Red Tide: The Flavel House Horror / Vampires of the Morgue (The Ian McDermott, Ph.D., Paranormal Investigator Series Book 2) (18 page)

Ian almost staggered from the kitchen into the living room and flopped down on the edge of the bed. Zoey saw the large envelope that Ian held in his right hand. She also couldn’t help but notice the expression on Ian’s face; it looked like he was in at least mild shock.

Ian spoke before Zoey had a chance to ask any questions. “Your uncle and I have entered into a business partnership of sorts. He’s going to write about my investigations. Clayton either must have gotten some kind of advance royalty and he’s sharing it with me, or …”

Zoey spoke in an excited tone, “Wow! By the size of that envelope, that must have been some kind of advance. I mean, I know he’s done very well in the past and is still pretty famous … but...” Zoey giggled then asked, “You two aren’t into something shady, are you?”

Ian smiled reassuringly as he spoke in a calm voice. “No. No, nothing like that. I’m telling you the truth. At least what I’ve told you, and as I understand it. Come here and sit next to me ... I’ll tell you a tale. One that you’re going to find hard, if not impossible, to believe. But I swear, hand to God, it’s true.”

Zoey left the comfort of standing in front of the warm fire and set herself just a few inches away from Ian on the edge of the living room bed.

“Okay Ian, shoot! Just know I can take and even understand just about anything. I’m no Mother Teresa. Just don’t … just don’t ever lie to me.”

Ian smiled slightly while he nodded his head, acknowledging what Zoey said.

“All right. No lies. Here goes. All I ask is that you wait until I’ve said everything that I need to say before you either ask questions or want me to call you a taxi.”

Zoey laughed at that remark, “Taxi? Where do you think you are, New York? There’s no taxi service. Well, I guess there’s sort of the one, but … Oh, never mind. Tell me what’s on ‘yer … Just go ahead.”

“Okay. You know I told you a little about the town of Harmony Falls. You know, where I was before coming here. Well, without going into too many boring details, suffice it to say a friend of mine died. Let me back up. I was helping local law enforcement somewhat like I’m doing with Ned. Anyway, I was helping them investigate a situation that started with some hikers who’d been missing then later were found dead. Presumably killed by an animal or animals. There was that, and there were some other non-fatal attacks on a logger and some kids … And, well …”

Ian paused to look Zoey in her eyes to see if she was following him. Zoey nodded her head slowly as she spoke. “Yeah, got it. Keep going.”

He continued. “Anyway, it wasn’t an animal. Well it was … Oh man, this is hard to explain. Me and Sheriff’s Deputy Charlie Redtail, we caught the murderer. But after he’d also killed the local sheriff. A good man. Sheriff Bud O’Brien.”

Zoey spoke in a gentle voice, “It’s okay, Ian. Tell me everything.”

Ian took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and regained his composure. He continued, “Anyway, the thing is … The thing about the killer is, he wasn’t … I mean … Ah hell, Zoey, I swear to you and God above the guy wasn’t human.”

Zoey looked intensely into Ian’s eyes as she replied, “No duh. The guy was a psycho ... a monster!”

Ian started laughing as a purely nervous reaction. “Monster. Yeah, he was a monster all right. A fucking WEREWOLF! I shit you not!”

Zoey stood up, running her right hand through her hair. “Werewolf? Did I hear …? Ian, did you just say the murderer was a WEREWOLF! And you’re not speaking metaphorically? Or … some such shit …?”

Ian took another deep breath as he shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah. You heard me right. I know. I know. Had I not been there and seen it with my own eyes, I mean you have every right to think me a crazy or compulsive liar or WHATEVER!” Ian couldn’t help but nervously raise his voice.

Ian paused for a couple of seconds to calm himself down, then continued, “But whatever you think of me, it won’t change a thing. I’ve told you the truth to the best of my ability. And now here’s another one to swallow. Your uncle and, well, me too I guess, we believe that Salizzar, and maybe some of his cronies, are not only cold-blooded killers

but …” Ian paused as he mused,
Cold-blooded killers who happen to kill for warm blood.

Zoey stared up at the ceiling and took a couple of slow, deep breaths before she spoke in an over-exaggeratedly calm voice, “Actual vampires. Let me get this straight. You and my uncle got your collective heads together and have come up with the theory that Salizzar’s a real vampire? Fangs and all?”

Ian said, “Zoey, it really doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. Just try and accept this much. I have witnessed events that go way beyond what any person with a rational mind would ever consider other than laughably possible. Things totally contrary to science regarding all accepted laws of physics. And believe me ... you don’t experience anything like what I’ve seen and barely lived through ... without it rocking your entire belief system and changing you; opening your eyes wide to a world that you never would have ever realized exists all around you. Everywhere and nowhere, depending on what you allow your eyes to see. What I mean is, what I’m trying to say is this, I’m willing to at least consider the possibility of things now that just a few weeks ago I would have immediately dismissed as utter superstitious nonsense. I tell you, I can no longer be so quick to dismiss extreme possibilities. But mainly, what I want you to know, to fully understand, is regardless of whether they’re actually blood-guzzling vampires in the cinematic sense of the word or just crazy vampire wannabes, these are likely ruthless killers either way. That is, if they are in fact the perpetrators of some or all of those recent murders across the river. Now, I tell you this because for one last time, it’s not too late for you to back out. Actually, there’s a part of me that wishes you would. The night we first met I told you about how my wife and daughter died in that car crash. Well, now with the loss of my trailer, not that it was much, you can probably understand that I have nothing much left at stake to lose, present company excluded.”

Ian glanced over at Scout for a second, then focused back on Zoey as he continued, “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you’ve got your entire life left to live, and you’re doing great ... and …”

Zoey stopped staring at the ceiling. She took a deep breath, then looked at Ian. “I believe you, Ian. I mean I believe you’re telling me the truth to the best of your understanding of the facts. Clearly you’ve experienced more loss than most people can take. I know about loss … My parents and all …” Zoey paused. Suddenly, she changed the tone of her voice from extremely soft to that of strength.

Zoey collected her thoughts then continued, “That was then and this is now. The way I see it is simple. If Salizzar or any of his nut jobs actually drink human blood or eat flesh or … Well, that in my book makes them vampires real enough. I have a firm grasp on how dangerous tomorrow night might get. The very fact that they probably are the ones behind the murders and are behind those punks that destroyed your trailer and things … uh … duh. Yeah, these are ruthless, dangerous guys. But, if you think that I’m going to let you go into that lion’s den tomorrow night by yourself, then there’s no doubt about it. You are crazy! Hopefully, all this worrying is for naught, and we’ll end up having a happy Halloween. But if it all goes to shit ... the very worst case scenario is we’ll go down fighting together. And that’s all I have to say about that.” Zoey held her right hand palm-out towards Ian. “I’ll hear no more of this tonight. Now, get undressed ‘cause it’s payback time, and by the looks of that envelope, maybe I can earn a bonus or two.” Zoey giggled just a little as she leaned over towards Ian, closing the gap between them. She then closed her eyes and gently pressed her lips against his.

CHAPTER 19

All Hallows Eve (I)

Zoey was up early and moving about the condo, sipping a cup of coffee that she’d made just minutes before. She sat down on the bottom edge of the bed next to Ian, who was still sleeping on his back, and began gently tickling Ian’s left foot which was protruding from the bedding. Scout had replaced Zoey in her spot in bed the moment she had gotten up. He was wide awake but had continued just lying patiently next to Ian.

“Wake-ee wake-ee, sleepy head. Happy Halloween!” Zoey said, looking for Ian to stop snoring and open his eyes. “It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.”

Ian lazily opened his eyes and smiled when he saw who’d woken him from his slumber. Zoey was wearing only the v-neck white undershirt that he’d been wearing the night before.

Zoey spoke up in a cheery voice, “Well, before we go shopping, I have a very special place to take you, one that’s fun to visit anytime. But on Halloween, the place is perfect! Just the right amount of weird mixed with a bit of creepy! My very favorite store, or museum depending on a person’s point of view, in Long Beach or anywhere for that matter. I know you’ve seen it from the outside, but that’s nothing. It’s high time you’ve seen the awesome spectacle that is Marsh’s Free Museum and met their famous resident, Jake the Alligator Man.
You haven’t really seen Long Beach until you’ve wandered through Marsh’s.”

Ian didn’t have to be sold. The truth was, anywhere with Zoey was an adventure, and he loved unique, interesting stores, and museums.

“But first, how about we go and hot tub?” Zoey excitedly proclaimed.

Ian, still a bit foggy, thought about that for a moment, then replied, “Uh, that’s a good thought, but neither of us have swimming suits.”

Zoey laughed. “That’s not a problem. I read that it’s adults only in the hot tub for quite a while yet. My bra is a black sports-style one, and my panties look pretty much like regular black colored swim-suit bottoms. And you … You’ve got those boxers. They could pass as swim-shorts, no problem.”

Ian looked down under the covers at his boxers. They were a dark blue-plaid. Ian thought,
Huh ...
shouldn’t be a see-through problem ... I guess.
He’d always bought the kind that had no fly. Ian further mused,
Having a fly in underwear’s stupid. Like I’d stand there trying to pull my dick out of some ‘cockamamie’ fly-hole instead of pulling my shorts down to take a piss.

“Okay, what the hell. I’m in.” Ian exclaimed as he got up. He then immediately joined Zoey in having a cup of coffee. Once Ian had finished his coffee, he got dressed and took Scout out for a doggie-walk. Upon returning, he had the pleasure of watching Zoey slip out of his t-shirt and slide on her bra and panties before proceeding to get fully dressed. Watching Zoey undress then shimmy her slim, sexy body back into her clothing gave Ian thoughts of instigating an alternative agenda to hot tubbing. Thoughts of perhaps a morning round three, but he suppressed his voyeuristically-driven lust, and the two of them proceeded towards the condo’s front door.

Ian looked at Scout as he spoke. “You stay here and be a good boy. We won’t be very long.” Scout barked once and wagged his tail.

Ian and Zoey climbed into the rental car and drove across the parking lot from Building Three over to the pool and spa building next to the office. After parking the car in front of the pool building, Ian went next door to the office. He immediately spotted neatly-folded pool towels piled on the corner of the front counter, Ian picked up two towels and exited the office unnoticed.

Ian met up with Zoey, who had just exited the car and was heading to the pool and spa building’s front door. Zoey held the door open for Ian to catch up and enter with her.

Ian looked up at the sky as he said just loud enough for Zoey to hear, “Well, at least it’s not raining. Not much more than a gentle breeze out today either. I hope this nice weather holds.”

Inside the pool building, straight ahead of them was the indoor heated swimming pool. They both spotted the hot tub at the same time. It was located outside the building through sliding glass doors in a fenced-in patio area. Even from a distance, it was easy to see that it was a large, very nice spa that was totally privatized by a six-foot cedar fence all around it. There were tables and chairs for outside lounging. The weather was uncommonly warm for the time of day and month of the year. Ian guessed it to be in the mid-fifties. The sun had even begun periodically playing peek-a-boo through the clouds.

They had the place all to themselves. Zoey immediately began taking her clothes off, all but her underwear. Ian did the same. They set their clothes on a chair that was in the line of sight of the hot tub just beyond the sliding glass doors.

Zoey opened the sliding glass doorway as she said, “Last one in’s a rotten egg.” She giggled as she headed towards the chrome handrail and stepped into the ground-level mortar-and-tile spa.

Ian was right behind her as he paused for a second to close the sliding glass door behind him.

Once in the spa, Ian was pleased with the temperature of the water, which he guessed to be around 102 degrees. Higher temperatures than what the spa was currently set at tended to wreak havoc on his blood pressure in little to no time at all.

Zoey spotted the button to turn the jets on, which was mounted waist-high on one of the fence posts. She exited the spa just long enough to push down the large, red switch. Zoey then quickly bounded back into the spa, this time not bothering to enter on the side that had the handrail. She almost landed in Ian’s lap.

There was a little delay in the jets coming on, but seconds after Zoey got back into the spa, they did.

Ian blurted out, “Wow! This is great!”

Zoey excitedly replied, “Oh yeah. You got that right. This is wonderful! Ian, would you be a dream and sit behind me and rub my shoulders? I’ve got a small kink in my neck. Not used to their pillows.”

Ian was more than happy to rub any part of her. Zoey’s stiff neck reminded Ian that his neck was fine now. Even with the stress of what they might be up against, Ian thought to himself,
Just having Zoey with me for a couple days has worked wonders.

Ian began massaging Zoey’s neck and shoulders. Occasionally, she would emit a quiet, low groan, clearly indicating when Ian was dead on the mark. After ten minutes of massaging with her back up against him, and her bottom pressed up against his crotch, Ian could bear the pressure no longer. He began slowly moving his hands first down her back, and then to the sides of her shoulder blades. Ian kept moving his hands slowly forward until he held both of Zoey’s breasts cupped gently in his hands. Zoey leaned back and kissed him on the side of his neck. She sighed softly, clearly indicating that she didn’t want Ian to stop.

Within moments, Zoey was reciprocating. She began working her right hand around behind her until she found home. Zoey began slowly massaging with her finger tips up and down Ian’s now fully erect penis. Zoey guided Ian’s left hand around and between her legs. She continued holding Ian’s hand gently beneath her own as she began slowly stroking herself with Ian’s hand, guiding his every movement. First on top of her panties, then with a little adjusting, Ian’s hand and Zoey’s both shimmy-slipped down inside them. Zoey let out an exquisite moan.

Without saying a word, she slipped her panties down, intentionally maintaining them just around her right ankle. She then turned around to face Ian as she skillfully began sliding Ian’s boxers down to his knees.

“My God … You think we should?” Ian uttered in a half-hearted objection as he became ever more intensely fever-driven until succumbing to his glandular-charged madness.

Before Ian could even begin to clear his head and attempt some semblance of rational clarity, in one deft motion, Zoey slid him inside her, taking within her the full length of his swollen phallus. Seated on top of Ian, face to face, she began performing perfectly-timed rhythmic pelvic undulations. After a protracted period of lovemaking to the point that neither could hold out any longer, Ian and Zoey came to simultaneous, exquisitely gasping, anaerobic-sexercised climaxes.

After nearly a minute of their sharing large smiles, hugging, and laughter, Ian was able to finally catch his breath. He spoke while gazing starry-eyed into the deep green pools of Zoey’s eyes, “Happy Halloween.”

Zoey giggled as she replied, “Happy indeed.”

She slowly climbed off of Ian’s lap. It was then that Ian saw it. Startled and instantly embarrassed, he blurted out, “Oh my God!” Ian pointed up to what he was looking at – a camera mounted on a pole that undoubtedly surveyed by remote the entire spa and surrounding lounge area. Zoey couldn’t help herself. She burst into laughter as she said, “Oh my God is right. Hopefully we didn’t give anyone too much of a show. Thank goodness the jets were on and I left my top on.”

Ian too began laughing as he replied, “Yeah, not that that fooled anyone regarding what we were up to. Who knows if that camera even works and whether anyone’s even watching the TV monitor.” He’d noticed it was an old camera, and it was very salt-air weathered.

Ian pulled his boxers back up where they belonged. “I think I’m getting … I mean I got a bit overheated. I better get out.”

Zoey smiled at Ian. “I’ve had all the fun I should as well.” She pulled her panties back on. They left single file out of the spa, just as the jets turned off. Ian guessed they were set to run no longer than thirty minutes at a time.

They went inside the pool building and began drying off. Ian stepped into the men’s bathroom and removed his wet boxers before getting dressed. Zoey did what amounted to the same over in the women’s room. Once they left the pool and spa building, Ian returned the towels to the office and put them in a wet-towel hamper. Ian was relieved once again to see no one behind the counter. But when he turned to leave, he distinctly heard the faint clapping of someone’s hands. Ian turned to see a young twenty-something man now standing behind the office counter. The young man didn’t say a word. He just grinned at Ian and continued slowly clapping. Ian’s face instantly turned radish-red as he turned and rapidly accelerated his pace and got out of the office as quickly as he could ... all the while thinking,
So much for hoping the video camera didn’t work.

Ian began laughing by the time he joined Zoey, who was already in the car that he’d left unlocked.

Zoey asked, smiling, “What’s got you in such a good mood … As if I didn’t know.”

Ian took a deep breath as he replied, “Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Ha! It’s all good!”

Once Ian was settled in the car and had started it up, he glanced for a second over at Zoey. “How about first off … that is after we get cleaned up, I’ll drive the Jeep, and you and Scout follow me in this car just down the street to your uncle’s storage facility where I can stash the Jeep for a day or so.”

Zoey interjected, “My uncle owns a storage facility?”

“Uh, yeah. Apparently he does. I’ve got a feeling Clayton has his fingers in lots of pies. Anyway, after we store my rig ... you, Scout, and I can then head up town to look into buying some clothes and stuff.”

“Yeah, that’d be great! Then we can go by my shop so I can pick up a few things for tonight. And … and after that, we can walk across the street and venture through Marsh’s so I can introduce you to my boyfriend Jake. Maybe pick up something to eat somewhere along the way ... sound like a plan? I mean, there’s probably no need to go to Astoria too soon, right?”

Ian enthusiastically replied, “Sounds great!”

Ian and Zoey returned to the condo where they took a shower together and got cleaned up as best they could. They had no choice but to put back on their soiled clothes.

After cleaning up, the three of them left the condo for the day’s adventure. Moments after Ian turned his Jeep in at the storage facility, he joined Zoey and Scout in the rental car. Zoey had already gotten out from behind the steering wheel of the car and switched to the front passenger seat. With Ian at the helm of the car, he, Zoey, and Scout began heading towards downtown Long Beach.

Ian’s phone rang. He immediately answered it while driving. “Hello.” Ian knew he was taking a small risk talking on his cell phone while driving, since the state of Washington had some tough laws against such activity.

“Hey, Ian. Ned. So, you ready for tonight?”
Officer Ned Parker asked.

Ian glanced for a second over at Zoey then trained his eyes back on the road while he replied, “Yeah, I’m … I mean we’re pretty much ready. Zoey and I.”

“Good. That’s good. There’s been a small change in plans. It shouldn’t affect what you’ll be up to. But me and an FBI agent from the BAU, we’re also gonna be undercover inside the club tonight. We might try and have a look-see around the ground floor skylight basement and such before we join the party upstairs. The FBI agent I’ll be
with is a good looker. I’d guess her to be in her mid-thirties, but she looks younger. Hey, I’ll look like a cradle-robbing club-fuck just like you.”
Ian didn’t laugh. He didn’t find much humor in the comment. It struck home harder than Ned would ever know.

Ian replied, “Okay. Well, as long as neither of us screws up the situation for the other, all should be fine. It’s good to know that there will be some professionals on hand backing us up should the situation get ugly.”