Home > Heart of the Vampire : Episode 2(8)

Heart of the Vampire : Episode 2(8)
Author: Tasha Black

Thoughts?

 

TadStrange:

How did you not lead with the murder?????

 

A message popped up on her screen.

Low Battery: 3% of Battery Charge Remaining.

She dismissed it.

When the board was visible again, she could see three messages had been posted in quick succession.

 

BethsMom1972:

Are you okay, Ghostwriter?

 

Wra1thGirl19:

That’s a vampire, Ghostwriter

Mos def

 

TadStrange:

100% a vampire. You know what to do now. We all know exactly what to do when faced with a real vampire.

 

She most certainly did not know what to do.

 

TadStrange is typing…

 

Dru waited with bated breath.

There was the ding of a new message, just as the screen went black.

“What are you doing, Dru?”

Viktor was standing right in front of her.

She jumped, nearly dropping the phone into the snow bank.

How long had he been there?

“My battery died,” she gasped, fumbling her gloves back on.

“Well thankfully, Hailey got through and the police know what’s going on here,” Viktor said.

Dru couldn’t bring herself to meet his eye.

Had he seen what she was up to?

He couldn’t have, from that angle.

Could he?

“Hey guys,” Hailey yelled, heading toward them. “They’re sending a crew as soon as the road is clear. Help is on the way!”

“That’s great, Hailey,” Viktor told her. “We should head back.”

She nodded and the three of them set off toward the hotel again with the wind at their backs.

Did he see, or didn’t he?

He wasn’t letting on if he did, and there was no way to know.

She trudged forward into the snow. At least the hike would be easier on the way back down.

 

 

8

 

 

Dru stepped into the hotel with a great sense of relief.

She had spent the whole hike back wondering if they would make it, or if she and Hailey would fall victim to Viktor’s appetite.

Just make sure you’re not stuck alone with him…

Surely, he wasn’t really a vampire. She had been hoping that the people on the message board would tell her that she was crazy and there was nothing to worry about. She’d forgotten that most of the people on there were pretty intense. And they ate stuff like this up.

But she had to admit that the clues kept adding up in her own head until the tower of her sanity threatened to topple over.

She was dusting the snow off her coat and stomping her feet to dislodge it from her boots, when suddenly, Viktor’s hand was on her shoulder.

She froze.

“I have to go, Dru.” He leaned close, whispering into her hair. “I’ll see you tonight.”

She watched in silence as Viktor headed up the stairs to his rooms.

The lantern on the desk in the lobby illuminated the grandfather clock. It was nearly seven.

Of course he had to go.

The sun would be up soon.

Dru shivered.

“Are you okay?” Channing asked, approaching her, carrying a lit candle.

Thankfully, no one else was paying her any attention. Hailey was regaling the others with the tale of their walk through the driving snow and her heroic call for help. She seemed to be embellishing it a little, but no one was complaining.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“You’ve been up all night,” Channing said. “Can you stay awake another hour to search the victim’s room?”

“I normally go to bed around nine in the morning anyway,” she told him.

“How fortunate for me,” Channing said. “You’re the perfect recording officer.”

It was easy to forget he wasn’t really a detective.

She hung up her coat, and they headed up the stairs toward the Opal Room.

“Won’t you need the key?” Channing asked.

“I’ve got a skeleton key,” Dru told him, patting her pocket.

“Very interesting,” Channing said. “Does every employee have one?”

“Yes,” Dru said. “Well, usually. Howie was looking for his yesterday. He’s always misplacing it.”

“Very, very interesting,” Channing said. “When we get to the room please note that down.”

Dru didn’t think it would be important. The murder had happened in a communal area. There were no locked doors involved. But she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to write it down.

“So are we looking for anything special in his room?” Dru asked.

“We’re looking for anything out of place,” Channing said.

“Like what?” Dru asked.

“We’ll know it when we see it,” Channing told her.

They reached the Opal Room, and Dru retrieved her skeleton key and opened the door.

Before she could step inside, Channing put a hand on her arm.

“Let’s wait here a moment, shall we?” he asked. “Let’s see what we can observe from here, before we step inside and potentially damage the clues.”

That was a good idea. Channing wasn’t half-bad at this.

Dru looked into the room.

Brian Thompson had clearly not been a neat freak. The floor was strewn with various items, including two enormous pairs of boxers, three socks, and an open suitcase.

The bed was unmade, and she could see toiletries on the bathroom sink through the open door at the back of the room.

“Do you see anything suspicious?” Channing asked her.

She shook her head.

“Very well,” he said. “I’ll take some photographs now. After that, we’ll make a thorough search.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for the police?” Dru asked.

“I thought the same thing earlier this evening,” Channing said. “But it’s still snowing, and there’s still a murderer on the loose. We have a responsibility to solve this as quickly as we can, before someone else loses their life.”

Dru nodded. His words were chilling, but he wasn’t wrong.

“Do you have gloves?” Channing asked her.

“Only my winter ones,” she said.

“May I borrow them?” he asked.

She handed the gloves over, and they stepped inside as Channing slipped them on.

There was a slight funk in the air, as if Thompson didn’t bathe as frequently as he should, along with an undertone of some body spray clearly marketed at teenage boys.

“Let’s begin in the near left corner and sweep right and back,” Channing decided. “Do you have your notepad?”

“Yes,” she said, jotting down what he had said before about Howie’s skeleton key.

“Then we will begin,” Channing said, placing the candle down on the dresser.

They worked their way slowly through the room, Dru noting each item as Channing examined it.

She wished they had electricity, or even a good flashlight. They usually kept a tactical flashlight by the front desk, but she was pretty sure Howie took it when he went to look for Chester. He probably still had it. It seemed like the type of thing Howie would hold onto during a power outage.

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