by Tasha Black
“You should talk to her,” Dru said. “I’ll bet she would hear you out at least.”
Channing took the last pair of binoculars from her box and lifted them to her in a sort of salute before heading out across the meadow, ostensibly in search of Hailey, whom Dru had last seen listening to Howie pontificate about the difference between comets, asteroids, and meteors.
Dru made her way to the front porch to drop off the box. She would finally be able to put her hands in her pockets.
“Hey, do you have any more binoculars?” a deep voice asked.
She nearly jumped out of her shoes.
She noticed a glowing red dot in the darkness in front of the hotel and then realized it was the end of a cigarette.
“Mr. Smith?” she asked.
“Yup,” he replied. “I thought I’d come back here for a smoke break. Doesn’t seem like a smoker-friendly crowd out there.”
He was right about that.
“Sorry, I don’t have any more binoculars,” Dru told him. “But I’ll bet one of the others will share.”
The front door of the hotel burst open and Oscar Hawkins dashed out, looking alarmed.
“Hey, Mr. Hawkins, everything okay?” Dru asked.
He spotted her and his face went slack.
“Don’t worry, you didn’t miss it,” she told him. “I’m out of binoculars but maybe someone will loan you a pair.”
“Oh, I’ve got my equipment,” he said, patting his bag. “I took a nap, and my alarm didn’t go off.”
“Lucky you woke up,” Dru told him.
Oscar nodded and headed for the others.
Dru gave Johnny Smith a little wave and followed Oscar back out to the moonlit meadow.
She looked up at the sky. To save her life, she could not see any evidence that a comet was overhead.
The clouds were getting thicker, and snowflakes were beginning to drift down again.
“There you are,” Viktor said, joining her.
He held out her gloves, and she took them with relief.
“Thank you so much,” she said.
“My pleasure.”
She couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t wearing gloves himself, and the jacket he had on wasn’t even fastened.
The snow was really coming down now. So much for stargazing. Most of the guests began to head back in.
“Maybe we’ll be able to see it better next time it comes around,” Hazel pointed out cheerfully to Zander as they passed.
“Sure, Miss Van Buren,” Zander said politely.
Dru was fairly certain that Hazel and Honey Van Buren would not be around in fifty-seven years to see that comet again. But she smiled at Zander and he winked at her on his way past.
“Who was that?” Viktor asked tersely.
“Oh, that’s just the Van Buren sisters,” she explained. “They basically live at the hotel. But they’re early risers.”
“No,” he said. “The boy.”
“Oh, uh, that’s Zander,” she said. “He works first shift at the front desk. We went to high school together.”
She left out the part where Zander had asked her out, and where she had crushed on him for years. No need to complicate things.
“I don’t think I like the way he looks at you,” Viktor said, his eyes narrowed to indigo slits.
“Oh, we’re friends,” Dru said. “He’s really nice.”
Viktor pressed his lips together.
“I should get back in,” she said. “I’m officially on duty.”
“It’s going to be crowded in there,” he said.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Not usually a lot of excitement around here. This is a real party by our standards.”
They headed around the north wing again.
The snow was falling harder now and faster, driving in with the wind. The side of the hotel had sheltered them while they were chatting, but this was blizzard-like.
“Oh wow,” Dru said, but her voice was drowned out and whipped away by a wall of falling, blowing snow.
They reached the front porch just behind the others. Someone opened the door and golden light poured out as the first few guests went in.
A terrified scream rang out, loud enough to pierce the snowy air and chill Dru more than the cold could ever manage.
21
Dru’s heart pounded and she pushed through the crowd. Something bad had happened, on her watch.
She was sure she had extinguished all the candles in the dining room before heading out to join everyone. What else was there to go wrong?
Viktor’s hand was at the small of her back and he moved with her, the crowd parting slightly for them, as if their hurried pace gave them some kind of authority.
There were whispers and gasps from the guests gathered around the lobby rug.
Dru finally made it through the crowd.
It took her a few seconds to process what she was seeing.
Brian Thompson’s massive, lifeless body lay prone at the center of the carpet.
She turned away, but not before she noticed the gash across his throat, and the lights from the chandelier twinkling like stars in the pool of dark blood that surrounded him.
Viktor’s hand fell away from her waist. His face went slack with shock.
“Please let me through,” Tyler Park called out. “I’m an EMT.”
The crowd parted again, and Tyler moved to squat beside Thompson’s head.
Dru couldn’t bring herself to look, but she assumed he was checking his pulse. Seemed kind of late for that to her, but it was good there was someone here who had the wherewithal to do it.
“It’s too late,” Tyler said quietly.
A sound like a gunshot rang out, followed by a loud, metallic thunk.
She had barely registered the sounds, when the lights went out.
Dru swallowed a scream, but many others didn’t.
One by one, small halos of light appeared as the guests pulled out their cell phones.
“Holy crap, it wasn’t a gunshot,” Hailey said from the darkness near the front window, obviously thinking the same thing Dru had. “It was the old hemlock.”
All that heavy ice must have finally done it in.
Dru heard the front doors open, and everyone crowded out onto the porch.
The snow was blowing so hard now the air was just a sheet of white.
She could just make out the huge tree down across the drive. It had always seemed like a big tree, but she hadn’t appreciated how big until she saw it lying across the driveway. Its length stretched from the center of the front lawn all the way past the south wing of the hotel and out of sight beyond. Even prone, it was nearly as tall as the hotel itself, though half its circumference was flattened by its own weight.
“It must have taken out the lines,” Howie said. “We need the generator on. Where’s Chester?”
“Does anyone have cell service?” Tyler yelled out from his position near the body. “We need to call the police.”
Dru took out her phone, her hand shaking.
But she had no service.
The storm must have taken the cell tower out as well.
She turned to Viktor, craving the comfort of his arms.
But he was pale and trembling, his eyes gazing at something far away, as if he had seen a ghost.
Everything is fine, Dru told herself.
But it was a tough line to swallow.
They had just lost power and all communication with the outside world. And someone at the hotel had been murdered, by someone else who was trapped up here with them.
She was never going to get any writing done now.
***
Thanks for reading the first episode of Heart of the Vampire!
Dru is snowed in with a dead body. No power. No phone. No way in or out.
She’s trapped in a creepy old hotel, with murderer, and the man of her dreams.
And she’s starting to wonder if they might not be the same person.
W
ant to find out it Dru can trust her head, and her heart, long enough to get to the bottom of this mystery?
Then keep reading for a sample of Heart of the Vampire: Episode 2!
Or grab the the next episode now:
https://www.tashablack.com/heartofthevampire.html
Episode 2 (Sample)
1
Dru gazed around the lobby, taking in all the anxious faces.
They were snowed in at Hemlock House, with no way for anyone to come or go.
The power and phone lines were out, the cell tower was down, they were trapped with a group of strangers…
And one of them was a murderer.
The Van Buren sisters hid their faces in Zander’s chest. Poor Hazel and Honey were too old and too sweet to find themselves in this mess.
Zander patted their backs awkwardly, the tension in his jaw giving away his own fears.
Melody Young, the photographer, was similarly patting Mayor Emily Tuck’s back. The mayor herself reminded Dru of a fuller-figured Jackie O, with her startled eyes and Chanel knock-off suit.
Only Oscar Hawkins observed the scene with the same dispassionate expression he always wore. But that wasn’t necessarily suspicious. Birdwatching required extreme patience and a placid nature, and birdwatching was why Oscar had come.
Johnny Smith stood in the corner, stabbing angrily at his phone with his index finger, as if threatening it would bring the cell tower back online. The huge, bald man in the tailored suit looked more frustrated than scared, but in Dru’s experience men like that didn’t like to show their fear. The fury could just be a cover for his real feelings.
Hugh Channing paced back and forth. As an actor and director, he was probably used to chaos, but this was extreme.
Tyler Park still knelt beside the body, looking lost. His EMT skills were of no use to the dead man, but he couldn’t seem to walk away from his patient.
Behind the front desk, Hailey was trying the landline and the computer, but Dru didn’t even have to ask how it was going. The dismayed look on Hailey’s face was clear - all lines of communication with the outside world were down. They were on their own.
A clattering on the stairs drew everyone’s attention.
Hazel Van Buren yelped out in fear and Honey yelped in reaction to that.
Cell phone flashlights strobed onto the stairs to reveal Jeffrey and Jenna Wilder, their clothing pulled on haphazardly, hair mussed as if they had been about to share some private time before chaos descended on Hemlock House.
“What’s going on?” Jenna asked. “Is the power out?”
“Mom, God,” Angie yelled out from the lobby below. “Button your blouse. This is a freaking crime scene.”
“This is a what?” Jeffrey yelled.
“Okay, let’s remain calm, everyone,” Howie yelled out. “I need to go find Chester to turn on the generator. Who’s coming with me?”
No one volunteered.
It suddenly occurred to Dru that until they figured this out, it wasn’t really safe for anyone to be alone with anyone else.
She glanced over at Viktor.
He was standing in the far corner of the lobby, eyes still locked on the swirling snow outside, like the body on the floor was the last thing on his mind.
So much for wanting to be with her always.
“Come on, Zander,” Howie yelled to Dru’s co-worker, clearly too scared to walk back to the groundskeeper’s cottage alone.
Zander let go of the Van Buren sisters, who looked like a pair of frightened sheep without him.
“Tyler, could you help Hazel and Honey to their rooms,” Dru whispered to the handsome EMT.
“What?” he said, looking up as if he didn’t recognize her. “Oh. Oh, sure, yeah.”
He looked almost relieved to have something productive to do.
To their credit, Hazel and Honey went with him passively, trading one good-looking young male protector for another was apparently all in a day’s work for the charming octogenarian pair.
When Dru turned back to the lobby, the door was just closing behind Zander and Howie and a hush had fallen over the room.
“A crime scene,” Hugh Channing said suddenly, his voice ringing out with authority and a slight Southern accent Dru hadn’t noticed before. “The child is right. That’s just what this is.”
In the pale blue glow of her phone, Angie rolled her eyes at being called a child.
“Our first step is to alert the local authorities,” Channing informed them.
“No dice,” Hailey piped up. “It’s all down.”
Channing considered for a moment, then continued.
“In the absence of proper authorities, the responsibility falls to us,” Channing explained. “We will investigate, but we must observe proper protocol at all times.”
Channing strode over to the body.
“Our first job is to scan the scene for danger,” he said. “A man has died. Do not move, but look around you. Does anyone see a weapon or anything else that could cause harm?”
The beams of cell phone flashlights leapt into motion.
After a few minutes it appeared that no one had found anything dangerous on the scene.
“Excellent,” Channing said, clearly gaining confidence. “Next, I will need to record the name of the medical professional who examined the victim. Where is he?”
But Tyler had gone upstairs with the Van Buren sisters.
“I’ll get his info for you from the log,” Dru offered, relieved that someone was taking charge, even if she wasn’t entirely sure he knew what he was doing.
“Very good,” Channing said. “While you take that down, we’ll move on to the next step - apprehending the suspect. Who did this? Was anyone present at the time of the crime?”
Dru heard the whispering as she pulled the paper log from the drawer, grateful for once that Howie made them keep an old fashioned written record.
“No one stepping forward. Unsurprising,” Channing said. “And no witnesses either? Well. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t you worry. The next step is to secure the scene. No one move from where they are right now. We’ll need photographs of everything just as it is. If you see anything out of place near you, call out to me and I’ll come photograph it.”
Dru slipped back out from behind the desk with a note pad and pencil. She had already taken down all of Tyler Park’s info and marked it Medical Professional (EMT).
“Take note of the weather,” Channing advised her. “You can put it on the same note pad.”
He was photographing the body. Each flash of his camera phone illuminated the grisly image of Brian Thompson’s lifeless body, surrounded by a pool of blood.
Dru was grateful to have a reason to turn away and make notes about the snow storm.
The dead man had made unwanted advances on Dru when she was alone in the hotel corridor at night. He was a total creep. But no one deserved to die like that.
“Look at this,” Angie called, shining the light for her phone onto the spatter of blood near the head of the body.
“Interesting,” Channing agreed. “There is a small break in the pattern. That means that there was someone standing right here when the body fell. And that person is likely to have some of the victim’s blood on his shoes.”
“Or hers,” Hailey added from behind the desk.
“Naturally,” Channing added. “Now, if everyone would be so kind as to shine your phone lights on your shoes, we can have a quick look right now.”
There were some glances exchanged, but for the most part, all of the phone lights swung down to highlight the eclectic collection of footwear present. Channing moved from one person to the next, taking enough foot pics to start a fetish site, but not finding any trace of the expected blood. Even Viktor moved from his spot at the window to offer his leather boots for inspection.
But Channing stopped short when he got to Johnny Smith, who still stood off to the side, poking at his phone screen, but making no move to light his
own shoes.
“If you would be so kind, Mr. ..?” Channing said.
“Smith,” the man said flatly, meeting Channing’s gaze, but making no move to comply.
There was a moment when Dru wondered what they would do if people just stopped cooperating. It wasn’t like they had any real authority.
But then Johnny activated the light on his phone and aimed it a the ground near his feet. Channing snapped a pic, but the man’s expensive Italian loafers were spotless.
There was an almost audible sigh of relief from the gathered crowd.
“Now then, do we have any witnesses to suspicious behavior of any kind?” Channing called out. “Did anyone see Mr. Thompson with someone in the last hour or so? If you saw something, by all means say something.”
Dru made a mental note to mention last night’s argument to Channing when things calmed down. It might be important, but it was embarrassing to yell about what you had seen in front of everyone. And after all, it had happened last night, and she hadn’t seen the person he was arguing with.
And then there was the matter of her own encounter with the victim shortly after that. And Viktor’s reaction when he’d come onto the scene. He hadn’t exactly been pleased.
Dru pushed the thoughts aside for now. It wasn’t like either of them was the murderer, so there was no point overthinking it.
“I will remain in charge of this case until the proper authorities can be notified and arrive on the scene,” Channing went on, his Southern accent growing more pronounced. “If you find evidence, or remember something, do not talk with other potential witnesses or suspects. Come straight to me.”
He walked over to Dru. He was clearly playing a part at this point, but it was working so far, so she didn’t see any reason not to play along.
“At this point, we would normally identify a recording officer,” he told her quietly. “But I think I’ve already found one.”
He gave her notepad a significant glance.
“Will you lend your efforts to solving this heinous crime?” he asked.
“Uh, sure,” she said, glancing over at Viktor, who had gone back to staring out the window.