Gretchen said, “If we could just have a few minutes, please. I’m Lieutenant Meyer, Pittsburgh Police.”
He shook her hand. “Stephen Woolsly.”
“Mike Merlino,” I said, and extended my hand.
He reintroduced himself to me as we shook hands.
The short, dark man begrudgingly let us into the relatively plain office. I took stock as we entered. A desk and a fake leather chair on wheels. An entire wall was filled with monitors showing security camera footage from around the cemetery. The cameras must’ve been in the trees that I hadn’t noticed outside. The other three walls were empty save for two plastic file holders that hung behind the watchman’s desk.
He gestured for us to sit in the two wooden chairs facing his desk.
I wasted no time. “I assume someone has already talked to you about the security footage?”
He nodded, standing behind his desk chair. “They have.”
I tried to be gentle with him. “Sorry to make you repeat yourself, but what did you find out?”
He pointed at one of the screens on the wall. “That camera stopped shooting around eleven o’clock last night. Came back on around four in the morning after the damage was done.”
Gretchen asked, “And you never turned off the camera for any reason?”
He pulled out the chair and sat down. “Nope. Considering someone rose a body from the dead, I’m thinking that someone used magic to shut down the cameras somehow.”
I sniffed a faint scent of marijuana on his breath and leaned closer to the desk. I said, “That’s always a possibility. We already visited the grave and this office is far enough away that you probably didn’t hear anything last night either.”
The young man’s face got red and he shifted around in his chair. “I didn’t hear anything. You gotta understand this job is boring AF. Nothing ever happens.”
He felt guilty about something that I couldn’t figure out yet. Gretchen asked, “Do your job responsibilities require you to manually check the grounds?”
He shifted around more and yanked at his tight collar. “I did. I went out last night at like ten thirty. So right before this all went down I guess.”
I caught a whiff of alcohol, not on his breath, but perhaps in one of his desk drawers. “I know if it were me working here and it was that boring, I’d probably do a little partying while I worked.” I gestured with my thumb and forefinger like I was smoking a joint.
Stephen sat up straight and his eyes widened. “I don’t know what you are talking about. Look, I do my job, all right? Let’s say I do go out there when some weirdo is digging up a dead body. What do you think they’re going to do to me?”
I held up my hands. “I’m not blaming you at all. I would have done the same exact thing. So you didn’t notice anything strange?”
“There were some sounds. And…” He turned his head to the side, contemplating something.
I tried to help him. “And you got scared.”
“Yeah, I mean I’ve heard some crazy sounds in my day, but nothing like that…that…that grunting and screaming. I can’t even explain it because it was like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It was around midnight or a little after.”
Gretchen pressed him, “What did you do when you heard the sounds?”
He lowered his head and ran his fingers through his parted hair. “I locked the door and made sure my gun was loaded and ready to go. Then I noticed the one screen went blank. I thought about going out there, but with all the talk about vampires going around the city, I couldn’t do it.”
I tried to reassure him. “Smart thinking. If it was a vamp, even silver coated bullets wouldn’t kill them. You did the right thing by not going out there.”
The natural color started to return to his face. “I just don’t want to get in any trouble over this. The owner is pissed that this is all over the news, but what was I supposed to do?”
Gretchen asked, “How long is your shift?”
He looked at his shimmering silver watch. “Lasts nine to nine. I’m still here today so I can answer questions. Not getting paid for it, I can tell you that on the record.”
Gretchen leaned forward in her seat. “Call came into the police at eight thirty this morning. Why did it take you so long to call?”
The redness started to return in splotches on his neck and the wave rolled upward over his face. “Because I was scared. I froze.”
I called him out, “Bullshit. If you froze, it would be for a few minutes and then you would be so scared that you couldn’t dial that number fast enough. If you feared for your life, you don’t wait eight hours to call for help. You were fucked up, weren’t you?”
A flash of concern danced in his dark eyes. “It was just enough to get me through the night. I told you how boring this job is most of the time. I thought if I called the cops and they noticed I’d been drinking, they would blame me for all this shit. Since I’m in control of the cameras, I didn’t think telling them that one suddenly went dead would go very well for me.”
Gretchen said, “You were trying to protect your own ass. I get it. What did you tell the other officers?”
He leaned back in the chair and looked at the fingernails on his left hand. “I told them that the camera was working fine and I noticed the disturbance on my end of shift walkaround. I guess I’m going to get in trouble for that.”
Gretchen warned him, “Not necessarily. We need you to be honest from here on out though. If we find out you are lying to us, you will be charged for withholding information from an officer, which usually rolls into a charge of conspiracy.”
“I didn’t conspire with anyone. I didn’t even know those guys.”
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Here we go. I leaned forward. “What guys?”
He squirmed around in the chair and I could see the capillaries in his temples beating. “I can’t. They said they would kill me.”
Gretchen didn’t hold back. “You better talk to us, or you might be going to jail.”
Stephen debated his options for a few moments. “I think I should talk to a lawyer or something before I say anything else and everyone thinks I’m a crazy man. Right now, it’s go to jail or have them kill me.”
“Just give us a hint as to who they are?” I needed to know.
He looked around the room as if we were being watched. He whispered, “You ever heard of men in black?”
I took an educated guess. “The men who harass people that have had alien experiences?”
He nodded. “Think about that for the dark spirit world.”
It was becoming clearer. I said, “You destroyed the tapes, didn’t you?”
His voice squeaked, “They made me. They sat here and watched me do it or they were going to kill me. The one guy had a pistol that must’ve been almost two feet long with a barrel as big as my fist. What was I supposed to do?”
Gretchen said, “You did what you had to do. I think you better start telling us a lot more that you know.”
Tears began running down his flushed cheeks. “I said I’m going to get a lawyer or something. I don’t know anything else than what I’ve already told you. You guys are going to make me say something that will get me killed. These guys or things or whatever they were, could be waiting at my apartment when I get home.”
I knew the feeling. “We could escort you home. I’m not just a detective, you see.”
He looked me in the eyes, and immediately turned away. “I know who you are. I’m kind of into magic. At least I used to be. Everyone’s heard the stories about you. They warned me that you would show up.”
“Me?” I pointed two thumbs at my chest.
He nodded, and rubbed his face with his forearm. “Yep. They said you would poke your big nose around to get a sniff. They told me that you’ve pissed off a lot of people already and they are coming after you. I’m scared right now, but I’d be petrified if I were you.”
I chuckled, hiding a bit of fear. “Unfortunately, it goes with
the territory. I’ve been threatened by ghouls and demons so many times now I’ve lost count.”
Gretchen rolled her eyes, unwilling to accept my BS. “I’m willing to be a little lenient with you, Stephen, but I will get a warrant and drag you in for questioning if you try to mess around.”
He growled. “I thought you all were supposed to protect and serve. I just told you my life is in danger if I open my mouth, and you still want me to spill the beans, essentially committing suicide.”
Gretchen said, “You aren’t unlike someone who witnesses a murder. It takes courage for a witness to shove fear to the side and tell the honest truth. The longer you stay silent, you put more people’s lives in jeopardy. We can keep you safe, if need be.”
He snapped, “No. You. Can’t.” He pointed at me. “This guy, maybe, but they can’t be shot, so the cops are basically useless to me.”
My eyebrows moved down. “So it’s a group of vampires?”
“I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that conventional weaponry isn’t going to do a damn thing against this faction. I’ve already said too much. You two know where the door is.” He pointed to it to expedite our exit.
We walked back out into the bright sunlight and Gretchen immediately turned to me. “What the hell was he babbling about?”
I smirked. “Apparently they got to him and scared the pants off of him. Not sure how he knows that they can’t be killed by bullets unless they are vamps. I was going to use a little magic to coerce some answers out of him, but I thought that would be unfair.”
“You can do that?” Gretchen checked her phone again.
“I could do a great many things, Gretchen, but you will be glad to know that we cannot abuse our powers, or we risk losing them.”
She closed one eye. “Why would I be glad to know that?”
“Because I could have a lot of fun with you.”
She wondered, “If you use it to glean information from a witness, how can it be considered abuse?”
I paused for a second, figuring out how to phrase this. “I can only use magic when it is absolutely necessary, and while this seems important, it’s not exactly a life or death situation right now.”
“Not according to that young man back there who was scared out of his wits.”
I tossed my head back and forth. “The other problem is that I am still somewhat in training. I mean I’ll be in training for the rest of my life, but using mental magic is tricky and I still haven’t fully mastered it. I might see or hear something that isn’t true. Then, if we acted on that foolishly, I could get in a lot of trouble.”
Gretchen and I went our separate ways. Heading home, I thought about the watchman’s story. I needed to hear the rest of what he knew. The demons from the Red Cavern hated me for taking down the Jersey Devil, that was a fact, but were the vampires on my ass too? I’d never done anything to them. In fact, I wanted to learn more about them and see if all the rumors and stereotypes were true.
Book 2, Graveyard Uprisings is available for PreOrder. Release Date January 8, 2018: https://readerlinks.com/l/51387
Shifting Problems (Bloodline Awakened Supernatural Thriller Series Book 1) Page 20
