Desire After Dark (3 page)

“I will. Are you two going to Sharlene's funeral? It's tomorrow morning at eleven.”

Arnie nodded. “We'll be there.”

“Yeah,” Ned said. “You never know who might turn up.”

“What do you mean?” Vicki asked.

“Killers have been known to show up at these things,” Arnie explained.

“You're kidding!”

Ned shrugged. “It happens.”

“Why would he take a chance like that?” Vickie asked.

“Who knows? To thumb his nose at the cops? To hear what people are saying? Like I said, who knows what goes through a killer's mind.” He dropped a couple of dollars on the table, then rose. “Take it easy, girl.”

“As always,” Vicki replied.

“Give my best to your mom when you talk to her again,” Arnie said.

“I will.”

She watched Ned and Arnie leave the diner. They were both nice guys. She had dated Arnie a couple of times. He was a wonderful man and she had tried hard to fall in love with him but there just hadn't been any spark between them, at least on her part. Now, they were just good friends. Ned was married and the father of twin boys.

Scooping the greenbacks from the table, Vicki dropped them into her pocket, then carried the cups into the kitchen.

“You should give Arnie another chance,” Gus said, winking at her.

“You sound just like my mother, you old goat,” Vicki replied with an affectionate grin.

“Hey, since your papa passed on and your mama moved away, you are my business.”

“I know, I know.” Gus Jacobson had been her father's best friend. Since her father had passed away and her mother had gone to St. Louis to help Karen with the kids, Gus had adopted Vicki. Not that she minded. It was nice to know that, even though she was all grown up, she still had someone in town to look after her.

“Tell Bobbie Sue her order's up, will ya?” Gus asked.

“Sure.”

Leaving the kitchen, Vicki came to an abrupt halt when she saw that the stranger had arrived and was sitting in his usual place in the back booth. Strange, how that particular booth was always empty when he arrived.

As though drawn by an invisible cord, Victoria walked toward him. As usual, he was all in black from the top of his head to the boots on his feet. Not for the first time, she noted how well the color suited him.

He lifted one dark brow as she neared his table. “The police were here.” It wasn't a question, but a statement of fact.

“Yes.” She wondered how he knew Ned and Arnie had been there. Had he been lurking outside in the shadows, peeking in the window?

“Did you call them?”

She hesitated a moment before replying. “Yes.”

“Why?”

She had no intention of telling him what she suspected. Indeed, she was trying to come up with a good lie when his gaze locked with hers and she found herself telling him the truth.

“Because I saw you leave here with Sharlene and that other woman, and now they're both dead.”

“Ah. And you think I killed them?”

“Did you?” It was a foolish question. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to call them back. What if he said yes? What would she do then? What would he do?

She stared at him. Was he capable of committing such a heinous crime not once, but twice? Would he keep coming to the diner if he had? Would he be at the funeral?

His eyes narrowed, his gaze boring deep into hers. “You would not believe me if I said no, would you?”

“I…I don't know.”

With a nod, he slid gracefully from the booth. It was the first time she had stood next to him. Only now did she realize just how tall and broad he was. Power emanated from him, making the hair raise along her arms and her nape, sending a prickle of fear down her spine.

His gaze moved over her one last time and then he left the diner without a word.

Vicki stared after him, wondering who and what he was and if she would ever feel safe again.

Tom Duncan picked up the three-day-old newspaper, his eyes narrowing as he perused the headlines:

 

BODIES OF TWO YOUNG WOMEN FOUND
POLICE FEAR SERIAL KILLER ON THE LOOSE
IN PEAR BLOSSOM CREEK

 

He quickly read the account, noting that there had been no sign of rape or physical abuse, no signs of a struggle. One of the women had been a resident of Pear Blossom Creek, the other a transient. Both had been single, both had been redheads, both in their early twenties. According to the newspaper account, the police suspected a serial killer, but Duncan knew better. It wasn't the work of a serial killer, but a vampire. And he had a sneaking suspicion he knew just which of the Undead was responsible.

After checking the time, he picked up the phone next to his bed and put in a call to Edward Ramsey.

Ramsey answered on the second ring. “Yeah?”

“Hey, Edward, it's me.”

“Duncan! It's good to hear from you. How is everything?”

“Same as always. Listen, have you heard anything about Falco lately?”

“You mean Dimitri Falco, slayer of innocent women and children?”

“Yeah.”

“He was one of Kristov's, as I recall? Hunted only redheads, right? Always took a lock of their hair for a souvenir.”

“That's him.”

“I haven't heard a word about him since he gave us the slip four years ago.”

Duncan grunted softly. He and Ramsey had spent six months hunting for Dimitri Falco. They had scoured Russia, but the wily vampire had managed to stay one jump ahead of them the whole time, and then it seemed like he had vanished from the face of the earth.

“Wait a minute,” Ramsey said. “Didn't Adams claim he destroyed Falco in South America last year?”

“Well, if he did, there's another vampire out there following the same M.O., and he's turned up in a little nowhere town in the Midwest called Pear Blossom Creek.”

“Are you there now?”

“No, but I'm headed in that direction.” Duncan paused. “So, how's life, or death, treating you these days?”

“It gets easier every night.”

Duncan remembered talking to Ramsey after they had destroyed Khira. He had asked Edward what he missed most now that he was a vampire. Ramsey had replied that he missed his humanity, the warmth of the sun on his face, the ability to have a son to carry on the Ramsey name. He had said the worst of it was the aloneness he felt sometimes, the sense of being separated from the rest of the world. And then he had smiled. It wasn't all bad, Ramsey had said. His senses were sharper, he didn't have to worry about catching the flu or growing old, he could read minds and control thoughts, move from one place to another almost before he knew he wanted to.

Duncan thought of that now as he asked, “Do you ever miss the hunt?”

“All the time.”

“How's Randolph working out?”

“He's doing all right. You would have done better. Oh, Kelly says hi.”

Duncan grinned. “Hi to Kelly. What do you hear from Marisa and Grigori?”

“Not much. Last I heard, they were in New York. Listen, Tom, call me if you need me.”

“I will. So long.”

Hanging up the phone, Duncan packed his gear and checked out of the hotel.

Twenty minutes later, he was on the highway headed for Pear Blossom Creek.

Vicki had never liked funerals and counted herself blessed that she hadn't had to attend many of them. The last one had been three years ago for her great-grandmother. It hadn't really been a sad occasion. Great-grandmother Althea Neff had enjoyed good health all her life, lived to be eighty-nine years old, and died peacefully in her sleep. But this…Vicki glanced at Sharlene's family. Sharlene's younger sister, Donna Jean, sat between her mother and father trying not to cry. Sharlene's fiancé, Ron Garcia, sat beside Mrs. Tilden.

The chapel was full, the pews crowded with Sharlene's friends from high school and just about everyone else in town. Dozens of bouquets and wreaths made bright splashes of color in the front of the church. Sunlight filtered through a stained-glass window, washing over the closed casket in streams of variegated colors.

Drawing her gaze from the coffin, Vicki glanced discreetly around the chapel. Was the killer here? She saw Ned and Arnie across the aisle, looking somehow out of place in dark suits instead of their uniforms. Gus was there, along with Bobbie Sue and the other waitresses from the diner. She saw Maddy Malone and Rex Curtis and Judy West. Bert Summers was standing in the back. He was writing something in a small notebook and she wondered if he was there as a friend of the family or in his professional capacity as owner and reporter of the newspaper.

Vicki turned her attention to the front again as the organ stopped playing and the minister stepped up to the pulpit. After offering a prayer, he read the eulogy, and then he offered words of comfort and assurance to Sharlene's family and friends.

Vicki was glad when the service was over. Stepping out of the church into the sunshine, she thought how good it was to be alive on such a glorious day and then felt a rush of guilt for thinking such a thing when Sharlene was gone and her family was grieving.

Sobering, Vicki got into her car and followed the procession to the cemetery.

 

The atmosphere in the diner was subdued that night. Most of Ozzie's regular customers had been at the funeral that morning. She overheard people talking about the service, expressing sorrow for Sharlene's family, speculating on who the murderer might be, wondering if, and when, he might strike again and if, heaven forbid, it could be someone they knew.

Vicki looked around the diner, then shook her head. She couldn't believe that any of the people she knew, people she had grown up with, could have committed such a horrendous crime not once, but twice.

A little voice in the back of her head reminded her that there was a man in town whom she didn't know anything about, a man who had been seen with both of the murdered women.

She shook the thought from her mind and then, for the third time in thirty minutes, she looked at the clock and the empty booth in the back. It was obvious that he wasn't coming in tonight. She should have been relieved, so why wasn't she?

“Vicki? Hey, Vicki!” Bobbie Sue shook her arm. “Gus has been calling you for the last five minutes. Your order for table two is up.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Gus frowned at her when she picked up the tray. “You okay?” he asked. “You seem a little distracted tonight.”

“Stop worrying, I'm fine.”

“Funeral got you down, didn't it? Well, that's understandable. She was a nice girl.”

Vicki nodded, but didn't say anything. No need to tell Gus it wasn't Sharlene she was thinking about, but the man who might have killed her.

When another hour passed with no sign of the stranger, she put him out of her mind. No doubt he'd been just passing through, like everyone else. And it was probably just a coincidence that he had left the diner with Sharlene and the other woman.

When her shift was over, she grabbed her jacket and her handbag, gave Gus a quick hug good night, and went out the back door, only then remembering that she had left her car at home and walked to work that evening.

Slinging her handbag over her shoulder, she pulled the rubber band from her ponytail and shook out her hair, then crossed the parking lot toward the sidewalk.

Her steps slowed when she reached the corner. The night seemed quieter than usual, ominous, somehow. A slight breeze rattled through the leaves in the trees along the sidewalk.

Resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder, she quickened her steps, gasping when a dark shape materialized out of the shadows to her right and a deep voice said,

“Good evening, Victoria Cavendish.”

She pressed a hand to her pounding heart. “Lord, you scared me! What are you doing lurking out here in the bushes at this time of night?”

“Waiting for you, of course.”

His words pleased her, but only for a moment. Pleasure quickly turned to fright when she remembered that, as far as she knew, this stranger had been the last man to see Sharlene and the Lewis woman alive.

She came to an abrupt halt under a streetlight, grateful for the illumination, weak as it was. “Why…why were you waiting for…for me?”

“I thought I would walk you home. There is a killer on the loose and in spite of what you think, it is not me.”

“How did you know I walked to work?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Yes. I think it does.” She glanced up and down the sidewalk, dismayed to see that the streets were deserted. Would anyone hear her if she screamed? She did a quick mental search of her handbag, wondering if there was anything in there that she could use as a weapon.

He shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “I was watching your house.”

“Watching? My house?”

He nodded.

“Why?”

Taking his hand out of his pocket, he wrapped a lock of her hair around his forefinger. “Because you have red hair.”

She stared up at him, puzzled, and then felt a sliver of ice slide down her spine. Sharlene had had red hair. So had the other woman who had been killed.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “You don't think he'll…?”

“That is exactly what I think.”

Feeling suddenly light-headed, she swayed on her feet. “It is a serial killer, then, isn't it?” She had overheard Ned and Arnie discussing the possibility earlier that night.

“In a manner of speaking.”

“You sound like you know him.”

“Indeed.”

“You do know him? Why haven't you told someone? You've got to go to the police, right away, tonight.”

“I doubt if they would believe me.”

“Why not?”

He took her arm, gently urging her along. “Let us not talk about that now.”

“But…It's important.”

“The police will never catch him.”

“You sound very sure of that.”

He nodded. “Surer than you can imagine.” His hand slid down her arm, his fingers entwining with hers. His skin was cool, yet at the touch of his hand, frissons of sexual awareness sizzled up her arm.

Nothing like that had ever happened to her before. Feeling suddenly breathless, she looked up at him. Had she imagined that unexpected jolt of sensual heat, or had he felt it, too?

He was watching her in return, his eyes dark and hot.

It took her a moment to realize they had stopped walking, and another moment to realize that he was going to kiss her. Before she could decide whether she wanted him to or not, his mouth was on hers. His skin might have been cool, but there was nothing cool about his kiss! At the first touch of his lips on hers, heat engulfed her, a conflagration that threatened to consume her. His arms imprisoned her, drawing her body up against his. She shivered as she felt his hand slide up the back of her neck to delve into her hair.

He deepened the kiss, his tongue plundering her mouth, his arms tightening around her until she could scarcely move, scarcely breathe. Her heart was beating rapidly, pounding in her ears so loudly she wondered that he didn't hear it, too.

Or perhaps he did. He drew back, his gaze lingering on the pulse beating in the hollow of her throat. He placed his forefinger there, ever so lightly, and her heart beat even faster.

He lowered his head to her neck and took a deep breath, giving her the oddest impression that he was inhaling the scent of her blood.

The thought, though far-fetched, made her uncomfortable and she stepped away from him. “I think we'd better go.”

“Yes,” he said quietly. “I think that would be wise.”

He took her by the hand and they resumed walking. She had to hurry to keep up with him, making her wonder if he was suddenly anxious to get her home and be rid of her.

They reached her house a short time later. It was a large two-story clapboard house with a tall chimney and a wraparound porch. During the spring and summer, roses and daisies grew in wild profusion behind the white picket fence. An enormous pepper tree shaded one side of the front yard.

Vicki opened the gate and he followed her up the red brick path to the porch. She opened the front door, then turned to face him.

“Thank you for walking me home,” she said.

He nodded. “Keep your doors locked, Victoria Cavendish.”

She frowned. She never locked her front door, or the back one either, for that matter.

“Humor me in this,” he said. “At least for a time.”

“On one condition,” she said.

He lifted one dark brow in question. It reminded her of a bat taking flight.

“Tell me your name.”

“Ah.” What might have passed for an amused smile tugged at his lips.

“You do have a name, don't you?”

“Of course. Even the devil has a name.”

The tone of his voice sent a shiver of unease down her spine. “And do you know it?” she asked hoarsely. “The devil's name?”

His expression turned hard and cold. “I do, indeed. It is a name you do not wish to know.” He made a graceful, old-fashioned bow. “But my name is Antonio Battista.”

She took a step backward, one hand clutching the edge of the door. “Good night, Mr. Battista.”

“Buona notte.”

Vicki glanced over her shoulder. The inside of the house was dark and quiet. She had entered that same dark house after work countless times before. Why was she afraid now?

“Would you do me a favor?” she asked.

“If I can.”

“Would you wait here while I check the house?”

He nodded.

Taking a step back, she motioned him inside.

He glanced at the threshold that separated them. “Are you inviting me in?”

“Yes, of course. Come on.”

With a nod, he crossed the threshold and stepped into the small entryway. “Do you often invite strangers into your home?”

“No. I'll just be a minute.” Hurrying through the house, she turned on all the lights, then returned to the front door.

“Thank you.” She grinned self-consciously. “I'm not usually such a 'fraidy cat, but the murders…”

“You are right to be cautious,” he replied. “Remember what I said. Lock your doors. And bid no stranger to enter.”

He was a stranger. Even as the thought crossed her mind, he had descended the stairs and disappeared into the night.

Vicki stared into the darkness. How could he have vanished so quickly? And how could he walk on the brick pathway without making a sound?

She closed the door and turned the lock, then hurried into the kitchen to lock the back door as well. Filled with a sudden anxiety, she moved through the house again, closing and locking all the windows and drawing the curtains, both upstairs and down.

She paused in the middle of her room, one hand pressed to her heart. What was she doing? Why had she let him frighten her like that? She had lived in Pear Blossom Creek her whole life and never worried about locking her doors.

But there had never been a murder before, either. The thought sobered her. She would be foolish indeed not to take precautions, at least until the murderer was caught.

And what if Antonio Battista is the murderer?

The words moved through her mind. She didn't know a thing about him, yet she had let him walk her home. Of course, there was no harm in that. He already knew where she lived. Hadn't he said he had been watching her house? Still, he was a stranger. It had no doubt been the height of stupidity to let him into the house. She pressed a hand to her breast. She wouldn't make that mistake again! Although if he had intended to do her harm, he had just passed up the perfect opportunity.

Shaking off her worrisome thoughts, she went into the kitchen in search of her favorite comfort food. Something deep and dark and rich. It took her a moment to decide between a bowl of chocolate ice cream or a candy bar. Thinking of Sharlene, she decided life was too short not to indulge herself once in a while and with that in mind, she ate a big bowl of ice cream topped with hot fudge and whipped cream, with a Milky Way on the side, and went up to bed.