The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  “I have good hearing.” She tapped her right ear. “I don’t think all of these are real names, some of them are probably nicknames, last names, abbreviations and the like.” She handed Max the notebook. He scanned the list, seeing a few he recognized.

  “I see what you mean.” He tapped the bottom of the list with his pen.

  Donald looked over his shoulder and chuckled. “Grendel?”

  “I’ve not seen that one….” Abbie waddled to her chair and waved at the dog to get up. She sat down when it hopped away. “I’ve only heard him mentioned. They’re all quite scared of him, except for that one who seems to be in charge.”

  “Boone?” Max almost whispered the name.

  Abbie nodded.

  “He’s white as a sheet and always seems to be smiling. Normally I’d find that quality in a young man charming, sporting a smile all the time. But something about his face…” She shook her head and looked away. “They all live in those two trailers, but I think Grendel lives in the woods.”

  “There’s a house in the woods?” the way Donald asked made it sound like he didn’t believe her. Abbie picked up on it pretty fast. It was irritating, because she was going to close up, but Max couldn’t fault him for not believing her. If Max hadn’t already figured out there were vampires involved, he wouldn’t have believed her either.

  Donald and Abbie shared a little small talk while Max copied the list. In addition to the names, she provided some physical details for the ones she’d seen. Skyler had dark hair—when he had hair. Ollie was the fat one, and Leroy she identified as being loud and dumb. Boone got no details other than being on top of the list. There were others, too. Once he had the information, he returned Abbie’s notebook and gathered up his things to leave.

  She waved a finger at Max as they stood at the door.

  “You remind me of my husband.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.” He saw the look on her face. “Maybe?”

  “My husband was in the Army for twenty years. He did five tours of duty in two different wars. He’d have gone back for more if they let him. Were you in the service, Max Hollingsworth? That’d make a fine soldier’s name.”

  “My father was an officer in the Air Force. I never served.”

  “That’s good.” She patted him on the chest. “Good for you, anyway. And for your wife…” She looked at his hand. “Have you got a wife?”

  “I have a girlfriend.”

  “Well, she’s a lucky girl. Mostly.”

  Max grinned. “What do you mean?”

  She smiled and patted his arm. Her touch made his heart warm. “Because my husband didn’t know when to quit, so I have some idea what she’s going through with you. I never forgave him for it. I hope she can. Good luck, Max.”

  Chapter Ten

  Max dropped Donald off at their office building and went on. As was his way, Donald insisted they have lunch sometime. That sounded pleasant, but he wasn’t sure he’d be good company for someone so friendly and light hearted.

  Max needed to go to his next visit alone.

  When Michelle answered the door, Max regretted not bringing someone with him.

  “Should I come back later?”

  Max tried not to look at her breasts, they weren’t very big, but she wasn’t making much of an effort to cover them. She didn’t even seem aware that her shirt wasn’t buttoned. A cool draft wafted past Max and hit her chest, causing little bumps to appear all over her arms and legs. She pulled the shirt closed and fastened a couple of buttons.

  “No, it’s fine,” she moaned the words more than spoke them. After wrapping her arms around her chest, Michelle turned and walked into the house, gesturing for Max to follow. Her shirt barely covered her rear, but she wore shorts. Not that seeing her naked would have been unpleasant, she had a nice body, and looked good, despite her unkempt hair and body odor.

  Max closed the door behind her. He immediately missed the fresh air. The house reeked of dirty dishes, sweat, and a faint odor of burning hair. Max had a pretty good idea what that meant.

  “You’re Max, right?” she said, waving a finger at him. She fell on a couch piled with dirty clothes. Not once had she seemed to open her eyes past bloodshot slits under tangled brown bangs of over-permed hair. She put her bare feet on a little table and scratched her legs. Max noticed they had a thin layer of new hair growing between a network of faint nail lines on her thighs and shins.

  Max nodded.

  “You used to be my boss….” She rubbed under one of her eyes and coughed. “I think I remember—”

  “I think I remember that, too.” He grinned. “Brian asked that I check on you.”

  “I’ve been sick.” She forced a grin.

  Max nodded. “Yeah, looks pretty bad.” He looked around the room. “You got the flu or something? Strep?”

  She shrugged.

  He rarely paid much attention to most of his co-workers, but she was one of the prettier ones, so he’d noticed her more. Like all members of their profession, she carried a lot of work with her at a time. That required some manner of bag, kind of like the military style bag in which Max carried his laptop and files. If his memory was correct, Michelle carried a brown leather backpack with a drawstring. He saw it slumped against the wall, like it’d been dropped from her shoulder on her way to the bedroom. Likely it hadn’t been disturbed in that time. If she’d taken anything from the file, odds are it was still in there.

  He noticed a few others things. Despite the mess, Max didn’t see any cold remedies or boxes of tissue. That wasn’t necessarily an indication of her reported condition. She might have been suffering from any number of ailments. Max also noticed a pair of men’s boxer shorts amidst the pile of dirty clothes by the bathroom door. Peering inside, he saw the toilet seat in the upright position.

  “Your boyfriend is taking care of you?”

  She grinned. “Yeah, he comes by a lot.”

  “I think I saw him at the last Christmas party,” Max lied. He didn’t go to that party. It didn’t matter.

  “No, I wasn’t seeing him then. That was a different guy.”

  Max nodded. “What’s this lucky guy’s name?”

  She dropped her head against the couch and smiled. “Skyler.”

  Max imagined an audible clicking sound in his brain, like a gun cocking.

  “How’d you guys meet?”

  She opened her eyes a little more. She was crashing and exhausted, but she wasn’t stupid. Max knew when to back off. He didn’t need her telling her skinhead boyfriend he’d come snooping around about him.

  “Sorry, that’s none of my business. I’m just nosy.”

  “It’s okay.” She grinned. “Promise you won’t tell?” Max smiled and nodded. “I met him on a hotline.”

  “Oh yeah? He wasn’t a perp, was he?”

  “No, he was a neighbor. I just came out to my car and he was there. He asked me out and….” She held up her hands. “I don’t know why, I just said yes!” She bit her lip. “You won’t tell anyone, will you? I mean, it isn’t against the rules but-”

  Max shook his head. “That’s how I met Sadie.”

  “Sadie?”

  “My girlfriend.”

  “Is that short for something?”

  “Mercedes.”

  Michelle giggled. “That’s pretty. Is her last name Benz?”

  Max smiled and looked at his feet. “No. Ford, actually.”

  “No!”

  He looked up and smiled. “Yeah, her mom thought it would be cute to name the kids after cars since her last name was Ford. Her little sister is named Porsche.”

  “You’re making that up!”

  Max shook his head.

  “Her name is actually Porsche?”

  “She goes by Poppy. I had a hotline on her, that’s how I met Sadie. Poppy is sixteen now, she was thirteen at the time.”

  “Aw…that’s sweet. You’ve been together that long?”

  Max shrugged. “Off and on…I
’m hard to get along with.”

  She laughed—it sputtered into a cough followed by her feet dropping to the floor. “Just a second….” She got up and covered her mouth. “I need to….” Max nodded when she pointed to the bathroom.

  That made what he had to do next a little easier. Scanning the room, he found her cell phone, one of those super fancy ones with the touch screen and all the cool games and applications. He didn’t bother going through the bag, as he doubted he’d have time to find anything he needed. He could come back for the bag later.

  Max moved to her desk and grabbed the phone. It was very similar to Sadie’s, so he didn’t have much trouble navigating through the touch screen folders to her photos. Like most women, Michelle liked taking pictures. And like most women with a new boyfriend, that meant he was a popular subject of her photographs.

  Max found a dozen or so pictures of Skyler, most of which he didn’t care to look at for long. He clicked a pair of them and texted them to his own phone. Then he went into her outgoing text file and deleted the sent message. He didn’t want to tip off her boyfriend…who, based on the pictures he’d seen, was most certainly a skinhead and quite possibly a vampire.

  She came back just after Max set the phone down and moved to the door.

  “Sorry about that,” she moaned, embarrassed. “I just didn’t want to get sick in front of you.”

  “It’s no problem.” He threw a thumb over his shoulder at the door. “I should go anyway and let you get some rest.”

  He’d gotten a good look at her neck and didn’t see any pock marks. That wasn’t unusual; vampires don’t have to bite on the neck. In fact, when drinking from their lovers they prefer the femoral artery. Feeding from it allowed them to pleasure their partners sexually while they drank their blood. Max was pretty sure if he got Michelle’s legs open, he’d see some scars.

  “Thanks for checking on me.” She slumped back on the couch and threw up her legs. “That was sweet. Tell Brian I’ll be back later this week, and that I’m sorry.”

  Max nodded and saw his own way out. The last thing he noticed before shutting the door was the way Michelle shielded her eyes from the autumn sun.

  Chapter Eleven

  Frank’s bookstore was in the mall. Like most bookstores, it didn’t suffer from an excess of business in the afternoon. Max was able to get Frank alone long enough to chat. He’d tried talking to Sadie first, but she reminded him she was mad at him. So, he moved on to his visit with Frank.

  “Do you think she’s crazy?”

  Max shrugged. “Probably. But she’s right.”

  “Were the veepees outside while you were discussing all this?”

  Max shook his head. By the time they’d gotten out, the skinheads and two bikers had left. The bikes were still there, but the riders were gone. Presumably, they’d gone in one of the two trailers, or into the woods, if Mrs. Soptik was to be believed. True enough, looking at a map of the region on the internet showed an expanse of forest behind the Hagshead trailer park. The satellite images couldn’t get close enough to see a building, but it could’ve easily been covered by the tree canopy.

  Frank looked worried. “That doesn’t mean they didn’t hear you.”

  “I know. I’m taking care of it.”

  “What, she going to move in with you?”

  “No, I’m taking care of it.” His hurried explanation didn’t appear to satisfy Frank. Max nodded and exhaled. “I’m talking to Moonshadow tonight.”

  “Oh…no!” Frank shook his head. “I’m never going to see you again. This is goodbye, I think.”

  “She’s not going to hurt me. She knows what’ll happen if she does.” Max knew she’d never forget what happened to her last time, either.

  “I’m not worried about the veepees killing you. I’m talking about Mercedes. You’ll never reach that meeting alive.”

  Frank was right: Sadie was not happy about it one bit.

  “You are insane,” she screamed. If Max didn’t live in a duplex, he wouldn’t have minded being shouted at so much. As it was, he didn’t like the neighbor knowing when he was having an argument.

  “We’re just going to talk.”

  “You’re going to walk into a room with a woman who kidnapped and tortured you less than a year ago. You’re a sadist!”

  “You mean a masochist.” Max held up a hand. “A sadist hurts other people for pleasure—”

  “I know what it means, asshat!” she screamed all that like it was one word. “I mean you like hurting everyone else! You don’t give a damn what you do to yourself!”

  “So this is about you?”

  “What do you think this does to me?” Her mascara was running. She had on a lot of it, so there was a lot to run. She put her hand over her breasts hanging out of her little corset top and almost clawed at the white flesh over her heart. “Do you know what it did to me the last time you were anywhere near that bitch?”

  Max started to answer, but she cut him off.

  “You’re not even scared.” She slapped his hand when he tried to touch her shoulder. “Don’t try to say you’re scared because I can tell you’re not. I’m sick of this bullshit.”

  “Are you going to let me talk?” Max actually raised his voice that time. Screw the neighbors. “Are you going to just shout at me until I change my mind? Because you know that won’t work, right? Have I ever changed my mind from you shouting at me? Has that ever worked?”

  Sadie growled. She growled when she was angry, like a wet cat. Max found it kind of sexy when it wasn’t aimed at him. It was a little sexy even when it was.

  He pointed at the sofa.

  “Shut up and sit down.”

  Her eyes bulged as she shook her head. Max reiterated by pointing at the couch again. She stomped across the room and planted her little ass on the edge of a cushion and crossed her arms. When he tried to sit next to her, she scooted away.

  “Fine, whatever.” He threw his hands in the air. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you so you don’t have a right to be—”

  “Don’t have a right?”

  “Shut! Shut it!” he roared. “For God’s sake shut up! Can you shut up? Are you capable of shutting up? Just shut up!”

  She glared at him like her eyes were rifle barrels.

  “Dirty looks you can do, just do them in silence.” Max took a few seconds to catch his breath and cool off. When he felt like he could talk without shouting, he put his hands on his knees and looked at the coffee table.

  “Sadie, if I don’t do this someone will die. They will not hurt me and you know that. I’m safe.”

  “You’ll be safer if you don’t go.” Her lip quivered, but she didn’t seem to be crying anymore. Sometimes it did that when she was mad, but she didn’t seem mad either.

  “I’ll be safe whether I go or not. These other people don’t have a choice. That means I don’t have a choice.” She started crying again and grabbed a handful of tissues from the box on the table. Max let her do that for a few seconds then put his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t jerk away.

  “You are so careless.” She shook her head and looked at him. “You just gambol along like you’ve got nothing to lose. You haven’t for a second thought about what it did to me when she took you from me. If you had, you’d have thought of something else.”

  “I have a responsibility—”

  “You have a responsibility to the people who love you, Max. I love you. Your father loves you. Your mother loves you. Your step-father...likes you.” Max grinned. She giggled once through the tears. “Your brother and sister love you. Frank loves you. Your responsibilities start here and work their way out to those whose lives you touch the most.”

  “You’re talking like a greeting card again.”

  She laughed and wiped her nose. “Stop being cute when I’m mad at you.”

  Max shrugged and forced a smile. Sadie tossed some tissues away and grabbed another handful.

  “I know you don’t care if you’re
ever happy or not….” She held up her hand when he started to speak. “…But could you please try to care if the people who love you are happy?”

  “I do care,” Max said at length. He looked her in the eye. “You know I care.” She stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. “And you know I thought about what this would do to you.”

  He widened his eyes as though opening his soul to her. She sucked in her lips and nodded.

  “I am so, so sorry there isn’t any other way. But you know I’m not scared because they can’t hurt me. And we’re going to be doing this right outside…you can sit on the porch with your cell phone right in your hand, finger hovering over Meg’s speed dial so she can have Garrett swoop in and save me if it comes to that.”

  Max stroked her shoulder and eased his hand to her neck. She closed her eyes as he rubbed the tense muscles at the base of her skull. Moaning, she relaxed. Soon Max had both hands on her neck, massaging. She turned her back to him to get a better angle. After a few minutes, he pulled her back and wrapped her in his arms.

  “You know I love you, right?”

  She nodded and turned her head to the side. Her eyes were closed. “I’d like it if you said it more.”

  “I don’t need to say it, you can feel it.”

  “I still like it when you say it.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Hearing it is different than feeling it.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  She closed her eyes and touched his hand over her breast. “That doesn’t matter.”

  Max waited a few seconds before kissing her. “I love you.” Another tear popped out of her eye. “I’d never be happy without you.”

  “You’re never happy anyway.”

  He took her chin in his hand. She opened her eyes, and he greeted her with a smile. It made her grin and blink.

  “You know that isn’t true.” He kissed her again, this time longer. By the end, she was lying on top of him. He turned her over on her side until they were comfortable, her in his lap and his arms around her body.