Helens-of-Troy (43 page)

He stormed out of the washroom, leaving
Ellie to imagine all kinds of atrocities that might become of her.
She broke down and wept.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

He said he’d let him go.

Ryan pounded his fist against the
cement walls of his cell. He couldn’t believe he had been so naive
as to think he had an honor bound agreement with a member of the
dark side. He winced as the rough edges of the brick wall tore the
skin from his knuckles upon contact.

“Cut that out,” Roy Cohen said. “I
don’t want to have to take you to the hospital. Or repair the wall.
The last repair bill I got from Mike Webster was ridiculous, and it
was just to insulate the window. I hate to imagine what he charges
for grouting.”

“How’s Betty?” Ryan asked. He hadn’t
had an update on his mother since he last saw her. Sometimes no
news was good news. Other times it was just no news. “Have your
heard anything?”

“She’s still under observation. By the
doctors and us. I have Colin Dayton guarding her hospital door.”
The Chief checked the answering service for messages as he was
talking, but there were none.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”Ryan
asked, pacing nervously back and forth in his cell. Did he dare
tell the Chief what he thought he knew about the
Daytons?

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Roy asked the
teenager. “I did it as a precaution. I thought you’d like that.” He
took his pistol out of his holster, intent on cleaning it, but then
decided that perhaps now was not the time. The way things were
going, he might have the need to fire his weapon at any
time.

“A precaution for who? Betty doesn’t
need a guard. The vampire’s not after her.”

“Did it ever occur to you that you
might not be the only person in Troy who needs a bodyguard?” the
Chief asked, sliding the gun back into its holster on his utility
belt. “Betty doesn’t need a bunch of gossiping church ladies
appearing by her bedside reminding her that her number one son is
behind bars.”

“Betty doesn’t go to
church.”

“And you’re not a serial killer.
Enquiring minds still want to know.”

“I’m thinking you put Colin there so
you’d know where he was.” Ryan stated, immune to the Chief’s
attempted dig. “He’s in on it, you know.”

The Chief sat in his chair and gave
Ryan a steady stare. “Really? How is it you keep finding all these
things out before I do?” he asked. He noticed the poker book lying
on the floor. He picked it up and read the description on the back
cover. “How did this get in here?”

“Colin brought it in,” Ryan said,
pulling the library card from his pocket. “He gave me the book and
I pulled this out from it before I tossed it back at him. I’m more
of a comic reader myself.” He twirled the card between his fingers.
“He said Cody gave the book to him. I don’t know how he got it. I
thought you weren’t supposed to lend library books to other people.
Red Clark’s going to have some dues to pay if it’s not back
tomorrow, just sayin’. Do me a favor, don’t arrest him for it. It’d
be a little crowded in here.”

The Chief made no indication to Ryan
that he had found the Clark’s bodies in their white truck, over the
cliff, just like Helen had told him he would. There were black
paint scrapes on the crushed driver-side door panel of the vehicle
that had done more than one rollover on its journey down the
embankment. In all likelihood, the foreign paint came from the
Hummer that Helen also had seen in her dream. There was only one
Hummer in town, the Chief knew, and most days it was parked out
back of his police station. It belonged to Cody Dayton. So Ryan was
right. Unless Cody Dayton was lying in a hospital somewhere, and
all indications were that he wasn’t, he was in on it. Whether it
was a hit and run, or whether his officer had intentionally
murdered the Clarks was yet to be determined. Roy had posted Colin
at the hospital to keep him under surveillance for the time being.
The hospital had security cameras through the corridors, and he had
alerted their security team to call him if for some reason Colin
Dayton left his post.

“Why are you pacing, Ryan?” the Chief
asked. Ryan had been walking a steady path back and forth in the
cell since the Chief had arrived back and it was beginning to
irritate him. “If you’re missing any medication, I really need to
know that.”

“I’m not missing any fucking
medication,” Ryan yelled. “I’m locked up, I can’t sleep,
and…”

“And what, Ryan?” The Chief asked when
Ryan ended the conversation abruptly. “Spill it.”

“He was here again. The vampire. Dayton
invited him in! It’s like they’re best buds or something. You need
to fire his ass. He fucking left me alone with him, and I gotta
tell ya, that’s happening way too often around here. He left the
damn door open like y’all are doing, and Ellie walked right on in.
She didn’t know he was here. The vampire hit her over the head with
the plunger.” He pointed to the weapon that was still lying on the
floor. “Fucking gross, man.”

The Chief got out of his chair and
walked over for a closer look. This definitely wasn’t where they
normally kept the plunger. “What exactly are you trying to tell
me?” he asked his prisoner.

“He took the plunger and swung at her
like he was practicing for softball. Ellie hit her head on the wall
on her way down. She’s lucky she didn’t crack her skull open. She
was out cold, and he hit her again. The bastard hit her across the
face.”

“Where is she now?” the concerned Chief
asked.

“Finally,” Ryan said excitedly.
“Finally someone fucking believes me.”

“Ryan…”

“He took her. He picked her up, put her
on his back and they disappeared. I know it sounds crazy, but swear
to God, that’s what happened. I wanted to tell you when you first
walked through the door, but let’s just say nobody’s been taking
what I say very seriously around here.”

The Chief turned to him. He was about
to say something to the teenager that would get him laughed out of
the legal community. “I believe you, Ryan. I’ll purger myself if I
ever have to testify to the fact, but I do believe you.” He reached
for the heavy winter coat he had hung on the coat rack and put it
on.

“Wait!” Ryan said. “Where are you
going? You’re not going to leave me alone again, are
you?”

“I have to,” the Chief admitted. “I
need to go tell Helena what’s happened. Purdy’ll be in soon. You
can trust Purdy.”

“Ya sure?” Ryan asked as the Chief
turned to leave. “Will ya tell him to bring me a sub? I’m fucking
starving.” He sat back down on the bed and watched the door close,
leaving him by himself once more. “I give it five minutes before
someone else walks through that stupid door,” he said to himself.
With the luck he had been having, he knew it wasn’t going to be
Purdy, but he prayed it wasn’t the vampire. This time, he got
lucky.

“Right then,” Jacey said, stomping the
snow off her boots, as she walked into the police station, holding
the door open as she did so. “Come on, Tom,” she moaned. “We’ve got
some work to do. Hurry up.” She nodded to Ryan. “He’s not much of a
runner, our Tommy.” She had easily outpaced Tom in their dash to
the jail.

“You two,” Ryan said angrily as the
winded Tom entered the room, “could you screw things up any more if
you tried? Did you wake up thinking ‘what else can I do to mess
with Lachey?’ No. Because that would take some thought.” He took a
closer look at Tom. “Nice eye, dude.”

“A big hello to you too, Ryan,” Jacey
said sarcastically. Having never been in the jail before, she
surveyed the surroundings. “A bit shabby, innit? Where’s your
orange jumpy?” She took her gloves off and put them on the Chief’s
desk.

“I don’t do orange,” Ryan
sighed.

“Listen, Ry…we’ve got some news for
you,” Tom said slowly. He tried to find the words to begin to tell
Ryan about his brother. “Stan is…”

“Save it, you knobs,” Ryan protested.
“I already know the vampire has Stan.”

“Erm, no. He doesn’t actually have
Stan,” Jacey updated him. “Mrs. LaRose has Stan.”

“Really?” Ryan asked hopefully, his
mouth forming a slight smile. It was the best news he had heard in
hours. He could feel some proverbial weight finally being lifted
off his ailing shoulder. He subconsciously rotated it, the motion
making him wince. It still hurt like hell, but his chances of
having a doctor look at it were currently slim and none.

“She got him out of the chimney,” Jacey
said, like it was an everyday occurrence. “She’s says he’s going to
be fine.” She glanced at her fingernails. “All this running about
has made my fingers all sweaty. I knew I should have waited longer
for the topcoat to dry.”

“What?” Ryan said
unbelievingly.

“I got fuzzies from the inside of my
gloves stuck to my nails,” she said. “I’m going to have to do them
all over.”

“Not your nails, Jacey,” he said with
exasperation. “What’s this about Stan and the chimney?”

“Mrs. Larose climbed up on the roof and
got Stan out of your whatsits,” Jacey told him.

“Are you kidding me?” Ryan
asked.

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t light a fire
in your livingroom anytime soon,” Jacey told him.

Ryan looked to Tom for help. “What the
hell is she talking about?”

“It’s true, dude,” Tom confirmed. “You
should have seen her. I think she’s an X-Man. She totally destroyed
your stack.”

“Woman,” Jacey corrected him. “And what
you said sounded rude.”

“Whatever,” Tom replied,
annoyed.

“Actually it’s ‘X-Men’,” Ryan added.
“The chicks are still men. Don’t look at me like that Jacey, I
don’t know why they are, but they are.” He momentarily imagined
Helena in a spandex suit. He smiled and shook his head, trying to
remove the image from his brain. “Quit steering me away from
reality. The bastard never should have got Stan in the first place.
What we have here people,” he said “is a fucking failure to
fucking…”

“Communicate?” Tom asked.

“Launch?” Jacey said weakly.

“I was thinking ‘plan’,’” Ryan said
sarcastically. “But execute might be the right word under the
circumstances. Weren’t ya listening, Tom? Didn’t I try to tell you
the vampire was after Stan? Didn’t I tell you not to leave him
alone? ‘Cuz I’m thinking I did.”

“I didn’t leave him alone,” Tom
stammered, “I was with him the whole time.”

“Except for when you were lying
unconscious on the floor,” Jacey reminded him.

Tom shrugged his shoulders. “A
technicality. I’m lucky my neck wasn’t broken during the
battle.

Jacey rolled her eyes. “Battle?” The
empathy she had initially felt for Tom’s earlier ordeal had clearly
worn off. “You could learn a thing or two about battle from Lord
Nelson’s statue.”

“That dude,” Tom continued, ignoring
her, “he came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah,” Ryan admitted. “He does that.
One minute he’s there, and then poof.”

Tom nodded. “We were way too hard on
Ellie the day we walked back from the gravel pit. It turns out
‘poof’ and ‘vampire’ actually can happen.”

“Here’s the sit-u-ation…” Ryan began,
as he told them what had happened to Ellie earlier in the police
station.

“Oh, poor Ellie,” Jacey said,
shocked.

“Harsh,” Ryan agreed.

“So what are we going to do now?” Tom
asked. “How do we find her?”

“You need to go to Stillman’s Creek,”
Ryan replied. “I’d say that’s ground zero in
vampireville.”

Jacey nodded. “Ellie was pretty intent
on going there herself. She was asking me earlier how to get to the
old schoolhouse. She must have been asking about it for a
reason.”

“Yeah,” Ryan nodded in agreement. “She
told us it was in her dream. She said she saw an old schoolhouse,
and I remember thinking about the one out by Tara’s. It’s been
abandoned for a while.”

“Then we need to borrow you car, Ryan.
So we can get there,” Tom added. “We’ll hide out there until he
leaves and then grab her.”

“Take Jacey’s car,” Ryan said quickly.
Tom driving the Toyota was not a good idea, even to save a girl.
“The Toyota won’t help you. I left the beast on the
bridge.”

“They had it towed. It’s sitting at the
back of the station in the fenced-off area. I saw it when we came
around the corner,” Tom told him.

“It’s gotta be getting low on gas,”
Ryan added. “Take Jacey’s will ya?”

“I haven’t got my snow tires on yet,”
Jacey pouted. “We might get stuck.”

“Okay, okay,” Ryan relented. “You can
take the Toyota, but Jacey drives.”

With that settled, he thought again
about the plan Tom had come up with. On the surface it sounded like
a good one, except for the fact that it would just be Tom and Jacey
trying to save Ellie. That wouldn’t work. They needed more muscle.
Cleary they hadn’t thought this through.

“What are you going to do if she’s
hurt? Drag her to the car?” he sighed. Sore shoulder or not, he was
worth two of them. “You guys have to get me out of here
somehow.”