“Just so happens they do. He has a little office attached to the main building over that hill.” She pointed south.
We went down and knocked on the door to the security office. A young man who appeared to be in his early twenties answered the door. He frowned when his eyes met Gretchen’s police uniform. “I’ve already answered all the questions. You need to talk to your associates.”
Gretchen said, “If we could just have a few minutes, please. I’m Lieutenant Meyer, Pittsburgh Police.”
He shook her hand. “Stephen Woolsly.”
“Mike Merlino,” I said, and extended my hand.
He reintroduced himself to me as we shook hands.
The short, dark man begrudgingly let us in to the relatively plain office. I took stock as we entered. A desk and a fake leather chair on wheels. An entire wall was filled with monitors showing security camera footage from around the cemetery. The cameras must’ve been in the trees that I hadn’t noticed outside. The other three walls were empty save for two plastic file holders that hung behind the watchman’s desk.
He gestured for us to sit in the two wooden chairs facing his desk.
I wasted no time. “I assume someone has already talked to you about the security footage?”
He nodded, standing behind his desk chair. “They have.”
I tried to be gentle with him. “Sorry to make you repeat yourself, but what did you find out?”
He pointed at one of the screens on the wall. “That camera stopped shooting around eleven o’clock last night. Came back on around four in the morning after the damage was done.”
Gretchen asked, “And you never turned off the camera for any reason?”
He pulled out the chair and sat down. “Nope. Considering someone rose a body from the dead, I’m thinking that someone used magic to shut down the cameras somehow.”
I sniffed a faint scent of marijuana on his breath and leaned closer to the desk. I said, “That’s always a possibility. We already visited the grave and this office is far enough away that you probably didn’t hear anything last night either.”
The young man’s face got red and he shifted around in his chair. “I didn’t hear anything. You gotta understand this job is boring beyond belief. Nothing ever happens.”
He felt guilty about something that I couldn’t figure out yet.
Gretchen asked, “Do your job responsibilities require you to manually check the grounds?”
He shifted around more and yanked at his tight collar. “I did. I went out last night at like ten thirty. So right before this all went down I guess.”
I caught a whiff of alcohol, not on his breath, but perhaps in one of his desk drawers. “I know if it were me working here and it was that boring, I’d probably do a little partying while I worked.” I gestured with my thumb and forefinger like I was smoking a joint.
Stephen sat up straight and his eyes widened. “I don’t know what you are talking about. Look, I do my job, all right? Let’s say I do go out there when some weirdo is digging up a dead body. What do you think they’re going to do to me?”
I held up my hands. “I’m not blaming you at all. I would have done the same exact thing. So you didn’t notice anything strange?”
“There were some sounds. And…” He turned his head to the side, contemplating something.
I tried to help him. “And you got scared.”
“Yeah, I mean I’ve heard some crazy sounds in my day, but nothing like that…that…that grunting and screaming. I can’t even explain it because it was like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It was around midnight or a little after.”
Gretchen pressed him, “What did you do when you heard the sounds?”
He lowered his head and ran his fingers through his parted hair. “I locked the door and made sure my gun was loaded and ready to go. Then I noticed the one screen went blank. I thought about going out there, but with all the talk about vampires going around the city, I couldn’t do it.”
I tried to reassure him. “Smart thinking. If it was a vamp, even silver coated bullets wouldn’t kill them. So I’ve heard. You did the right thing by not going out there.”
The natural color started to return to his face. “I just don’t want to get in any trouble over this. The owner is pissed that this is all over the news, but what was I supposed to do?”
Gretchen asked, “How long is your shift?”
He looked at his shimmering silver watch. “Lasts nine to nine. I’m still here today so I can answer questions. Not getting paid for it, I can tell you that on the record.”
Gretchen leaned forward in her seat. “Call came into the police at eight thirty this morning. Why did it take you so long to call?”
The redness started to return in splotches on his neck and the crimson tide rolled upward over his face. “Because I was scared. I froze.”
I said, “Bullshit. If you froze, it would be for a few minutes and then you would be so scared that you couldn’t dial that number fast enough. If you feared for your life, you don’t wait eight hours to call for help. You were fucked up, weren’t you?”
A flash of concern danced in his dark eyes. “It was just enough to get me through the night. I told you how boring this job is most of the time. I thought if I called the cops and they noticed I’d been drinking, they would blame me for all this shit. Since I’m in control of the cameras, I didn’t think telling them that one suddenly went dead would go very well for me.”
Gretchen said, “You were trying to protect your own ass. I get it. What did you tell the other officers?”
He leaned back in the chair and looked at the fingernails on his left hand. “I told them that the camera was working fine and I noticed the disturbance on my end of shift walkaround. I guess I’m going to get in trouble for that.”
Gretchen warned him, “Not necessarily. Unless you were given your Miranda rights. We need you to be honest from here on out though. If we find out you are lying to us, you will be charged for withholding information from an officer, which usually rolls into a charge of conspiracy.”
“I didn’t conspire with anyone. I didn’t even know those guys.”
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. “What guys?”
He squirmed around in the chair and the capillaries in his temples were beating. “I can’t. They said they would kill me.”
Gretchen warned him, “You better talk to us, or you might be going to jail.”
Stephen debated his options for a few moments. “I think I should talk to a lawyer or something before I say anything else and everyone thinks I’m a crazy man. Right now, it’s go to jail or have them kill me.”
“Just give us a hint as to who they are?” I needed to know.
He looked around the room as if we were being watched. He whispered, “You ever heard of men in black?”
I took an educated guess. “The men who harass people that have had alien experiences?”
He nodded. “Think about that for the dark spirit world.”
It was becoming clearer. I said, “You destroyed the tapes, didn’t you?”
His voice squeaked, “They made me. They sat here and watched me do it or they were going to kill me. The one guy had a pistol that must’ve been almost two feet long with a barrel as wide as my fist. What was I supposed to do?”
Gretchen said, “You did what you had to do. I think you better start telling us a lot more that you know.”
Tears began running down his flushed cheeks. “I said I’m going to get a lawyer or something. I don’t know anything else than what I’ve already told you. You guys are going to make me say something that will get me killed. These guys or things or whatever they were, could be waiting at my apartment when I get home.”
I knew the feeling. “We could escort you home. I’m not just a detective, you see.”
He looked me in the eyes, and immediately turned away. “I know who you are. I’m kind of into magic. At least I used to be. Everyone’s heard the stories about you. The men in black warned me
that you would show up.”
“Me?” I pointed two thumbs at my chest.
He nodded, and rubbed his face with his forearm. “Yep. He said you would poke your big nose around to get a sniff. They told me that you’ve pissed off a lot of people already and they are coming after you.”
I chuckled, hiding a bit of fear. “Unfortunately, it goes with the territory. I’ve been threatened by ghouls and demons so many times now I’ve lost count.”
Gretchen rolled her eyes, unwilling to accept my BS. “I’m willing to be a little lenient with you, Stephen, but I will get a warrant and drag you in for questioning if you mess around.”
He growled. “I thought you all were supposed to protect and serve. I just told you my life is in danger if I open my mouth, and you still want me to spill the beans, essentially committing suicide.”
Gretchen said, “You aren’t unlike someone who witnesses a murder. It takes courage for a witness to shove fear to the side and tell the honest truth. The longer you stay silent, you put more people’s lives in jeopardy. We can keep you safe, if need be.”
He snapped, “No. You. Can’t.” He pointed at me. “This guy, maybe, but they can’t be shot, so the cops are basically useless to me.”
My eyebrows moved down. “So it’s a group of vampires?”
“I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that conventional weaponry isn’t going to do a damn thing against this faction. I’ve already said too much. You two know where the door is.” He pointed to it to expedite our exit.
We walked back out into the bright sunlight and Gretchen immediately turned to me. “What the hell was he babbling about?”
I smirked. “Apparently they got to him and scared the pants off of him. Not sure how he knows that they can’t be killed by bullets unless they are vamps. Unless he used that gun he was talking about. I was going to use a little magic to coerce some answers out of him, but I thought that would be unfair.”
“You can do that?” Gretchen checked her phone again.
“I could do a great many things, Gretchen, but you will be glad to know that we cannot abuse our powers, or we risk losing them.”
She closed one eye. “Why would I be glad to know that?”
“Because I could have a lot of fun with you.”
She asked, “If you use it to glean information from a witness, how can it be considered abuse?”
I paused for a second, figuring out how to phrase this. “I can only use magic when it is absolutely necessary, and while this seems important, it’s not exactly a life or death situation right now.”
“Not according to that young man back there who was scared out of his wits.”
“The other problem is that I am still somewhat in training. I mean I’ll be in training for the rest of my life, but using mental magic is tricky and I still haven’t fully mastered it. I might see or hear something that isn’t true. Then, if we acted on that foolishly, I could get in a lot of trouble.”
Gretchen talked on the way back to my house, but I spaced out. I tried to suppress the anger toward my father and concentrate on the uprising. As a guardian of the city, it upset me that an unknown supernatural was roaming the streets of Pittsburgh. I knew the Red Cavern hated me because of my tussle with the Jersey Devil, but were the vampires out to cause trouble too?
I didn’t have much to go on other than the watchman’s story about the supposed Men in Black, who might be working for the vampires. This didn’t give me much to go on yet. I still could barely believe that someone or something could just plow upward and out of the ground. It had to be part of a bigger plot.
I had to talk to Alayna to find out if she had any ideas as to what was going on. I also had some friends around the city I could call to gain more info on the matter.
Gretchen dropped me off at my house and I could see that there were people inside.
3
I walked through the front door, and Alayna, Reg and Colossus were hanging out in my living room. The damages incurred during eclipse week had been repaired and I was up to date on rent.
Alayna stood about three and a half feet tall. Her alternating braids rotated from black to platinum blond and hung to her waist. She wore her signature purple dress and matching slippers.
“Look at this crew here.”
Reg was the only Normal I knew who could see Alayna, the wingless, ageless faerie from the druidic underworld. Although technically, Reg couldn’t be referred to as a Normal anymore after proving he could wield magic. He said, “Young blood, what’s the word?”
I shook hands with Reg and bowed to Alayna. “My lady, hope you’re comfortable.”
She kicked her feet up on the coffee table. “I’m doing fine, thanks.”
Reginald Danforth rolled his wheelchair close to the table. The Vietnam War veteran lost the use of his legs during an unexpected bombing. The older, dark-skinned man had an enormous upper body. He often scratched his chin through his goatee.
I picked up my growing dog and stroked his neck. “Have you heard about the graveyard dig up?”
Both of my friends shook their heads. Alayna pulled her feet back and sat up. Reg’s eyes widened with anticipation. I sat down next to Alayna with Colossus on my lap.
I stroked my dog’s head. “Jewish cemetery out on Saxonburg Boulevard. Shady stuff going on. I was just out there and it appeared that the body or skeleton by this point, pushed open the coffin and burrowed his way out of there. It was like a narrow, vertical, six-foot tunnel from the middle of the coffin, but the lid was open.”
Alayna threw her hands up dramatically, and said, “I knew these vampire clans would start causing problems at some point. The police should have done something about them already. They feed on blood, and I’m not buying that they are only drinking animal blood.”
I hated to defend the vamps, but my allegiance to Alayna and Gretchen left me between a rock and a hard place. “They never committed any crimes so it’s hard for the police to do anything. As far as I know, most of the clans have a deal with the blood banks to do their feeding.”
Alayna didn’t seem to be buying it. “How many missing bodies have there been in the city over the last few months?”
“More than usual, I’ll give you that. What do you think, Reg?”
Reg’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “I didn’t know vampires just rose from the dead. I mean, I knew they were immortals, just didn’t know they could bust through the ground like that. That’s some power.”
I nodded, and pointed at Reg. “That’s what I say. Anyway, this watchman told us that he was approached by these men in black type people that made him destroy the tape. Oh shit.”
“What?” Alayna asked.
“I hadn’t thought about it at the time, but if he destroyed the tape, he probably knows what’s on it. Reg, you know how to cut a digital feed?” I didn’t have much experience in the matter.
He snatched my dog from me with his giant hands, pulling the animal close to his chest, and answered, “You can always go back and record over something if you wanted to, just like a video tape. If they started at the beginning and just recorded over it, the watchman might not have seen anything.”
I tapped my chin. “But he said they made him destroy the evidence. Evidence. Hmm. Anyway, security footage is gone and this watchman won’t talk. He did, however, tell me that the men in black characters said they were coming after me.”
Reg asked, “After you? Why you?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Dunno. If it’s the demons from the Red Cavern, I already know they want me dead. The vamps hadn’t scared me until I found out about the After Midnight Council that united all the clans. They were broken up into so many little clans and warring with each other just a month ago before the truce. Now they have a joint council and seem to be working together.”
Alayna said, “That’s why I said the cops should have taken care of this before it became a problem. Now we have a problem. Not to change the subject, but how did
it go with your father?”
I lowered my head. “Not good. He’s still the same piece of trash that I remember.”
Alayna leaned over and gave me a hug. A jealous Colossus jumped over from Reg’s lap and wedged himself between us. Her warmth and love cascaded over us. She spoke in her high-pitched, yet soothing voice with a slight English accent, “I’m sorry. It’s amazing that you’ve become the great young man you are without any help from your father.”
“Says the woman who led the brigade to have me executed.” I still hadn’t let her live that one down.
She closed her eyes and her cheeks wrinkled, irritated. “You would have done the same as I. I was carrying out my oath, same as you would.”
My phone buzzed, and I took it out of my pants pocket. Text message from Satoku. No sir, I didn’t like it.
Reg rubbed his beard (see where I get it) and leaned toward me. “What’s going on there young blood? You look like you might punch someone now.”
I couldn’t hide my emotions. One of the few gifts my father had given me. I was working on that. “I’m not happy. Satoku is going out to dinner with Felix. Again. Do you believe she had the audacity to ask me to become friends with that twerp?”
Alayna and Reg shrugged their shoulders, and the faerie said, “I think it’s a good idea.”
Reg spoke in his husky voice, “Me too. He probably has some Eastern ideas that might jibe with some of your stuff.”
These were supposed to be my two best friends, by the way. “You guys are taking her side? Maybe I need some new friends.”
Reg said, “Take it easy now, young man. You’re letting this stuff mess with your head. We’ve all been bitten by the jealousy bug before…”
I laughed it off, overcompensating for a weakness my father had given me. “This isn’t jealousy. I share a blood line with Merlin. He killed a few big bugs. What’s there to be jealous of?”
Alayna immediately answered, “Who he’s hanging out with. You aren’t jealous of his prowess as a mage. You hate him because he is hanging out with your girlfriend.”
My jealousy stemmed from my father. No doubt. I took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “I don’t even know if she is officially my girlfriend at this point. She’s been spending more time with him than me.”
Graveyard Uprisings Page 2