“Yes but just one. He works at the hospital with you.”
I pick up my phone and call Aubrey. She picks up on the second ring with a pleased, “Julian!” She sounds just as chipper as she always does. I hear someone laugh and the sound of weights. She’s in the gym. Maybe that’s how she’s so happy all the time. “How are you settling in?”
“Fine. I’m good but I have a question.”
“Fire away.”
“The other vampire. You never told me his name.”
“Oh, I thought you two would have met by now. His name is Reginald Brom.”
I nod and lean forward, an elbow braced on the table. “Did he know I was coming ahead of time?”
“What? No, of course not. Your move to Vesper Point was done with the utmost attention to privacy. He wouldn’t know.”
I drum my fingers on the desk in front of me. “Okay.”
“Has he made trouble for you?” Aubrey asks but I’m already moving to hang up.
“No, nothing like that. Enjoy your work out, Aubrey.”
“How did you know I was-”
I end the phone call and shove my phone into my coat pocket with a sigh. “What the fuck, Reginald?” I ask the empty room but I rise from my desk and head out of my office. Another vampire in the same hospital in such a small town was always going to be a risk but that’s okay. I’m going to find Reginald and when I do, I’m going to figure out exactly what he knows about me.
Five
MARIS
I’m not the only Martinez in town. Not by a long shot. I am, however, well and truly cut off from the rest of them. Disowned and living in the ancestral house is kind of neat if you think about it because I wasn’t really a fan of my Aunt Clarice or her shitty kids Ben and Dylan. They’re two of the most selfish men in town, and their wives and their kids suck even more than they do.
It’s just one giant ball of suck.
The wind howls and I duck my head. It’s late. Just after ten o’clock. I shouldn’t be out at night but I’m on my way to see the family that I do love. There’s no helping it. Not with the day it is.
October seventh. My eyes sting with water from the heavy wind, or at least I tell myself that’s what it is. It’s not because of the other thing.
The other thing being that today is the anniversary of my parent’s car crash. The anniversary of their death and the beginning of when my life started to go down the path that led me here. I tuck the bouquet of flowers closer to my chest to shield them from the frigid sea wind. It’s silly, I know. I’m going to leave the bouquet of daffodils and daisies at my parents’ graves anyhow. It’s not like the wind isn’t going to destroy theblooms and leave them a brown mess by the next morning but I can’t help it. My eyes keep right on watering while I open the iron gate leading into Mariner’s Rest and slip inside the cemetery.
I’m here late because of work, but that’s not the entire truth. The newspaper can run on its own more or less. I have a half dozen employees who don’t care all that much what people in town think or say about me, at least to the extent that they won’t quit just because I’m the one running it. They might not be inviting me over for dinner or doing more than a simple hello or head nod out in public but my signature is more than fine for their checks, and because of that they’ll never quit.
Four of them, Josie, Greg, Lyle, and Mary have been with the newspaper since my granny ran it. Fat chance they’ll leave before they keel over. I could run over someone right in front of them and they’d look the other way, which to be honest is kind of a perk when you think about it. If I ever have to hide a body, I know exactly who to call. God knows Josie has no compunction about offing someone. Rumor has it that she killed her first husband when she caught him cheating. One day he was there, drinking a pint with everyone down at the Scarlet and heading off with a woman that was definitely not Josie.
That night was the last time he was ever seen.
I always wondered why people accused Josie when the woman could have been the reason he never came back.
“Maybe he left town to be with her,” I’d said one time to my granny while we worked on a piece together.
My granny was strong, smart, and above all things skeptical. She’d also grown up in town right alongside Josie and her husband.
“She did it,” my granny said, her silver head never lifting from the notebook she was writing in. “You watch yourselfaround Josie. Just because she’s old doesn’t mean she’s not mean as a snake but she’s loyal.”
Granny was right. Josie was mean as a snake and she was loyal. She’d help me hide that body and show up for work at eight o’clock on the dot. I smile thinking about my granny, or as the town knew her, Nora Martinez. I loved her with all my heart. Learned everything I knew about writing from her, it was an honor to take over the newspaper too. The fact that it was still going strong showed that I’d learned exactly what I was meant to from granny. Even if no one wanted to have anything to do with me they wanted the Call to survive.
Isla founded The Vesper Point Call and for one hundred and forty-one years it has been passed down through the family, mother to daughter. I know if my mom was still living she would have been the one staying late with me tonight to ensure tomorrow’s paper was fit to print. I bite my lip and hold the flowers closer.
She isn’t though. That’s why I’m here walking alone to her grave.
