Read Halfway to the Grave Online
Authors: Jeaniene Frost
Halfway to the Grave (14 page)
D
ID YOU GET THE NOTES FROM THE LECTURE
today? I slept in and didn’t wake up until half an hour ago! Was it really boring like last time?”
Stephanie was in my physics class. At least, she was when she showed up. She had missed two days out of the past five, but whenever I got out of class, she’d be there waiting for me. She liked to hang around campus, it was my guess. Found socializing much more interesting than the actual courses.
Stephanie was a petite brunette with an outgoing personality, and she’d spent the last five days pulling me out of my antisocial shell. College began on Monday. Today was Friday, and so far, she was the only person I’d spoken to on this huge, overwhelming campus.
With my friendless track record, I’d been hesitant to engage in normal, amicable small talk. If it didn’t have to do with dead bodies, school, or the cherry orchard, I generally didn’t know what to say. Stephanie didn’t let that faze her. She was cheerful and ebullient enough for both of
us, and for some reason, she seemed to take a liking to me right off.
“Yeah, I have them. Do you need to make copies?”
She grinned. “Nah. I probably won’t read them anyway. Studying is so boring. Besides, I’m never going to use this crap again, so who needs it?”
Stephanie was a freshman, but in many ways, she was far more sophisticated than me. During our second conversation after class, she’d informed me that she had been dating since she was twelve, lost her virginity at fourteen, and considered men as entertaining and convenient as fast food.
“Tell me why you registered for college?” I asked in amusement.
She nodded pointedly at an attractive male who passed by us.
“The
boys
. This place is
crawling
with them. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet!”
She and Bones had something in common. He would find the campus an all-you-can-eat buffet, too, just not in nearly the same way.
I had avoided him since waking up in bed with him Sunday morning. Wednesday, I was supposed to meet him at the cave, but I didn’t go. I was too confused. My feelings for him had undergone a drastic metamorphosis. Somewhere along the past seven weeks, I’d gone from hating his guts to being inexplicably drawn to him.
“So, do you want to go out tonight and do something?”
I simply stared at her for a second. Twenty-two years old and I’d never gone out with a girl just to have fun and do normal things. Hell, to be more truthfully pathetic, I’d never even had a girlfriend to go out with.
“Um, sure.”
She grinned. “Cool, we’ll have a blast. How about you meet me at my place? We’ll go from there to this great club where I know the bouncer. He’ll let you in.”
“Oh, I’m over twenty-one,” I said, used to people thinking I was younger. “In fact, I’m twenty-two.”
She gave me such a sharp look that I shifted uncomfortably. Okay, I was a little older than the typical college junior, but I’d had to help out at the orchard after my grandfather’s heart attack….
Finally she smiled. “Well. Aren’t you full of surprises?”
Stephanie lived in an off-campus apartment not far from the place I’d soon be renting. With the money Bones had given me, I could move out sooner. No more having to hide my bloody clothes from my grandparents or dealing with the shunning pettiness of our neighbors. Yeah, I was looking forward to it.
I knocked on her door politely. “It’s Cathy.”
That was my school name. I was up to four now. At least they were all similar enough.
She opened it a moment later, clad only in her bra and a skirt.
“Hey! I’m just getting dressed. Come on in.”
I followed her inside, waiting near the door as she disappeared into what I presumed was her bedroom. Her apartment was surprisingly nice, not like the usual college digs. She had a plasma TV across from a leather sofa, a large entertainment center, a high-end computer notebook, and several other expensive-looking items arranged for decorative effect.
“I like your place,” I said sincerely. “Do you live here alone, or do you have a roommate?”
“Come in here, I can hardly hear you,” she called out.
I repeated the question while I went down the short hall into her room. Stephanie was in front of her closet, pursing her lips as she considered its contents.
“Huh? Oh, no roommate. So, tell me more about your
self, Cathy. I know you live at home with your mom and grandparents, but where’s home?”
“In a tiny town an hour north of here that you’ve probably never heard of,” I answered, thinking her bedroom was even nicer than her living room. Rich parents, obviously.
“You never talk about your father. Is your mom divorced, or did your dad die?”
“He ran off before I was born, I don’t even know who he is,” was all I said. Well, it was kind of the truth.
“Got a boyfriend?”
My response was immediate. “No!”
She laughed. “Wow, that was emphatic. Do you bat for the other team?”
“What other team?” I asked, confused.
Her mouth quirked. “Are you a lesbian? I don’t care if you are, but the ‘no’ on the boyfriend thing was so strong, it begs the question.”
“Oh!”
Duh!
“No, I’m not. I, er, just didn’t know what you meant before—”
“You know,” she cut me off with a pleasant smile, still rifling through her closet, “you’re very pretty. But you dress like a troll. Let’s see if we can’t find something of mine for you to wear tonight.”
Jeez, she sounded just like Bones. Switch her accent to an English one and I’d swear it was him talking.
I glanced down at my jeans. They were so comfortable. “Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
“Here.” She filched some more and then threw a navy dress at me. “Try this on.”
Not wanting to appear too modest, since she was still only partially clothed, I kicked my boots off and started to undress where I stood.
Stephanie looked at me with cool evaluation as I peeled off my jeans. The way her gaze swept over me made me
feel odd. Like I was being appraised.
She’s probably just mesmerized by how pale you are
, I told myself, trying to shake off the unease that had taken hold of me.
You’re like a snowman with tits.
“You’ve got a great body, Cathy. I wasn’t sure, from those baggy outfits you wear, but lo and behold, you do.”
Her voice was flat. Almost indifferent. That feeling of disquiet grew. I hadn’t had any girlfriends before, true, but there was something about this that didn’t seem right. She wasn’t acting like the bright, bubbly girl from class. She seemed like an entirely different person.
“You know,” I said, putting down the dress I’d been about to don, “I think I’ll just wear my jeans. I’d hate for something to happen to this, and you know how clubs are. Someone could spill a drink on me or it could get ripped—”
“You really are just another clueless farm girl, aren’t you?” That little smile never left her face. “I had you pegged the first time I saw you on your way to class, with your head down and your shoulders hunched. No friends, no connections, from a poor family…you fly totally under the radar. Someone like you could just”—her fingers snapped—“disappear.”
My mouth had dropped after the first insult. It continued to hang open until I shut it in disbelief.
“Is this some kind of joke? Because it’s not funny.”
Stephanie laughed. It was so cheerful, for a second I relaxed.
She’d been kidding. Okay, it
wasn’t
funny, but maybe she just had a weird sense of humor
—
She reached back into the closet. This time, instead of another dress, she pulled out a gun.
“Don’t scream or I’ll shoot.”
What the
hell
? “Stephanie, what is
wrong
with you?” I gasped.
“Nothing,” she replied affably. “Just making my rent,
and you, cookie, are just what the landlord likes. Here. Put these on.”
She tossed a pair of handcuffs at me. They landed near my feet. I was still so stunned, I didn’t move.
She cocked the gun. “Come on, Cathy. Don’t make this messy.”
“You won’t shoot, your neighbors would hear,” I said, keeping my voice calm while wondering what in the name of God was going on.
Her finger tapped the side of the barrel. “Silencer. They won’t hear a thing.”
My gaze narrowed as a thought occurred to me. “Did Bones put you up to this?”
“Who?” she asked in annoyance.
From her expression, she’d never heard of him, and that chilled me. If this wasn’t another of his little tests, or if she wasn’t pulling some kind of twisted sorority prank, then this was the real deal.
I picked my words very carefully. “I don’t have any money or drugs, so you’re wasting your time. Just put the gun down and I’ll walk out of here and not call the police.”
She came closer. Only about six feet separated us. “College girls, you’re all the same. You think you’re so smart, but when the time comes, I have to spell everything out like I plucked you from preschool. I should just tape-record myself and play it to you bitches so I don’t have to keep saying everything over and over again! All right, listen up, stupid! I’m going to give you to the count of three to put those cuffs on, and if you don’t, then I’m going to shoot you. First round goes in your leg. One…two…
three
.”
The gun went off, but I lunged away before she’d finished speaking. Holy shit, whatever this was, she meant business! If I hadn’t moved, she would have plugged a hole in me!
Stephanie fired again with a curse, clearly not expecting
my speed. I jumped her, grabbing for the gun. To my shock, she was far stronger than I’d anticipated. We fell to the floor, rolling, the gun in between us, each of us tugging roughly for it. When it went off again, I froze.
Her eyes were as wide as they could be, and staring straight into mine. Something warm spilled onto me. I pushed back, letting the gun slide from my numb fingers, and watched as the blood spread in a widening pool around her chest.
My hand came to my mouth in horror and I scooted back until I felt the wall behind me. Stephanie made a noise that was half grunt, half sigh. Then she stopped moving altogether.
I didn’t need to check her pulse—I’d heard her heart stop. For a few moments that seemed to stretch into forever, I stared at her. In the apartments around us, no one noticed a thing. She was right. The gun had a silencer. Its muffling abilities had worked as described.
In a daze, I went over to her lovely wicker nightstand and picked up the phone, dialing the only number I could think of. When I heard his voice, my composure cracked, and I started to shake.
“Bones, I—I just killed someone!”
He didn’t ask any of the questions that would have been first on my list. Like,
What’s wrong with you?
or
Did you call the police?
Bones only asked where I was and then told me not to move. I was still holding the phone when he arrived ten minutes later. I hadn’t moved, all right. I was barely even breathing.
The sight of him coming into the bedroom filled me with profound relief. If Stephanie had been a vampire, I would have been just fine. I’d wrap up her body, drive her out into the woods, and bury her in a deserted spot without missing a beat. This, however, was different. I’d taken a life, and I had no idea what to do about it.
“What have you touched?” was his first question as he knelt in front of me.
I tried to think. That was asking a lot at the moment.
“Um…the phone…maybe the edge of the dresser or her nightstand…that’s it. I’d just gotten here when she started acting nuts and saying these awful things….”
Bones took the phone from me. “It’s not safe here. One of them could return at any moment.”
“One of whom? She doesn’t have any roommates,” I protested, watching as he unhooked the phone from the wall and put it in a large garbage bag.
“This place stinks like vampires,” he said shortly. “We have to tidy up and leave.”
That got me to my feet. “Vampires! But she didn’t…she wasn’t—”
“What did she say about Hennessey?” he cut me off.
Now I felt completely lost. “Hennessey?
Hennessey?
He has nothing to do with this!”
“Like hell he doesn’t,” Bones growled, stripping Stephanie’s comforter off the bed and wrapping her in it, cocoon-style. “He’s one of the people I smell. Him, or someone who’s had contact with him. His scent’s here.”
My head started to pound. This was like a bad dream. Bones finished rolling up Stephanie and then began filling that garbage bag with her stuff. Schoolbooks. Folders, papers. He rifled quickly through her drawers and added other various items. I wasn’t much help. I just stood there, making sure my hands didn’t stray to leave any incriminating fingerprints.
He left me to check the living room and returned with the bag even bulkier.
“Take this, luv.”
The garbage bag was handed off to me. I had to hug it to hold it, fearing the plastic would rip from its weight. Bones then took one of her shirts and began briskly rubbing down
the dressers, doorframes, end tables, and doorknobs. After he was satisfied, he hefted the lump of blankets that was Stephanie and threw her over his shoulder.
“Nice and quick to your truck, Kitten. Don’t look around, just march right to it and get in the passenger seat. I’ll be right behind you.”
WELVE
W
E STOPPED ONCE ON OUR WAY TO THE CAVE.
Bones made a call on his cell, and then he pulled over off by the side of the road near the darkest, most wooded part. It wasn’t five minutes before a car pulled up behind us.
“Hiya, buddy!” Ted called out.
“Prompt as ever, mate,” Bones greeted him, getting out of my truck. He went around to the trailer bed and I heard his motorcycle being moved. He’d laid it over Stephanie’s body. She wasn’t going to blow off with that thing holding her down.
I stayed in the truck, not in the mood for chitchatting.
“Whatcha got there?” Ted asked, giving me a friendly wave over Bones’s shoulder.
“Dinner for whichever ghoul you feel like rewarding, but make sure they clean their plate. I don’t want any part of her resurfacing,” Bones replied.
My stomach heaved. God, talk about disposing of a body! I’d assumed we would bury her. Serving her up to a ghoul had never occurred to me.
Ted didn’t share any of my qualms. “You betcha, bud. Anything I should warn them about?”
“Yeah.” Bones handed the bundle over and Ted plopped her in his trunk. “Tell them not to chip a tooth on the bullet.”
That was it for me. I opened the truck door just in time, the evening’s events slamming into me and heaving out of my stomach in a rush.
“She all right?” I heard Ted ask as I coughed and drew in deep breaths.
Bones made a sound similar to a sigh. “She will be. Have to be off, mate. Thanks.”
“Sure thing, bud. Anytime.”
I closed my door just as Bones climbed back in. Ted’s headlights flashed as he backed up, and then he was gone.
Bones reached inside his jacket and handed me a flask. “Whiskey. Not your favorite, but it’s all I’ve got.”
I took the bottle gratefully and gulped until there was no more. The liquor’s artificial warmth began to thaw the ice in my limbs.
“Better?”
“Yeah.”
My voice was scratchy from the lingering burn of the alcohol, but it had helped in more ways than one. That numbing shock was fading, replaced instead with a slew of questions.
“No more cryptic shit, Bones. Who is Hennessey, and what’s he got to do with a gun-toting psychotic from my physics class?”
Bones cast me a sideways glance as he began driving. “Physics? You met her at college?”
“I think you should answer my question first, since I’m the one who was nearly shot,” I snapped.
“Kitten, I
will
answer you, but please. Tell me how you met and what happened tonight.”
My jaw tightened. “She took physics with me, as I said. From the first day, she’d wait for me after class. She started off by asking me lecture questions when she’d miss class, etc., and then she talked about herself. Inconsequential, funny things, like guys she’d dated or other stories…she seemed so friendly and nice. Then she asked about me, and I told her the truth. That I’d just transferred from a community college, didn’t know anybody here, came from a small town—the bitch was casing me!” I suddenly burst. “She told me tonight she was looking for someone disposable, and I practically slapped a big red bow on my ass!”
“What about tonight?” he prodded.
“Oh, she did one better than dig into my background.” I outlined the invitation and the whole clothes charade briefly, finishing with, “And then she pulled a gun on me.”
“Did she mention anyone’s name at all?”
I retraced our conversation in my mind. “No. She said something about paying her rent and me being what her landlord liked, then she said college girls were all stupid and she should tape-record herself…but no names.”
Bones didn’t say anything. I waited, tapping my finger. “How is this related to Hennessey? You said you smelled him and other vampires there. Do you think somehow he found out who I was from the other night? That he wanted to finish what he’d started?”
“No.” His response was instant. “She’d been coddling up to you all week, you said. If Hennessey had found out who you were, believe me, he wouldn’t have been patient about things. He’d have come at you in force straightaway, the minute he knew your name. Snatched up you and anyone unlucky enough to be around you. That’s why I asked you what you touched and then wiped her place down. Though I doubt you have prints on file, I want no trace of you left for him to follow.”
“If not because of last weekend, then why would Steph
anie be involved with him and try to kidnap me? It doesn’t make any sense!”
He gave me a hooded look. “Let’s sort this out inside. Gives me a chance to go through her things while we talk.”
I followed him determinedly into the cave. No way was I letting him get away without telling me everything. Hennessey might have struck me as a typical scumbag, but there was obviously more to it than that. I wasn’t leaving until I found out how much more.
Bones and I picked our way through the narrow entrance and back to where he’d made his living quarters in the high-domed part of the cave. He emptied the garbage bag’s contents and I sat on the couch in front of him, watching as he opened Stephanie’s laptop first.
“Have you ever heard of the Bennington Triangle?” he asked, powering up her computer.
I frowned. “No. I’ve heard of the Bermuda one.”
His fingers flew over the keyboard. My, but they were limber. After a second, he let out a disgusted snort.
“Bloody girl didn’t even bother to password her files. Just pure sodding arrogance, but that’s in our favor. Look, there you are, Kitten. Under ‘Potentials.’ You should be flattered. You were first on her list.”
I gaped over his shoulder and saw ‘Cathy—redhead—twenty-two’ with other names and similar short descriptions under it.
“Are you kidding me? Who are those other girls? Potential
what
?”
More blurring movement over the keys, and then he leaned back with a smile.
“Well, what have we here? Charlie, and Club Flame on Forty-second Street. Sounds like a contact. Here’s hoping the twit was thick enough to write the actual name of the place and not just a code for it.”
“Bones!”
The sharpness in my voice made him set aside the laptop and meet my eyes.
“The Bennington Triangle refers to an area in Maine where several people disappeared back in the fifties. To this day, no trace of them has been found. Something similar took place in Mexico several years back. A friend of mine’s daughter disappeared. Her remains were found a few months afterward in the desert, and when I say remains, I mean they only found pieces of her. She had to be identified by dental records. At the autopsy, it was discovered that she’d been alive for months before she was murdered, and when I investigated further, it turned out not to be at all uncommon.”
“What do you mean?”
Bones leaned back. “Hundreds of women were murdered or went missing in Mexican border towns around that time. Today, there’s still not a speck of any real idea who did it. Then, several years ago, a number of young girls started to go missing in and around the Great Lakes area. More recently, it became centered in Ohio. Most of them were presumed to be runaways, prostitutes, addicts, or just average, little-known girls who had vanished with no signs of foul play. Since most of them were in high-risk categories, there wasn’t much of a media fuss. I think Hennessey’s involved. It’s why I came here. He was near all three places when the disappearances started.”
“You think Hennessey did all that?” The sheer numbers appalled me. “He can’t eat that much if he wanted to! What is he, some kind of…undead Ted Bundy?”
“Oh, I think he might be a ringleader, no doubt about that, but he’s not a traditional serial killer,” Bones said crisply. “Serial killers are more possessive in their motives. From the bits and pieces I’ve gathered over the years, I don’t think he’s keeping these people to himself—I think he’s made an industry out of them.”
I almost asked what kind of an industry, but then I remembered what Bones had said to Sergio last weekend.
Knew you couldn’t pass up a pretty girl…You’re his best client, from what I hear…. Did you grow short on funds so you had to go out for dinner instead of order in?
…And then tonight, with Stephanie.
Just making my rent, and you, cookie, are just what the landlord likes…. College girls, you’re all the same…
“You think he’s running a takeout service,” I breathed. “Turning those people into Meals on Wheels! My God, Bones, how could he get away with it?”
“Hennessey was sloppy in Maine and Mexico, but he’s gotten smarter. He now chooses women society doesn’t hold in high regard, and if they don’t fall into that category, then he sends vampires to prevent them from even being reported missing. Remember those girls Winston told you about? He wasn’t wrong, luv, they
are
all dead. I wanted confirmation that there were more girls missing than had been reported, so that’s why I sent you to Winston. A ghost knows who’s died, even if those girls’ families don’t. I went to see them, and they’d all been bitten into believing their daughters were off pursuing an acting career, like you’d been told, or backpacking across Europe, or moving in with an old boyfriend, whatever. They’d been programmed not to question their absence, and only a vampire can have that much mind control. Hennessey’s had his people rounding up even more girls for him lately. At colleges. On street corners. In bars, clubs, and back alleys. How could he get away with it? Have you ever really looked at the faces on your milk carton? People disappear all the time. The police? There’s enough crimes involving the rich, famous, and powerful to make it easy for them to put the disappearance of some derelicts on their back burner, and they don’t know about the others. As far as the undead world goes, Hennessey’s covered his tracks very well. There’s only suspicion, but no proof.”
Now that I knew what was going on in my own state, what Stephanie had been doing made perfect sense, if you had the ethics of a crocodile. A huge, crowded college campus
had
been her all-you-can-eat buffet; she just hadn’t been the one eating. No, she was someone hired to stock Hennessey’s refrigerator. And I, with my background, had been the perfect dish. Stephanie had hit the nail on the head with that. I could disappear very easily, with few questions being asked, and it would have worked just as planned. Except for the one thing about me she hadn’t counted on.
“How long have you suspected this? You told me before you’d been chasing Hennessey eleven years. You’ve known what he’s been doing that whole time?”
“No. It’s only been the past two years that I’ve gotten specific information. Mind you, I didn’t know who or what I was chasing at first. Took me a few dozen blokes to get a whisper of what was going on. A few more dozen to get a name of who might be running it. As I said, he’d covered his tracks. Then I hunted down those under his line who had prices on their heads. Sergio was one of them, for example. I’ve been picking apart his people for years, but only doing it to those who had bounties on them. That way, Hennessey didn’t know I was on to him. He just thought it was business. Now, however, he knows I’m out to get him, and why. And so does whoever else is involved, because he can’t be doing this alone.”
I digested that for a minute. “So, even if you take Hennessey out, it still might not end. His partners could start right up where he left off. You don’t have any idea who they could be?”
“I’ve come very close a few times to finding out, but—well. Things happened.”
“Like what?”
“Like you, actually. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were one of Hennessey’s. You have an incredibly bad
habit of killing people before I can get any information out of them. Remember Devon, that bloke you staked the night we met? I’d been tracking him for six months. He was Hennessey’s accountant, knew everything about him, but you plugged silver through his heart before I could say Bob’s your uncle. I thought Hennessey knew I was getting close and sent you to silence him. Then you went after me the very next night. Why do you think I kept asking you who you worked for? And tonight—”
“I didn’t mean to kill her!” I cried, lashing myself over that for a different reason this time. What information had Stephanie died with? We’d never know.
Bones got up, speaking to me as he disappeared behind one of the cave’s natural walls.
“Believe me, luv, I know that. You wouldn’t kill a human unless it was by accident or they were wearing a Vampire Henchman badge. You didn’t seem to know Stephanie had any such connections—and from the look of scene, I’d reckoned you were wrestling for the gun when it went off. She probably had a good grip on it, too. From the smell of her, she’d been hyped up on vampire blood. Would have made her quite a bit physically stronger and she’d need that, for what her job was.”
So that explained why she’d had the strength of a linebacker in her petite feminine frame. I’d underestimated her all the way around.
“Why haven’t you told me about all of this before? You trained me to fight, and then you kept me out of the real battle.”
He answered while still out of eyesight. “I didn’t want you involved. Blimey, I’d just as soon you not risk your life going after vampires to begin with, but that’s what you want to do, so I trained you to be better at it. Not like you’d listen to me if I told you to stay home, is it? Still, Hennessey and his blokes are different. Your part with them
was supposed to end after Sergio, but your little physics chit ruined that tonight. You should be patting yourself on the back for killing her. Those other ‘potentials’ certainly would, if they knew what she’d had in store for them.”
“Was safety your only reason for keeping this from me, or is there more I don’t know about?”
There was the sound of water being poured. “No, there’s one more reason I kept it from you. I didn’t want to give you another reason to hate vampires. It’s not like you aren’t already predisposed to it. You tend to judge people for what they are, rather than what they do, if they don’t have a pulse.”
I was silent for a moment, because I had no defense to that. No truthful one, anyway.
“You should know something, Bones. I lied to you when we made our deal. I was going to kill you the first chance I got.”