Chapter 28
I REALLY didn’t need to see Janice Sanderson. I had told her on the phone that I wanted to stop by to fill her in on what I’d been doing. After all, I was still on her payroll, even if she was wasting her money having me shuttle her daughter to and from work. She could afford to be extravagant, though. I really wanted to touch base with young Kevin Sanderson more than anything. I felt sorry for the kid, cooped up in that huge house all the time.
I waited, therefore, until school let out before making the trek down her long driveway. Kevin answered the door. “Mom’s in the living room,” he said.
I stayed on the stoop for a moment and fished into my pocket. “Wait a second. I’ve got something for you.”
His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when I handed him two tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert. “Are you kidding me?” he squealed.
“It’s in Chicago, though. If you need a ride my friend Gina and I can drive you up there. If your mother approves, that is.”
Kevin frowned. “I don’t have anyone to take, though.”
“I bet if you asked one of the girls in your class you’d find someone who’d kill to go with you.”
He considered this. “Well, I guess I could ask Sharon Caldwell. She’s a pretty good friend. And I know she likes the Jonas Brothers.”
“There you go. You’ll be able to see Joe Jonas up close.”
Kevin smiled shyly at me. “Lately I think I like Nick Jonas even more.”
“I like a guy named Nick myself. The show isn’t for a few weeks yet, so you’ve got plenty of time to get someone to go with and clear everything with your mother.”
He was beaming. Still clutching the tickets as if they were gold, he hugged me quickly. “Thanks. You’re the best.”
“So I’ve been told.”
IT SEEMED to be a good day for Sandersons all around. I found Ma Sanderson in the living room as Kevin had said. She was reading a magazine but actually smiled as I entered the room. “So nice to see you, Mr. Andrews.”
I shook her hand and sat down in an armchair near her. It obviously was made for looks and not comfort, but I wasn’t planning on staying long. “I understand that Brenda and Derek are moving into their new apartment today.”
“Yes,” she said. “That was a good suggestion of yours. Brenda and I have had several talks lately. I still think she could do better than that sleazy boy she’s seeing.”
“They’re married,” I reminded her.
That nearly ruined her good mood. She shivered involuntarily but recovered herself admirably. “Yes. I suppose I have to accept that.”
“Which do you dislike more,” I asked her, “Brenda’s choice of husband or her choice of work?”
There was no question there. Janice Sanderson answered without hesitation. “That place she calls work.”
“Maybe you should get Derek on your side. After all, I don’t imagine he’s real thrilled with his wife getting dollar bills shoved into her G-string. Between the two of you, you might get her to start thinking of looking for something else.”
Janice nodded. It was a slow, thoughtful nod, but a nod just the same. “Do you always dish out personal advice to your clients?” she asked.
“Only when they seem receptive to it.”
She smiled at me. “You’re a very perceptive young man. You see things a lot of people don’t, I think.”
“Oh, ain’t that the truth.”
I HAD to pick Brenda up at their new apartment. They were still moving in boxes and everything was a jumble. Derek and a friend with a pickup truck were making trips back and forth from Gimber Street. He wasn’t there when I arrived. Brenda showed me around. It was a nice apartment, twenty floors up, and she was glowing with pride.
“I can’t believe Mom got this for us,” she said. Excitedly she pulled me over to the sliding glass doors that led out onto the balcony. “Wait until you see the view! It’s spectacular!”
I had to agree. The whole of downtown Indianapolis spread out in front of us. Nice as the view was, though, I reminded her of the time. “If we’re going to get you to work on time, we should be leaving.”
The night had a little chill to it, so Brenda went to get a light jacket. As she put it on, she asked, “So what about the ghost? Is he coming with us again tonight?”
“Robbie? Yeah, actually. He’s down in the car.”
She seemed a little disappointed. “He could have come up. I could always say then that we’ve had a ghost in our apartment.”
“He could, actually. He’s been in this building before, but he wanted to listen to a song on the radio.”
That amused her. “A ghost that likes music. How sweet.”
I had to agree with her. Robbie was very sweet.
THE drive to Pickin’s was uneventful. Brenda sat in the back, which may have looked odd to anyone pulling next to us at a light, but I didn’t care. Robbie was listening to some classic rock but every now and then had to change stations when they played something he couldn’t stand. Brenda enjoyed watching the knobs seemingly moving on their own.
When we got to Pickin’s, I wasn’t surprised to find a police car parked in the side lot. Either the presence of the fuzz put off the clientele, or it was just too early, because there weren’t that many cars in the lot. Robbie stayed in the car while I escorted Brenda inside.
The doorman smiled at me. “Packing tonight?” he asked.
I opened my jacket enough for him to see the holster. Tonight the gun was loaded with silver bullets. Gina always kept a supply handy, bless her. I didn’t know if they’d work against our ghoul, but I knew regular bullets didn’t affect him, so I figured I’d give the silver ones a try. “Of course.”
He nodded his approval. Brenda gave me a quick peck on the cheek and went off to change. I picked a table near the back and sat down. I wished I’d remembered to bring a book. Across the room I saw Craig. He waved at me. I waved back, but without enthusiasm. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. He looked better tonight than I’d ever seen him. His hair was washed, a major plus, and he had on clean, new-looking clothes. I couldn’t see his teeth from where I was but I figured they still needed some work. I was glad, though, that he was making an effort. He was a nice guy. He was still sitting close to where his sister was stripping, though, and that was just a little on the creepy side.
I had several sodas and tried not to continually look at my watch. The bar closed at three, and it was usually four o’clock or later that Brenda actually was ready to leave. Hours to kill. I played a game in my head, watching the patrons and trying to decide what their occupation was. There weren’t many, so the game didn’t last long. I decided there were two construction workers, a plainclothes cop (keeping an eye on the inside while his uniformed compatriot watched outside in his car), three accountants, and an unsuccessful poet. The others were in the shadows, and I couldn’t decide on what they did.
Nothing was going to happen to Brenda while she was inside the building, so I took a little break and went outside for some air. I sauntered around and ended up at the side of the building. The night was overcast, and there was no moon, but a streetlight at the corner kept most of the parking lot visible. I could see that my aimless meandering had caught the attention of the cop parked near the lot’s entrance. I waved at him. He was mostly in shadow, but it didn’t look like he waved back. I could see he was staring right at me, though. I thought about going over and introducing myself but decided against it. Instead I headed over to my car and got in on the driver’s side. I shut the door and sighed heavily. Robbie appeared in the passenger seat.
“Long night?” he asked.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” I told him. “Granted, Janice Sanderson is loaded and won’t miss the money, but she’s doing nothing but padding my bank account by having me do this. There’s a cop out here and at least one inside. Brenda Sanderson is safe in there. All I’m doing is drinking too many sodas and getting bored out of my skull.”
“It’s not like you can enjoy the scenery, either,” Robbie said.
“Very true.”
“Still,” he said, trying to be optimistic, “stake-outs are dull too.”
“Which is why I avoid doing them.” I sighed. “Still, I’m getting paid. And the money I’ll be getting from Janice Sanderson will help out the finances greatly. Hell, I might just treat us to a big plasma television after this is all over.” I gazed out at the parking lot. The cop had lost interest in me and was reading a newspaper by the light of the street lamp. No one else was in sight. The parking lot didn’t seem to have filled up any from when we’d arrived. The strip club business was waning. A series of murders will do that for business. “I sincerely doubt our ghoul is going to be showing his face anywhere near here, no matter how badly he needs to chomp on some organs. There are tons of strip clubs all over Indianapolis. He’d be a fool to stay in this area.”
“Jack the Ripper did,” Robbie said. “Stayed in the Whitechapel area. And even with extra police patrols they never caught him. Maybe serial killers have a comfort zone and don’t like traveling outside their little area. Besides, you’ve met the guy. Did he seem like he was worried about getting caught?”
“He seemed like he wanted to choke the life out of me. Anything more than that I wasn’t concerned with at that time.” I closed my eyes, breathing deeply. It was much nicer out in the car with Robbie. The smoke in the bar bothered me. “I had Gina look at the drawing of the Springfield killer earlier today. She agreed with you that the amulet probably had magical properties. She also agreed that the sketch wasn’t clear enough to tell more than that.”
“A ghost and a witch agreeing on something. We’ve set a precedent.”
“Why only every hundred years, I wonder?”
Robbie cocked his head in thought. “What do you mean?”
“Why does he only go on a murder and organ-eating spree every hundred years? If he’s a ghoul, why haven’t we found cases of him around the world, eating and killing his way across continents?”
After giving that some pondering time, Robbie replied, “The amulet. Hell, it does something for him. A bullet in the forehead would have killed a normal ghoul, so we know he’s got something special going on. A ghoul good luck charm, maybe? Like he can’t be killed while he’s wearing it? Maybe the amulet makes him human, or at least less of a ghoul, for most of the time, and he has to re-charge himself every hundred years to keep things going. Both in Stockholm and Springfield there were seven girls murdered, all with organs missing. Mostly the liver and the odd uterus or two.” Robbie made a face. “I still can’t believe he’s eaten someone’s uterus.”
“Seven organs from seven girls once every hundred years to stay human? It could be, I suppose. Why showgirls though?”
Robbie shrugged. “Maybe he just hates showgirls. Maybe he got jilted by one. Why did Jack the Ripper kill prostitutes? It’s hard to say how madmen think.”
“You keep on going on about Jack the Ripper.”
“He’s fascinating.”
I decided to change the subject. “My chat with Nick went well. As well as could be expected, anyway.”
Robbie looked eager. “Did he say he’d let me possess him? What did he think about that?”
I chuckled. “I didn’t ask. Too soon. He’s coping with finding out that you’re in my life and that I’ve got a zombie for a dog. Asking him if he’ll let you take over his body for a while so we can fornicate is a discussion for a later time.” Probably much later. “He didn’t run screaming, though. We’re going to take things slowly and see what happens.”
“It would mean everything to me,” Robbie said, his tone serious, “to make love to you again.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, “me too.”
I reached over for his hand. He concentrated so that I could grasp it. We sat like that for a few minutes, holding hands and smiling like new lovers.
AFTER a bit I re-entered Pickin’s, mainly because I had to pee. Brawny the bouncer nodded at me as I went past. He looked as bored as I was. I made straight for the restroom. No one was using the facilities, but I still went to the center urinal, the one under the window. Maybe I had a comfort zone where urinals were concerned. I did my business and then went to wash up. As soon as the water hit my hands I felt my senses go into overdrive. It hit me like an electric shock, and I actually shuddered and stepped back a few paces, my first thought being that the water had caused the sensory overload. Once I caught my breath I realized that was stupid. My Spidey-sense only worked, when it decided to work, when something paranormal was nearby. It had never been this strong, though. I didn’t know what that meant, but I figured it wasn’t good. I quickly dried my hands and left the restroom.
At first glance everything looked normal. The girls were dancing. The few guys at the bar seemed to be enjoying the show. A few were even tucking bills into the girls’ G-strings. Brenda was in her usual spot, dancing away. Her old roommate, Tiffany, was near her on the bar, with brother Craig sitting close by. Then I looked over at the door where Brawny was stationed.
He was dealing with a tall man dressed in black who’d just entered. They seemed to be having words. The man was wearing a long leather coat and, from what I could gather, Brawny was requesting that he open it up so he could check for weapons, and the guy was balking. Brawny was insisting loudly enough that I could almost hear his words over the sound of the music.
The man in black suddenly turned from Brawny, dismissing him entirely, and looked my way.
There was a little light on Brawny’s tiny podium that lit the man’s face enough for me to recognize him as the man I knew as Joshua Satterfield.