“Completely bleeding people is a hallmark sign of a vampire,” Aunt Lucy replied. “Though they rarely do it so brazenly here in the human world. Usually, when a vampire strikes, they hide the body so it can’t be found. To leave it out here like that is practically unheard of. It’s going to attract attention from the paranormal world since they’re going to want to know who did it.”
“They’re not going to be able to bring anyone in to investigate, though,” Uncle Bob said. “They’ll be spotted immediately. Even Kyran, who shows up from time to time, is immediately recognized as an outsider. Luckily, most people just think he’s a weirdo from Portland, but a bunch of paranormals descending on the island at once to investigate is just going to be asking for trouble.”
“That’s why I don’t think they’ll do that,” Aunt Lucy replied. “I think they’ll send in Kyran, the elf who investigates paranormal crime in our world, but they’ll probably do their best to sweep it under the rug.”
“But if someone else managed to find the killer, then they’d look pretty good in the eyes of the paranormal world,” Kaillie muttered under her breath, just barely loud enough so that I could hear her.
My eyes widened. I had just told Ross I wasn’t going to get involved in his investigation. And Kaillie was the last person I had expected to actually want to get in on this.
“So if Kyran is on his own investigating, does that mean the vampire is free to do this again?” I asked.
“Well, in a way, yes, but in a way, no. He won’t know what lengths the paranormal world will go to catch him. Or her,” Aunt Debbie replied. “In fact, we don’t know either. It’s very possible that they will pull out all the stops to try and find the killer, but I doubt it. Whatever happens, we are the only family here that knows the truth: a vampire was here.”
“What do you mean that vampires usually hide the bodies?” I asked.
“Vampires have been known to come from the paranormal world and drink human blood,” Aunt Lucy explained. “It’s completely illegal, and has been for over a hundred years, but sometimes the allure of fresh human blood is too much for some, and they come into this world and drink someone’s blood. They then take the bodies into the forest and bury them so the bodies are never found, and the humans don’t find it suspicious that there are people around who have lost way more blood than they should have for the size of the wound they’ve got. That’s why there are so many missing people that are never found. Well, one of the reasons, anyway.”
I shuddered. “Great, I think I slept better before I knew that.”
“That means there’s a vampire on the island,” Leanne said quietly. “I wonder who it is.”
“We might not know them,” Uncle Bob pointed out. “After all, there is a ferry that goes to the mainland a few times a day. They may have simply taken that and gone back to the paranormal world.”
“True, but that would be a very random murder to commit,” Leanne pointed out. “After all, there’s no portal here on the island. Even I know that. So it would be very much out of the way for a vampire to come here just to suck the blood from one man and then leave again. It’s much easier for them to go to the big cities, find someone, and then head right back to the paranormal world. No, I suspect there may have been a vampire in our midst, although I don’t know for how long.”
There was silence at the table, and Kaillie was the next person to speak. “Another paranormal? I wish we had known.”
“Well, if the authorities figure out who it is we can happily let Kyran know,” Aunt Debbie said. “That way he can let the powers that be in the paranormal world know who the vampire breaking the law there is.”
“Can vampires turn into bats like they do in the movies?” I asked, and Aunt Debbie shook her head.
“No, that’s a human invention.”
“So if they do find the vampire and lock him up, he won’t just be able to fly out of jail,” I replied, and Aunt Debbie smiled.
“No, definitely not. He’ll be stuck and have to serve his sentence here just like anyone else before being able to return to the paranormal world.”
“Good,” I said, nodding. “Well, hopefully the police will find him.”
“Agreed,” Uncle Bob said. “Now, where’s that second pizza?”
“It’s coming, it’s coming,” Aunt Debbie replied. “Goodness, it’s like having teenagers in the house again the way you all eat.”
A moment later, a second pizza came whizzing through the air and landed right where the first pizza had been.
The conversation continued, but to be completely honest, I wasn’t really listening. After all, this new revelation about there being a vampire in town had taken up all of my thoughts. An actual vampire! Who would have thought?
Chapter 6
“We have to investigate this case, you guys,” Kaillie said as we were walking back home after dinner. Well, in my case it was more like rolling back home. I’d eaten so much pizza that if I fell over there was a very good chance I was going to do a great impression of an overinflated beach ball until I reached the bungalow where the three of us lived.
“I mean, I’m not opposed to the idea, but I’m surprised to hear you say it,” Leanne replied.
“The paranormal world is going to want to know who the vampire is who’s been committing crimes here,” Kaillie argued. “Maybe Kyran will be able to find them, but I doubt it. If we manage to do it, though, we’ll look like good witches to the people in the paranormal world. Maybe they’ll even have a parade for us and let us go over there, even if it’s just to visit. Can you imagine that? We would get to finally see our homeland and know what the paranormal world is actually like, even if it’s just for a few minutes.”
Leanne laughed gently. “I mean, that would be pretty cool, and I hope you get that one day, but I can’t help but feel like they probably aren’t going to hold a parade for us if we do solve this case. I’m happy to help you though, if it makes us look like good witches in their eyes. I do hope you get to go there one day.”
“Me too,” Kaillie sighed. “I can’t help but wonder what we’re missing. Being stuck here is like… I don’t know, being in jail in Hawaii. You know there are beaches and drinks and sunshine nearby, but you can’t experience any of it. I just want to know what our coven is like. Are the people pretty cool like our family? Would we fit in a bit better? Are they all like Aunt Lucy? Would they be super mean? The possibilities are endless, and I kind of just want to know. I feel so isolated here.”
“That’s the point of an exile,” Leanne pointed out.
“Yeah, but it would make me feel better if I had done anything to deserve this exile apart from having been born into the wrong family.”
I put an arm around Kaillie. “The only thing you can do is your best,” I told her. “If you manage to show that you’re a good witch who deserves to have access back in the paranormal world, and you still aren’t given that, well that’s on them, not on you. It would suck, but if you do everything you can, that’s all you can do. So let’s find this vampire and see if that’s enough to get you back in the good books, hey?”
“You’re right,” Kaillie said. “I can only do my best, and that’s what I’m going to do. Come on, let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow we have a murderer to find.”
I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt knowing the text I had sent Ross earlier. Besides, it wasn’t like I could explain to him why I had to investigate this murder. Letting non-paranormals know about our powers was rule number one on the list of things we weren’t allowed to do, so it wasn’t like I could just go to Ross and tell him I had to investigate because our family was the only permanent family of paranormals on the island – heck, possibly in the entire world – who knew that we were looking for a vampire.
Even if I did, he’d probably break up with me on the spot for secretly being insane.
But at the same time, I had to do this. There was a killer out there, a killer with supernatural powers. The fact that our
family knew about it gave us a huge advantage in trying to find that killer.
“I wonder who in town is a vampire,” Leanne mused. “I guess we’re going to find out.”
The next day, we started our investigation. Obviously, we had to work all day, but being at one of the local hotspots for gossip had its advantages sometimes. Anyone and everyone had an idea about who killed Barry Blackburn, and I secretly began keeping notes on my phone of potential suspects.
Some of the ideas, like the one put forth by known conspiracy theorist Charlie Hunt, were obviously write-offs.
“The CIA got him. They finally got him,” Charlie said. “I know they’ve had an infiltrator here for a while, just keeping tabs on the community. I don’t think they liked what Barry was doing. It was causing too much unrest. So they took him out.”
“Is that so? It was the CIA that was behind it?”
“That’s right. You know what would hide the sound of black helicopters? Construction equipment. That’s why they waited until they started construction on the site before getting rid of him, so no one would notice. They’re on an isolated part of the island, too, so it’s not like they couldn’t hide or anything.”
“Right,” I said, handing Charlie his coffee and his muffin. “Well, you never know.”
“You have to be careful,” Charlie said, looking around. “You never know who’s secretly one of them. In fact, you’re new to town, I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
“If I was trained at Langley, I’d hope to be doing something a little bit more exciting than selling coffee.”
Charlie narrowed his eyes at me. “How do you know CIA agents train at Langley?”
“Because I’ve seen, you know, movies?” I said. “Don’t worry, Charlie, I’m not a secret agent.” I was tempted to add that his muffin wasn’t poisoned, either, but I figured if I did that he probably wouldn’t eat it just in case. And Kaillie did make very good muffins.
“Alright, but I’ll be keeping an eye on you. And if you are working for the CIA, you tell your handlers that I don’t want no trouble.”
“It won’t come up because I don’t work for them, Charlie,” I said. “Goodbye.”
He gave me one more suspicious look before heading out the door.
“Poor Charlie,” Leanne said, shaking her head. “I wish he would get the help he obviously needs, and it can’t be easy living life that paranoid all the time.”
“Well, at least he gave us a lead,” I said with a laugh. “CIA black helicopters.”
“Yeah, I’ll go ahead and write that down as being our number one suspect,” Leanne replied. “Who do you actually have on your list so far?”
“A few people,” I said, opening up the notes app on my phone. There was a bit of a lull, so I figured I might as well go through the list.
“First of all, there’s Sean Ingraham. The reason why is obvious. He was the most vocally outspoken person against the development and might have figured that killing Barry was the best way to get the whole thing to stop.”
“Right,” Leanne said. “I want to say that I don’t get a real vampire vibe from Sean and that he’s been a part of this community for years and years, but the reality is I don’t actually know what a vampire would look like. All we know is stuff that’s been passed down through the years. We need to find Kyran. He’ll be around.”
“Dinner at Otterly Delicious?” I suggested, and Leanne grinned.
“You know it. Where better to check out what’s going on in town? Who else have you got?”
“There’s Ryan Fox,” I said. “I don’t think I know him. He’s the one who originally sold the property to Barry Blackburn where they’re developing the hotel. Someone figured that he might have seen all the opposition to it, decided he didn’t want his land going to that project after all, and killed Barry when Barry refused.”
“Hm,” Leanne said, nodding. “That’s an interesting idea. Ryan did sell the land to Barry. He’s been in here a few times since you moved here, but I don’t think he stands out enough for you to remember him if I describe him. He lives primarily on the mainland, but his family owned a bunch of land out here. He still keeps a little apartment where he comes on weekends, but the majority of the land he sold to Barry for the hotel. He made a tidy sum on it, too; his family bought the land back in the fifties when property here was practically being given away to whoever wanted it. I think his family paid maybe a thousand bucks, and he sold it to Barry for something like five million.”
I let out a low whistle. “That’s a tidy profit.”
“No kidding. But it made Ryan almost as much of a persona non grata in town as Barry. There are a lot of people here who resent Ryan for having sold the land, and I don’t think Ryan expected the backlash to be as strong as it was. I think he actually tried to get the land back at one point, too, but the plan died in the court system.”
“Ok,” I said. “So he’s a maybe. But I’m not sure I buy the motive. I heard that Hugo Joplin is also one of the more vocal opponents to the project and that he has a record for assault. He’s the redhead who works construction, right? Large black coffee and a plain glazed donut?”
“That’s him,” Leanne confirmed. “He definitely was vocal about his opposition. He went to a few municipal meetings, even threatened the Mayor about six months ago. He said if his company got the contract, he’d refuse to work on it and try to convince the other construction workers in town to refuse, too. Barry had an argument about it with him a few months back where Barry told him he’d bring in workers from out of town, and Hugo told him it would be insanely expensive. He wasn’t wrong.”
“So it sounds like Hugo has a temper. Do you know what he was arrested for?”
“I’m not entirely sure. Maybe a bar fight? I feel like if it was anything more serious than that, I would have heard about it.”
“Ok,” I said. “So we don’t know for sure that he didn’t beat a guy half to death. Either way, he has a history of violence and a history of fighting with the guy in question. He’s definitely at the top of the list, as far as I’m concerned. Although to be honest, maybe this is just my prejudice talking, but I can’t really imagine a ginger vampire. It just seems weird.”
Leanne laughed. “Honestly, you’re right. I hadn’t thought about that. I have no idea if vampires have to look a certain way.”
Before I had a chance to reply, another customer walked through the door, and I put my phone down and went back to serving.
Chapter 7
By the time the end of the day came around, I was pretty tired, and I knew I wasn’t the only one when Kaillie came out of the kitchen yawning.
“Are you girls going straight home?” Aunt Debbie asked, and I shook my head.
“We were going to stop at Otterly Delicious first.”
“Alright, sounds fun. Does that mean you’re not coming over for dinner?”
“Not tonight. Thanks, Auntie,” Leanne replied.
We said goodbye to her and headed out. “Does it even count as dinner when it’s not even four o’clock yet?” Kaillie asked.
“Well, I didn’t really have lunch, so it’s kind of like lunch-dinner. Lunner. It’s like brunch, but with a far less satisfying name.”
Kaillie laughed. “Well, if it means I get to eat twice the amount of food I normally would, I’m in.”
“Oh please,” Leanne replied. “Like you would eat that much. I saw you eating salad last night at dinner. In fact, I saw you both eating salad.”
“My apologies for daring to feed my body vegetables,” Kaillie retorted.
“There were vegetables on my pizza, and that’s plenty,” Leanne said, laughing lightly at the ridiculousness of her own argument. “In fact, there were six pieces of pineapple, so that counts as six servings of fruit, as well.”
“I think you need to take another look at the food pyramid if you think a serving is one little piece of pineapple,” I replied. “Anyway, I’m having a burger and fries today. Because fries
are made from potatoes, that’s a vegetable, and by Leanne’s reasoning, the lettuce, tomato and onion on the burger will all count as a serving of vegetables, so that’s three.”
“Don’t forget the pickle, which is made from cucumber. That’s four,” Leanne corrected, and I pointed at her with a nod for her cleverness.
“I think we all need a lesson in better nutrition,” Kaillie said with a laugh. “But not today. I’m getting lasagna with a side of garlic bread.”
Just the thought of the amazing homemade diner food at Otterly Delicious was making my mouth water, and by the time we got to the little restaurant, my stomach was grumbling, annoyed that I had skipped lunch. There had been an unexpected rush that had lasted through to about one-thirty, after which I decided to just hold off until now.
When we had ordered, the three of us took a table by the window so that we could see Kyran if he happened to walk by. Since Otterly Delicious was right on the main street here in Enchanted Enclave, there was basically no way to miss him.
“So who else do you have on your list of suspects?” Leanne asked when we sat down.
“Honestly, Sean and Hugo are the top two. There is one more person, though, who looks promising. Evan Wood. Do you know him?”
“I don’t know him, but I know of him,” Leanne said. “He only comes to the island from time to time. He owns that small apartment building behind Main Street, the one just behind the hardware store.”
“Ocean Springs?” Kaillie asked, and Leanne nodded.
“Yeah, that’s the name of it. There’s something like twenty apartments in there. He comes by from time to time when there’s stuff that needs to be dealt with there,” Leanne continued. “Why do you have him on your suspect list?”
“Well, according to the rumor I heard, Evan and Barry were supposed to be partners on this project, and Barry screwed him over at the last second. Evan was trying to get the project cancelled as well but was taking a much more behind-the-scenes approach,” I said.
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 34
