The Devil's Assassin by Brian

Arroyos.
    “This is what we
police in Argentina do, Señor,” says Arroyos. “Find out who commits crimes and
put them in jail. You know, like NYPD Blue, but without the beautiful female
detectives.”
    Linus bristles
with anger. June puts a hand on Linus’ shoulder indicating that she’ll take
over.
    “What kind of
evidence do you have on this fellow, Detective Arroyos?”
    The detective
narrows his eyes at the woman. “We have motive and opportunity. We’ll get the
evidence... or a confession.”
    “And what was the
man’s motive?” asks June. “Can you tell us that?”
    “Is this an
inquisition?” says Arroyos indignantly. “I don’t explain my investigations to
every Tom, Dick, and Mary who walk in here.”
    “We’re not ‘every
Tom, Dick, or Mary,’” says June. “As Linus explained to you a moment ago, we
have information concerning the killing and have come a long way to share it
with you. Very frankly, Detective Arroyos, whatever motive he may have had, we
believe the man you have in custody is innocent.”
    “Well, that’s
what HE says. Why do you say it?”
    June replies.
“The victim was killed by a tiny puncture to his lung, correct? How many times
have you seen that since you’ve been investigating homicides?”
    Arroyos shrugs .
“There’s a first time for everything.”
    “This kind of
puncture wound is consistent with a new species of animal that my lab has had
in its possession. We have the animal on videotape killing one of the lab’s
scientists. Mr. Hather has just come from China and Canada where he was
following up on two killings with the exact same causes of death.... Tell me
Detective, has your suspect been to China and Canada in the last few days?”
    Arroyos rolls his
eyes. “An animal! Why?”
    Linus jumps in
before June can answer. “We suspect that because of competition for food, this
animal evolved over time into a hunter. A hunter that only hunts Man.”
    “And where has
this animal been?” asks a visibly skeptical Arroyos. “Someone ought to have run
across them if they’ve been going around killing people for so long.”
    “People have run
across them, Detective,” says Linus. “But the ones who do are dead. This
creature is very stealthy. It avoids contact with people. Even so, there are
legends about the creature in some countries.”
    Linus hands the
detective a drawing he’d been working on. It is a pretty good rendition of the
creature. The detective laughs when he sees it.
    Linus responds
with some anger. “I have surveillance photos for you on disk. That’s just to
give you an idea.”
    Arroyos shakes his
head. “I think this is very surreal.” He looks at the policeman who is still
scowling nearby. “ Pinch me quiere,
Pablo. Todavía debe estar en la cama.”
    Pablo laughs .
    Linus ignores the other man and answers in his own Spanish . “Me gustaría que no
bromeaba sobre este detective. La gente está muriendo. La cosa casi me mata.”
    Arroyos looks at the Spanish-speaking Linus with some surprise .
    June follows quickly , in English again . “A friend of mine died two days ago. … We’re here to help .”
    Arroyos looks at
the two people in front of him and can see that they are quite serious.
    “What exactly do
the two of you get out of this investigation of yours?”
    “Just
information,” says June. “Maybe we’ll learn something that will help us
recapture the creature that we lost. Perhaps we can assist you in finding the
one here. At the very least we can help get an innocent man out of jail.”
    Arroyos doesn’t like this, but they are persuading him to at least follow the lead. He knows
that he has a weak case against the man that he’s holding in his cells.
    “Are there just
four creatures then?” the detective asks.
    “Highly unlikely,” replies Linus.
    “But we can only
go after the ones we know about,” says June. “Are you going to help us?”
    Detective Arroyos
wishes he’d never seen the two Americans.