Vampire - When Darkness Falls Part 21

Chapter Seven.

Before Jade could start out again, the phone started ringing a second time. It was Shanna, telling her she was at a coffee shop, and that she'd be right up-if Rick was gone.

Jade a.s.sured her Rick was gone.

"When did he leave?"

Jade hesitated. "He never really stayed."

"What?" The word was incredulous.

"He never really stayed."

"Great! And I just soared out of bed and went off to Dad's house to baby-sit-so that Liz wouldn't disturb your little love nest!"

"You baby-sat already today?" "Mornings are not my thing, you know."

"I know. I'm impressed. Is everything all right?"

"Fine. Petey had a fever, but they gave him a shot, and Liz brought him right home. I mean I leaped out of bed, thinking you were decadently busy! And you didn't even do anything!" Shanna moaned.

"You're going to have to explain when I get there!"

"Shanna-"

The phone clicked. Shanna was gone, on her way over. When she arrived, she was impatient and disgusted.

"Nothing? Nothing happened?"

"How did you get here so quickly?"

"I was just down the street at a coffee shop. Tell me what happened.

Did you fight? Why did Rick leave?"

"He was exhausted and sick. Really sick. He's got an awful bug."

Shanna looked down the hallway, toward Renate's door. "I wonder if our old buddy Matt at least got lucky."

"No, he didn't."

"How do you know?"

"Renate has already been over, looking for Rick."

"Why?"

"Who knows? She must think there's great info for her work in all this. But anyway, you're here now, so you can just come to the police station with me. Rick got Gavin to find out more about the tiling in New York City-"

"Oh, G.o.d!" Shanna groaned. "What good is this going to do? Say you are in danger-you won't even make the effort to sleep with a good cop."

"Shanna, I told you-"

"He should have needed comfort."

"People can be just dead tired. And he wanted a bath."

"Did your water stop running?"

"He wanted it to be right."

"It's already wrong, if you can't just get to it!"

Shanna shook her head with disgust, turned, and started out. Jade froze behind her, wondering if her sister was right. Had she felt that all along, or ... Had something changed last night?

I seem to have s.e.x all by myself, and it's just great-better than it could be with him. And anyway, I couldn't make him stay, because he would see what my room looked like!

The whole thing was awful. Mortifying. She couldn't say any of it out loud.

Not even to her sister.

"I thought you were in a hurry?" Shanna said impatiently.

"Yes, let's go."

"I still don't see how you let Rick go home! You should have taken care of him. Run him a hot bath, given him a cold beer."

"He didn't have any clean clothes."

"He didn't need clean clothes for what you intended. Jade, if he's so sick, he should need you. If he's hurting, he should want to feel better."

"Shanna, he's sick, really, truly, rotten-feeling sick. s.e.x will not make it better. So stop. You are a pain in the b.u.t.t!''

"Oh, all right, I'll leave off. You two can continue with your sweet, platonic, totally boring relationship. I won't torture you anymore."

"Promise?"

"No, but let's get going anyway."

The station wasn't far. They walked the distance easily.

Jade had known that she wouldn't find Rick at the station. She was glad to hear that he had phoned in and reported that he was really ill and was going to sleep all day.

"He's got an awful flu bug," the desk sergeant told her.

"I know. I'm going to make him go to the doctor if he isn't better by tomorrow. Would you mind giving Gavin a ring for me, though? I need to see him."

"Sure thing."

Gavin Newton was one of Rick's best friends. Squat and a bit chubby, he had an amazingly cherubic face and a slow, laid-back nature, which, Rick had told Jade, made him an exceptional Homicide cop-people said things to Gavin. He could draw a suspect's trust, and he could encourage the most reticent witness to talk. He was also a very nice guy, a truly concerned citizen, and nothing in the horror of the job had made him insensitive to the fears, cares, and concerns of others as individuals. He greeted Jade warmly, welcomed Shanna, then stared at Jade again, sighing. "Come on back to my desk," he told them. "It was your guy, all right. I sent for information yesterday that was wired back to me, but if you take a look at most any of the papers floating around the country, you'd know that anyway now. Let's see.... Here's the fax on Hugh Riley."

He handed Jade a piece of paper. She scanned the information. It gave his name, height, weight, eye and hair color, and age. Apparently, when he'd left Scotland, he'd transferred schools. Then he'd signed up for a new fraternity.

The fraternity didn't demand any illegal or immoral offerings from its pledges-no beer guzzling, beatings, eating bizarre substances, no stealing the school mascot or trophies, and no flying underwear from the flagpole- but on the last night of pledging, the pledges were to tell ghost stories at the cemetery just outside the city. And in the dark of night... That was when the murders had occurred. "At midnight," Jade said under her breath. "Now, Jade ...," Gavin said softly. "Gavin, it's exactly the same as what happened in Scotland."

"Jade, if there are real similarities, the FBI will be calling on you."

She gazed at him sharply. "They'll definitely be called in on it." He shifted the papers on his desk, selecting one of the national dailies.

"You're not the only one who remembers what happened in Scotland. This reporter comments on the fact that Hugh Riley had survived such an attack in Edinburgh, only to die in New York." Jade met his eyes, then quickly scanned the article.

"See?" she said to Shanna. "Well, I might be able to see-if you'd just let me have the paper." Jade let go of the paper. Her sister quickly read the article.

Shanna stared at Gavin. "So what do think? Is it the same people?"

"Maybe," Gavin admitted.

"And maybe there's a major new cult at work in the world as we know it." They heard the deep, rusty voice of Al Harding, Gavin's partner, as he strode to his desk, which ab.u.t.ted Gavin's. Just as Gavin was short, squat, and round, Al was tall and as thin as a string bean. He was usually dry and quiet, standing back, listening, while Gavin did the talking. The Homicide detectives in the parish customarily worked in threes, two officers and a sergeant. Sergeant Bill Marceau usually worked with the pair, but he'd been out for some time after bypa.s.s surgery. With the department short, the two were still working without him.

"Don't you fear, little lady," Al Harding continued. "This is the United States of America. New York has top-notch, crack detectives.

They'll comb that cemetery for every sc.r.a.p of evidence, and mark my word-they'll get the psychos!"

Jade liked Al, but she felt she had to reply to him, "With all due respect to the New York police and the fine work of American agents, the Brits from Scotland Yard were no fools-they combed every inch of that cemetery as well. They found nothing."

"Still, this is America."

"G.o.d bless the Red, White, and Blue!" Shanna breathed softly.

Jade kicked her lightly in the shin. "I wonder if I should call someone," Jade said. "Maybe I could help."

"And maybe you could just relive a nightmare," Shanna said. "And maybe the media will get hold of your name again, and if it is a major cult and someone is after you, you might just put yourself into greater danger."

"I'll talk to someone on the case, quietly and discreetly," Gavin told her. "And I'll make sure that if any agents or officers do want to talk to you, they'll be quiet about it. How's that?"

"That sounds good. Thanks, Gavin." Al cleared his throat suddenly.

"Jade, from what I've read, and from what I heard from you ..." His voice trailed; he inhaled and tried again. "You talked about the man who disappeared, the one who saved you, and about the way people came from coffins to attack you all. Well, I mean, I just hope you realize ..."

"Yes?" she said.

"They were just sick people. Really sick people."

"Of course."

"I mean," he said, and his face turned red, "well, I heard you kind of went on and on about... about..."

"Vampires?" Shanna suggested sweetly.

"Yeah," Al said. "Well, you know," he went on impatiently, "you can't go to the FBI talking all crazy like that."

"Maybe there are vampires, Al."

They were interrupted again by another officer entering the homicide room. He was a tall, dark-haired, good-looking man who wore Dockers and a casual buff suede sports jacket. Shanna took note, straightening immediately, instinctively smoothing back her hair. The newcomer nodded to them both. "Ah, come on, Lieutenant Canady, just because of those old murders-"

"Al, excuse me," he said. He walked over to Jade, smiling, reaching out a hand. "Sean Canady. How do you do? If you're dealing with a cult, it may well be with people who really think they're vampires. And the human mind is a terribly strong thing to mess with-really bad things can happen when the mind wills it should be so. Not many people are going to believe you've come across a real cult of vampires.

But I can promise you, if you know anything, if you think anything, if you remember anything-I'll be more than happy to listen to you."

"Thanks, thanks very much," Jade told him.

Shanna stepped forward. "She's Jade MacGregor."

"I know," he said quietly.

"You know?" Jade said.

"I saw some of the news articles after the murders in Scotland last year."

"Oh," she murmured uncomfortably. But he was staring straight at her, his eyes steady-and kind. He didn't seem to think she was a lunatic-or a dope addict. "I'm her sister, Shanna."

He smiled, a nice, slow, curve of a smile. "Shanna, Jade, nice to meet you. If these clowns are making fun of you, call me. I'll listen."

"I wasn't making fun of her," Al protested.

"See that you don't," Sean said. He hesitated, looking at Jade. "I saw Hugh Riley was among the people killed in New York."

"And you remembered his name from the articles about the murders in Scotland?" Gavin said. "Yep."

"Murders every day, around the world, and you notice the names of the survivors from a ma.s.sacre in Scotland?" Shanna said suspiciously.

"I'm a detective," he told them with a shrug. But he was watching Jade, and she saw something very serious in his eyes.

"And he's a good one," Al admitted grudgingly. "They a.s.sign you to the kid?" he inquired.

Sean nodded, his eyes still on Jade. "There will be a task force, I've been told. Jade, Shanna, nice to meet you. If there's anything at all that I can do, let me know."

They thanked him. He walked away, leaving the room. Jade thought that it seemed-oddly enough-that he had come just to meet them.

Shanna exhaled. "There goes some good-looking testosterone."

"He's married," Al told her.

"He would be," Shanna murmured with a fatalistic shrug.