“Yeah, that one. She said I was going to die, and she laughed. I was gonna shoot her, but the guard, the one that had Joe’s blood all over him, he . . . he grabbed me from behind and threw me across the room. I landed on Lavelle.” Maitland hid his face in shaking hands. “I thought I was next.”
There was a knock on the door. Richard nodded his permission, and the vampire cop stationed next to it turned the knob. In walked Richard’s sister, Monica Morrell.
Richard tried hard not to react, but his heart kick-started to a much faster beat, and fury pounded hot in his temples. She looked awful—and he knew how much that meant to her. She’d been treated at the hospital, but she’d never forgive them for letting her out in public with bloody, matted hair and an unflattering bandage over the whack in her skull. Her skin was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. No makeup. The blouse was designer, and it was destroyed—ripped and stained.
One of her arms was in a sling.
Richard kept his seat, kept his expression blank, and said, “Monica, is this the man who hurt you?”
Monica came around to Richard’s side of the table, close enough to touch. Not that they touched. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s the son of a—”
“See? She’s okay. You’re okay, right, lady?” Maitland interrupted her, almost manic in his desire to get her on his side.
Monica hissed like a cat, and her eyes burned with pure fury. Richard reached out and put a hand on her uninjured wrist—just a light hold, nothing that would set her off. He knew his sister well enough to know how much force he could get away with.
“You’re going to die,” Monica said. “Just like your friends. Sucker.”
“Take her outside,” Richard said to the vampire cop. “I’ll talk to her later. Put her in my office.”
Once Monica was gone, the air seemed still and far too warm. Maitland felt it, too, and kept wiping sweat from his forehead.
“Look,” he blurted. “I screwed up, okay? But it wasn’t my idea. I was just . . . It was Joe. Joe said it would be an easy score, and look what happened—Joe’s dead. Lavelle’s dead. You want to lock me up, fine. Just . . . don’t lock me up here. Not in this town, okay? There’s something wrong here. I want to go back to Dallas. Hell, send me to Huntsville, anywhere but here, okay?”
Richard shrugged. “Your lawyer is here,” he said. “I think you’d better talk to him before you say anything else.”
“But . . . I don’t want a lawyer! Look, I just want to confess. Send me off to prison, please, just not—”
Richard stood up. He leaned over the desk, hands flat on the warm surface, and stared right into Maitland’s face. “You hurt my sister,” he said. “And that blows your one chance for ever leaving this town alive.”
Maitland’s mouth opened, and he tried to speak, but nothing came out. Richard pushed back, walked out of the interrogation room, and joined Oliver on the other side of the glass. The vampire was standing silently, arms folded, watching Maitland through the one-way window. His eyes were glowing a very faint red in the darkness.
“Does he really have a lawyer?” Oliver asked.
Idle curiosity, Richard thought. It wouldn’t matter a hill of beans to him.
“Sure. Jessie Pottsdam.”
Oliver laughed, and Richard saw the flash of fangs in the dim light. “You really should never be underestimated, my boy,” he said. “One day, you’re going to make this town a very fine mayor.”
Richard, still expressionless, stared through the glass at Maitland. The two cops had followed him out, and now Jessie Pottsdam was going into the room, looking every inch the lawyer he was. Crisp black suit, white shirt, carefully knotted red tie. Expensive shoes and leather briefcase.
Jessie smiled down at his client, and his eyes glowed bright red.
Maitland screamed. Oliver reached over and switched off the speaker. “I don’t believe we need to observe the rest,” he said. “Justice is swift.”
Richard watched anyway, sickness twisting at his stomach. It has to be done. The man was a liar; he would have killed everyone in that bank, including Monica.
It’s justice.
It didn’t really feel that way.
DEAD MAN STALKING
This story was first published in the BenBella Books anthology Immortal, edited by none other than P. C. Cast, so if you want to read some other killer YA vampire tales, go in search of it! You won’t be disappointed.
I decided to do an action-oriented story from Shane’s point of view. There was a running joke at the time that I should throw some zombies into Morganville, and while I didn’t succumb to the temptation in the books, I veered into it here . . . in a way. We get to visit some great Morganville locations, fight some zombies, and find out where Michael has disappeared to—and what Shane’s father has been doing just beyond the town’s borders that might change everything.