J Duncan - Deadworld

Laurel shrugged. “Maybe, but if I were to guess, I’d say no. He hasn’t been very forthcoming on his side of things, but we got Shelby Fontaine to share some information with us that sheds some light on this case.”

“If it’s true,” Jackie added.

“Yes,” she said. “It’s a pretty big ‘if’ to swallow.”

Belgerman motioned for her to continue. “No suspense, please. Just tell me, Laurel. I’ve heard this kind of stuff from you before, so as weird as it may be, I trust your opinion on anything that smacks of otherworldly.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said, smiling. “But this is beyond even what I’ve encountered or know about. Our killer does indeed seem to be some sort of vampire who draws blood from his victims to sustain his life, and for what else, we have no idea. He is killing in retribution for the death of his wife and son at the hands of Nick Anderson.”

“So, the stories Hauser dug up?”

“We think they are true, sir.”

“So, Nick Anderson and Shelby Fontaine?”

Laurel winced at her own reply. “Vampires, too, sir.”

“Lovely. Can we keep this out of the papers? It’ll be a fucking circus if it gets out that we’re after a real vampire.”

“Yes, sir,” Jackie said. “I have every intention of doing just that.”

“Good,” he said, standing up and patting her on the shoulder. “’Cause if it leaks, you are the spokesperson on this one.”

“You’re too kind,” Jackie said. “We’ll keep it quiet. I just hope the rest of the team can, once this comes up.”

“They have no choice,” Belgerman said. “See if Anderson will come in tomorrow, and let’s see what he has to say. The rumors flying around this case are giving me a migraine. I want everyone informed.”

“Sir, he wants us as far away from him as possible.”

“Then find a way to convince him, Jack. You’re good at that sort of thing.” He got up and walked to the door. “We need a way to track this thing down. Right now we’re just driving in circles waiting for him to kill someone again.”

“We realize, sir.” He was clearly frustrated. John Belgerman didn’t take to being clueless very well. “I’ll convince him to come in, one way or another.”

“We’ll change the task-force meeting until after lunch, two PM. Gives you a little more time. If you have to, bring Anderson in on suspicion. I don’t care how weak it is.” Belgerman gave them a curt nod and closed the door.

Jackie cleared her throat. “Well, that went fairly well, all things considered.”

“Think you can actually get Nick to come in?”

She shrugged. “If not, we’ll get Fontaine down here. She likes to talk. I’m not sure Anderson will say much if I force him to come down here.”

“I’ll talk to her in the morning and let her know,” Laurel said, sounding more cavalier than she needed to.

Jackie bit off her reply. “Get that card down to Hauser, and let’s go get food. Any luck, maybe Nick and Shelby will find that damn light in the fog, and we can get some traction on this psycho.”

Burgers and chili fries were the highlight of the evening. Jackie was watching the White Sox lose, and Nick did not answer his phone, so she could only leave a message. If he refused to call back, she would ring him first thing in the morning. Shelby thankfully agreed to come around whether Nick did or not, and agreed in such a way as to make Laurel blush.

Jackie dragged the last of her fries through the dregs of chili in the basket. “This is going to be a lot of fun, you know.”

“Shut up.” Laurel reached for her soda and nearly knocked it over. “I deserve a break.”

“You do,” Jackie agreed with a grin. “Still going to be fun as hell. I never get to give you shit over anything.”

“And there’s nothing to give me shit over.” She took a long gulp from her glass. “Not yet.”

Jackie laughed. “Will be if Shelby has anything to say on it. I don’t think she’s the sort to have patience when it comes to something she wants.” Jackie pointed her half-chewed fry at Laurel. “And did you see that bed? Right out of a fucking movie.”

The pink in Laurel’s cheeks turned crimson. “Fuck you. I hate you.”

Jackie popped the last fry into her mouth and giggled. “So much fun.”

A phone-call update from Gamble indicated nothing new. Nick and Shelby were still combing the same general area of town, but with no leads of their own, all the FBI could do was follow. The geeks apparently had come up with nothing recent on Drake.

“So what do we do now?” Laurel wondered.

“Wait,” Jackie replied. “Drake needs to make a move. We’re just grasping at straws.”

“It’s almost nine now.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll take you home. I’m going to go through everything for the task-force meeting tomorrow. Maybe someone will have a brilliant idea.”

“He might take someone tonight.”

Jackie grabbed her leather coat. “And unless we hear from our local vampires, there won’t be a damn thing we can do about it.”

In the dark hours of the morning, Jackie’s phone brought her out of a bathtub full of blood, where two boys continuously dipped their hands into the thick liquid and insisted she drink.

“Do you want to live forever?” they asked in droning unison over and over.

In the doorway, her mother stared in blank-eyed silence, slashed wrists dripping into a dark red stain at her feet.

Jackie sat up in bed, kicking at the covers, and Bickerstaff complained with a disgruntled meow, jumping down to floor with a thud. The glowing numbers on her bedside clock read 4:12 AM.

“Jesus fucking…” Jackie grabbed the phone off its stand. The readout told her it was Laurel. “Hey.”

“Sorry, Jackie,” she said in a hushed voice. “I’ve got a little visitor here right now.”

She sat bolt upright, panic gripping her gut. “What? You okay?”

“Shhh. It’s okay. It’s the good sort,” Laurel said.

Sleep was depriving Jackie’s brain of coherent thought. “Good sort of what? What are you talking about?”

“There’s a presence here in my room. Right now.”

Presence. Goddamn ghosts. “Why are you calling me at this horrid hour then?”

“You remember the tarot card I gave to Hauser before we left last night?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“It’s sitting here on my desk.” Her voice was filled with quiet awe and something darker. Fear?

Jackie thought of the mysterious, vanishing penny. “You sure it’s the same one?”

“Of course!” She was irritated. “It turned up in my tarot deck.”

The fog still shrouded Jackie’s brain. “You’re losing me.”

“I was doing a reading for myself,” she replied. “I couldn’t sleep. I shuffled my deck, and it was the first card I turned up.”

Okay. Weird, but given what had been going on, Jackie no longer found it out of the ordinary. “This couldn’t wait until morning?”

“It keeps turning up as the top card, Jackie. The inverted empress. I’ve shuffled this deck a dozen times now, and it’s the first card every time. Always inverted.”

“Why is that important?”

“It can mean impending danger, possible death.”

Some things Jackie could just give no credence to, and tarot reading was one of them. “Give me the punch line, Laur. I’m too tired to think.”

“It’s a message, Jackie. Someone is trying to tell me we’re in serious trouble.”

Jackie rubbed at her face with her free hand. Was she really up at four AM for this? “We’re always in danger with cases like this. For Christ’s sake, we’re chasing after vampires.”

“I know, but this is serious,” she said, adamant. “The dead don’t talk like this unless it’s very important.”