CHAPTER TWELVE
Pulling into the parking lot of Julie’s store, I found I had butterflies in my stomach.
“Good morning gentlemen. I take it things went well this morning.” Julie’s never failing smile was there as always.
“Better than I thought. Is Casey here?”
“Sure. She’s in the office.”
I walked back to the office and found her sitting at the desk, crying. I walked up to her and put my arms around her from behind. “It’s all okay Casey. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“Did you tell your father?” She choked on the words as she asked.
“Yes, and my mother. It’s all okay. We also know who the murderer is and that they are trying to frame me because I’m a vampire. Davis and I are going to find her now. I had to stop in and see you before we did. I’m so sorry Casey. Can you forgive me?”
For the first time since I got there she looked at me. She was smiling at me with tears in her eyes. I couldn’t help myself. I leaned down and gently kissed her. To my surprise, Casey wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in closer. The kiss ended with both of us breathing hard.
“Does this mean we are still on for tonight?” She asked while looking up at me through her lashes.
“I want it to be, but, if we don’t catch her then I’ll have to cancel.”
“I hope she’s there. I’ve been waiting for a long time for you to ask me out.” I brushed my lips lightly across hers and we headed out hand in hand to where Davis and Julie were waiting for us. Davis and I said our goodbyes and headed out to find Beth.
“Davis, we have to be ready for her not to be there. There’s a reason she called and quit today. She couldn’t have known I would talk to my parents and it would work out in my best interest.”
“Let’s just hope we can get this over with. I’d love to get my hands on her. How did she know you are a vampire?”
“I don’t know. But I do know this; I’m kind of pissed about trusting her. I can’t believe she blindsided me this way.
We pulled up to the curb a few houses down. The first thing we noticed was her car wasn’t there. Great, looks like this is a dead end.
“Let’s look around the house to see if we find anything of use.” She lived in a two story home with a normal sized porch. It was beige with bushes in the front. There was a “beware of the dog” sign on the gate leading to the back yard but no sign of a dog.
Jumping over the gate I noticed a shed in the far corner of the yard. Keeping my eyes, ears, and nose on alert in case the dog was hiding, I headed around to the back door. I took a peek through the glass and found all the lights of the house off and no signs of movement.
Hearing footsteps coming closer, I look up to find Davis had made it to the back. Making a movement toward the shed, Davis nodded and we crossed the yard. We looked through the window and I found myself feeling sick at what was inside. Beth had wooden crosses, wooden stakes and bottles of water that judging by the other items I was guessing was holy water. There were several strings of garlic hanging from the wall. Taped on the wall of the other side were newspaper articles of the women she had murdered. I pointed them out to Davis but he wasn’t able to read what they said. This was one time I really hated my extremely good eye sight.
Turning my back on the shed, we decided to talk to the neighbors to see if they might know where she went. Davis took the right and I took the left.
“Get anything?” I ask Davis when he returned to the car. I came up empty. No one was home.
“Yeah, they said she told them she was going on vacation for a few weeks. They didn’t know where though.”
“That doesn’t help much. Let’s go back to the station and fill the Sheriff in on what we haven’t turned up. I’m not looking forward to that talk.”
We got to the station and I received a few funny looks. Guess he filled them in alright. After entering the Sheriff’s office I found out that me being a vampire wasn’t the reason for the looks.
“You look awful!” I stopped dead in the doorway causing Davis to run into me.
“Thanks Dad. I love you too.”
“No, really, you look like a vampire now. You’re all pale and weak looking. Okay, the weak part isn’t what makes you look like a vampire, but, the pale part does. Are you okay?”
“I am weak, sir. I haven’t fed today. Well, food yes, blood no.”
“Okay, after you two tell me what you found out go home and get some rest. And I don’t want to see you back here until Monday.”
“I’ll tell you but I’m not leaving. Beth is going to kill me herself when she finds out you aren’t. I have to find her. And all we found out was she told her neighbor she was going on vacation for a few weeks. She didn’t say where. We also found out she’s not really sure what she’s after. Her shed in the back was full of all the items humans believe kill vampires.” I sat back in the chair feeling worse than I had in a long time.
“If you two don’t go home I’m going to fire you. And that’s a promise. We know who we are looking for now and everyone here knows her. We have the city police looking for her, along with the state patrol. What we don’t need right now is you two falling out on us. Go home and get some rest. And feed Shawn.”
We both looked at each other and at the same time said “Yes sir, bye” and headed out the door.
As we left his office we ran into my brother. He’s older than me by two years but we could pass as twins. The look on his face was a mixture of confusion and hurt. I could understand the confusion but wasn’t really sure why the hurt was there.
“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this instead of Dad? We’ve always talked to each other about everything.” Ah, that’s the hurt showing.
“Bryan, I don’t expect you to understand. Hell, I’m the vampire and half the time I don’t understand but things haven’t changed between us.”
“Shawn, you’re my little brother and your life is in danger. If you think for one second things haven’t changed then you’re a fool. Your big brother is pissed now and Beth is the target. All I need is for her to give me one legal reason and she’s done.”
“Bryan, DO NOT get yourself in trouble over this. I have enough going on right now and I don’t need to worry about you doing something foolish. You need to calm down and remember that yes, you are my brother but you are also an officer of the law.”
Bryan looked down, understanding completely what I am saying. “For the first time in twelve years, I’m scared Shawn. You, Carolyn, Dad and our uncle are very capable of taking care of yourselves and I never once thought otherwise. But Beth is after you. No one has gone after any of you like this before.”
“Take it easy. She’ll be found and when she is, she’ll go to prison. She’s already committed five murders. She won’t be getting out of prison alive.” I leaned over and gave him a hug. “I’ve got to go before the Sheriff fires me for still being here. Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
He returns the hug and promises me he won’t.
After watching Bryan go into Sheriff Anderson’s office, Davis and I made our way out.
“Guess you can have your date with Casey now, huh?”
The only answer I gave him was a smile. That was one good thing about being “thrown out” of work early.
“Shit! I can’t believe I forgot to call Mark or Courtney to let them know about tonight. I hope they don’t already have plans.”
“What? Are you scared to be alone with her?”
“No Davis, I told her it would be a double. I don’t want her coming over to find it’s just us. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.” I reached into my pocket and grabbed my cell phone. Mark answered on the second ring.
After getting fussed at for the first four minutes of the conversation for not feeding this morning, I finally got to the point of my call. Mark was more than happy to agree with the date. In fact, he kind of sounded a little bit too excited. Between him, Courtney and Davis, there was more than en
ough excitement over this. I was a little nervous to tell the truth. Before he hung up, Mark said they would be there about seven. I called Julie’s store next to let Casey know we were still on for tonight. She sounded relieved and promised she would be there.
I dropped Davis off at his home to a very happy wife, who met him in the front yard and then I drove home. When I got there I was not surprised to see Mark and Courtney on my front steps waiting for me. I was so weak by that point, Mark had to help me into the house. For once, Courtney didn’t take the time to clean her neck. She leaned back on the couch and without hesitation I leaned over and drank greedily.