Sunset was still a fairly long way away as I drove Fred along. After seeing what had been done to his wife, and seeing the bloody mess on his shoulder, I'd assumed that Devon or one of his girls, or maybe even his wife had bitten him. But, I'd only just found him, and there were a few things wandered through my mind as I went. I blacked out after Terri bit me, and she said she blacked out after Night bit her. I slept through the night and didn't wake up until the next morning. If Fred had been bitten, why was he conscious when I found him?
I glanced briefly to him as he was looking out the window.
"We going to the hospital, John?" Fred asked slowly after a moment.
That made me blink for a moment. My original idea was to take him back to Terri and Night. If Fred was in fact bitten, he might need to get a large amount of meat into him before sunset and be told what he would become come sunset, since he wasn't bitten during the night. But, I didn't know what had happened. I'd found Fred and his murdered wife in a small "infirmary" at the office. In reality, this "infirmary" wasn't anything more than a nurse's office to deal with things related to the common cold. The company I worked at had never had any action that would require an infirmary. Fred had been wounded in the shoulder and his wife had been bitten on the neck. For all I knew ANYTHING could have happened. I needed to find out exactly what happened before I did anything. If he didn't know Devon was a werewolf and wasn't bitten by him or one of his girls, the hospital would be the safer bet.
I noticed a small parking lot for a small city park and pulled into it. It would delay things, but I had to know exactly what happened before going further.
"What happened in there Fred?" I asked, "I know this may hurt but what happened? Your wife never worked with us?"
Fred gave a short sigh, and sounded like he was breaking down emotionally as he thought about his wife.
"I don't know how they got her," Fred said slowly, "I left and she was at home. I met with you as you came in... and I went to Trip Johnson's office, since no one really used it."
He paused and gave a short cough and a sniffle. He had to be getting close to the murder.
"When I got there," Fred continued, barely holding himself together, "when I got there, Devon was there waiting for me. With one of the secretaries that has been in and out of his office at various times... and when she comes out, her clothing looks a little..."
"Like she was taking it off?" I offered.
Fred nodded, "and his wife was there two... and between the two of them was my wife, looking terrified, looking like she'd been dressed in a hurry and rushed through some sort of shortcut or something."
"Did he do anything, weird?" I asked, "Like grow hair or if he had bigger teeth?"
"What? No!" Fred answered, "but... but he threatened me, said he knew what the staff had been doing all along, and that "this" was my punishment for not accepting being fired..."
I sensed a "but" coming. I let Fred wipe some tears away from his eyes with his good hand and then let him continued.
"But something in his tone indicated that he was more enraged or frustrated by something else," Fred said slowly, "something he didn't tell me... but whatever it was, it was enough to kill her. He grabbed her by the shoulders, leaned in and bit her in the neck... She was always so frail... especially after the cancer... and he broke the skin. Blood flew everywhere and she was tossed to the ground in front of me."
That made me nervous. The "something" was likely Terri biting and changing me and the likelihood that he would lose at least part of his harem of she-wolves in some way, but I didn't think it would push him to taking out his rage on an innocent who wasn't involved in it, unless it was to torture me for helping him.
"He bit her?" I asked.
"Like he was some sort of vampire or something," Fred slowly cried and nearly broke down, "I pleaded with her to live, kneeling beside her, but... but... she died... that MONSTER killed her for no reason other than that I didn't deserve to be fired and had done everything by the book."
"I know," I told him, "You didn't deserve it, and your wife certainly didn't."
That seemed to give the impression that the term monster was not a direct reference to anything supernatural. After all, normal humans could commit monstrous behavior. And to see a human bite out the throat of a loved one would be monstrous. Devon probably managed because of his lycanthropic strengths, but if he didn't bite Fred, I wouldn't be able to explain that.
"Did he bite you?" I asked.
"What? No," Fred managed, "His girlfriend and his wife moved to hold me down and in the moment I was not only grieving my wife, but I was also enraged at her killer..."
"That's understandable, Fred, you have nothing to be ashamed of," I told him, "If anything me and the others were more at fault for trying to hide you there... I'm sure we could have pooled our resources and gotten you a good job elsewhere... legally that is."
"Thank you," Fred said weakly, "anyway, I was angry at Devon for killing Francine. I stomped on his wife's foot. It didn't seem to hurt her all that much, but it did surprise her. She let me go, and I lunged forward at him. I wanted nothing more then to strangle him... firing me because she got sick and then killing her because you all helped me... His girlfriend tightened her grip on my arm, and my sleeve came off at the seam. I managed to push him against the desk."
I put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
"I landed only one punch when he grabbed the desk lamp on and slammed it like club onto my shoulder," Fred said slowly, "the metal edge of the "cover" to the lamp dug in... I mean it he was like crazy strong. It dug into my shoulder and broke the skin... he had that much force."
So that was how he got the wound, and also explained why the desk lamp wasn't there when I had my encounter with Devon's wife. I figured she was cleaning up the mess that her husband had left behind. On some level I figured this might help my situation. After all, Devon had brutally murdered an innocent woman and assaulted the husband. That would put him away for life at least, if not put him on death row. And if he fought the police when they arrested him, that would get him shot and killed. It might not help me at the moment, as I'd probably lost my job for some other odd reason, but "long term" I figured Devon had made a fatal mistake in doing this.
"He then back handed me and sent me flying," Fred managed, "I... I... I bounced off the wall, and when I got up, all three of them were coming toward me. Both women... they were massaging his pants as they advanced. Devon... Devon looked like he was fondling their rears as well... and it looked like their eyes were glowing... almost."
Fred sniffled a little bit.
"I managed to escape and get out of there, but the girlfriend continued to chase after me," Fred finished, "I lost her, but I couldn't get out of the building. I ultimately found my way to the nurse's station where I bandaged myself and found that they had moved my wife there. Then you found me."
"He will pay for this, Fred," I told him, "I promise you, he will pay."
His weakness had to be from the shock at seeing his wife murdered in front of him. I still felt like her death was my fault, but Devon going to prison or being executed would surely bring her death to justice. And the determination to see that justice be done and the fact that my own instincts were angry at him mating with Terri was now strong enough that I couldn't submit to him in anyway. I wouldn't submit to him. Not for Terri, not for Night, not for anyone. They deserved something better than Devon Lycos.
"Thank you," Fred managed.
I then put the car back in gear and backed out and began driving again.
"I'll drive you to the hospital and they'll take care of you," I told him, "and we'll call the cops once we get there. You'll probably need to tell them what you just told me."
Fred managed to nod.