Monster (28 page)

That was the fun part
–
getting the fuse ready.
The
gunpowder remin
ded her of past Fourths of July –
happ
ier
times. It helped her to think about the past. She
couldn’t
think about the future, and the present was too oppress
ive.
Tears streaked her face
– yeah, she was having a grand time.
She'd seen too much blood but hadn't drunk enough
!
She was literally dying for a drink of the red stuff. J
ust a sip,
but she wouldn't tiff to get
i
t.
She had taken a vow
about that
, she reminded herself.

Her head throbbed as
her heart broke and her throat cracked o
n bitte
r grief. She tr
ied singing to keep up her
spirit
s
. “
They did the monster
mash. It was a graveyard smash.” “It’s
my pa
rty, and I'll cry if I want to.”

But it was all a bad joke, and she wasn't laughing.

T
h
e hell with them. I'm not serving
appetizers
. I'll bury
what’s
left of Grandfather
in the trees. I'll wash his sheet
s. T
hey
'll enter a clean house. They won't leave it though.

“
They won't leave,
”
she muttered as she finished with
the
fuse
and once more picked up one of the smaller bottles, wondering where to put it.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Lieu
tenant
Nguyen stood in the empty warehouse and stared at the dust
-free
circle on the concrete floor. He wasn't
alone. Officer Will
iams stood nearby holding a flas
hlight focused on the floor. Williams was not like Martin
.
He preferred to be called by his first name
–
Kenny
–
and he was new to t
he force, not a wily old devil l
ike Martin. Of course, few cops ever got as tough as Martin had been, even after twenty years in the force. Yet Martin hadn't
been
tough enough to stop what was happening from killing him
.
Nguyen wondered if
he
was. He kind of doubted
it.

Nguyen didn't know why he'd come to the wareh
ouse
ag
a
in. He had already visited it the day before
–
Sa
t
urday
– a
fter Angela and her friend had made him aware of
its
importance. He had found the dried blood in the
crack
in the floor, as they had undoubtedly likewise discovered. But unlike
them, he had been able to have t
he blo
od analyz
ed. It had come from four separate people, as Mary had said. Only an hour earlier he had received a computer report that matched the blood to the blood t
ypes of four missing peopl
e
–
two men and two women who had been on their way to the West Coast and who
had
only stopped in Bal
t
on for a drink. Nguyen tried to
re
member if Mary had suspected
Jim
and hi
s
pals of stalk
ing
only those who were from out of town. She h
a
d
made so many ot
her surprisingly accurate remarks
–
in
retrospect.

Then again, Mary had said t
hey were dealing w
ith
monsters.

“
If you were to stand here and scream, Kenny
,” Nguyen
said, “
do you think someone listening outside could hear
you?”

Kenny shifted uncomfortably. He had already commented on the bad vibes of the place. Nguyen didn't
kn
ow much about vibes, but he sure knew when he didn
't
like
someone, and he had hated
Jim
Kline from the start
. If t
hat kid had killed Martin, he was going
to
pay for it, and in a bad way. Nguyen would see to it, and he would m
ake it
look legal. There were always ways.

“I
doubt it,
”
Officer Kenny Williams said, glancing round
in the dark. “
This is a big place. You'd have to scream
really loud.”

Ng
uyen knelt and touched the dried blood. As soon as
he did
he knew why he'd
returned to the warehouse. He need
ed to see once again that what he was dealing with was
real,
since he hadn't fully returned to his senses after his en
coun
ter with Angela at Mary's cabin. First there had been
Martin
lying on the floor with his guts hanging out. Poor
Mike –
Nguyen knew his first name. It had stung to see the
flies
crawling on his friend's face. Suddenly the war seemed
like
only yesterday; he thought he had left it all behind.

T
his is worse than anything that happened in Nam. There the
enemy ha
d a name. You
could
see
them coming. They were lik
e everyo
ne
else.

T
hen he had seen Mary lying dead in Angela's arms,
the
apparent vic
ti
m of a suicide. That had added another
layer
of unreality to the situation. But Nguyen could have
dealt
with all of this, even though it caused him pain. But
not
Angela. Angela not just
holding her dead friend, but touch
ing her, wiping the blood off her incision and putting
it into
her mouth. That was too much.

“Dear God,”
Nguyen whispered. He felt sick, scared. He
had
never been this scared, even in the heat of battle with
bu
llets whizzing over his head
.
Angela had let go of Mary
and
stood and met his gaze straight, and Nguyen had felt as
if he were being hypnotiz
ed by a vulture. It was unthinkable
that
he had let her walk away. But then, in that place, there
had
n't
been a chance in hell he could have stopped her.

“Quit following me. Let me do what I have to do. By the time you know enough to believe what is happening you'll be dead.”

He sail didn't know enough, and now
,
finally, he
had to
ask himself if he wanted to know
.
But he'd been the
one
who'd had to tell Martin's wife her husband was dead. H
e had done the same thing many ti
mes in Nam, and then
it
had steeled him to go on. To get the job done, to
drive
off the e
nemy. Of course, the enemy had
kept
coming
and had finally driven
him
away.

But not this
t
ime.

He wiped the dried blood off on his trouser leg and st
ood up. He turned to Williams. “
The identity of the four
victims
has been established beyond doubt?
”
he asked.

“
That's what the FBI says,
”
Williams replied.

“How old were they?”

“I
believe they ranged in age from twenty-two to
twenty-six.”

“
I
s the Bureau coming in on this?”
Nguyen asked.

“
Not yet.
” Williams added, “They want to see what else you come up with.”

“
Who
’
s this morti
cian you told me about earlier?”

Williams pulled a pad of paper from his back pocke
t. He
studied it
in the beam of the flashlight. “
His name is
Kane.
He wants to speak to you about the bodies of the boy
and
the gi
rl Mary Blanc killed last week.”

“
They were buried a few days ago,
”
Nguyen said.

“
l know, and he knows that. But he still wants to sp
eak
to you. He says it's urgent.
I
asked him why, but
he
in
sisted
on speaking only t
o you. He said you could get him at
work tonight
. He's there late.”

“
I
hope he won't
b
e working too late in the next few
days,” N
guyen said grimly. He turned towards the warehou
se
door.
“
Let's get ou
t of here, Kenny.”

They began to arrive promptl
y at eight
.
They came in
di
vidual
l
y. Angela met
each one at the door. At first she w
elcomed them and aske
d if they wanted anything to eat, but
since they didn't smile in response or appear hungry,
she
quit
.
When there was a knock at the door she just
went
over and opened it and let them in. No one spoke;
it wa
s like no party she'd ever been to. Everyone just sat
and
stared at one another. Many sa
t
on the floor. To say
that
they gave her the creeps was not saying it strongly
enou
gh. Their eyes were dark. They reminded her of bats
that
had hung too long in a cold cave. Even when they sat and
l
ooked around they didn't seem to see
much with their physical eyes. Y
et they seemed to radiate something akin
to radar.
Subtle vibrations swept back and forth across the
room
that she couldn't qui
te catch. She didn't know what t
hey were picking up from her.

Mary had been way off in her estimates. Angela had hal
f the f
ootball team and every one of the cheerleaders at
her
house. There was no one outside those two groups,
thou
gh
.
Talk about cliques and peer pressure. You must
e
at your neighbour, Angie
.
Everyone's doing it
.

Angela sat near the door
with her head down and played bu
tler. She had two Bic lighters in her pockets and sweaty palms. Where the hell
was
Jim
? Why was he, of all monsters, la
te?

She was so terribly hungry. The pounding in her brain
– wo
uld
it never stop?

Finally
Jim
arrived,
and when he did Angela's heart sto
pped in her chest
.
Jim
had not come alone
.
Kevin was
with
him
–
Kevin, with his big innocent smile.
Jim
must
have
talked to him in his human voice the whole way to her
house.
Jim
came in behind Kevin and closed the door.

“A a
nd W
,” Kevin said. “
How come you didn't tell me
about your party?”

Angela had to fight to regain her voice.
“
Why is he here?
” she a
sked
Jim
.

“
Why not?
”
Jim
asked, his expression flat.

“Angie,”
Kevin said, hurt.

“
He's not one of us,
”
Angela said sharply to
Jim
. “
Get
him
out of here
.”

“N
o,
”
Jim
said.

“Why not?”
Angela demanded.

“Excuse me,” Kevin said. “
How come I'm not
one of you?”

“
We need him,
”
Jim
said.

“What for?”
Angela aske
d, although she had a sick feeling
she knew the answer to that question.
Jim
's answer only made her more
sick.

“For you,”
Jim
said.

Angela grabbed Kevin's arm and pulled him
towards the door. “
Get out of here. We're not having a
party,
and you're not invited, I'm sick of you always b
ugging me. Go annoy some other girl.”

“
Stop,
”
Jim
said.

“
Yeah, stop,
”
Kevin said, shaking free. But he began
t
o
get suspicious
–
Angela could see it in his face
–
when
Jim
moved between them, separating her from Kevin. Ang
ela
had experienced the growth of her supernormal strength all day, but she knew she was no match for
Jim
. He
was
menacing, and Kevin
cowered before him, although he
tried to put up a brave front. He poked
Jim
playfully in the chest
. “What's wrong?”
he asked
. “
Haven't had anybody
to eat today?”