Bloodchild (33 page)

"You called the police for a stuck car?"

"No. God, no. No." She put the cross back into her pocketbook.

"So?" he said, holding out his arms. "What's this all about?"

"Jillian is dead," she said. "I didn't imagine it. She was one of them. She tried to… tried to kill me too."

"Jillian? Dana's mother? She's dead but she tried to kill you? I don't understand. She's one of what?"

Before she replied, they both turned to see Lieutenant Reis pull up beside Teddy's car. He got out slowly and flipped a cigarette across the road.

"What's going on? This have something to do with the missing girl?" he asked as he approached.

"I don't know," Colleen said.

"Huh?"

"It's my sister-in-law and her mother. Her mother's dead," she said. "I killed her with this." She pulled the cross out of her pocketbook. Lieutenant Reis looked at Teddy, but he shook his head.

"You killed her? What is this, your imagination running wild again?"

Colleen took a deep breath and started to explain. She began with what she overheard Dana say in the hallway as Nurse Patio was taking her to see Dr. Claret. When she finished describing Jillian's demise, Reis put his hands on his hips. He looked at Teddy and saw that even he wore an expression of amazement.

"Is this some kind of prank? A joke? Because if it is… if you two brought me out here to make a fool of me—"

"No, honest. Please, you've got to believe me. I'll take you back to the car and the… what remains of Jillian. Then we have to go up to the farmhouse and get my sister-in-law out of there before they…" She shook her head. "Maybe she's one of them already," she said.

"Vampires?" Lieutenant Reis said. "And a baby who sucks blood as well as mother's milk?"

"I saw it myself," she said. "I saw it. Please. Just go up there."

"What about you?" he asked Teddy. "You see this too?"

"No, sir. She followed them without me. I just got here."

"Uh-huh. Where's your brother? Does he know you're out here chasing vampires?"

"No. He doesn't understand any of this. I think they have him hypnotized or something."

"Hypnotized," Reis said dryly. He shook his head.

"If you'll just go up there with me, you'll see I'm telling the truth. There'll be no question about it this time. Please," Colleen pleaded. He studied her for a moment. "At least look at the body," she said.

"All right. Both of you get into my car," he said. He watched them get in, looked around, shook his head, and then got in himself. They drove up to the gravel drive and pulled in, Colleen repeating her description of how carefully she had followed Dana and Nurse Patio. They quickly came upon her car in the ditch.

"See?" she said, as if that proved everything she had told them. Reis angled his vehicle so that the headlights swept back and exposed the back end of her car.

"Might need a tow truck for this," he said.

They all got out. Teddy went directly to her car. He stepped into the ditch and looked at the rear wheels.

"Maybe if we put our weight on the rear bumper, she'll make contact with the ground and pull forward," he said.

"Forget the car for a moment," Lieutenant Reis said. "I want to see this corpse." He turned around. Colleen lingered by his car. "Well?"

"It's right ahead, there on the road," she said, pointing. "Under the bathrobe."

"I see." He went to his car trunk and took out a large flashlight. The beam cut a narrow tunnel of light through the darkness as he started forward. Teddy joined him, and Colleen followed a good four or five feet behind. They walked on up the driveway and then stopped.

"So?" Reis said. Colleen came up beside him. "Farther up the road, I suppose?"

"It's got to be," she said.

"Uh-huh." He walked on. Teddy took her arm and they followed. After another dozen yards Reis stopped again. "You said it wasn't far from your car."

"I don't understand." She looked ahead at the farmhouse. It was completely dark. "They heard us coming," she whispered.

"Huh?"

Teddy squeezed her arm tighter, as if to get her to shut up, but she pulled away from him and went to Lieutenant Reis's side.

"They heard us coming, so they gathered up her body and took it someplace. Then they put out all the lights. Don't you see?"

Reis stared at her a moment, then directed the beam of light toward the old farmhouse. What he saw made him shake his head.

"Who the hell could live in there? That place looks like it's been deserted for years. Let's get out of here," he said, and started to turn away. She grabbed his arm.

"I'm telling you the truth! They have Dana in there. Please," she pleaded again. "Keep looking."

"Look, miss, I appreciate—"

"Wait," Teddy said suddenly. "Let me borrow that flashlight a minute."

Reis gave it to him, and he and Colleen watched Teddy go up the driveway another dozen yards or so. Then he beckoned to them.

"What?" Reis said, approaching.

"Look at this," Teddy said. "A definite set of tire tracks."

"So? She drove up here."

"But she said she pulled over into that clearing. Her tracks are there. These go on toward the house."

"Maybe she drove up there too. She's not rational. She doesn't know what she's saying anymore."

"You can check the tire size from this impression," Teddy said. "It doesn't look like her tires. They're wider than the ones on a Mustang."

"So even if someone else did drive up here, what does that prove? She might have followed a couple of passionate teenage lovers. Great place to park," Reis said. He leaned toward Teddy and lowered his voice. "She probably saw the boy kissing his girlfriend passionately on the neck, and the rest is a product of her wild imagination."

"I know, but shouldn't we search a little more?" Teddy asked.

"Look, do you see any cars up there?"

Teddy stared ahead and then shook his head.

"So?"

"Maybe they pulled it behind the house."

"Jesus," Reis said. He looked back at Colleen, who stood waiting and watching intently. "Do you believe that fantastic story?" Reis asked.

"I don't know what to believe," Teddy said. "I'm going to run up and take a quick look behind the house, okay?"

"I've got a better idea. Let's drive up there," Reis said. "Then we'll come back and see if we can give her car some traction and end this horror show."

"Okay," Teddy said.

After they all got back into his car, Teddy put his arm around Colleen. She leaned her head against his shoulder and they drove up to the old farmhouse. Teddy got out quickly and, taking the flashlight with him, went around to the rear of the house while Reis examined the front porch and door. Teddy returned a few moments later.

"Nothing," he said. "But there was a car parked here. See?" He directed the flashlight beam at the tire tracks.

"Lovers," Reis repeated. "No one has been living in this run-down place. That's for sure. Much less a doctor." He came off the porch.

"You're not going inside?" Colleen asked him.

"What's the point, Colleen? There's no one here. What we've got to do is get your car going, if we can, and get you home to get some rest."

"You think I made it up?" she said sadly.

"All I know is that there is no decomposed body on the road, there is no car, there are no people with long teeth… that's all I know," he said. "Get in," he commanded. They did. Then he drove back to Colleen's car. He and Ted got out and stood on the bumper, shaking the car up and down.

"Get in, Colleen," Teddy told her. "Start it up and put it in drive."

She did so, and when they jumped up and down, the tires got enough of a bite so she could drive the car back onto the road.

"Thanks a lot," Teddy told him.

"Listen," Lieutenant Reis said, seizing Teddy by the upper arm, "take my advice. Get your girlfriend home and keep her there, will you? She's got some serious problems. She should go back to see that psychologist up at the hospital."

"Okay," Teddy said softly.

"I'm going to have to call her brother and let him know about this," Reis said. Teddy nodded and then got into Colleen's car and rode with her back to the closed gas station. Reis pulled ahead of them and then went on down Church Road.

"Now everyone will be convinced I'm crazy," Colleen said. "And no one will help Dana."

"He's going to call Harlan and tell him about this."

"Oh, God." She thought for a moment. "Teddy, I'm not going home tonight."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't go back there, not tonight. I know what I saw, and I know what happened. I'm going to come back up here in the morning, when it'll be possible to see things clearly. I'll find some evidence. I will," she said with renewed determination.

"Jesus, Colleen." He shook his head. "I don't know if I can let you do that."

"What do you mean, let me? You have nothing to say about this, Teddy Becker. I don't care if you believe me or not."

"I didn't say I didn't believe you. You saw something there," he added.

"I saw exactly what I said I saw," she replied firmly.

"All right. Let's take it a step at a time. Where are you going to go tonight, if you don't go home?" he asked calmly. She thought a moment.

"I'll go to Audra's house and stay with her mother. Harlan will accept that. I want to, anyway. I should have stayed with her last night."

"I see. And then, in the morning, what will you do if you come up here and do find… something."

"I don't know. Teddy," she said, "if they are what I think they are, if they are vampires, then they won't be awake during the day. Yes," she said suddenly, full of realization. "That's why Dana and the baby slept so much during the day. Don't you see? That's why the baby was always up and alert at night."

"You know you're scaring me," Teddy said.

"But it makes sense." She got out of the car.

"Where are you going now?"

"To call Harlan from the pay phone before Lieutenant Reis calls him," she said. He got out and followed her, standing by her as she dialed and spoke.

"I'm eating with Mrs. Carson," she told him when he said Nurse Patio was serving supper shortly. "How long have Dana and Nurse Patio been back?… I see. How is Dana?" She listened for a few moments. "Maybe she should be in a hospital, Harlan… I know. I know. Okay. I'll call you from school… No, I have everything I need. Good night, Harlan." She slowly cradled the receiver.

"What is it?"

"They returned home, all right. Probably while I was down here waiting for you and Lieutenant Reis. Harlan says Dana is very tired and anemic, according to this Dr. Claret. She has to take high doses of iron and vitamins. He says she'll no longer be breast-feeding the baby."

"Really? How does that fit in with everything? I mean, if Nurse Patio and this doctor don't want her to breast-feed anymore, then—"

"It doesn't mean anything," she said quickly. "Harlan will never know when she does breast-feed. He believes everything Nurse Patio tells him."

"After Reis calls him, he'll call Mrs. Carson to speak to you and demand you go home."

"I know, but I won't go home. I don't want to be in the same house with Nurse Patio," she said, and shook herself to rid her body of the chill.

"You're determined to come up here again, huh?" Teddy said.

"Yes, Teddy. I have to. Don't you see? If I don't prove that I saw what I said I saw, it will all go on until Dana's dead and one of them."

"All right. I'll meet you here at the gas station at seven-thirty in the morning. My parents will think I'm going to school. I'll go through the place with you. But after that," he added quickly, "you've got to promise you'll stay away, that you'll go to school and then back home to be with your brother."

"I promise," Colleen said.

"Wait for me," he said. "I'll follow you to Audra's house just to be sure you're safe."

"Thank you, Teddy. I knew in the end you'd be with me."

"Yeah, we'll both share a cell in the loony bin." He kissed her quickly and went for his car.

As they pulled away the bats that had been resting atop the gas station's roof surged into the air, swooped down toward the road, and then flew off toward the old farmhouse. When they flicked their wings, it sounded like wooden matches being struck. In moments they were swallowed up by the cool shadows that embraced them.

And the silence they left in their wake was as cold and as empty as the silence between the stars.

Lucy Carson was grateful for Colleen's company, even though to her, Colleen appeared high-strung and tense. She assumed it was because of her concern about Audra. She wanted to give her something to eat, but Colleen refused. They sat in the living room and talked for over an hour.

"I haven't moved from this house," Lucy said. "I'm afraid to miss a phone call, either from the police or someone who knows something."

"I can understand," Colleen said. "Mrs. Carson, I'd like to stay with you tonight."

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Colleen. I'm sure your brother would rather you were home."

"No. No," she repeated more softly. "I want to be with you. At least one night. I want to do it for Audra. Please. I won't be any trouble."

"I know that, dear." Lucy Carson's eyes took on that childlike innocence again when she smiled. "It is very kind of you to think of someone else. Of course you can stay here. If you want, you can sleep in Audra's room."

"I'd like that," Colleen said.

"I already changed the bedding. I've been working around the house all day, sometimes doing the same things twice. Just to keep my mind off things," she explained. "Whenever that phone rings, it's like a small explosion. My heart jumps and I lose my breath. Most people who know us aren't calling. They realize I'm waiting anxiously.

"So," she added, taking a deep breath and pressing her palms together as if to follow what she had said with a prayer, "it gets dreadfully quiet in here."

"I don't mind it," Colleen said. She sat back on the couch and closed her eyes.

"You look very tired yourself, dear. Are you sure you're all right?"