Murder in Vein (2010) (37 page)

Now that her eyes knew what they were looking for, Madison
started seeing them. Scattered throughout the area between the
dilapidated buildings and the fence was a small village of crude
shelters made of cardboard and other cast-off materials. There
weren't many, maybe a half dozen or so. She approached each
one with care. She didn't want to frighten anyone, nor did she
want any unpleasant surprises, but each appeared abandoned.
She wondered if the occupants had gone in search of drier shelter or if something had frightened them off, as it had frightened
off Cubby. If Cubby had seen killings in the area, maybe other
homeless had, too. Maybe this was why the drunk in the alley
had been so reluctant to tell her about it. He'd said Porky was out
this way. Having found the cluster of makeshift shelters, Madison felt certain she was close to identifying Porky. Once she had
the information, she would go back to her car and contact Samuel; she'd leave the rest to them. Thinking about Geoff and the
dead girls, and what was done to them, Madison was feeling less
squeamish about the council's methods of meting out justice.

She'd gone a little farther when she let out a faint squeak of
surprise. Scooting over to the side of a building just past the
last shelter, she examined the wall near a rusty dumpster. She'd
found Porky.

Porky wasn't a person and it wasn't a place: it was a drawing.
Painted on the wall, partially concealed by the dumpster, was the
faded likeness of Porky Pig, complete with his little blue jacket,
red bow tie, and perky smile. The paint was faded and chipped,
but it was clear to Madison's eye that at one time it had been a
very good rendition of the popular Looney Tunes character.

Madison stepped back and surveyed the area around the
drawing. The buildings had gotten more and more dilapidated
as she'd moved farther away from Hollywood Boulevard. She
looked back toward the busy street and was surprised by how
far she'd walked in her single-minded quest for Porky. Cars and
trucks on the freeway buzzed by below, hidden from view behind
tall weeds and oleander that edged the fence. Overhead, the sun
was a fading memory.

Excitement filled her. She was no longer bait set out by the
vampires. She'd found the key to Cubby's mumblings. The killings had to have happened here or near here. Samuel and his
crew could search the place tonight.

It would only take her a few minutes to jog back to her car,
but she didn't want to wait. As she started walking away from
Porky, Madison pulled her cell out of her pocket and started to
find the speed dial for Samuel. She didn't know if he'd be up yet,
but she could at least leave him a message to call her.

In her triumph, Madison didn't hear the steps coming up
behind her or feel the blow that sent her sprawling to the ground.

y, my, my," said a voice coming out of the dark fog that
engulfed Madison's brain. "Looks like we got an early
Christmas present."

Madison opened one eye. Her head hurt like it'd been cracked
open with an anvil. She shut the eye and squeezed them both
tight against the pain. Then she opened it again, followed by the
other.

Hanging overhead was a long fluorescent light fixture
wrapped in a wire casing. Madison tried to cover her eyes with
an arm but found both of her arms secured tightly by her side.
She tried to move her legs and found the same thing with them.
She was laid out on a cold, hard surface.

Madison still couldn't see who was speaking, but the voice
sounded familiar. Not far away, another joined in. "What in the
hell is she doing here?" another familiar male voice asked. "How
the fuck did she find us?"

"Who cares how. She's here now, and we didn't have to lift a
finger or pay some thug to grab her for us."

It was then one of the speakers came into view. It was Ethan
Young. He was dressed totally in black, including a black watch
cap on his head. He peered down at her through his glasses and
smiled. "Miss me?"

It wasn't until Madison tried to speak that she realized her
mouth had been taped shut.

"If you promise not to scream," Ethan said, "I'll take it off."

"Leave it," the other voice ordered.

"Aw, that's no fun. Besides, no one can hear her. These walls
are concrete, and the area's abandoned."

"Maybe, but I'll still find the noise annoying."

Ethan looked over toward the direction of the voice. "You
find everything annoying." He looked down at Madison. "You
promise not to annoy Ben?"

After Madison gave Ethan a consenting nod, he lifted the tape
from the corners of her mouth, then yanked it fast the rest of the
way. She let out a yelp as the tape took some of her skin, leaving behind a sharp, painful burn. She licked her lips and tasted
blood.

Ethan bent over Madison and lowered his face to hers.
His tongue darted out and quickly caught a dribble of blood.
"Mmmm," he murmured with a wink to her. He then turned
Madison's left hand over and examined the bloodline. "I don't
know if this line makes you lucky or unlucky," he told her.
"Depends on your viewpoint, I'm sure."

"You can't become a vampire by drinking my blood," she said
to him through her swelling lips.

"How do you know I want to drink your blood?" he asked,
bending back over her. "Maybe I want to eat your heart instead." He gave her a monstrous grimace and pretended to take a bite
from her chest.

"I heard you and Ben talking that night at Bloodlust," she
admitted in a low voice. "You think by drinking the blood of
someone with one of these lines, you'll become a vampire." She
wiggled the fingers of the hand Ethan held. "But only people with
these lines can become vampires; that's how it works. And only a
vampire can turn them."

Ben stepped into her line of vision. "She's only trying to save
her skin."

Ben was also dressed in black, without the cap. But this time
he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. Even though he was wearing
his long-haired wig, Madison could see clearly that Ben was the
Cobb salad guy from the diner. Fearing he might snap, she kept
the truth of his identity to herself. Since she could only see the
top half of the men, she guessed she was tied to a table. She also
noticed that both Ethan and Ben were dirty. Turning her head
one way as far as it could go, then the other, she saw that they
were in a concrete building with no windows, like a garage. The
ceiling overhead was low, with light fixtures like the one over her
extending down in fairly even intervals. The interior appeared
mostly bare as far as she could see, with just a few boxes stacked
against one wall. To her other side, a van was parked. Its side
door was open to reveal an assortment of items packed inside.
The van had been backed in, its nose facing the large main door
to make an easy exit. It looked to Madison like they were moving,
but she didn't know if they were moving in or moving out. Her
gut told her moving out.

"Who told you about those lines?" Ethan demanded. "You
said you were new to vampirism."

"Colin. He told me what they meant when he met me. That's
why I wanted to learn more." Madison's mind worked fast, making up a story and hoping to sell it. "We were trying to find a real
vampire to turn me"

Ethan laughed. "So what Colin did with Miriam was really to
help you?"

Madison turned her head away, trying to convey hurt. "I went
looking for him that night." She turned her head back to Ethan.
"I wanted to tell him that I thought you might know some real
vampires who could help us. But when I found him with ... well,
I just took off."

Ben glared at her. "Doesn't explain why you're here or how
you found us."

The question worried Madison. She didn't want to give
Cubby up, but she had to feed the killers something plausible.
"Dumb luck, really," she said. "I was in Hollywood last night with
friends. There was an old bum on the street yammering about
vampires in Hollywood. Said he saw them drinking some poor
girl's blood. I paid the bum to show me where." She shrugged as
far as she could in her restraints. "I had no idea you'd be here. I
thought I'd find real vampires."

"But we are real vampires, Madison," said Ethan. "You heard
wrong that night. We know that only vampires can make other
vampires. What that bum saw, it was us helping that girl become
a vampire."

The two men studied her, but it was Ben who spoke first. "You
really want to be a vampire?"

Madison wasn't sure how dumb they thought she was, but
she was going to give them as much dumb as she could muster.
"Doesn't everyone want to be one?"

Ben wouldn't give up the questions. "Who were you calling
when I found you?"

"Colin. I wanted to tell him I'd found the vampires."

Ethan picked up her cell phone from somewhere and held it
within her sight. He scrolled down through the numbers. "Colin
Reddy. His name's right here" He showed it to Ben.

"But this Reddy guy doesn't have a bloodline, does he?" asked
Ben.

"No," Madison answered. "But he's dying to see a vampire
turn someone. What can I tell you, the idea of it makes him hot.
And when he's hot, he's hot."

Again, Ethan laughed. "So claims the maid Miriam."

After a short consideration, Ethan held out her phone. "Tell
you what, Madison. Why don't you give Colin a call and ask him
to meet you here. Ben and I will turn you, and he can watch."

Ben started to protest. "We need to get going, Ethan. Who
knows who else that bum told."

Ethan ignored him. "What do you say, Madison? We'll turn
you, then you can suck Colin Reddy dry. He'll be your first official vampire kill. It'll serve him right for the two-timing he did
back at Bloodlust."

Madison narrowed her eyes and gave Ethan a sly grin. "I like
the sound of that"

Ethan looked up at Ben. "She's a natural."

"Ethan, no." Ben was getting angry.

Still ignoring his partner, Ethan pushed the speed dial for
Colin. Madison didn't know if Colin would be up yet or not, and
she sighed in silent relief when he answered. Ethan put the cell
on speaker.

"Hey, Colin," Madison said into the mouthpiece. "It's me."
Before he could answer, she gushed with forced excitement,
"Guess what? I found Ethan and Ben. I was wrong that nightthey're the vampires. They said they'd turn me and let you
watch."

"Where are you?" Colin asked, his voice deadpan.

Ethan moved the phone closer to him. "Hear that, buddy?
We've agreed to turn your little lady. But she told us you'd want
to see it."

"Yes, of course!" Colin answered with enthusiasm.

Ethan laughed. "Bet it makes you hard just thinking about it."

"Hell, yeah," Colin said, sharing the male-bonding moment.
"Just tell me where."

Ethan gave him the directions. "Come alone," he ordered.
"We're pretty private about such things."

"Colin lives by the beach," Madison told Ben and Ethan when
the call ended. "It might take him a bit to get here, especially this
time of day."

"Get your stuff from the van," Ethan told Ben.

Ben's face contorted in anger. "Are you out of your mind? We
need to get out of here."

"Think about it," Ethan said. "By the time that clown gets
here, we'll be done. We'll have her blood and can set him up to
take the fall. If we're lucky, they'll pin the other murders on him,
too. We can make it look like he killed her, then killed himself out
of remorse."

On the table, Madison struggled. "What are you talking
about?"

Ben looked down at Madison, watching her wiggle on the
table. Reaching under his shirt in the back, he pulled out a gun and held it up in front of Ethan. "We can use this to kill Reddy.
It's untraceable-a throwaway from the street."

Madison struggled more as she understood their plans. She
knew the gun couldn't kill Colin, but she didn't want to be cut
and bled out before he got to Hollywood.

"Come on, guys. Let me loose so we can have some fun before
he gets here."