It’s Scott.
“Why does Brian want to hurt you?”
“He doesn’t want to hurt me. He wants to kill me,” I tell him and get in my car. The group starts whispering and I pull away from the curb. It’s an awkward dance to get around the police cars but I manage it. I drive slowly through town, watching every corner for Brian, or whoever else might be helping him.
In the end no one attacks me and Vesper Point seems as normal as it can be for what happened to Liz last night. When I catch sight of the newspaper office, I don’t bother to pull into the backlot.
“Son of a bitch.” I park right out in front and get out. The front window has been smashed in and the front door looks pretty banged up. The glass there is gone. There’s a couple of cops taking photos and talking to Mary and Lyle. Josie stands behind them with a bat in her hand. What the fuck happened here?
“Hey, what’s going on?” Everyone turns my way and Mary starts to cry.
Josie pats her shoulder awkwardly. “There was a break in, like I told you. It was rough here, but sounds like you had it just as bad.”
“Who was it?” I ask her. I look at the cop. They’re newish. I don’t know their names which means they don’t know who I am either so I hold out my hand. “I’m Maris. I own the Vesper Point Call.”
“Pleased to meet you, Maris. I’m Officer Kent. We’re responding to the break in that took place at four am. Your staff here fought them off. Pretty loyal to you to do that.”
I look over at the group, Greg has come out nursing a cup of coffee. He offers one to Mary who takes it with a sniffle. “They are but what were you all thinking? Why did you stay here?”
“We told you. They came by before looking for our sources and we weren’t going to let them have it. Whatever Brian is doing he’s got help, and it’s definitely connected to Father Paretti’s death. We’re not going to be intimidated,” Greg says and looks at Officer Kent with a resolved lift of his head. “We won’t let Freedom of the Press die in Vesper Point.”
“Not on our watch,” Josie adds and gives her bat a little twirl.
“You heard what he did to Liz. It's not safe. We’ll figure this out another way. I know you’re excited about the news, but it’s not worth your lives.”
“And if we stop, what then?” Mary asks softly. “Whatever those people Brian has helping him are on it’s bad. They weren’t human. They were climbing the walls outside, Maris. I saw one pick a car up. They’re not right.”
“Pick a car up?” I whisper.
Officer Kent sighs and points to a car a few feet away from us. “That was tossed through the front here. We had it removed an hour ago and moved out of the way. Thought maybe someone drove it in but CCTV tells a different story. She’s right. They picked a car up.”
“Not just one of them, it took like two of them but still. Cars were picked up.”
“How many were there?” I ask.
“Eight,” Lyle answers. “It was mostly the washed up longshoremen that don’t get hired out anymore. The barflies we see killing themselves down at Moretti’s from open to close.” Moretti’s is the trashiest bar in town. It’s also one of the onlyones that I know for a fact doesn’t cut anyone off, so it’s a favorite haunt of the town drunks.
“For a bunch of drunks they were moving pretty fast,” Josie mutters.
“They wouldn’t come inside though,” Mary says. “No matter what they did, they just stayed outside.” She looks at Officer Kent. “Why didn’t they come inside?”
Officer Kent rubs the back of his neck and looks uncomfortable so I give him a look. “What is she talking about?”
“She’s talking about them acting like there was a wall up between us. They wouldn’t set foot in here and we all know why. Officer Kent doesn’t want to admit what we already know.”
I look away from Officer Kent because they’re right. He’s not going to say shit. He looks like he wants to be anywhere other than here.
Officer Kent holds up hands. “Now, let’s just calm down and-”
“What? What do you know?”
“It’s vampires,” Josie says and points her bat at the window. “They didn’t come in because they’re vampires.”
“Okay, I know tensions are high but how about we take a beat and collect ourselves, yeah? I’ve got to run to the station to get some paperwork done but I’ll be back by later.”
I nod and wave him off. I’m not paying attention to Officer Kent one bit. Josie’s right. It was fucking vampires.
“All of you, get indoors now. Stay together, do you hear me? I don’t want any of you on your own.” I turn from them and head inside the newspaper office. Of course they all follow me inside.
