by Preston, Ken
‘Well, as you can see I’m back to full health, although I’m never going to be able to compete in the one hundred metre sprint again.’
‘Shut up, Archer, you know where I’m going with this. You should have been dead that night. Once Michael got free he should have ripped you apart, but he didn’t. Why not?’
Archer said nothing, turned his head and stared at the canal water again.
‘What happened, Detective?’
‘What the fuck do you care, Coffin? He’s out there somewhere, isn’t he? Him and his mother, and they’re monsters, both of them.’
‘What happened?’
‘You’re right, the kid should have ripped me to shreds and bled me dry.’ Archer took a deep, ragged breath. ‘He was all over me, I thought I was dead meat. It was that bloody sword you brought with you. Fuck knows where you found that, but you left it on the barge.’
Coffin waited whilst Archer paused, maybe thinking about what he was going to say next. Coffin had a good idea what it might be.
‘I had to defend myself with something.’ Archer stared at Coffin, suddenly defiant. ‘He was like a wild animal, hell he was worse than a wild animal. He would have killed me.’
‘What did he do when you attacked him? Run?’
‘No. He wouldn’t let up. I had to defend myself, you understand that, don’t you?’
‘And?’
‘And I kept on hacking at him with the sword until he stopped attacking me. Bloody hell Coffin, what do you want from me? I thought I’d killed a little kid, your kid.’
‘But he wasn’t there when I got back to you.’
‘No. I shoved his body over the edge of the boat, into the water. I didn’t know what to do, how could I tell anyone what I’d just done?’
‘Did you tell anyone?
‘No, just Emma.’
Coffin ground his teeth together at the mention of Emma. Another betrayal from her. Maybe he needed to have a chat with her, find out what else she had been keeping from him.
‘So, that’s it,’ Archer said. ‘What now? Are you going to go all mental on me and bash my head in? Maybe shove one of those stakes through my chest?’
‘No,’ Coffin said. ‘Once maybe, but not today. Things have changed. When I find Michael I’m going to kill him myself.’
Coffin heard Archer suck in his breath. ‘Your own kid?’
‘He’s not my son anymore.’
‘I guess not. Is that it then? Are we done?’
‘No, not quite. This is the last time we meet, Detective. I’m done being your lackey.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Yeah, that’s right. We’re done.’
‘Your fan club’s going to be disappointed.’
‘Yeah, well, my fan club will get over it.’
‘I thought you’d enjoy being a celebrity, Coffin. Big vampire killer, the hero for once instead of the villain. Did you know you’ve got Facebook groups dedicated to you?’
‘Do I look like I waste my time on Facebook?’
‘I suppose not,’ Archer said. ‘Seems a shame though, especially when we’ve still got a vampire problem.’
‘Yeah, well, I’ll deal with them in my own way.’
Coffin turned to move off, but Archer stopped him.
‘What’s going on? The celebrity life cramping your style? I heard Piers Morgan wanted an interview.’
‘I had my agent turn him down,’ Coffin said.
‘You got an agent now?’ Archer said.
Coffin sighed. ‘No.’
‘Oh right, it was a joke.’ Archer chuckled. ‘Well, I can see how your association with the police and your profile as vampire slaying hero of the day might make your main career choice a little more difficult to carry out. Put you on the front page of the Sun and the Mirror and you’re the working man’s hero, right? The Daily Mail loves to follow your love life whilst starting petitions to close down Angels, and the Guardian and the Times are in a race to write the definitive history of the Slaughterhouse Mob. That one’s pissing Emma off, as that was her baby. But your problem?’ Archer paused, eyeing Coffin uneasily. ‘Your problem is the publicity itself, am I right?’
Coffin said nothing, waited to see where Archer was going with this.
‘You agreed to help us with the vampires and we agreed to maybe turn a blind eye to some of your less legitimate dealings. Problem is, neither of us predicted how much of a public figure you would become. Everyone loves you, Coffin. Except those that don’t, and they hate you. Problem is, whether they love you or hate you, everybody’s watching you.’
‘Goodbye, Archer,’ Coffin said, and moved to turn away.
‘Hey, Coffin, talking about people watching you, you been on holiday recently?’
‘What are you talking about, Detective?’
‘Oh, just making small talk, that’s all. Somebody said to me, said they thought they might have seen you up in Scotland, the highlands. You been to Scotland recently, Coffin? Like maybe yesterday? You’re looking a little tired to me, like you just got back from several hours sitting in a car on the M6.’
‘What do you think, Archer? After all, you’re the detective.’
‘Yeah, that’s right, and you’re a cold-blooded killer.’
Coffin turned his back on Archer once more and began walking away.
‘Not according to the law, I’m not,’ he said.
‘Don’t forget, Coffin, you’re a celebrity now, everybody’s watching you,’ Archer shouted.
Coffin walked back down the canal towpath, the torch picking out his way in the darkness. Archer was lying, the only people who had seen Coffin in Scotland were dead. So what was he doing, fishing for information like that?
Coffin saw the kid, Stronach’s boy, lying on the floor, his body ripped apart by bullets. Dismissed the thought, pushed it away.
A bat darted by, its wings almost brushing Coffin’s head.
Movement up ahead in the darkness.
Coffin lifted his torch as a figure appeared from the darkness.
‘Hey,’ Leola said, ‘put that torch down, will you?’
Coffin lowered the torch.
More fluttering of wings, a dark shape shooting past.
Leola approached Coffin slowly. Despite the chill of the evening she was wearing nothing more than a thin, short summer dress. Coffin played the torchlight across her body, the beam illuminating the spidery tattoos crawling across her dark skin, over her shoulders and arms, down the top of her breasts before they disappeared beneath the fabric of her dress.
Coffin had seen those tattoos, examined them closely many times now. Most of them were indescribable patterns repeated across her flesh but some, when stared at intently, metamorphosed into words. Not words he understood, but that hadn’t stopped him once trying to speak them out loud to feel the shape of them in his mouth, to hear them said.
Leola had placed her hand over his mouth and told him to shush. These words have a terrible power, she had said. They must never be spoken aloud.
‘What are you doing out here?’ Coffin said. He had to duck as another bat darted by, alarmingly close to his head.
‘Looking for you,’ Leola said.
Coffin grunted. ‘Well, you found me.’
A small, dark shadow twisted and turned over Leola’s head.
‘Watch out,’ Coffin said. ‘You’ve got a bat hovering over your head.’
Leola smiled.
The bat landed on her naked shoulder as a second one deposited itself in her hair.
A moment later and they both took off, disappearing into the dark sky and the shadows by the canal.
Coffin watched wordlessly as more bats fluttered out of the shadows and landed on Leola before taking off again. Some of them flittered around over head as though they were confused.
Leola lifted her face to the sky and watched the bats. There were more of them on the opposite side of the canal, hovering in a dark cloud over the stunted trees and bushes.
�
�What’s going on?’ Coffin said. ‘Are they friends of yours?’
‘I don’t know,’ Leola said, her face still upturned.
‘Can’t you ask them or something?’ Coffin said.
‘You’ve watched too many stupid vampire movies,’ Leola said.
Coffin grunted. ‘I suppose that’s a no, then.’
‘Not quite,’ Leola said.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? You can either talk with them or you can’t, right?’
‘It’s complicated.’
‘That’s your answer to every question I ask,’ Coffin said. ‘It’s like you think I have trouble understanding anything.’
Leola looked up at the morning sky, still dark but showing faint signs of the dawn. The bats darted to and fro, seemingly in random directions but never going far from Leola.
‘You said you were looking for me,’ Coffin said.
‘I was bored,’ Leola said, lowering her gaze to look at Coffin once more. ‘I wondered where you were, thought you might like some company.’
Coffin grunted. ‘Company,’ he said. ‘Right.’
‘I thought we could go hunting,’ Leola said.
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah,’ Leola said, mimicking Coffin. ‘We’ve still got two more vampires to dig up, remember? Maybe we could go visit Emma, get the addresses off her.’
Coffin had to duck again as a bat dive bombed him. ‘Are these things dangerous?’
Leola laughed. ‘No, they’re just playing with you. Come on, what do you say, about digging up the vampires? That’ll be all of them gone then.’
‘Apart from Steffanie and Michael.’
‘We’ll find them too.’
Coffin scrubbed at his face. ‘No, I’m tired. I’m going back to the club, get some sleep.’
‘Maybe I’ll go visit Emma, get the addresses myself.’
‘No,’ Coffin said. ‘You stay away from her. I’m having nothing to do with that woman.’
‘Joe, you’ve got to—’
Leola yelped and smacked something off her shoulder.
‘What?’ Coffin said, stepping up closer to Leola.
‘The bat, it bit me,’ she said.
There were two tiny wounds on Leola’s shoulder, two puncture marks filling with blood.
‘You ever known a bat to do that before?’
Leola looked up at Coffin, her eyes round and questioning.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Never.’
where's lover boy?
Was she crying?
Emma held her breath, listening. The house was silent.
No, she was asleep still.
Emma kept listening. She could hear him breathing beside her in the bed, that slight noise in his throat that was almost a snore, but not quite. Apart from that the house was silent.
Maybe too silent.
Emma scolded herself. She knew the thought that came next.
Her baby was dead.
Emma knew that wasn’t true. She knew there was no need for her to get out of bed and go check on her baby. And she knew that if she did, she would find Louisa May sleeping in her cot.
Emma knew all these things, but she pulled the duvet back and climbed out of bed anyway.
A muffled snort, a grunt and movement beneath the duvet.
‘Wha . . . what’s happening?’
‘Shush,’ Emma whispered, placing her hand softly on his shoulder. ‘Go back to sleep, it’s fine.’
Emma padded barefoot out of the bedroom and across the landing, into the nursery. As she stepped through the door, she reached behind her and switched the landing light on, to give her a little light in the bedroom. She stood beside the cot.
Louisa May lay on her front, head turned to one side, sleeping peacefully. Emma leaned over the cot and caressed her baby’s cheek with her fingertips. Louisa May’s cheek was soft, almost downy to the touch. Except that one tiny patch of rough skin, that last remaining bit of eczema that stubbornly refused to disappear no matter how often Emma used the cream on it.
Maybe she should take her back to see the doctor again. But it seemed so silly, for such a tiny patch of rough skin.
Emma leaned into the cot and gently kissed Louisa May on the cheek.
She walked softly back into her bedroom, turning the landing light off as she went.
As she got back into bed, Mitch rolled over to face her.
‘Everything all right?’ he said.
‘Fine,’ Emma said, snuggling down beside him. ‘I’m just being an old mother hen, worrying over nothing. I swear I’m turning into my mother.’
‘What’s the time?’
Emma twisted around to look at her bedside clock. ‘Ten past six.’
‘Thank God for that,’ Mitch said. ‘That means it’ll be light soon.’
Emma sat up when she heard the knocking at her front door.
Mitch scrubbed his face with his hands. ‘Who the hell is that?’
Emma climbed out of bed again and pulled on a dressing gown. ‘I’ll go find out, I don’t want whoever it is waking up Lou.’
Emma padded quickly down the stairs, hoping to get to the front door before the caller knocked on the door again. At least whoever it was hadn’t used the doorbell.
She unlocked the door and pulled it open a crack.
‘Good morning,’ Archer said. ‘May I come in or do I have to show you my warrant card?’
‘Fuck!’ Emma hissed. ‘What the hell are you doing here at this time of the morning?’
‘And it’s nice to see you too, Emma,’ Archer said. ‘And may I just remind you that I still have a key and could have simply let myself in?’
Emma swung the door open. ‘All right, come in, but be quiet, Lou’s sleeping.’
Archer stepped inside and took a deep breath in. ‘Ah, the sweet smell of home, just a pity it’s not my home anymore.’
‘If you just came round to make snide comments, you might as well leave again,’ Emma said.
Archer headed for the kitchen. ‘You want coffee?’
Emma bit back a smart reply. She didn’t want to get into an argument, especially with Mitch around.
‘Yeah, why not? I’m up now, I might as well stay up.’
Emma joined Archer in the kitchen, at the coffee machine.
‘Where’s lover boy?’ Archer said. ‘Is he here?’
‘Oh well done, Nick Archer,’ Emma snapped. ‘Forget your daughter, the first person you ask after is Mitch. How very mature of you.’
Archer didn’t miss a beat as he prepared the coffee machine. ‘It’s because I’m thinking of Louisa May that I’m asking if lover boy is here. You know what I said, I don’t want him anywhere near my daughter. I’d rather he wasn’t anywhere near you either, but it seems I don’t get much say in that.’
‘Too right you don’t, I’ll see who the hell I want and when I want.’
The coffee machine began hissing and spitting. Archer turned to face Emma.
‘You still haven’t answered my question. Is lover boy here?’
‘No,’ Emma said. ‘Happy now?’
Archer folded his arms and stared at Emma. ‘Not particularly, no. You’re probably lying, but I’ll leave that for now, I can always have a look around before I leave.’
‘The fuck you will!’ Emma said.
‘Don’t forget, I still own this house as much as you do. I only agreed to move out for Louisa’s sake. I can’t have my own daughter being homeless.’
‘Don’t worry about us, Detective, I can always move us in with my mother.’
Archer snorted. ‘Right, sure, I can see that happening.’
Emma’s mouth twitched into a reluctant smile. ‘I suppose.’
‘Is Lou awake?’
‘No, she’s still asleep. She’s been having a few bad nights with this eczema, so I want to let her sleep in this morning.’
‘Don’t worry, I wasn’t suggesting we go upstairs and wake her up.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
‘Is the eczema getting better?’
‘Mostly cleared up, just one stubborn patch left. Is this coffee ready yet?’
Archer turned back to the coffee machine. ‘Yeah, you go sit down and I’ll bring it over.’
Emma sat down at the kitchen table. She propped her elbows on the table top and put her chin in her hands. All of a sudden she felt exhausted. It was as though she hadn’t had a sleep in days.
Archer put the coffee mugs on the table and sat down opposite Emma.
‘What the hell are you doing here so early, anyway?’ she said.
‘I had to meet up with your friend and mine Joe Coffin, and for some reason he wanted to meet at some ungodly hour on the canal all so he could tell me our special relationship is now over. Why he couldn’t have broken up with me over the phone like all my other girlfriends I don’t know.’
‘And so you thought you would come round here and wake us up?’
‘Us?’
‘Me and Louisa.’
‘You sure that’s who you meant?’
‘Oh for fuck’s sake, will you just leave it alone?’
‘You’re like a little child, Emma, I know you’re lying.’
Emma took a sip of her coffee. It was hot.
‘Anyway, afterwards I followed him along the towpath and saw him meet up with that weird girlfriend of his.’
‘Leola?’
‘That’s the one. You know much about her?’
Emma shrugged. ‘Not really. I met her a couple of times. You know she’s a vampire, don’t you?’
‘Yeah.’ Archer drank some coffee, put the mug back down. ‘But she’s in control of her blood sucking impulses, right? Remind me how that works again.’
‘I don’t really know. She’s big on religion, seems to think she can control herself through the power of Jesus Christ. And she’s covered in tattoos which I think have something to do with it too. Whatever it is, it works because I’ve seen her wandering around in broad daylight and it has no effect on her at all.’
‘Maybe your mother’s right after all and we should all go back to church and repent of our sins.’
‘No, I think I’d rather not.’
‘Thing is, we’ve been doing some checking up on her and found out she runs some kind of business in the USA organising sex parties. Can you believe it?’