James Moore - Blood Red

“What? You’re getting my second burger to go?”

“Touch that burger, Danny Boy, and I’ll bust your head open.”

Danny waved until Sally looked his way. Ben looked over, too, and the girl next to him smiled tentatively. Sally walked over and put her hands on her hips. “What?”

“Sally? If I make Boyd give you a good tip, can I have another burger, and maybe they could both be to go?” He was putting on his pretty-boy pouty face with the big baby eyes. Sally fell for it the same as all the women did.

“Sure, hon. But I’m not letting you off the hook for crappy tips, either. I dug into trash for you boys.”

“But, Boyd loves you…”

“Yeah, love like that I can get on the radio.” Boyd wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but he laughed anyway. Five minutes later Sally put the burgers in a bag and handed Danny the check. Danny put down enough cash to pay for five times that much food. Seeing as she only charged them for around half of their orders, she earned a fat tip now and then.

On their way out, Boyd smiled at Ben and stopped. “How’s things, Ben?” He noticed the bruises on the kid’s face, but most of his attention was stuck in his peripheral vision, where the girl was sitting and watching him. Danny didn’t even pretend to notice Ben. He was almost drooling.

“Good, Officer Boyd. How did things go with our mutual acquaintance?”

“Which one? Tommy or Freemont?”

“Freemont.”

“He’s out on bail for now. But not for long. Waiting for a few test results to come in.”

“Do you think he’ll go away?”

“Oh, hell yeah, kid. He’s already gone, he just don’t know it.”

“Good.” It dawned on him that the girl might be a material witness in the case. He made a note to ask Ben. He’d wait until the kid was alone, however, just in case something had happened to her that would be embarrassing. He wasn’t into embarrassing kids like Ben or their dates. Christ knew he probably didn’t get out that much.

“Funny thing happened to Tommy.”

Both Ben and the girl looked ready to rabbit when he mentioned the name. Danny noticed it too.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. He wound up dead. He also wound up with his bank accounts drained.”

Ben was looking a little green, and Boyd smiled at him.

“I don’t think the two are connected or anything like that, and it’s not my case anyway.” Danny snorted and Boyd resisted the urge to hit him over the head with the burger sack. “I just thought it was interesting.”

“I guess it is.”

Boyd leaned in much closer and looked Ben in the eyes long and hard. “If I was the sort of person that would take that sort of money from someone like that, Ben, I think I would make very sure my tracks were covered. Because I can’t promise the detectives on the case will notice anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised by it, either. I know them both. They’re very good. We’ll see you around, Ben. Nice to meet you miss… ?”

The girl with the devastating smile looked his way and gave her name. “I’m Maggie. Ben and I are study buddies.”

“I’m Boyd and this is Danny. He and I are detectives.” He smiled and went on his way.

When they were outside of the diner, Danny looked at him and shook his head. “She look familiar to you?”

“Not really.” He shrugged and kept walking. “Could be I’m used to seeing her in red.”

It was worth the casual act for the stupid look on Danny’s face. “You’re fuckin’ kidding me.”

“No, I am not fucken kidding you. But we already agreed not to discuss red ladies.”

Danny looked back into the diner. His eyes searching until he found the right booth. “Fuck me, Richie. You’re good.”

“Not with O’Neill’s dick, Danny Boy. And I’m better than good.”

“Gotta watch that ego, sunshine.”

“Not in this lifetime.”

“Soulis’s place?”

“Yep. But we’re just gonna watch for now.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Call it a hunch. Something about that girl in there and something about Soulis.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Something about their eyes…”

“Let’s go, Richie. I’m bored.”

“Yeah, now that you ain’t staring at that girl’s tits.”

“Man’s gotta have hobbies, Richie.”

“Man should learn subtlety, Danny Boy.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Alan Tripp was feeling much better after a shower and a meal. So far no one had noticed that he was home. Well, no police cars at least. His closest neighbor, a man he still did not know by name after twelve years, waved when he saw him. Happily, that was after the shower and a set of real clothes.

The shower was wonderful. The meal he barely tasted. Part of him just wanted to get comfortable, but he couldn’t let that happen. So he cleaned the wound on his hand, scrubbing with soap and then rinsing with hydrogen peroxide seemed to take care of any possibility of comfort. The flesh around the wound was angry, red and swollen.

He wrapped it tightly and forgot about it almost as soon as he was done.

He’d planned on getting busy with his weapons, but instead he sat down at his home office and signed onto the Internet. There had to be a few sites about vampires out there.

There were over seven and a half million sites that listed vampires. He sighed and searched through the first fifty or so before his eyes started closing on him.

The sound of glass breaking was what woke him up. It wasn’t a small pane of glass being cracked by a rock; it was more like somebody had swatted at the sliding glass door with a hammer. He’d gone to sleep in front of the computer screen and had rested his weight on both arms. His hands were sound asleep and not at all happy about being awakened.

Groggy and dazed, he listened for any further sounds. At first there was only silence, but he heard the whispers. They were sibilant sounds, not that different from the leaves blowing down the street, but with a pattern hidden inside. Alan stood up and swayed, a bit of the room shifting rudely around him. He hadn’t counted on an infection to begin with, but now it seemed his hand had decided to share the wealth of bacteria with the rest of his body.

Or maybe he’d get lucky and it was just a cold.

Either way, he had to see what was going on; not checking went against everything he believed in. This was his home and he couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing if someone was breaking in. He walked as best he could to the doorway, and leaned against the wall for support.

He listened for the whispers and heard them again. Something about the sound sent shivers across his spine. He listened closer and finally understood what it was. He knew the voices. He couldn’t make out the words, true enough, but he knew the voices.

Meghan was whispering to Avery and he was whispering back.

Hearing them, knowing they were right outside the house and talking, took all of the strength from Alan’s limbs. He made himself slide along the wall until he could look toward the broken window he knew was close by.

Vampires can’t get in unless they’re invited, right? That’s what it says in all the movies. They’ve got to know more than I do. Okay. So how did Avery get in? Damned fool. You invited him.

What else was supposed to work on vampires? He thought fast and hard and finally decided to move into the living room. There, on the end table where she always kept it, was Meghan’s family Bible. The bookmark that held her place in the book was a crucifix on a leather strap. He pulled the book to him and carried it in his left, wounded hand, the bookmark in his right. He felt heat surging through the wound and clenched his teeth.

Avery stood in front of him, trying to coax his mother through the window and having no success.