B008IFNJZM EBOK (49 page)

             
Tom and Crosley were dressed and up early.  It was only about three in the afternoon.
             
Tierra served them breakfast in the dining room.  Carl came in and sat next to the pair. Carl looked at Tierra.

             
“Please go and see to their bedrooms.  I’ll finish serving them.”

             
“Yes sir.  Margaret wanted to know what time the Doctor will be home.”

             
“This is her first day back to work.  I don’t expect her until six this evening.”

             
“I will inform Margaret so she can plan a supper for her… Will the other women be joining her?”

             
“Yes but they will not be eating.  They will be having their dinner with us and Margaret won’t have to cook for them.”

             
Tom interjected his comment.

             
“They are on a special health food diet and we will take them out to their favorite restaurant later.  Margaret should not plan on cooking any meals for them unless we tell her otherwise.”

             
“I see… I will inform Margaret.”

             
The new maid left the room.

             
Tom looked at Carl.

             
“How is she working out?”

             
“Good.  She does whatever I tell her to do.”

             
“Does she want one of the servant quarters?”

             
“I haven’t asked her yet.  I want to give her more time.  I was thinking two weeks before offering  her boarding on the grounds with no change in her pay.”

             
Carl watched the doorway and then leaned forward.

             
“Any luck yet?”

             
“No the girls came back empty again last night.”

             
“How far out have they gone?”

             
“I think they are now scouting in a circular pattern at least fifty miles from here.”

             
“Well maybe it won’t work.  You said yourself that it was only a hunch.”

             
“After tonight, we are going to have them start over.”

             
“How long are you going to do these flights?”

             
“Until the completion of the next full moon cycle or we get a better lead as to finding it or them.”

             
“Oh, there was a rental trailer dropped off today by your uncle.  It is over by the garage.”

             
Carl slid the key over to Tom.

             
“Good we will check it out right after we finish eating.”

             
“I’ll stay until after the women are up.  Then I will continue to look for leads at the local bars.”

             
“Make it a short night tonight and get some rest.”

             
Crosley interjected his thoughts.

             
“If you don’t find anything by ten or eleven call it a night.  We might continue to come up dry until the next full moon cycle.  Get some rest this evening, we will be alright.”

             
“That would be good.  I am kind of tired.”

             
Carl stood up.

             
“I will talk to Margaret and make sure her feelings are not hurt by the girls never eating any of her cooking.  Then after the girls are up I will see to their rooms and leave to make the rounds.”

             
“How is your money holding out?  Do you need more?”

             
“I think I am good for a few days.  You do provide a decent wage.”

             
“Yes but you shouldn’t be spending your own money on this investigation.”

             
“I didn’t know your father that long but he gave me a chance when I really needed a job.  Helping to find the ones responsible for his death is not even a small amount of payback for all he has done for me.  You and your sister have been good to me as well.  It is the least I could do for him and his family… I will go and do my rounds.  Call if you need me.”

             
“Thank you Carl.”

             
The boys finished their breakfast and went out to the trailer.  Crosley opened the back and the first thing he saw was several very thick pieces of lumber mounted on pieces of plywood.  He knew exactly what they were.  The phone rang and Tom answered it as Crosley set out the platform bases with the poles attached in the front lawn.  They were to be the targets for their new weapons.  it was Uncle Joe.
             
“Have you opened the trailer yet?”

             
“Yes Uncle.  Crosley is setting up the poles.”

             
“You will find all of your father’s guns in there.  We destroyed one of the shotguns testing.  We couldn’t use the others.  We needed more horsepower so to speak.”

             
Tom opened one of the long boxes and saw one of the prototype weapons.  It was a modified sniper rifle.  It was heavy.  The barrel had a pair of slots in it as his uncle kept talking on the phone.

             
“We had to use fifty caliber sniper rifles that normally could kill someone at distances of around a mile.  The shells have no warhead or bullet.  We are using the charges to launch your projectiles.”

             
Tom opened a wide ammunition crate.  He removed a very thin projectile that looked like a pair of hinged twelve inch metal rulers.

             
“Have you got one of the bullets in your hand?”

             
“Yes.”

             
“Insert the side with the hinge into the slots on the barrel.”

             
Tom inserted the metallic object into the barrel and pushed it in.  The unhinged end was now flush with the end of the barrel.

             
“Is it in?”

             
“Yes Uncle.”

             
“Okay, remove the safety and the weapon is ready to fire.  The magazine carries ten shells but you must reload a projectile for each shot.  Sorry, given the time and the weight, we could not come up with some kind of automatic system for rapid fire.  Call me back after you and your friend test fire the weapons.”

             
“What is the range?”

             
“Given the fifty caliber charges, you should get at least a hundred yards down range before the projectiles start to tumble.  Our scientists tell me it will be good to at least seventy-five yards in all kinds of weather.  Go with that number instead of the one hundred yard number.”

             
“What caused the range to drop from over a hundred yards to seventy-five yards because of the weather conditions?”

             
“Basically, you are firing a hinged metal ruler that opens up into a ‘v’ after it is about a yard out of the barrel.  That ‘v’ is designed to fly open like a pair of hedge cutters.  Heavy wind and rain can cause it to tumble in flight so that is why the firing charge was increased and the range was cut to seventy-five yards.  After that, it will become unstable in flight and start to tumble…. Call me back and tell me what you think.”

             
“I will Uncle and thanks.”

             
“If you are happy with the weapon’s performance, we will fabricate another hundred rounds by tomorrow.
             
Tom hung up the phone and when Crosley returned, he showed him how the weapon operated.  The two men walked out on the lawn to test fire the weapon.  Crosley went first and aimed at a red line on one of the posts about sixty yards away.  The gun fired and the first test round left the barrel and opened into a ‘v’ traveling at the wooden post making a sound like a boomerang in flight.  It hit the post and cut right through it.  The stand fell over and both men walked over to the target.  Crosley picked up the four by four piece of wood while Tom stood the post and its base upright.  It was cut off right above the red line.  Crosley looked and smiled at Tom.

             
“If that would have been a werewolf’s neck, we would have cut off the head clean.  I am sure the neck is not as strong as this post.”

             
“We don’t know if the neck is that strong or not, but the notes did say such a weapon would work on werewolves.”

             
Crosley dropped the piece of wood.

             
“Now all we have to do is find them.”

***

             
Tierra walked by Iolana’s room as she was combing her short hair wrapped in a white towel.  She thought nothing about the fact that the woman was not using a mirror because her hair was short and that would probably mean a mirror wasn’t needed.  Off on the side, she saw the edge of a coffin on a wheeled stand.  Iolana had covered it with a bed spread but one corner and a handle remained exposed.  Carl came up behind her.  He touched her shoulder and for a moment, frightened the maid.

             
“They sell designer coffins.”

             
“Oh I am sorry sir.  I didn’t mean to pry.”

             
Carl smiled.

             
“That’s alright, I can’t imagine what you thought of that.”

             
Iolana heard Carl and came over and shut the door smiling.

             
Carl and Tierra walked farther down the hall together pushing a laundry cart.

             
“From what I understand, it is a good business and many morticians come here in the evening after they close to view their display.  It kind of gives a whole new meaning to taking your work home with you.”

             
“I see…”

             
“Have you straightened up Crosley’s room yet?”

             
“I was about to do that next.”

             
“Well do his and after the girls finish getting dressed, I will do theirs and you can vacuum this hallway and call it a day.”

             
“Yes sir.”

             
Carl went into Crosley’s room and thought to himself how he felt when he first learned the two women were real vampires.  He talked to himself as his worked.

             
“Well if she doesn’t quit tomorrow, she might just work out.”

             
Elizabeth called it a day and turned in.  She had nothing to report in the way of any animal bites or domestic stock found dead or mutilated.  Tom and Crosley sat on the front porch talking and looking out into the night.  A gentle breeze made it a peaceful evening.  Tom dozed off in his chair as Crosley watched the area.  It was two in the morning when Crosley snapped to his feet.  He heard the wings of the women.  He opened the front door and shook Tom.

             
“They are returning.”

             
“What time is it?”

             
“It’s early… not even three.”

             
The girls flew by and went into the study through the open double doors.

             
The men sat there waiting for them to come up dressed.  Iolana came out wiping her face with a towel.

             
“Chelsea thinks she found something.  I then flew her route and also heard something.”

             
“I am sure it was an animal growl and it was no dog!”

             
Chelsea had her head down in the towel as she sat in the chair trying to catch her breath.

             
Iolana looked at Tom.

             
“She is right.  It wasn’t a dog.  It could have been a real wolf but it wasn’t the sound of any domesticated animal.  I am sure of that.”

             
Crosley got up.

             
“I’ll get the map out of the study.”

             
He returned with the map and set it on Chelsea’s lap.

             
“Where were you?”

             
Iolana came over and nodded to the place where the women think they had made contact.