Mojo of the Blood Fire Apes!

The night hung over the city like a dead fish on a clothesline. Hot, damp air sidled up close and wrapped itself around me like a wet fur coat, which wouldn’t have been comfortable even if I didn’t have my own fur. But Primate City was lit up in all her neon glory, throwing cheap light up to the overhanging clouds, telling the vanished sun that she’d be fine if it never came back. I’d lived in the Big Banana all my life, but she never looked better to me than she did at night’s beginning. I didn’t even miss the daylight, anymore.

I took a last drag off my smoke and flicked the butt out the open window. The falling ember’s momentary arc joined the flashing lights of the city, adding it’s little glow to the dazzling array. As it disappeared into the shadow of the grubby alley below, I considered what the night might have in store for me. Sometime before dawn, I had to meet Crackers down at the stockyards, to pick up my ‘medicine’. I also had a bit of business to work out with Eddie Medium-Size, current boss of the Capuchin Brotherhood. I’d worked with Big Eddie, the old Capuchin boss, a couple of times, but Eddie Medium-Size didn’t have Big Eddie’s brains or flair for business. Cash is cash, though, so I might take a job from him.

I wasn’t worried about finding action tonight, though. I had that feeling, the old familiar one, down in the gut, that I wasn’t gonna be hanging around my office here in the Hominid Building all night, rhapsodizing about my city in the night. The fur on the back of my hands were tingling, and Sally, nestled in my shoulder holster, seemed restless. Something was up, tonight, and headed my way. So I sat back, and let it come.

There was a knock at the door. I smiled, a little. You learn to trust your feelings, as a PI, even more so than the average gorilla. I ran my tongue over my sharp canines and thought that you can bet the bank on your gut when you’re a…Vampire Gorilla, PI.