by Peter Glenn
Charmaine took in a deep breath, suppressing a sob. “Anyway, I went to the crime scene. It was easy enough to find. And I went inside. But in there, it was… the blood, Damian, there was so much blood! It was everywhere!”
She looked like she was going to be sick for a minute. Imagine that. A vampire sick at the thought of blood. It must have been really out there for her to react like that.
“All that blood, Damian.” Her eyes had a distant, haunted look. “It was like out of a nightmare.”
I could sense her starting to fade back out. “Hey!” I grabbed her face and turned it until she was looking at me to snap her out of it. “You’re safe here. You’re at Mei’s. Nothing is going to happen to you here.”
Slowly, Charmaine nodded. “Thank you, Damian.”
“Now, please, was there anything else that happened?”
Charmaine thought hard for a moment. “I… I thought I heard something while I was in there, at the crime scene, and I spun around, but I slipped on the blood and I fell. That must be how it got all over me. Then I freaked and ran for it. I knew I needed help, and you’re an investigator, so my next thought was to come here. I ran as hard as I could, and then, well, you know the rest.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Well, that’s quite the tale. I’m glad you’re safe now.”
“Yes, I am,” Charmaine said. “But Daequan. He’s… he’s not.”
Something about her—the distant look in her eyes, the hopelessness of her expression—resonated. My heart went out to her.
“I’ll help you.” The words rushed out almost before I realized I’d spoken them.
“You’ll what?” Both Mei and my mother said in unison.
Charmaine’s face brightened. “You will? I’ll pay you, of course. Whatever it takes.”
I warded off Mei and my mother, who both looked like they wanted to strangle me in that moment. In fact, that almost made it better. “I will,” I told her, grinning a little. “It’s the right thing to do.”
There. Let them chew on that.
I heard my mother snort and saw Mei shake her head and turn away muttering something. But hey, what could I say? She’d come to me looking for help. It was the least I could do for her.
Besides, a paycheck’s a paycheck.
3
“So, can you really turn invisible?” I asked Charmaine.
We were sitting in her car. I was driving because she was still pretty shaken up and feeling a little hazy, even with three coconut drinks in her system. I was kind of shocked at her reaction to the blood, but I suppose even vampires could be squeamish.
At any rate, we were on the way to the crime scene. It was the spot that made the most sense to start off the investigation. I’d told her I’d be happy to go alone, given her earlier experience there, but she’d insisted on tagging along. Wanted to do whatever she could to help Daequan, she’d said.
I supposed if I were in her spot with someone I loved rotting away in jail, I’d probably do the same thing. So I’d relented.
“Sort of,” Charmaine said finally. She leaned her head slightly against the window. “It’s not really turning invisible, it’s turning into mist. And yes, I can do it.”
My eyes lit up. “That sounds epic! Can I watch?”
“Not right now. But maybe later.” She gave me a weak smile. “If I did it right now, I’d pass through the car and end up somewhere in the street. And what good would that do anyone?”
“You can pass through solid metal, too?” This was getting better and better. “Now I definitely have to see you do it.”
Charmaine gave me a flat look and sighed. “Fine. But only once, and only after we’ve reached our destination.”
She didn’t sound the least happy about it, but I didn’t care. I’d still get to see her work vampire magic. That was a first for me.
“Heh. I’m good with that.” I flashed her a wide, toothy grin.
We drove in silence then for several minutes. I’d given her back her phone, and she was using it as a GPS to get to the apartment complex. It was the same building she lived in, which made it kind of easy.
“Turn right in five hundred feet,” the phone’s tinny AI voice called out.
“Roger that, phone,” I said, giving it a fake salute.
I heard Charmaine snort and glanced over at her to see her shaking her head with a big grin on her face. One of her vampire fangs was hanging out of the corner of her mouth, which only made the smile seem that much sweeter.
“Did I say something funny?” I turned the wheel and the car turned down the next road. We were getting close to the building.
“You’re seriously going to ask that question?” she fired back. “You, the one answering a phone AI like it was a real person are asking me that?”
My cheeks flushed, but I said nothing. Charmaine was going to have to get used to my crazy antics if she was going to work with me. There was nothing for it.
“In five hundred feet, stop. Your destination is on the left,” the AI commanded.
Briefly, I wondered what her phone’s AI was called. Mine was called Srini, but she had a different type of device.
“You got it,” I told the phone, smiling at its glowing screen.
It ended up taking a few minutes to find a viable parking space that wasn’t too far from the building, but I managed that feat, too, and we piled out of the car. I locked it with the key fob, noting how convenient it was—Charmaine’s car was really nice—and we started toward the apartment building.
I looked it up and down and let out a low whistle. The building was on the taller side, with that crown moulding look at the top. All of the apartments looked to have their own balconies, at least as far as I could tell, and there was even a doorman at the entrance next to a turnstile door that had a little piece of red carpet leading up to it.
“You live in a nice place,” I whispered to Charmaine, leaning in close.
She nodded. “When you live as long as I do, you learn to appreciate the finer things in life.”
“And how old is that?”
I hadn’t meant the question the way it sounded, but she hissed at me anyway. “Let’s just say longer than you have and leave it at that, shall we?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, flashing her another grin. Maybe a little of my Asian charm would help soothe that wound.
I waved to the doorman as we walked past him and into the building. He made a small wave back but didn’t say anything. I’m guessing it was because Charmaine was with me. He looked like the type that would know all the residents by sight. I was a little surprised that the blood didn’t give him pause, but what did I know? Maybe that was a common occurrence in this place…
The interior of the lobby was every bit as plush as the outside. The tile on the floor looked fresh and shined in the lighting, which felt warm rather than harsh. There were potted plants in every corner of the room, and someone had hung a Happy Halloween banner up by the elevator door.
In short, it was everything my little apartment complex was not.
“Which floor?” I asked Charmaine as we made our way over to the elevator and stepped inside.
“Top floor,” she said.
I did a double take. “Really? No wonder the police were pissed.”
“Yeah.”
I spared her a quick glance and saw her gritting her teeth. Her shoulders were already tense, and we hadn’t even reached the right floor yet. I’d have to watch her closely.
Turning back to the elevator, I pressed the button for the top floor, and the machinery whirred to life. There was some sort of music playing in the background, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Probably some new age band or something. At least it wasn’t typical elevator music. One of these days, my beloved 80s tunes were going to be considered worthy of elevators. But thankfully, that day was not today.
A few seconds later, we arrived at the top floor, and I gave another whistle as I took in the surroundings. If it hadn’t bee
n for the police tape covering the far door, I would have thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
Everything was neat and tidy and covered in glittering gold. Granted, it was probably just gold paint, but it gave off a nice sheen that made me feel woefully out of place. I reminded myself to try not to touch anything and gingerly made my way over to the door with the police tape on it.
The whole place felt hot and stuffy, and that was just the landing. What must it be like on the other side of that door? I was about to find out.
“Police are long gone,” Charmaine said. “Went home hours ago.”
“Huh?” I roused myself from my thoughts and realized my hand had been hovering over the door handle but not touching it. She must have seen my hesitance and reacted. “Uh, thanks.”
I tried the handle. It was surprisingly warm and smooth. But it also wouldn’t budge.
“Of course it’s locked,” I said, grunting. “And I’m without my lockpick set today.”
“It’s okay,” Charmaine said. She brushed past me. “I did promise you a show.”
“Are you sure?” I asked her. I could see her hands trembling as she stood in front of the door, and a slight shiver in her spine. Her nerves were getting worse by the minute. “You don’t have to, you know. I can go home and grab my kit and be back in like a half an hour.”
“No, it’s okay,” Charmaine insisted. She took in a deep breath and shook her arms out. “I can do this. It’s for Daequan.”
She stared at the door with as much concentration as I’d seen anyone have and wrung out her hands one more time. Then, she started to shift.
The whole thing was incredible to watch. I’d seen the occasional transformation in my time—like Mei shifting into dragon form—and a little bit of actual magic here and there, but this was altogether different. One minute, Charmaine was standing in front of me, and the next minute, she was gone, replaced by a slight sense of mist in the air, like a little bit of fog that had crept in from an open window. It was so slight I almost didn’t even realize she was still there.
Then, moving slowly, the fog pushed itself into and through the giant wooden door, and it was gone. I was alone.
“Wow,” I uttered. It was all I could think of to say.
A moment later, I heard a few clicks of metal grating on metal, and the door swung open, Charmaine standing on the other side and grinning at me.
“How was it? Did it please you?”
She was teasing me, I could tell. “Can… can you do that with any door?”
I know, I know, I probably should have returned her banter. But I was in too much shock.
She shrugged, looking only slightly disappointed. “Only if I’ve already been invited in or there’s no living owner. That rumor is also true. Vampires need to be invited in places. Otherwise, some of us would just rob people for a living.”
Something in her tone made me think she had more firsthand experience with that then she let on, but I let it drop. Hearing all about her criminal history wouldn’t help her case.
“Makes sense,” I said, nodding. It didn’t. Not really. But she didn’t need to know that. It felt much cooler to me if I pretended I did. “Well, let’s get to looking about the place for clues, shall we?”
Charmaine nodded, repressing another tremor in her left hand and looking at me with a stony expression. “Yes, let’s.”
I paused and put my hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look straight at me. “I mean it. I can do this by myself. I’m an expert in this sort of thing.” I puffed up my chest a little as I said the last bit and stared off into the distance. It was my superhero pose.
Charmaine giggled a little and brushed my hands away. “Cut that out, silly.”
She turned and slinked into the room.
“Hey, at least you’re not as worried now,” I called after her. She didn’t respond.
I stumbled into the room, trying to figure out where she’d gone, but it was far too dark to notice anything. I fumbled around on the wall near the door, looking for a light switch. Finding one, I flicked it on to illuminate the dead guy’s apartment. Harsh brightness greeted me as several bulbs flared to life overhead, flooding the room in a brilliant shower of light.
I shut the door behind me quickly to keep the light from spilling out into the hallway and giving away our presence while squinting to allow my eyes to refocus. Then, I turned my attention back to the room proper.
“Wow,” I said again as I took it all in.
Beside me, Charmaine’s tremors had gotten worse. And now that I was seeing the crime scene for myself, I was beginning to understand why.
If it hadn’t been for the blood and the tape on the floor and walls, the room would have bowled me over with how nice it was. There was a grand chandelier hanging over our heads that was draped in enough crystals to pay my rent for a year. Off to one side was a coatrack with one lone coat on it and a bowler hat hanging off the side, and on the other side was a gleaming, gold-tinged door that probably led to a similarly decked out guest bathroom.
There was a large window at the back of the room that let in the light from outside and, I guessed on a non-foggy night, probably gave a good view of either the Sound or Mount Rainier. A plush, velvety couch sprawled out in front of it next to a rather large bookcase that had several old-looking, leather-bound tomes on its shelves, and another one of those potted plants next to it for good measure.
But the blood. The blood really was everywhere. There was a big pile of the sticky stuff on the ground not far from where I stood. Someone had put white tape down around the puddle. That was likely where the dead body had been found. But that wasn’t the only spot covered in it. Blood was on the walls, the furniture, splattered all over the plants, and even on the ceiling in a few spots.
There was so much blood, I had trouble believing it had all come from only one person.
“I… I had no idea,” I muttered. “It really is like you said. Worse, maybe.”
“You can say that again.”
Charmaine’s breathing quickened, and I saw her start to swoon on her feet. I worried she was about to fall over again.
“Hey!” I shouted, pulling on her sleeve. “Look at me, not the blood!”
She turned her head slowly, looking up at me, and nodded. “O-okay.”
The tremors in her hands started to lessen as she stared into my eyes, and her breathing steadied just a little. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Try to breathe like that.”
Did breathing even matter for vampires? They were undead, after all. Still, she was doing it, so I supposed it must.
Charmaine slowed her breathing to mimic mine. The color slowly returned to her face and her stance looked stronger. Better. It was working.
“He’s gone,” I said. “The killer’s long gone. There’s nothing we can do about it now. Freaking out won’t help Daequan. Only finding the real killer will. Got it?”
Charmaine nodded again. “Got it.”
“Good. Now what do we know about this guy? Anything?”
She sighed and pulled on her face, turning her body so she wasn’t looking directly at the giant pile of blood. “His name was Donald Thurgood. He lived here for years, though no one really knew much about him, just that he’s—or rather was—a recluse.”
“Well, that’s not going to help very much,” I muttered under my breath. Raising my voice so Charmaine could hear, I added, “Okay then, anything else?”
Charmaine shook her head. “Not really. Like I said, he was a recluse. I’d seen him maybe once or twice in the elevator, but we never even really talked to each other when I did. He lived alone and kept to himself.”
“Hmm.” Well, that was less fruitful than I’d hoped. I had kind of been hoping with Charmaine living in the same building that she’d know more about him. Oh well.
“Listen,” Charmaine said. She was still staring at the wall with the least blood on it. “D
o you mind if I go downstairs and change? I think I’d be able to handle all this better if I wasn’t so coated in all this… blood.”
“Sure thing.” I flashed her another grin, even though she probably didn’t see it. “Take your time, I’m just going to look around for anything suspicious. I’ll text you if I find anything of note.”
“Great.” Charmaine turned and headed out a moment later, closing the door behind her.
“Okay, Damian,” I said aloud once she was gone, “now that you’re alone, work your magic. Let’s find some sort of clue as to who would have done this.”
I fanned out my arms and cracked my neck, then got to work.
The work of an occult investigator like myself could be kind of hit or miss sometimes. I didn’t have any real innate magic outside of my blind luck, so it was much like being a normal detective. You just had to look at everything and try to find the things that were out of place.
It was boring, really. But it paid the bills and kept me in alcohol, so there’s that.
“If I were a clue, where would I be?” I asked the air.
Nothing responded, which was a good thing, so I picked up my phone and typed in the name “Donald Thurgood” to see what the internet could provide.
“Donald Thurgood, the Mayor’s Right-Hand Man,” one headline read. Great. Rich and famous. Just what Daequan needed. They were going to railroad that guy at this rate.
“Famed Art Collector Donald Thurgood Dead at Thirty-Eight,” read another. So the news had already caught up to that fact. Another bad note.
“Vampire Kills Good Samaritan,” another headline read. This one I clicked on. Sure enough, it was a story about Donald Thurgood’s death. This one had an actual picture of him that looked like it had been leaked from the police report. It was a headshot, but I could barely see two small puncture marks in the guy’s neck.
