“The reporters are enjoying it,” Ana said. “Naked girls on page three and a guy that was gutted on the cover.”
“When I was a kid, I remember reading those old romantic books. The Gothic paperbacks. Remember those?”
Ana stared at the calendar and what, she supposed, was the Chinese character for Year of the Snake printed below the Western letters. She remembered the Chinese vampires she had bumped into, their atrophied muscles giving the sensation that they were always shuffling around. The Revenants had similar problems: kyphosis, arthritis. Not like in the books, no. Not romantic, either.
“No,” Ana said. “But then again, I have never been a big reader of romance books.”
“Well, they had castles in those books and they vampirized young virgins, offering them eternal love. The truth, though, well, the truth is more interesting. Corpses on parade. It’ll be a blast putting a bullet through their skulls. Stake. Something.”
“I’m not interested in discussing vampires in popular culture,” Ana said. “I’m heading out.”
“You can’t let me eat by myself.”
Ana considered staying for a bit longer. She decided against it. The coffee looked terrible, anyway. “I got work,” she said. “I’ll phone you if anything comes up.”
“You’re not scared, Detective Aguirre,” Kika said, raising her bottle in a salute. “You’re eager.”
Ana took out a bill and left it on the table. The walk back to the office had her thinking more about types of vampires. She bounced between reciting their characteristics in her head and remembering the faces of the two young ones who were responsible for the bloodbath she had been staring at on her screen.
Deny it as she wanted to, Ana knew Kika had a point. Ana was good at one thing and that thing was dealing with vampires. They fascinated, repulsed, and obsessed her. She was disgusted by this whole business but she also needed to see this case to the end. Try as she might, she couldn’t turn her head away.
And yet by the time she reached her desk, she was ready to go home. The office zapped her life, it was the real vampire. Tops five minutes after she sat down, another officer came walking by.
“Hey, Aguirre, I’ve got a guy who says he saw something in connection to your case.”
“Tell Luna about it. He’s the lead on it,” Ana muttered.
“Like I wouldn’t have tried that. Luna’s not here.”
He was probably banging his mistress in a cheap motel that charged by the hour.
“Will you talk to the damn guy?”
“Yeah, sure. Send him over,” Ana said.
She pulled out the voice recorder and her notepad. A man in a striped shirt sat down across the desk from her, looking nervous.
“I’m Detective Aguirre. They tell me you want to speak with me?” she said, and did not even bother sounding like she was interested. She should have had the damn coffee and a bit of food.
“It was a terrible stench, just awful. Like rotting meat,” he blurted. “It was that psychopath vampire from the papers.”
She could smell the booze even from across the desk. Ana looked into the old guy’s face and hoped this wasn’t an alcoholic who’d had a vivid hallucination. The crazies came out in force anytime a big crime took place.
“Sir. Let’s slow down. You say you saw a vampire?”
“They were riding in my car.”
“Okay. How did they get into your car?”
“How do you think they got in?” the man spluttered. “I drive a taxi. They just got in. I had no idea until she grabbed me by the neck and threatened me and she smelled bad, terrible, like meat that’s gone bad. There was a boy, too. And a damn dog.”
Ana held her pen up, pausing. “A dog?”
“Yes, a big dog. They made me drive them around.”
She leaned forward. “Do you remember where you took them?”
“To the Roma.”
“Where in the Roma?”
“I don’t know. A house.” He shook his head. “I was too spooked to pay attention to it. But my friend, he told me today that you guys give rewards for this kind of stuff. How much are you giving?”
“Sir, does your taxi have a geolocator? Taxi companies use it nowadays to track where the vehicles are.”
“No. What do you think I’m rich to be having this fancy geolocator shit?”
Could be he was driving an illegal taxi or didn’t care for it. “I don’t think anything. You think hard. Can you remember anything about the street you dropped them off at?” Ana asked.