Murder in Vein (2010) (32 page)

Madison was going to bring up the fact that Mike Notchey
could get Ben's address in a heartbeat, but she knew they'd never
go to him, especially now that he was out of the loop for his own
good.

"And what about us? What's our assignment?" she asked
Samuel as the car maneuvered the canyon streets toward the
highway.

"We're off to meet Stacie Neroni. If she locates that homeless
man, I want to question him myself."

When they reached Hollywood, Samuel found a rare parking spot on a side street just up from Hollywood Boulevard. The
area was seedy and depressed in spite of the glitz of Hollywood
attractions and the glow from souvenir shops. It was the height
of the evening. Hookers, hustlers, and drug addicts mingled with
thrill-seeking college kids and tourists snapping photos. Stacie
was waiting for them by a twenty-four-hour newsstand.

"Find him?" Samuel asked as soon as they reached her.

"Yes" She pointed to a grizzled black man sitting on the sidewalk across the street. He had his back against a boarded-up
shop and held a cup in his hand, holding it out to people who
passed by. Most of the storefronts on that side of the street were
boarded up, so few people walked on that side. Those that did
either ignored the homeless man or gave him a wide berth. Next
to him was a shopping cart stuffed with his belongings. Several
yards away, a trio of hookers called to cars that slowed down.

"His name's Clarence, but everyone calls him Cubby. If he
stays on that side of the street," Stacie explained to Madison and
Samuel, "the police won't bother him. On this side, the cops or
the shop owners will run him off. The other side of the street is
where we usually run our legal clinic on Wednesday nights."

The three of them crossed the street and approached the
homeless man.

"Hi, Cubby," Stacie greeted him cheerfully. "I brought some
friends to meet you."

The man was old and dirty and smelled of garbage and filth.
He wore several layers of ragged clothing against the night's chill.
Looking up at Stacie, he flashed her a smile of jagged yellow teeth
in recognition. When he turned toward Madison and Samuel, his
face clouded with caution.

"This is Madison and Samuel," Stacie continued. "My friends.
I told them what you said about vampires, and they want to help
you.

"Vampires?" The old man asked, befuddled, then clarity made
a brief appearance on his face. "Yes, vampires."

Samuel crouched down closer to the man. "Tell me about
them, brother."

Cubby turned and fixed his runny eyes on Samuel. "Vampires
are here." He held out a shaking hand and pointed an index finger toward the concrete beneath him. "Right here, I tell you. In
the city of angels." He emphasized the word angels. "But no one
listen to old Cubby. They say Cubby crazy."

Samuel stared into Cubby's eyes. "I'm listening. Tell me."

"I saw them," Cubby said, keeping his eyes latched onto Samuel's sunglasses. "They were doing unspeakable things."

"You have to tell us so we can stop them," Stacie told him.

"Unspeakable things," Cubby repeated, not taking his eyes
off of Samuel. "They were drinking her blood," he said in a low,
hoarse voice.

"Whose blood?" asked Samuel.

"Naked, she was. Skin pale as the moon. They cut her. Drank
her blood." He barely choked out the words. "Poor girl."

Samuel crouched closer. "Where did this happen, Cubby? Can
you show us?"

Cubby shook his head and withdrew into his rags. "Cubby
not going back. No, sir. Evil things. Had to leave Porky. Have to
find new home."

"That explains the shopping cart," Stacie said. "Usually he
doesn't have it with him. He's on the move." She bent down. "Please, Cubby, you have to tell us where you saw this. We'll
make the bad men go away so you can go home."

Cubby looked up at Stacie. "Cubby never going back. Never.
Place cursed." He retreated further into his dark mind, the light
in his eyes fading into the fringe of madness.

Samuel glanced up at Stacie. "You know where he used to
live?"

She shook her head. "Not really. Always thought it was a
back alley around here somewhere. Bloodlust isn't far from here,
though-maybe a half mile, maybe a mile, tops. It would have
been convenient."

"Who's Porky?" Samuel asked her. "A pet? Another person?"

"Not sure about that either. I've never heard him speak of
Porky before. Never heard of a street person out here called that
either. Can't you see anything?"

Samuel shook his head. "Only bits and pieces. It's all jumbled
inside his head."

Standing up, Samuel looked around. "Where's Madison?"

Both he and Stacie turned their eyes to the streets around
them, searching for any sign of her.

"Damn it," swore Samuel under his breath. "How could she
have vanished?"

It was then Stacie spotted Madison. She was across the street,
coming out of an all-night coffee shop, heading back to them. In
one hand was a bag; in the other, a large covered coffee cup. Samuel watched her carefully as she waited for the light, then crossed
over to them.

"Couldn't you have eaten before you came out here?" Stacie
snapped at Madison.

"It's not for her," Samuel said to Stacie.

Ignoring the vampires, Madison knelt down in front of
Cubby, bracing her stomach against his stench. She transferred the paper cup of coffee to his dark hands with their dirtencrusted nails, making sure he had a firm grip on it before letting go.

"Bless you," the old man said to her, clutching the warm cup.

She put the paper sack down next to him. "There are sandwiches in the bag, Cubby, and a couple of bananas."

Cubby gave her a nod of understanding and took a sip from
the opening in the lid of the cup.

"Careful," Madison warned him. "It's very hot."

After a couple of sips of coffee, Cubby looked again at Madison as if seeing her for the first time. "You look like the girl," he
said. "The naked girl."

"Where did you see her, Cubby?" Madison asked in a soft
voice. "We're trying to find her."

Samuel bent down again and stared at Cubby, concentrating.
Cubby, though, kept his eyes on Madison.

"They want you," the old man said to her, his eyes growing
wide with fear. "They want your blood." His voice trembled.

"They want our blood?" asked Stacie.

"No," Cubby said, not looking at Stacie. He released one hand
from the mug and pointed it at Madison. "Hers"

Madison stood up with a jerk and backed away. Samuel dug
into his pocket and pulled out some cash. He tucked it into Cubby's donation cup.

"Thanks, brother," he told him. "If you remember anything
else, you tell Stacie here. Okay?"

Cubby, forgetting about blood and vampires, gave Stacie a
smile. Clutching his cup with both hands again, he went back to
concentrating on drinking his coffee.

Samuel turned to Stacie. "Keep an eye on him. What he knows
is in that head of his somewhere. Who knows when it will come
out. But he does know something, I'm positive. I kept getting
glimpses of what he saw, but not the place. Try to find where he
used to live and who or what this Porky is. It might help."

"Will do," Stacie told him.

Samuel and Madison headed back across the street. Samuel
kept a death grip on Madison's upper arm as they walked.

"Ow, that hurts," she protested.

Once at the car, Samuel spun her around to face him. "What
were you thinking, going off like that without a word?"

"I was just getting him food," Madison said in her own
defense. "He's probably only eaten garbage for who knows how
long. Food isn't exactly anything you guys think about, but we
beaters need it."

"You did a very good thing, Madison, but all you had to do
was say something and we would have gone together to get it.
Stacie could have gone with you while I talked to Cubby." When
Madison turned away, Samuel put his hand on her chin and
turned her face back, forcing her to look at him. "You're in danger, Madison. Get that through your thick skull."

"How did he know that?" she asked. "How did that homeless
man, who I've never seen, know about them wanting my blood?"

Samuel took his hand away from her face. "I don't know, but
sometimes madness opens other doors in the mind. He may have
received some image or vision through his darkness."

Madison shivered and started to open the car door. Samuel
reached down and opened it for her. As she stepped in, he bent
close. "Millions of things in this world can't be explained, Madison. Vampires and visions are just two of them."

amuel's house was a sprawling villa set high in the hills above
Los Angeles. After entering a security gate, they had driven
up a long private drive to reach the house. They'd entered
through the garage, coming into a service room that fed into a
huge kitchen with a tile floor and shiny appliances. Following
Samuel, Madison was led into the great room. Colorful carpets
covered the tile floor, and the walls were painted in varying earth
tones. The furniture and overall decor had a Mediterranean feel,
yet the furnishings were sparse, as at Colin's condominium,
though here there were cut flowers throughout the room. And, as
at Colin's, the view was spectacular, though Samuel's home
looked out over the lights of Los Angeles instead of the ocean.

"You guys seem to like views," Madison observed.

Samuel came up beside her and looked out. "During the day
it's just a boring cityscape, but at night it looks like a blanket of
jewels against velvet. Since I'm up mostly at night, it made sense
to buy a house with such a view."

"I also noticed none of you, not even the Dedhams, are big
on a lot of furniture or knickknacks."

"We like to keep things simple, Madison. Vampires never
know when they might have to disappear for a while. Sometimes
we even have to move permanently."

"I like to keep things simple, too. Makes it easier."

Samuel chuckled. "Is that why you keep your money stashed
in a feminine hygiene box?"

"How did you know that?" Madison turned, looking at him
with surprise. "I'm not thinking about that at all."

"No, but you were when you got the call about your apartment," he explained. "Good thing you moved those boxes when
you did."

"Can you read my mind now?" Madison zeroed her eyes in on
his. He had removed his sunglasses and met her look head-on.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk" Samuel feigned offense. "For such a cute little
thing, you certainly have a potty mind, and what you just said to
me, I believe, is anatomically impossible, even for a vampire."

Now it was Madison's turn to chuckle. "That money is my
inheritance from my great aunt Eleanor-or what's left of it.
It wasn't much, about twenty thousand. I used some of it to
buy a car and to get my ass out of Boise shortly after I turned
twenty-one."

"Even we vampires trust banks, Madison. Maybe it's because
they're blood suckers like us."

Madison smiled at the comment but shrugged. "As a kid, I
got used to moving without notice. I was dragged from one foster home to another with little more than the clothes on my back
and a small bag of backups. I guess once a gypsy, always a gypsy."

Samuel glanced back out at the view. "Most of my life," he
paused, "both then and now, has been like that, too. I've been
in Los Angeles quite a while. So have most of the vampires on
the council. We like it here. It's easy for us to blend in with all
the city's usual crazies and eccentrics, and most people here keep
to their own business, unlike other parts of the country. We're
trying to build a real community so we won't have to wander
anymore.

"Dodie and Stacie told me it was very different before you got
here. They said it was like the Wild West."

Samuel nodded. "There were bloodthirsty beater hunts and
violent territorial fights between the vampires. It made it difficult
for those who were simply in search of peace. They were afraid if
it continued, they would be exposed." Samuel grunted. "Just as
we're concerned about exposure now, only this time it's not other
vampires causing the trouble."