"Let's talk like this," she said. "Sunrise in less than ten minutes. Thanks to you, I haven't got much time."
Well, if you'd let me know you were out here… I kept the thought to myself. There was no point in getting into one of our arguments now – not with dawn so close.
I remembered that Karl was standing a few yards to my right. "It's okay," I said. "Go on home, get some sleep. I'll see you about 1:00, okay?"
"Is this your partner, Daddy?" Christine asked. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" I saw a glimmer of white in what could have been a smile.
Without voicing the sigh that I felt, I said, "Karl, meet my daughter, Christine, who you've heard me talk about. Christine, this is Karl Renfer."
I saw Karl nod. "Hiya. Hard to shake hands through the fence, but, anyway – hi."
"He's told you about me? The vamp daughter?"
"Yeah, he has," Karl said in a neutral voice.
"And did he tell you how I came to join the ranks of the bloodsucking undead?"
"Christine," I said, "there's no fucking time-"
Karl spoke over me. "Yeah, he did. And he told me why, too. He couldn't stand to watch you die, because he loves you so much."
I thought I heard Christine draw in a breath, but I must have imagined it, since she doesn't need to breathe. She looked at me a moment, then turned back to Karl. "Then why doesn't he-"
"Christine!" It was the voice I'd used to show I was serious, back when she was… human. "Unless you want to find out the hard way what sunlight does to vampires, you better say what you came for, and quick."
When she spoke again, her voice was emotionless. "Okay, then, I will. There's a rumor that you killed another vampire. Ran him down with your car, like a dog in the street."
"And you believed that bullshit?" I said.
"No, I didn't. That's why I'm here. Wanna tell me what happened?"
What the hell, it can't do any harm. And I'd rather not have every vamp in town looking for a piece of me. Not now.
Being as concise as possible, I ran it down for her. When I'd finished, Karl said, "For whatever it's worth, I know he's telling the truth. I was there."
I saw Christine nod at Karl. "I know. I believe him."
The fact that I could see her better meant it was getting lighter out. False dawn, probably, with the real thing not far behind.
"I'll put the word out," she said to me. "I had noticed the unmarked car at the end of the lot with a huge dent in the roof, but it's nice to hear it from the source."
"Good," I said. "I'm glad you don't just have to take my word for it." Sarcasm was slipping out, and I reined it in, hard. "One thing before you go: a guy who would know says that the only one who could pull off this spell would be a vamp, uh, vampire who is also a wizard. You hear of anybody like that?"
After a moment she said, "Mr Vollman, of course."
"Yeah, him I know. Questions is: can you think of anybody else?
"The vamp community seems to thrive on rumors as much as we do on blood," she said. "I did hear something about a guy new in town who plays for both teams, but I didn't pay it any mind."
"Did you maybe hear where he spends the day?"
"Well, one chick told – oh, shit!"
Thin smoke had started to rise off her head and shoulders. I could see it clarly in the growing light.
"Get out of here! Go!" I shouted.
She turned and ran, shouting over her shoulder, "Tonight, sunset, right here!"
A second later, she was out of sight.
• • • •
I went home. What else was I gonna do? I ate, showered, and got into bed. Despite being exhausted, I didn't get a lot of rest. My mind was like a madhouse in an earthquake – each inmate demanding my attention – Karl, McGuire, the IA clowns, Prescott, Rachel, the witchfinders – and Christine. Especially Christine.
Had she made it back to her resting place, before the sun turned her into a screaming torch? I'd had the police radio in the car on while driving home, and there'd been no reports of unexplained combustion anywhere. She was okay. Probably.
But what if she had stayed a minute longer this morning? Would she have burned, while I stood helpless behind the chain link fence and watched? Would her screams be echoing inside my head right this second? Is that why I saved her from leukemia – so she could die like that today, or tomorrow, or next week?
I guess I've spent worse mornings trying to sleep. But not recently.
After a while I got up. I changed the sweaty bedding, did a load of laundry, and cleaned Quincey's cage. As I did that last chore, I told him about the latest developments in the case. Quincey doesn't say much, but he's a good listener. And sometimes it's good to talk about stuff out loud – helps me organize my thoughts, and lets some of the psychological pressure off. And I know I can trust Quincey to keep it to himself. As a reward for letting me bounce some of that stuff off him, I put some raisins in his bowl along with the food pellets. He really likes raisins.
Around noon, I made some scrambled eggs. I wasn't hungry, but I didn't want low blood sugar making me slow and stupid later on. I'd been slow and stupid enough already.
I left for work about 12:45, and I was two blocks from headquarters when I noticed the woman standing on the corner. She drew my eye because she wasn't staring across the street at the crossing light, like people usually do. She was turned sideways, looking into the oncoming traffic stream, which included me.
Driving a familiar route doesn't require a lot of concentration. I was thinking about the case, but a tiny part of my mind whispered, "Hey, I know her."
Which was of no particular importance, but it aroused my curiosity. I focused my attention on the woman and suddenly realized that I was looking at Rachel Proctor.
I hit the brakes, which meant that the blue SUV behind me damn near ended up in my trunk. The driver stopped in time, but his blaring horn was designed to show me he wasn't too happy about it all.
All of that registered dimly, like a voice you hear from three rooms away. I was focused on Rachel.
She locked eyes with me and nodded, once. Then she turned and walked away.
Rachel had gone down a side street, so I put on my turn signal and waited for the traffic flow to take me to the corner. I've got a portable flashing red light that I could have put on the roof – that would have allowed me to cut around, as well as shutting up the honking, bird-flipping idiot behind me, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself, or to Rachel.
I finally made the turn, and saw Rachel a couple of hundred feet ahead, walking along at a good clip. I came up alongside her and tapped the horn, but she ignored me. I was looking for a parking space when she turned into the big parking garage that serves that part of the city. At least that solved my prom of what to do with the car.
I had to stop and get a ticket – even a badge won't impress an automated gate – and by the time I was inside I'd lost sight of her. I cruised the ground level slowly, my eyes darting everywhere. No Rachel.
Nothing to do but go up. Second level – nothing. Third level – nada.
Only one more place to go.