Maris sucks in breath. “What do you meanin his neck?”
Josie stabs two fingers to the side of her neck. “I mean here. In his fucking neck. They said from the bruising around the wounds there, that enough force was applied to suction out his blood. The bruising is pretty on par with the kind of extreme applied pressure you’d get with an industrial vacuum.”
What the fuck? They’re calling me a vacuum?
“You’re telling me some freak sucked Father Paretti dry like a capri sun?”
“More or less.”
“But thats…that’s…it’s impossible. That’s like a-” Maris stops herself short and I know why. I look over at her and see her herbiting her lip and shaking her head. “I’m not even going to say it,” she whispers.
“Vampire,” Josie supplies gleefully. The older woman has no hang ups about the word. “It’s like a fuckingvampire, Maris. Can you believe it?” She looks at me when Maris doesn’t react. “It’s like one of those Stephen King novels, a small town, vampires, fuck we’re going to have the undead overrunning us by the end of tomorrow, don’t you think, doc?”
Maris snorts. “We aren’t that lucky, Josie.”
“I think you’re right,” I tell Josie. “Zombies at the supermarket by tomorrow evening for sure. I bet we even see Dracula shapeshift. He becomes a wolf, right? Or mist, or something?”
Josie cackles. “He does! Oh my god, can you imagine? The mist rolling off the water? Yeah, it’s definitely fucking Dracula coming to town.”
“Probably looking for a bride,” I point out. “I know I would be.”
I’m not Dracula but I’m close enough.
“Knock it off you two,” Maris groans and slumps forward on her desk. She looks distraught.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“We need news but not this news. This news is the kind of news that we can’t report on. We’ll look fucking crazy.”
“But the body is at the morgue, boss, and it’s not like his throat was ripped out. It’s two, count them,” Josie holds up two fingers and waves them in the air for effect, “two fucking holes in his neck. Those are the facts so wehaveto report on it. They’re even getting our big city doctor to look it over and confirm the findings,” Josie says, pointing her pen at me.
“They are?” I ask, pulling out my phone. There’s not texts or missed calls.
“They are but they haven’t told you yet. They’ll get you looped in tomorrow morning because from what I hear they had enough of you running out there with the way Liz is mooning after you.”
“Ah, Liz,” I nod and duck my head. “Didn’t know that had already made the rounds in town.”
“Vesper Point is a small town, doc. You fart wrong and half the town is gonna know before lunch.”
I pocket my phone with a sigh. “Good to know.” This is the worst place I could have been sent to keep a low profile. If Maris wasn’t here, I’d think I was being punished.
“Liz is doingwhat?” Maris gets up from her desk. The look on her face is different. She’s not disheveled or distraught, not worried about what she might look like reporting on a vampire attack, she’s not the broken, small version of herself that I’ve seen. She’s bigger, darker, every bit the kind of woman that could kill.
“Mooning. She’s got fucking heart eyes for doc here. You should stake your claim before she pops out of a cake naked,” Josie advises.
Maris crosses her arms and looks at me. “Do you like her?”
“Liz?” I shrug and feign stupidity like a normal man. “I work with her. She’s fine. Good at her job, if a little zealous in calling me in for small matters.”
“So you don’t like her then?”
“Not outside of a strict work environment. She’s a fine nurse. We had coffee once.”
Josie looks between us like she’s watching a tennis match, which I guess for her she is. I bet she’s going to put this in the paper. Good.
Maris comes around her desk, eyes on me. “Josie, can you share the info you shared with the others? I'll be out in a few for a team meeting. Close the door on your way out.”
“No problemo.” Josie salutes and backpedals with a shit eating grin on her face. Yeah, it’s definitely going to be in the paper. When the door closes, Maris speaks.
