Halloween would be a bitch if this became a thing.
Not that I thought there was anything wrong with anyone who did get PTSD. It was a fact of life. After the shit I’d seen I could understand someone checking out, it's just that it wasn't anything I needed right now. Or ever, for that matter.
By the time I was done with my shower I was even less comfortable than before. Knots formed in my back from the fight last night along with aches and pains and at least one bruise I was going to have to explain to Rachel when she finally stopped with the cool routine and was ready to get frisky again.
Seeing that bruise would probably start the whole thing all over again, damn it. It was a ticking cockblock waiting to go off.
I felt even worse than when I woke up. And I knew I couldn't just leave my girls alone here without saying something. Not overnight. Not when those things were out there.
I knew I was probably jumping at shadows, but I had that strange tingling on the back of my neck. The one that always started right when things were about to go to shit, and I’d learned long ago to listen to that feeling.
So I suited up and headed back downstairs where the munchkin was playing with some puzzle on the carpet and Rachel was playing some game on her phone.
I hesitated as I looked at my wife and daughter. Thought about everything that could happen to them overnight. I figured I was probably being overly cautious, but then again if someone had told me vampires and other supernatural monsters were real the night before I would've thought that was ridiculous.
Things changed, and again, one of my mottos in life was you accepted what came at you. Even if it should have been fucking impossible.
"Listen, Rachel?"
There must've been something about my tone, because she looked up sharply. She knew something was up. Or that I was hiding something.
It was one of the things I loved about her. How she could see through me. It was also one of the things I hated. It made things like keeping Christmas presents secret difficult, let alone keeping things like the existence of vampires a secret.
"What's up?" she asked, suddenly all business.
"Maybe you should keep the gun by you tonight?" I didn’t intend for it to come out as a question, but there it was.
Her eyes narrowed. Oh yeah. If she didn't think something was going on before, she certainly thought something was going on now.
"Why would I need to keep one of the guns nearby?” she asked. "Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?"
I opened my mouth and I was on the verge of telling her everything. All the craziness about getting into a fight with a vampire, killing the fanged bitch, and being confronted with crazy government agents.
And yet I still couldn't quite bring myself to say anything. There was the issue of her thinking I was crazy, for one, but I was also well aware that the best way to keep a secret was to not say anything at all.
I trusted my wife, but I also wasn't sure she wouldn't say something. What if her blabbing brought the sort of attention I was trying to avoid?
It was all damn complicated, and the practical upshot was I was going to lie to my wife. Again.
"No, everything's fine," I said. "I just want you to be safe. Let's just say I have a feeling."
She stared at me and it was clear she wasn't buying my bullshit, but it was also clear she wasn't in the mood to get into another argument. Not with the munchkin right there watching. Finally she nodded.
"Fine," she said. "If that's how you want to do it."
It wasn't how I wanted to do it at all. I wanted to tell her everything. I wanted to let her know to be careful, but I was gripped by an indecisiveness that was troublesome considering I was was so used to making split-second decisions.
Yet I couldn't be sure. There was a lot going on here. Vampires. Government agents. The possibility that speaking even a whiff of what I knew might draw either of those down on my family.
I shrugged and moved to the door, grabbing the keys to my squad car on my way out, and as I stepped through the door a sudden thought occurred to me. I paused and turned back to Rachel.
"Oh, and honey?" I said.
"Yes Blake?" she said, her voice sounding entirely too sweet. She wasn't happy about this, even if she was going along with it. For now.
Well that couldn't be helped. I’d make it up to her. Later. After my shift.
I looked at the door. I thought about everything I knew about vampires from the movies. Maybe not all of that was correct, but I figured better safe than sorry. That was another motto to live by.
"Maybe don't invite anyone in tonight you don't know?"
She fixed me with a long glare. Yeah, I was going to have some explaining to do and I had no idea how the fuck I was going to do it.
"Fine," she said. "Stay safe at work tonight."
I thought about a typical night. I’d always tell her there was no need for me to stay safe at work because there was nothing to worry about. The worst thing I had to deal with was a bunch of drunk college kids doing drunk college kid things.
Hardly a threat to my life.
Only everything that happened the night before was flashing through my mind. What if some of those vampires who covered things up decided they were going to come after me?
Those agents covering things up at the station couldn't do anything about vampires descending on me while I was in my car at the edge of campus playing games on my phone.
So tonight, instead of telling her she was being ridiculous, I merely nodded and said "I will."
That more than anything seem to get through to Rachel that something was wrong. Her mouth opened as though she was going to say something else, but before I could get drawn into another argument that would make me late for work I slammed the door shut behind me.
I felt bad, but again, I’d make it up to her.
Later.
15
The Station
When I walked in Gladys was already sitting at her desk typing away at an ancient typewriter that looked like it had been manufactured in the first half of the twentieth century. Heck, for all I knew that had been her typewriter when she was a kid in school and she still used it today because that was what was comfortable for her.
Plus it didn’t cost the department money. Always with the worry about costing the department money.
Besides, who was I kidding? When she was a little girl she probably did her homework using charcoal from the fireplace on a piece of bark she got from the teacher in the one room schoolhouse out on the prairie.
There’d never been a prairie around here as far as I could tell and it’d been at least a century since one room schoolhouses were in vogue around these here parts, but considering how old she was I figured the timeline fit.
I nodded. "Evening Gladys."
She turned and stared at me and I felt like I needed to pull my gun or turn right back around and walk out the door.
Gladys was never a pleasant person on the best of days, but that look she gave me now was pure murder. Oh yeah. She was pissed off. And I had a pretty good idea exactly why she was pissed off.
I hadn't stuck around earlier to hear exactly what those government types said to the Chief, but I’d been there long enough to hear the shouting match that was brewing.
The Chief getting into a shouting match was something that could always be heard throughout the small station, but the big difference this time around was the government agents were bellowing right back at him.
Nobody ever bellowed back at the Chief. Ever. At least no one who wanted to keep their job.
That was the beauty of intel pukes though. They were the ones who had your job in their hands no matter how high up the chain you were, and alphabet soup agencies, however off the books they wanted to be, always outranked local PD.
Especially when local PD was nothing more than glorified campus security with a badge.
Yeah, I could see why Gladys wasn't happy about somebody moving in on the
Chief’s precious fiefdom. His territory was her territory after all, and she didn’t like people moving in on her territory any more than the old man did.
Well she could go right on being unhappy. The important thing was I still had a job. That's what mattered.
Though as always there was a part of me that wondered if that was really what mattered when there were vampires out there operating on campus with impunity.
I took in a deep breath and let it out. Forced myself to keep a smile on my face as Gladys glared at me. After all, Gladys glaring at me was hardly anything new.
"So is everything okay from last night?" I asked, trying to sound breezy and not doing a very good job of it. "I take it the government guys took care of everything?"
"Oh you don't need to worry Byron," she said. "Your friends took care of everything all right.”
Gladys bit off every word. She looked like she wanted to launch across her old fake wood desk and wrap her clawed hands around my throat, but somehow she resisted the temptation.
Which was a good thing. She was old and bony and I was pretty sure I could take her in a fight if it came down to it, but I didn’t want to try.
"Good to know I still have a job," I said, sketching a mock salute in her direction that only caused her eyes to narrow even more.
Oh yeah. I was going to be paying for this for awhile. I could hope the old bag would die before I had to spend too many years paying, but if past performance was any indication she was going to outlive me. Unless someone snapped and killed her first.
I sat down at my desk which was right across from Hendricks. The old man was finishing up some paperwork as he got off his shift, but as soon as I sat down he looked up and leaned forward conspiratorially.
"I don't know what you did here last night, but everybody on the night shift is walking around on eggshells," Hendricks said. “Kinsey actually woke up from one of his naps on the other side of campus to come in and chat with the Chief.”
I leaned in. I knew damn well why everyone was upset, but knowing it and hearing the gossip from someone on the day shift who’d been in the middle of the scuttlebutt were two very different things.
"Do you have any idea why everyone’s so upset?”
"Word is a couple of government types came in and started talking to the Chief last night. Told him he needed to keep you on the payroll or else. Something about pulling funding for the department, but I’m sure you wouldn’t know anything about that.”
Hendricks shook his head. I didn't know if those guys had the power to do that, but I had a feeling the feds could probably make some trouble if they wanted to.
"Come on man. Are you going to tell me more about what happened last night? How did you get feds on your side?" Hendricks asked.
I locked eyes with Hendricks and grinned. I might feel guilty about keeping things from my wife, but I didn't have any problem keeping things from Hendricks. In fact, I was going to thoroughly enjoy keeping things from Hendricks.
The jerk didn’t believe me last night about vampires, after all, so I didn’t see why he’d believe me about some alphabet soup pukes believing me about vampires.
"The Chief came in to talk to me and then some feds came in to talk to the Chief and that’s all I know,” I said. “I didn’t stick around for the fireworks, but they were shouting at each other pretty good by the time I left.”
Hendricks let out a massive sigh that caused his mustache to blow out. "Come on Byron. You can't leave me hanging with that!"
"Oh but I can," I said. "I can and I will. Hope you enjoyed sleeping in today Hendricks."
I stood. I didn't even bother powering on my computer. There was no point. After all, the only people who’d be left in here soon enough were Gladys and maybe the Chief if he was lurking around.
I had no intention of sticking around the station long enough to find out if the Chief was lurking. That man could be surprisingly quiet for a man of his age and size.
"Well I'm off," I said. "Have a good night Hendricks. Say hello to the wife for me."
"Fuck you Byron," Hendricks said, but it was with a smile.
“You too Hendricks,” I said with a smile of my own to let Hendricks know there were no hard feelings about last night. He was just doing his job, after all, even if he'd been very annoying about doing that job.
I made my way back towards the front. To my surprise Gladys was all smiles and sweetness as I walked past.
That was even more worrying than when she'd been pissed off.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I was just going to tell you to have a good time while you're out on patrol tonight," she said.
That brought me up short. Gladys was being nice. I’d never seen her being nice before. A nice Gladys was a worrisome Gladys, and I found myself curious enough about what her angle was that I was willing to risk the Chief showing up.
For a moment.
"Are you okay?" I asked, suddenly unsure if I should be curious or worried.
"What are you talking about Byron?" she asked, her thin reedy voice carrying through the department. I saw Hendricks turn to look at us, and then look away when he realized I saw him watching. "I've never been better!"
"So you're not mad at me?"
That smile never wavered, but there was something supremely creepy about the way she looked at me. Something unsettling. Something that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
"Nothing like that," she said. “Stay safe on your patrol!"
She was trying to sound sweet, but unfortunately for her it was impossible for her voice to sound like anything other than a nasty old woman who hated the world and anything younger than her.
Considering her advanced age that was a hell of a lot of hate.
"Okay then…"
I tried to exit the station slowly, tried not to look too intimidated, but by the time I was at my squad car I was almost at a sprint.
I shook my head and laughed. Now that I was away from the station that worry seemed ridiculous. Why would I be running from that old crone of all people? I was being silly.
And yet I couldn't shake the feeling that she knew something I didn't.
Maybe they were going to try to gun for my job after all. Maybe they'd wait a few weeks until those government types were good and gone and then start making things so miserable for me that I’d have no choice but to leave.
I scowled as I unlocked my squad car and got inside. If they thought they were going to get me that easily then they had another thing coming.
I could be damn stubborn when I wanted. Especially when people tried to push me around. I’d seen higher ups try to get rid of people before, and I knew how to deal with it.
Mostly.
I decided to go for a drive through campus. It was still early, but there’d be people streaming towards off-campus housing for the inevitable house parties that popped up on a Saturday night. I figured it would be just as busy tonight as it had been last night.
I just prayed that it wouldn't be busy in the same way.
16
Bad Call
Not for the first time I was glad I only had to worry about campus proper and not the clubs and bars that had conveniently popped up just on the other side of the campus limits.
Not my problem though. My worry was campus, and there were no clubs or bars near campus because the school lobbied the city to keep their bubble nice and safe. Which was fine with me since it meant less work.
I’d just parked my car at one of the main cross streets leading into one of the big student housing neighborhoods when a radio call came through. I pulled my attention away from a group of hot young sorority girls. I figured I could look even if I was a married man.
I stared at the radio. Dared Gladys to call out my name. If they didn't call me out directly then it could go to Kinsey. Kinsey could use the exercise. I figured I deserved a break after what I went through the night before.
"This is dispatch," Gladys's voice came ove
r the radio. "We have reports of a home invasion in progress."
My blood chilled. It was eerily similar to the report I got the night before that started all my troubles. I wondered if it could really be happening again. I wondered if this was a trap they were setting for me. If they somehow knew I was working tonight, and so they were trying to get me out to another call where they could get the drop on me.
Home invasions never happened on campus. Two in two nights? It was unheard of. Unless someone was doing it on purpose tonight.
I’d been lucky in that fight the night before even if the guy had been pretty easy to take down. If I hadn't gotten that lucky shot with the railing in then there was a chance the fight would've gone on longer, and it would've been harder even if I was pretty confident I would’ve won in the end.
But what if there were more of them? I wasn't sure how many vampires I could take on at once.
So I waited and stared at the radio. I waited for more information, or for them to call me out by name. I dreaded Gladys calling me out by name.
"Home invasion is reported at 2250 S. Belfast Ln. Repeat. 2250 S. Belfast Ln. Any units respond,” Gladys said.
I was getting really sick and tired of the chill that ran through me every time I heard Gladys, though at least this time it had nothing to do with her nails-on-a-chalkboard voice and everything to do with the address she’d just rattled off.
2250 S. Belfast Ln. My house.
I didn't bother to send a response that I was on the way. I gunned the engine. The entire drive over I had lights flashing, though I couldn't go as fast as I’d like because of the worry of drunk kids stumbling into the street.
I cursed myself for being a fucking idiot. I should have told Rachel. I should have warned her, and now my family was going to pay the price.
There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the home invasion I was responding to was a result of paranormal activity. They knew who I was, they'd somehow tracked me down, and they knew where I lived.
Blake Byron: Paranormal Investigator Page 9