explores the park. The picnic table at the edge of the playground is unoccupied. Apparently, parents didn’t want to risk trouble with their kids on the playground.”

  “I like your thinking, Ripper. We have a sip. Then I go out and play ball with you until I make room for the meatballs, visit Abby, and go back to your folks’ house for spaghetti and meatballs. Sounds like heaven to me.”

  “I have the same vision, D,” Mike agreed. “We’ll be fine. We’re over to the side, away from the party. They probably won’t even notice us. Man… I could sure enjoy a sip. That’s for sure.”

  “Amen to that,” Mongo added. “I did not like leaving the Dottie killer alive. I sensed evil permeating from her skin.”

  “I have her on the list, Mongo,” Denny said. “I will track everywhere she goes.”

  Mike parked the Buick at the farthest to the left spots. “Let’s have some fun.”

  Mongo set their refreshments out on the picnic table. It took only moments for Demon, Mike and Mongo to toast a full day of good deeds. Denny and Joanie drank the sodas Mongo brought for them. Demon stood on hind legs for a moment as he finished his drink bowl.

  “That went right to my toenails,” Demon remarked to much amusement.

  “I agree,” Mike replied, taking the ball in hand for playing catch with Demon.

  “Go long, Ripper! I need to check things out,” Demon said.

  Mike threw the ball to the deepest reaches of the park with Demon streaking full speed after it. He returned at the same speed with the ball. “Abby’s in the house. Her doggy door is locked. She’s making noises to be let out. Heh… heh.”

  Mike grinned and threw the ball again. Demon streaked after it. “Pour us another, Mongo. I believe Bluto will be busy for a while.”

  “Do you think it’s okay for Joanie and me to walk around the park at the edges, Mike,” Denny asked.

  “I think so. The partiers are near the fence by the playground on that side. I doubt they’ll even notice you two. Mongo and I will be watching. I appreciate you driving home tonight.”

  “That’s no problem, Mike. I’ll have my license in a few weeks.” Hand in hand, Denny walked toward the perimeter of the park with Joanie.

  Mongo sat next to Mike at the picnic table. “This is so nice, Mike. We can actually go to a park without worrying about Middle Earth and Sauron. If we keep doing good deeds, no one will object to us.”

  “That’s the plan, brother.”

  “Do you think Loretta will return?”

  Mike shrugged. “I don’t know. She sure got a heavy dose of Demon Inc. Uh oh… those people did notice Denny and Joanie. They’re talking about money. I better get there before they try intercepting them.”

  Mongo followed Mike to where Denny and Joanie were walking next to the baseball field fence. Five of the men moved toward the couple too. “Sorry, my idea of you two going unnoticed didn’t work out.”

  “They want money,” Denny replied, as the men arrived.

  “Hey… we asked if you got any money,” the man in the front said. As tall as Mike, and fifty pounds heavier, he smirked in what he believed was an intimidating way.

  “We have money, but we don’t give it away,” Mike said. “Have a nice evening.”

  Mike led his group around the men with Mongo taking a position behind Joanie. The man grabbed Mike’s arm and tried to sucker punch him. Mike blocked the punch and slapped the man in the face hard enough to send him stumbling into his friends. The group from the picnic table jogged toward them. Mike froze them all.

  “I hope D doesn’t take too long,” Mike said. “I’ll let this bunch go when we get over to the table. Maybe they’re smart enough to leave us alone. In any case, Mongo and I are going to finish our drinks.”

  When they reached the table, Mike sipped his drink and unfroze the Latin hip/hop fans. They regrouped, trying to decide what happened to them. Everyone in their group, except for the guy he slapped, wanted to stay where they were. Most were eyeballing Mike with fear. The guy he slapped pushed away from the woman trying to calm him down. He strutted toward Mike, while retrieving what looked like a knife from his back pocket. As often happened in a situation like this, the darkness began building within Mike.

  “Just freeze him again, Mike,” Joanie advised.

  “Stay back with Mongo and Denny, Sis. This isn’t the first time Mac the Knife attacked someone.”

  Mike met the man, who stopped when Mike approached him. “I gut you for bitch slappin’ me!”

  “No, you won’t. If you had a brain, you’d be turning around and rejoining your crew. I will put you in the hospital.”

  Instead of turning around, the man jutted forward with the knife in a stabbing stroke. Mike caught his wrist and snapped it. The knife wielder cried out, grabbing his injured appendage. Mike slapped him in the face hard enough to pitch him sideways to the ground. He then kicked him in the side, cracking a rib.

  Mike bent down toward the man, writhing in agony. Mike yanked him to his feet, eliciting a scream of pain. “Go back to your crew. Tell them to vacate the park. Do anything else and I get mean.”

  The man stumbled toward his group, clutching the injured arm. After speaking with them in hushed tones, he and the woman who tried to calm him left. The group stayed though instead of leaving, arguing amongst themselves. Mike grinned as he retrieved the man’s discarded knife. He sent it shooting into one of the picnic tables nearest the arguing partiers. The sound and seeing the knife buried in the wood startled them. The early arriving October darkening skies made it difficult to see clearly across the park.

  “They may have guns, Mike,” Denny remarked. “It’s getting too dark to see if any of them draws a weapon on us.”

  “I told them to leave. I’ll go ask them nicely again. Guard Denny and Joanie, Mongo.”

  “I should fly at them in true form.”

  “Not this time. We need to log a few more videos with you in them in true form before we do any more in public. Be right back.”

  As Mike approached, the group spread out to face him. No one reached for anything. “Did your friend tell you what
I said?”

  “He told us,” a man at the center replied. “This a public park. You can’t order us out of it. We deciding whether to beat you to death or not.”

  “It would be ‘or not’ no matter what you decide. If you don’t want anyone else hurt, it would be best for all of you to go.”

  “Maybe we just jump your ass instead.”

  “Try it. None of you can move toward me unless I allow you to,” Mike told them. He froze everyone.

  In moments, they knew what Mike said was true. The man at the center spoke, “what is this… some kind of trick?”

  “It’s a mind trick.” Mike walked over to the man and slapped him in the face. “See? Now imagine what I could do to all of you.”

  “Okay… let us go,” one of the women pleaded.

  Mike stepped away from the group again and unfroze them. “You can all go now.”

  Once they realized they could move, they gathered their things and hurried away. Mike waited where he was until the group drove away. By the time he returned to his sister and friends, Demon was slurping his own drink.

  “Damn… I missed all the action,” Demon complained.

  “How did your date go,” Mike asked.

  “Very well on a basic species level. At least I don’t have Broomstick Woman chasing me. I’m starving. All I can think of right now is spaghetti and meatballs.”

  “I’ve had enough of the park for today,” Mike replied. “Mongo and I jinxed our visit by talking about how nice it was.”

  As they reached Mike’s Buick, a car Mike recognized as belonging to Mac the Knife, screeched to a halt across the street, outside the park’s long driveway. What looked like a rifle poked out the passenger window, aiming at them. Mike unleashed the darkness, plowing into everyone riding in the vehicle. No one survived his assault.

  “Let’s go, Den. You’re driving. We’ll leave the mystery for the police to find.”

  Denny drove past the assault vehicle, driving around the block to Mike’s parents’ house.

  “Should we tell Mom and Dad,” Joanie asked.

  “No need to,” Mike answered. “This wasn’t a moral dilemma. If you can’t help yourself because it bothers you, tell them what happened.”