Baited Blood (6 page)

“You want something to eat first?” Pauline asked the Dedhams. “Jesús brought some fresh boar’s blood.”

Doug looked at his wife. Dodie shook her head slowly. It was clear that the Dedhams were truly dead on their feet. “No, thank you, Pauline,” Doug said for them both.

“Madison,” Doug said, turning to her just before he disappeared into the next room. “Please leave Samuel a message about what happened here today. I’m sure he’ll be wanting to discuss it later tonight.”

“Should someone wake him?” Madison asked. “I can call Hyun to do it.”

“No, let him sleep. There’s nothing anyone can do right now, and I doubt any more bodies will show up in broad daylight.” Doug ran a hand through his silver hair. “If it’s another vampire doing this, as we suspect, he is—”

“She,” Dodie corrected.

Doug glanced at Dodie. “He or she will be tucked in for the day.”

“What about Notchey? Should I tell him?”

“Vampires killing vampires is out of his jurisdiction.” Doug shrugged in reconsideration. “But if he has the time to give it some thought, run it by him. Never know, he might see something we’re missing. And it sure wouldn’t hurt to give him a heads-up.”

SIX

A
nyone know this vampire?” Samuel asked the members of the council seated around the Dedhams’ dining table.

Before leaving for her class, Madison had taken Doug’s sketch, scanned it, and sent it to Samuel in an e-mail. As soon as he saw the e-mail, he forwarded the likeness off to the other council members with a request to meet at the Dedhams’ promptly at ten o’clock. Before the council meeting, Madison had printed off enlargements to pass around the table, hoping the larger picture might jar some memories.

Madison attended some council meetings to record certain information, but not all. Tonight she was asked to sit in and take notes. Even Notchey was asked to attend.

When Madison called Notchey to tell him what had happened that morning, he’d invited her out to dinner. They had gone to Gladstone’s in Malibu. While there, Notchey received a text message from Samuel asking him to attend the special council meeting.

“How convenient,” Notchey said, showing Madison the message. “I have to take you back home anyway.”

“What would happen,” Madison asked quietly over their appetizer of crispy calamari, “if the police were called in and found a dead vampire?”

Notchey tilted back his bottle of Guinness and took a long drink before answering. “Hard to say. At first, I’m sure they would think it was just a hoax, or that it was the body of one of those vampirism cult followers with the fake fangs. Of course, the autopsy would be revealing, not to mention interesting.”

“What if the body started decomposing right before their eyes?”

“That really spooked you, didn’t it?”

Madison shuddered. “Yes. It was like watching one of those nature shows where they speed up time so you can see in minutes what happens over years.” She took a drink of her soda. “Have you ever seen a vampire die?”

Notchey remained silent, taking a couple of short nips off his beer bottle while he stared out the window at the darkness that was the Pacific Ocean. Madison’s curiosity rose like a thermometer in the desert. It was obviously a question the cop wasn’t ready to answer in an instant. She had a choice: drop the question or press. She pressed.

“Well, have you?”

“Yes, I have.” He continued staring out at the waves.

“Did it scare you? Or are you too tough a cop to let a silly thing like instant mummification throw you off?”

“Cops are people, Madison.” He turned away from the window and faced her again. “Even though we see some pretty horrible stuff, I’m sure a corpse disintegrating on fast forward would scare anyone shitless, including a seasoned cop.” He dipped a calamari ring into the sauce and popped it into his mouth, thinking while he chewed. “After, I’m not sure what would happen.” He ate another piece of calamari, this time a fried cluster of tiny tentacles. “Although I’m sure if the media got ahold of it, the Dedhams’ property would be overrun with reporters, most of whom would be making up shit about either some religious miracle or evidence of the devil at work. It would have to be sold as one or the other so the public could understand it.”

“But what about the police investigation?”

Notchey laughed, not a happy laugh but one of wry speculation. “That would be a mess, no doubt about it. And I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be the guy filing the report.”

There would be no police report. There was no body. The only thing the dead vampire had left behind was an image for Doug’s sketch and nightmare fodder for Madison.

When their entrees arrived, Madison wasn’t thinking about her grilled shrimp. On her mind was the kiss from yesterday. Notchey hadn’t said anything about it. When he had asked her to dinner, she’d wondered if he’d thrown out the invitation to give them a chance to talk. So far, it seemed all he wanted was company for dinner. She wondered if she should say something or just keep her mouth shut. She’d had only two relationships in her life. One had started in her last year of high school and had ended a few years later. The other had been shortly after she arrived in Los Angeles. Both had ended badly. The guy from high school had developed a serious drug problem. The one in LA had turned out to be married. For all of his personal torment, Mike Notchey seemed to be a stand-up kind of guy. Someone dependable, though elusive and filled with secrets. And he wasn’t a vampire. Whatever attraction she felt for him, she was sure it was mutual. Or was it? Her track record and background left her doubting any feelings about anything and anyone.

“Mike,” she started, pushing a shrimp around her plate with her fork.

He shoveled a piece of salmon into his mouth and chewed, giving her his attention.

She went tongue-tied, wondering how to broach the subject without sounding like a needy, clinging vine. She continued playing with her food.

Notchey pointed his fork at Madison’s plate. “Don’t you think that shrimp’s been through enough without you bullying him?”

She put her fork down and looked at him. After giving her a quick shrug, Notchey went back to eating, returning his attention to the damage he was doing to his own food. Madison picked up the fork again and speared the shrimp, this time stuffing it into her mouth.

“He was a big guy,” Doug told the council as they looked over the picture. “Tall and well built, with blond hair just past his jaw line. His beard was darker than his hair, like a dark gold. Difficult to say how old he appeared. His face was very rugged, so he could have been anywhere from his late thirties to mid-forties, maybe even older.”

No one around the table claimed to know the vampire in the sketch. They looked from one to the other, shrugging.

“There was nothing to give you a clue as to where he might have been from?” The question came from Stacie Neroni.

“He was naked, just like Keleta.” Doug answered. “But he did have the same brand at the small of his back.”

“What does the brand specifically look like again?” This time the question came from Kate Thornton.

“A hexagon with an eye in the middle,” answered Dodie. Although not on the council, she was allowed to attend since she was a witness. Jerry Lerma, Kate’s beater husband, was shut up in the den, waiting for her.

“It looks just like this.” Turning around, Doug gave the council the same show he’d given Notchey and Madison the day they’d fished Keleta out of the pool. Colin and Isabella were the only council members not at the meeting, but Eddie Gonzales, Kate, and Stacie all took a closer look. “This is the brand Annabelle Fogle gave me shortly before she turned me.”

“Are you sure that’s the same brand Keleta and the vampire from this morning had?” Stacie moved closer to Doug’s back and squinted, as if burning the brand from Doug’s skin into her memory.

“Exactly the same,” assured Dodie. She turned to Madison, who nodded in agreement. “Why?”

Stacie resumed her place at the table. “Where’s Colin? Does he know about the brand?”

“We’re not sure of his whereabouts right now,” responded Samuel. “Since our last conference call, he has not been heard from.”

“It’s no wonder,” Stacie snarled.

It was well known that Stacie Neroni and Colin Reddy did not like each other. Madison had once been told by Pauline that it was because of a friend of theirs who had died. She’d once asked Colin about it, but he’d never answered and had instead grown more sullen as the evening wore on.

“Colin has a brand exactly like that.”

Every head turned Stacie’s way, both vampire and beater, but it was Samuel who broke the silence. “Are you sure, Stacie?”

“Yes, I saw it once when he had his shirt off. It was a long time ago, but I’m sure it’s the same mark.”

At the idea of the sexy Colin shirtless, Kate cast an arched brow Dodie’s way. Dodie fought to suppress a grin. Stacie saw the exchange.

“Oh, get over yourselves, you two old biddies,” Stacie growled. “It was when Colin, Julie, and I were in Mexico years ago and went swimming.”

The table went silent as a grave, or as silent as a group of
people
standing over a fresh grave. Dodie and Kate both had their heads down, whether in embarrassment or from the chastising, Madison couldn’t tell. Even the men were looking elsewhere, anywhere but at Stacie, including Notchey. Madison looked at each one of them, her internal radar humming as she tried to get a feel for the reason. Usually lively, the meeting had taken on the same air of discomfort as when someone tells a particularly bad or inappropriate joke.

“What about the brand?” asked Notchey, turning to Madison. “What did he say when
you
saw it?”

Madison didn’t care for Notchey’s tone or implication. He had a mean streak that came out from time to time, and his question had been underlined with spite. Madison was sure he hadn’t made a mistake, that the question had been meant for her.

“It was Stacie, not me,” she reminded him, “who said she’d seen the brand. I’ve never seen Colin with his shirt off, back or front.” She stared at Notchey, asking him with her eyes what in the hell he thought he was doing.

“Well,” said Samuel, once more breaking the awkward silence with diplomacy, “as soon as someone hears from Colin, let him know I’d like to speak to him. If he knew anything, he should have mentioned it during our conference call. Meanwhile, I want full surveillance on this house day and night. If there’s a third body on its way, we’re going to be there waiting. Madison, I want you and Pauline doing day watch. The Dedhams will watch all night.”

“Absolutely, Samuel,” Doug agreed. “We can’t have this happening again, no matter who is at the root of it.”

Samuel nodded confirmation at Doug and continued with his instructions. “Before you and Dodie go to bed, I want you to wake up Madison and make sure she’s on the job. I’ll also send Hyun over before dawn, just in case. He can also fill in when Madison’s at school. I don’t want that back yard unguarded for a moment.”

Samuel turned to Mike Notchey. “The information you gave us on Keleta was most helpful; thank you. At least we know he’s no more than eighteen months old as a vampire, if that. And we know where he met the woman who kidnapped him. I’m going straight over to Byron and Ricky’s tonight to question the boy further about it.”

The meeting was about to adjourn when the front door opened. Every head turned to see who came in, half expecting it to be Hyun with a message for Samuel. Instead, it was Colin, standing tall, dark, and handsome in the doorway. He was dressed in his usual black shirt and pants and black leather jacket. His swarthy face was set in stone, and his thick, black hair was windblown. He looked at the gathering with a stony face, offering no greeting or explanation.

Behind him was a gorgeous and very shapely woman with long, wavy red hair. She wore an elegant knit pantsuit the color of copper. Thick gold baubles adorned her neck and ears. Coming around Colin, she entered the room with cocky confidence. Spotting Doug Dedham, she flashed him a wide, perfect smile, but when her sapphire eyes met Dodie’s, the smile turned to a smirk. Dodie started to rise to say something, but Doug put a hand on her arm to stop her.

“Annabelle.” Doug’s voice was a whispered mixture of surprise and wariness.

The woman stepped up to the dining table and placed her designer handbag on it as casually as if she did it every day. Samuel rose at the head of the table and studied her, letting her know he was in charge and she was on his turf.

Annabelle Fogle met Samuel’s powerful gaze with a slight but superior smile, letting him know in return that he wasn’t the boss of her. “You must be the famous Samuel La Croix I’ve heard so much about.” Her voice was as cold and sparkly as a diamond.

Samuel gave up a tiny, tight-lipped smile of his own. “And you must be the infamous Annabelle Fogle.”

The two studied each other like opponents at a gunfight, each waiting for the other to twitch first. The room went silent once again.

With a slight sigh of surrender, Annabelle relaxed. “Actually, the name’s Ann now. Ann Hayes.”