He got lost. Chapter 34
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. " Jessica made the time-out sign. "You made up after your other fight, but now you're fighting again?"
I nodded miserably.
"You guys. Seriously. I really think you should get married already-talk about prewedding jitters! You're tearing each other apart!"
"Perhaps my father could help," Laura suggested. "He has counseled many couples before their special day. "
Oh, right. I could just see Sinclair and me sitting in the minister's office. "Thanks anyway, Laura. "
"What are you doing here?" Jess demanded. She was jealous of any woman who took up my time, even relatives. "Weren't you just here?"
"I had to let George feed again," she said glumly. She pulled back her coat sleeve to show us the neat bite marks and reddened flesh. "He's pretty much healed up now. "
"Oh. Well, good work. " I tried an encouraging smile, which felt like an embalmed leer. "Don't almost kill him anymore. Let that be a lesson to you. Etcetera. Time to get back to my problems: can you believe that bum?"
"Well. He did go to Europe to keep a bunch of scary old vampires from coming over here and killing you," Jess pointed out.
"You just like him because his rent checks have never bounced. "
"No, but frankly, I figure that other hurdle-whatever it was-if you got over that, you can get over anything. "
"Excuse me," Cathie said, right next to my ear, and I yowled and knocked over my tea. "But if we're going to get back to anyone's problems, we're getting back to mine. "
"There's a ghost in the room," I told Laura and Jess.
"Oh, honey. Not this again. " Jess didn't believe in ghosts (funny 'tude for someone who lived with vampires). No matter what I did, I couldn't get her to see them. So she just. . .
"I'm out of here. " She got up, ready to put her cup and saucer in the sink, when Laura opened her mouth. I shook my head, and we sat in silence until Jessica left.
"What does it want?" Laura practically whispered.
"I can hear her fine," Cathie snapped.
"She can hear you fine," I translated. "She's the latest victim of the Driveway Killer. "
"The one who's missing? Mrs. Scoman?"
"There's another one?" Cathie cried. "Dammit, dammit! This is why I'm floating around this dump, trying you to get your head out of your ass! This is exactly what I was trying to prevent! Son of a fucking bitch!"
"All right, don't yell. " I put my hands over my face and shivered for a minute. "She's mad because there's another victim. "
"Well. . . another lady who's missing. She got pulled out of her driveway tonight; they've already put an alert out on her. " Laura was obviously trying to sound encouraging to the dead woman she couldn't see or hear. "She hasn't actually shown up, um, dead. "
"Then let's go get him! Right now!"
"She wants to go after the bad guy," I told Laura.
"Of course she does! It's Mrs. Robinson, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, let's go!"
"Wait wait wait. " Cathie, halfway through the wall, backed up and looked at me. Laura, halfway to the door, also stopped. "Where are you guys going? Do you know where he lives? All Cathie knows is that she got conked in her driveway-that's not exactly news. And she has a vague idea of being in 'some old house' and then she woke up dead. We have to tell Nick all this stuff-"
"How?" Laura asked. "Of course, you're right, we must tell the law, but how will we explain our knowledge?"
"We could say we got an anonymous letter or something. "
"Which he will then wish to see. " Laura sounded apologetic to be thinking up problems. "At least, I know I would. "
"A phone call?"
"Why would they call you? Or me, for that matter?"
"Because Jessica's going out with him?"
"You could pretend to be a victim who got away," Laura suggested, "and then tell them everything the ghost tells you. "
"That's not bad," Cathie said, "but there's no damn time. Don't you get it? He doesn't keep us very long; he's scared. "
"Scared of getting caught?" I asked, so far over my head.
"No, scared of us. The victims. He'll kill her tonight and dump her in some awful public parking lot where everyone will see her naked and laugh and point. "
"Nobody-" I began, shocked.
"No, that's what he thinks. It's what he wants. Now can we come up with how to explain it later? At least let's go drive to where I remember the house!"
"An address, anything?"
"No, but at least we can get in the area. Maybe I'll remember more. It's worth doing, goddammit!"
"You're right," I said, after I'd told Laura everything that had been said. "It's worth doing. "
"Now, now, right now!"
"She's right," Laura said, and I assumed it was in response to what I had said, not because she could hear Cathie. "It's worth doing. Let's go at once. " Chapter 35
"Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad badBAD idea," I said again.
"Take a left," Cathie commanded from the back. "And enough complaining. I'm sick to death of the complaining. "
"We're not cops! Okay? In this car is a secretary, a college student, and a part-time horse trainer. "
"It would have been full-time," Cathie said, "but now that I'm dead, that bum Gerry's gonna snake the slot right out from under me. "
"We should have told Nick the whole thing and let him come into the neighborhood with about nine SWAT teams. "
"Never mind how difficult that would be to explain," Laura began.
"Right, and scare the killer off with a bunch of uniforms running around!" Cathie snapped. "No, we have to catch that jerk. Driveway Killer. . . Driveway Asshole is more like it. Left!"
"Does anything look familiar to her?" Laura asked.
"No," Cathie said. "But I won't forget the smell in a hurry. It stank like nothing else has. "
"He stank?"
"No, the neighborhood. Something chemical, something like-"
"The Glazier Refinery?" I read off the sign as we passed it. There were about two hundred smokestacks in the air, and they were all pouring out smoke that smelled like fake pizza.
Cathie retched in my backseat. Could ghosts puke? I tried to stay focused. "I guess this is the area. "
"God, that smell! How could the cops not smell it on my-goddammit, because he strips them and then dumps them. "
"Still, you'd think there'd be some clues," I said doubtfully.
"This isn't CSI," Laura said, watching out the window. "Not that I watch the show-an hour of people finding new and interesting ways to kill each other? No thank you. But this is real life, not television. And it's a big metro area. Millions of people, doing millions of things, over a large square area. I've lived out here all my life, and I've never even heard of this place. I think when we catch him, it will be obvious what he was doing and where he was taking them, but we have to get him first. "
"Whoa, whoa! You guys, I think we agreed-"
"I didn't agree to anything," Cathie said.
"-that this is a fact-finding mission. We're not here to bust the guy. We need something concrete to take back to Nick and then they can come get him. We're just nosing around for clues. "
"And if we find him standing over a woman with a big butcher knife?" Laura asked.
"Actually," Cathie piped up helpfully, "he strangles us. With his belt. "
I shuddered. "If worse comes to worst, we'll catch him. Don't sweat it, Cathie, Laura and I are totally capable of knocking a guy out and calling the cops. I'll distract him by letting him stab me multiple times and then Laura will kick the shit out of him. We'll just use a nearby phone and do the anonymous tip thing. If Mrs. -uh-"
"Scoman. You really are terrible with names," Laura chided me gently.
"I know. Anyway, if she needs to go to the hospital, we'll tak
e her. We'll-look, we're putting the cart ahead of the horse, here. Let's see if we can find the damn house first. "
"He took off his belt, and he strangled me until I shit myself. " I was shocked to see Cathie had scooted way over and was whispering in Laura's ear. "He did it because he's weak and because he's afraid of women. And after I was dead, he took off all my clothes and made fun of my boobs. "
"Cathie! I mean, jeez, I'm not saying you don't have a right, but cripes!"
"What?" Cathie was smack in my rearview mirror again. "I didn't say anything. I'm looking at houses. "
"I heard her that time!" Laura said, excited. "Talking about her boobs and such. I think I'm getting a new power!"
"No," I said, kicking myself for ever thinking things were as bad as they could get. "I think your mother's here. "
"What?"
"Surprise," Cathie said, and smiled.
"Mother!" Laura had twisted around in her seat and was glaring at the devil. "I can do this without your help!"
"I'm sure you can," the devil went on in Cathie's voice, smirking with Cathie's face. "But it seemed for a moment like you were going to take the coward's way out. Knocking him out and waiting for the police. . . " The devil rolled her eyes. "That's just sad. "
"Go to Hell," Laura said through gritted teeth, and-I'm not sure how she did this from the passenger seat of a Dodge Stratus-pulled out her sword and stabbed Cathie with it.
Who promptly cried, "What the hell do you think you're doing, you morbid bitch?"
Laura looked at me. "Is she talking again?"
"Oh, yeah. "
"Good. " The sword disappeared. Laura turned back around. Nobody said a word for five miles. Chapter 36
"Your sword disrupts magic," I began, because somebody had to say something.
"Yes. "
"So why didn't it 'kill' Cathie?"
"I don't know. I've only ever killed vampires with it. I tried to kill a werewolf once, but it just made her change back into a woman. She was so startled she ran away from me, and I never saw her again. "
"There are werewolves?" Cathie asked. "For real?"
"You gotta be kidding me, werewolves. Like I don't have enough to deal with?" I bitched.
"It was only the one time," Laura said defensively. "I'm sure you'll never have to meet one. They're rarer than vampires, I bet. "
"Let's for cripe's sake hope so. Cathie, is any of this looking familiar?"
"I only saw the house from the inside," she said apologetically. "I remember what the inside looked like. . . and the smell of the place. I remember that. "
"Oh, it's that one. " Laura pointed to a nondescript split-level on the end of the block. It was tan with dark-brown trim. The driveway and sidewalks had been neatly shoveled.
"It is?" Cathie whispered, leaning forward so that her head popped through the seat between us.
"How do you know? Cathie, does anything ring a bell?"
"Just the smell. How does she know?"
Laura sighed, a dreadful sound, and looked at the nice little split-level the way I would look at a child abuser. "Is it a black house? All black, even the sidewalks? Even the snow around it?"
"No," Cathie and I said in unison.
"It looks black to me," Laura said simply. Chapter 37
"Hi, Eric? It's Betsy. Listen, don't freak out, but Laura and Cathie-never mind, long story-anyway, we think we've found where the Driveway Killer lives, so we're going to check it out. It's
4241 Treadwell Lane
in Minneapolis. Anyway, when you get this, call me. Except I'm going to have my ringer turned off so we can sneak up on this guy if we have to, so don't flip out if I don't answer. Okay, love you, bye!"
"Are you happy now?" Cathie bitched. "Can you please get off your ass and help me, or do you have more calls to make?"
"Hey, you've seen the horror movies. The heroine never tells anyone where she's going-it's maddening. Or if she does remember she has a cell phone, it's always dead. Or she can't get a signal. "
"Or her fiance is on the other line and doesn't answer the call," Laura prompted helpfully.
"You shut up. And keep that thing put away unless we need it. "
"We'd better not need it," she said as we parked a few blocks away and got out of the car. "It only disrupts magic; it doesn't do squat on regular people. Well, humans, I mean. "
"Oh. "
"I've been meaning to ask," she whispered as we snuck up on the split-level and Cathie ran through (literally through) snowbanks ahead imploring us to hurry, hurry, hurry! "I thank God every night that I didn't hurt you, but, uh, why didn't my sword hurt you? It should have killed you. "
I shrugged. "Got no idea, doll. But one thing at a time. "
"Oh. All right. "
"Now remember," I whispered as we peeked into the front window. "Fact-finding. And if the woman's here, we'll save her. "
"What if there's no woman here, just the bad guy?" Laura asked.
"You'll recognize him, right?" I asked Cathie.
"Too damned right I will. "
"Okay, well, then we'll pull back and call the good guys and wait for them to come. "
"What if he leaves before-"
"One thing at a time, okay? We don't even know if anybody's home. "
"Nobody's in the living room," Laura observed.
"Just a minute," Cathie said, and flitted through the window. We hid (in plain sight, in the front yard), feeling like idiots (at least I did) while she phased through the house. She popped out through the garage and said, "He's not here. But there's a woman in the basement!"
"Pull up the garage door," Laura suggested.
"Everything's locked," Cathie fretted.
"I'm sure I can pull it up-" I began.
"But you guys," Laura protested, "he'll see it!"
"Who cares? Do him good to get a really big scare. Maybe he'll do something stupid. "
"And maybe he'll run away and we won't catch him. "
"Well, we can't just leave that poor woman down in the dark by herself, thinking she's going to die. "
"Goddamned right!" Cathie said. "One of you break something and get in here! All I can do is float around going booooooooo. Cross of Christ!"
I picked up one of the bricks lining the sidewalk and tossed it through the front window. The noise was tremendous. Not to mention the mess. Cathie and Laura stared at me, shocked.
"Maybe this way, he'll think it's just kids. " It was lame, but it was all I had. "Maybe he won't think the cops are here if he just sees a broken window. "
"Oh. Good one. " Cathie floated approvingly away, and Laura carefully hoisted herself up and into the living room.
"Watch the glass," I warned her and then cut myself a good one and cursed. Luckily, I bled as well as I read: sluggishly.
"Down here!" Cathie called, and darted into a closed wooden door.
What's funny was, I was starting to get used to the smell of the refinery-we'd been driving around the neighborhood a good twenty minutes, after all. But Cathie was right, it blotted out everything else. If he was killing women in the basement, I couldn't smell it from the kitchen. I couldn't even smell the kitchen from the kitchen.
Laura and I hurried down the stairs, which were predictably dark and spooky until Laura found the light switch. Banks of fluorescents winked on, and in the far corner, we could see a woman with messy, short blond hair, tied up and gagged with electrician's tape. Her outfit was, needless to say, a mess.
"Ha!" Cathie screeched, phasing though the wood-burning furnace and zooming around in a tight circle. "Told you, told you!"
"It's all right," Laura said, going to her. "You're safe now. Er, this might sting a bit. " And she ripped the tape off the woman's mouth. "It's like a Band-Aid," she told her. "You can't do it little by little. "
"He's coming back-to kill me-" Mrs. Scoman (I assume it was
Mrs. Scoman) gasped. "He said he-was going to use his special friend-and kill me-" Then she leaned over and barfed all over Laura's shoes.
"That's all right," Laura said, rubbing the terrified woman's back. "You've had a hard night. "
"If those were my shoes," I muttered to Cathie, "I wouldn't be able to be so nice about it. "
"Oh, your sister's a freak," Cathie said, dismissing ShoeGate with a wave of her hand. "I've only known her a couple of days, and I figured that one out. "
"She's different and nice," I said defensively, "but that doesn't make her a freak. "
"Trust me. Having been killed by one, I recognize the breed. "
"You take that back! You can't put someone like Laura in the same league as the Driveway Asshole. "
"Will you two stop it?" Laura hissed, struggling with the tape. "You're scaring poor Mrs. Scoman! And I am not in the same league as the Driveway Asshole. "
"I just want to get out of here," she groaned. "I want to get out of here so bad. Just my feet. I don't care about my hands. I can run with my hands tied. "
Then I heard it. "Move," I told Laura. "The-we have to go now. "
Cathie darted up through the ceiling.
"What?" Laura asked.
I started to rip through the tape with a couple tugs, tricky because I didn't want to hurt Mrs. Scoman. "The garage door just went up," I said shortly.
Cathie swooped back into the basement. "He's back! And boy, he is freaked out. Keeps muttering about the damn foster kids, whatever that's supposed to mean. "
"Hurry," Mrs. Scoman whispered.
"Please don't throw up on me. If I do it any faster or harder, I could break all the bones in your hands. "
"I don't care! Do my feet! Break my feet! Cut them off if you have to, just get me out of here!"
"Carrie? Do you have friends downstairs, Carrie?"
"Oh, great," I mumbled. "The predictably creepy killer has arrived. "
Cathie pointed at the man-I couldn't see him because we were as much under the stairs as beside them-walking down the stairs. "Time's up, motherfucker," was how she greeted him, and damn, I liked the woman's style.
"Why did no one think to bring a knife?" Laura asked the air.
"Because we're the hotshit vampire queen and devil's daughter, and we don't need knives. Unless, of course, the bad guy ties up his victims with tape. Then we're screwed. " Ah! I finally got her feet free and went to work on her hands. Because she would have had to run past the killer to escape, I shoved her back down when she tried to scramble to her feet. "It's okay," I told her. "We've got it covered. We really are the hotshit-never mind. I'll have this off in another minute. "