by Bill Myers
“All right,” Becka said, fighting back the tension growing in her own body. “We’d better head out, then.”
Ryan took a deep breath and nodded.
As they took the shuttle van back to the hotel, Becka spoke up. “Ryan, I want to apologize for the way I’ve been acting. We came here to help Jaimie, and I’m afraid I haven’t been very supportive of that. I’m ashamed to say that the reason is . . . I was jealous.”
“Jealous?” Ryan responded. “Of who? Me? I know I got to do some extra things, being on the crew and all, but it really wasn’t that big of a — ”
“Not you,” Becka cut him off. “I wasn’t jealous of you for working in the film. I was jealous of Jaimie being around you all the time.”
“Oh,” Ryan said, as a somewhat surprised expression lit his face.
Rebecca turned and sighed. Men! she thought. Their minds worked so differently from girls’ that it was a wonder they worked at all!
“Actually,” Ryan said, “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you.”
Becka waited, hoping he wasn’t about to tell her that he’d fallen for Jaimie.
“I should have been more understanding about how you were feeling,” he said. “I just thought you were acting silly, but I never really tried to figure out why. That’s not the way a friend should be . . . I’m sorry.”
Those few words touched Becka so deeply that she had to fight back a tightness in her throat. Just when she had been sure that Ryan was the most insensitive person in the world, he suddenly seemed to care about and understand her deepest feelings.
He looked at her, puzzled. “You okay?”
“I’m okay,” she said hoarsely. “Thanks for asking.”
The shuttle stopped in front of the hotel, and Becka and Ryan went in. They saw John Barberini then, and Becka added another element to their plan.
“You want me to what?” Barberini asked, looking at Becka suspiciously.
“Go with us to the cemetery. And bring your tape recorder and camera.”
Barberini looked at her. Ever since Becka had doused him with the water, he had never seemed too comfortable around her. “You know where the vampire is buried?”
“Yes,” she replied. “We’re supposed to meet Tim Paxton at six-thirty to go over there.”
“But it’s barely five o’clock,” Barberini said.
“That’s part of our plan.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll give you the whole scoop if you’ll help us out.”
Barberini hesitated for a moment and then reached over and picked up his camera bag. “Let’s go,” he said. “Oh, one more thing. Once we get into that cemetery, how do you know we’re going to make it back out? I mean, without turning into zombies or something.”
Ryan shrugged. “We don’t.”
Barberini nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
Even at five o’clock in the afternoon, the old cemetery seemed eerie. Despite the remaining daylight, the approaching storm cast a spooky darkness over the area.
Becka, Ryan, and John Barberini crouched low behind some bushes next to the large crypt and waited.
“You sure you remember how to run that tape recorder?” Barberini asked.
Ryan glanced at the recorder in his hand. “No sweat.”
Ten minutes later, Steve Delton hurried through the gate carrying an overnight bag. Tim Paxton trailed behind him. The wind of the storm whipped at their clothes.
“Hurry up, Tim!” Delton shouted over the wind. “We haven’t got much time.”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Tim called. “It’s your fault we’re so late.”
“It’s Fallon’s fault, not mine. Little creep wouldn’t let me go until he made sure the fall matched. I mean, I’m the actor. The stuntman has to match me. They must’ve gone through a thousand dollars of breakaway furniture.”
“Who cares?” Tim said as he caught up to Delton. “With all the publicity this film is getting, we could triple the budget and still come out with a winner.”
“Right,” Delton agreed. “Just don’t forget good old Van Helsing’s bonus.”
“You’ll be well paid,” Paxton said. “Now get ready.”
In the bushes by the crypt, Rebecca and Ryan exchanged glances. This was the moment they’d been waiting for. Ryan clicked on the tape recorder, and they watched in silence as the two men continued to approach.
As he walked, Steve Delton opened his overnight bag and pulled out a latex mask. He stopped for a moment and carefully put it on.
In the bushes Ryan whispered, “You were right, Beck! He is the vampire.”
John Barberini snapped a photo of Delton wearing the vampire mask. “How’d you figure this out?” he whispered.
“I realized that we’d all been reacting to fear,” Becka whispered. “So I tried doing what Z suggested and looked past the fear. If he was right and vampires don’t exist, we had to ask ourselves who would benefit most by making something like this up. The only thing that benefited was the film. And then I realized that Tim, the film’s producer, had been in on our plan to trap the vampire in the alley.”
“So you set up this plan to capture Tim,” Barberini said.
“What about Delton?” Ryan asked.
“I knew someone with the film had to be the vampire. At first I thought it was Fallon, but he’s not tall enough. Then I remembered that, when Jaimie got burned by the crucifix, Delton was the one who put it around her neck. He probably put some kind of acid on the back of that cross. He was wearing gloves, so it didn’t bother him.”
“But what about the bat and the vampire floating outside your window?” Barberini asked.
“I don’t know how they did those things,” Becka said. “But since I’ve watched filming this week, I’ve learned that movie people can fake just about anything if they want to.”
“Shhh . . . ,” Ryan said. “They’re coming this way.”
“You straight on the plan?” Tim Paxton asked as he and Delton finally came to a stop at the crypt.
“Got it,” Delton said as he smoothed the mask onto his face. He reached back into his bag, pulled out a bottle of makeup, and began to carefully cover the edges.
“Okay, then you won’t mind running it by me,” Tim prodded.
Delton sighed. “You and the kids get here about six-thirty. I’m lying in the casket, just like they expect. They lead you here to the crypt. You slide the stone cover over and open the casket. I open my eyes and grab your throat.”
“Yeah,” Tim agreed. “I’ll insist on being the stake driver, and I’ll keep the kids back, so I’ll be leaning over to make it easy for you.”
“Okay,” Delton said as he began attaching some long and pointed fingernails.
“Just be careful with those nails, all right?”
Delton nodded. “I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks. I know what I’m doing.”
Tim checked his watch. “I’ll have to leave pretty soon. Okay, what about the rest of it?”
Delton shrugged. “I grab your throat. The girl comes at me with the crucifix — ”
“It could be the boy,” Tim interrupted. “They’ll both have them.”
“Okay, whoever comes at me with the cross, I shove you back and then leap out of the grave and run away,” Delton said.
“Yeah,” Tim corrected, “but not right away. You have to kind of snarl and claw at them a couple of times before you run.”
“Of course,” Delton replied. “The standard routine.”
“All right, then,” Tim concluded. “I guess that’s about it.”
In the bushes by the large crypt, Becka looked at Ryan. He smiled and pointed to the running tape recorder.
Suddenly, to their surprise, John Barberini stood up, revealing himself and their hiding place. “No, that’s not quite it, Tim.”
The producer and the actor spun around, clearly surprised as Barberini continued. “It seems you weren’t quite careful enough. Looks like your
plan has been figured out.”
Becka couldn’t believe what Barberini was doing. They had agreed to hide and get everything on tape, not jump out and confront them.
“Be careful, John,” Becka said as she rose to his side. But suddenly she was looking down the barrel of a .38 caliber revolver.
“I think you’re the one who should be careful,” Barberini replied as he held his gun on her.
Becka threw a panicked look to Ryan. Barberini was in on the vampire hoax with Tim and Delton! They’d made a terrible mistake.
Maybe even a fatal one.
It started to rain. Big fat drops fell all around them.
“What happened, John?” Tim asked.
“She figured out it was a scam,” Barberini said. “Didn’t you, bright stuff?”
Becka swallowed and said nothing. The wind blew as rain continued to fall, soaking her hair, dripping down the side of her face.
Without warning, Barberini reached over and smacked her hard across the cheek. Ryan bounded to his feet in her defense, but he froze when Barberini swung the gun in his direction. Turning back to Becka, the reporter grinned. “I’ve been wanting to do that ever since you doused me with that holy water.”
Becka held her cheek. Her face throbbed, and she could feel a welt already rising on the skin.
“You all right?” Ryan asked.
She wiped the rain from her face and nodded.
Ryan turned back to Barberini, furious. But Barberini’s revolver kept him in check. “The only thing you kids didn’t figure out was the bat at the Dominski warehouse.”
Tim sighed. Ryan and Becka turned to him. The rain had plastered down his hair, and the wind blew his coat. He looked the most distressed of the three men. “There was a door just across the alley,” he explained. “I made sure it was unlocked so Steve could make his getaway.”
“Yeah,” Delton said. “But not before leaving me something just inside the door. A large cage holding a nice big bat.”
“What about the vampire outside my window?” Becka asked, pulling the wet hair from her face. “It looked so real.”
“It was real,” Delton answered. “My room is one floor up from yours. A little rigging, a little wire, and presto! Easy trick.”
“Enough gabbing,” Barberini insisted. “What do we do with them?”
Delton shrugged. “More victims for the vampire, I think.”
Tim seemed reluctant. “Now wait a minute. Kadow’s death was an accident. This would be . . . murder.”
“An accident?” Ryan exclaimed.
Tim nodded. “That’s how all of this started in the first place. Steve, Kadow, and I were looking over the mansion location. We were trying to decide if we needed to run some extra rigging to have the vampire swoop away at the end of the party scene. Kadow was up in the rafters trying to show me how he’d stage it when he slipped and fell. He hit the back of his head on one of the stones.” Tim shook his head. “He died instantly.
“Kadow didn’t have any family or anyone who cared what happened to him. When he was killed, we realized we could capitalize on his death. So we started a few rumors about a real vampire and came up with our whole scheme to scare Jaimie — and before anyone could accuse us of a hoax, we had Kadow’s body turn up, drained of blood.”
“That was messy,” Delton added, the rain streaming down his stringy hair and into his face. He grinned at Becka and Ryan. “’Course, now that I’ve got the hang of it, I shouldn’t have any trouble doing it again.”
“Stop it, Steve.” Tim began pacing, obviously upset. “Up to now we’ve just been guilty of a scam, but killing innocent kids is another thing entirely.”
“I’m not going to jail again,” Barberini growled. “When you guys brought me in on this plan to get publicity, I agreed. But I’ve done time in the pen. I’m not going back there again. I’d kill these kids first. I’d kill both of you too, if I had to.”
Becka closed her eyes. Her instincts about John Barberini had been right all along.
“All right,” Delton agreed. “But don’t shoot them, for crying out loud. Vampires don’t shoot people. Let’s use the fangs we used on Kadow’s neck.” He reached into his overnight bag and pulled out a set of steel fangs. “They don’t look so pretty, and you have to plunge them in hard with your hands, but they do the job, and they leave good marks.”
Ryan and Becka exchanged terrified looks. God, help us! Becka prayed. From the look on Ryan’s face, she was sure he was praying too.
“You first,” Barberini ordered Becka.
“Take her over by the crypt,” Steve said. “It’ll look better.”
Barberini motioned with his gun for Becka to move to the crypt. She looked at Ryan one more time before Barberini gave her a push, and she did as she was told.
Delton pulled on a pair of black leather gloves. Then, crossing to Becka, and with Barberini holding a gun to her back, he brought the steel fangs up to her throat.
“Wait!” Tim shouted over the wind. “There must be another way!”
“There’s no other way,” Barberini yelled.
“He’s right, Tim,” Delton agreed. “It’ll all be over in a minute.”
Both Barberini and Delton focused their attention on Becka as Tim turned around, not wanting to see the killing.
Delton leaned in close to Becka, looking for the artery in her neck. Even in the pouring rain she could feel his hot breath against her skin.
Suddenly Ryan made his move. With all of his might he lunged at Barberini’s arm. He hit him hard, sending the man slipping and staggering as the gun flew out of his hand. With a roar of anger, Delton reached for Ryan — who managed to spin around and land a good right hook, breaking the man’s nose.
“Augh!” Delton cried, grabbing his nose. He looked at his hand and saw the blood. Furious, he lunged for Ryan.
Forgotten by her captors for the moment, Becka spotted the gun in the mud and leaped for it. But she wasn’t quick enough.
Barberini slammed into her, knocking her aside, and scooped up the wet pistol. “That’s enough!” he shouted.
Ryan and Delton stopped grappling.
Delton reached for the steel fangs again. “I’m killing the punk first!” He sneered as he angrily swiped at the blood streaming from his nose. “And believe me — ” he leaned forward, practically spitting into Ryan’s face — “it’s not going to be painless!”
“Stop talking about it and do it!” Barberini shouted.
Becka prayed with all of her might as Delton, grinning maniacally, lifted the fangs up to Ryan’s throat. And then, just as he was pressing them against the vein: “Hold it right there!” A voice rang out from nowhere.
Delton spun around.
“Drop the gun,” another voice shouted.
“You’re outnumbered and outgunned,” came a third.
Becka watched as three uniformed police officers approached, followed closely by Mom and Jaimie.
“I said, drop the gun!” the first policeman shouted, leveling his own weapon at Barberini, who let his pistol fall and raised his hands.
“Mom!” Becka ran to her mother.
“It’s a good thing Jaimie told me where you were,” Mom said.
“I got a message from Z,” Jaimie said. “He said you might be in danger.”
Becka and Ryan looked at each other in amazement. For once, they didn’t care how Z always knew what was happening. They were just very, very glad he did.
10
By noon the next day, the weather had cleared, and Rebecca, Ryan, and Mom were leaving for the airport. Jaimie was to stay on another week to finish the film. The doctor’s report verified that Tom Kadow had died from a blow to the head. Since both Tim Paxton and Steve Delton were being held in jail pending their trial for fraud, the studio had sent someone else out to supervise production. The stunt double would film Van Helsing’s last scene.
Steve Delton was also being charged with attempted murder, as was John Barberini.
&nbs
p; “I’m going to miss you guys an awful lot,” Jaimie said in the lobby while they waited for a production shuttle van to take them to the airport. “It won’t be the same without you.”
“You’ll be done and out of here before you know it,” Ryan replied.
“And don’t forget to call us when you get home,” Becka added.
“Yeah, if you ever come to visit, we’ll throw a big party in your honor,” Ryan said.
“Just don’t make it a Halloween party,” Jaimie joked. “I’ve had enough of that stuff for a while.”
The shuttle pulled up outside and honked its horn. The group headed out the door and toward the curb.
“Well,” Jaimie said as they arrived and the driver loaded their luggage, “you two take care.”
Becka and Ryan nodded.
Jaimie reached up and gave Ryan a friendly peck on the cheek. “For luck.” She smiled.
Becka could see Ryan’s face reddening as Jaimie turned to her. “You’ve got a good thing there, Rebecca Williams. Don’t lose him.”
Becka was unsure how to respond. Fortunately, she didn’t have to. Almost immediately, Ryan was reaching out and taking her hand. “She doesn’t intend to,” he said, looking at Becka and smiling. “And neither do I.”
Becka returned the smile, once again feeling those little flutters deep inside her stomach.
After another set of good-byes, they turned to climb onboard the van. Once inside, they looked out the window and waved one last time to Jaimie as the vehicle pulled away from the curb and started for the airport.
As they headed down the road, Becka again felt Ryan take her hand. And, as she looked into his deep blue eyes, she completely forgot anything and everything about Jaimie Baylor.
“I tell you,” Ryan sighed as he settled back into his seat, “between being in a foreign country, working on a movie, and getting caught up in all this vampire stuff, I feel like we’ve had enough adventure to last us a long, long time.”
“Me too,” Becka said. “I just want to get home to good old America. The most adventure I plan to have is relaxing, catching up on some magazines, and finally having a normal teenage life.”
“I don’t think there’s any such thing as a normal teenage life, is there?” Mom teased from the seat behind them. “But even if there were, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.”