Avenging Autumn: Seasons Change Book 1 of 4 (20 page)

He found no one.

To say the trip back to Indiana was uneventful
would be an understatement; it was downright boring, a sharp
contrast to the trip up. There wasn’t a vampire, werewolf, witch or
living tree to be seen the entire time.

Though he had not stayed at the house much
since Abby had died, he certainly felt overjoyed to see it as he
pulled into the driveway. As he brought the old death cab to a stop
and shifted into park he caught movement in his rearview mirror. An
unmarked police car had followed him up the drive.

He got out of the car and looked back to see a
pretty, middle aged Hispanic woman climbing out of the vehicle
be-hind him.

“
Good morning, Mr. Writeman,” The
woman said cheerfully, “and welcome home. My name is Detective
Gloria Perez and I have a few questions I’d like to ask
you.”

Frank gave her a crooked smile and said, “Your
par-ents named you detective? Good thing you became a cop,
huh?”

Gloria let out a short giggle and knew she had
given up the bad cop façade she was trying to wear. “That was a
good one, you’re very funny. May I come in?”

“
Of course,” Frank led the way up
to the front door and produced a key chain from his pants pocket.
Once inside, he turned to his guest and asked; “May I take your
coat?”

“
No, I won’t be staying
long.”

“
That’s a shame.”

The detective felt her cheeks flush and
mentally scolded herself for acting like a school girl. She cleared
her throat and tried to emit a tougher exterior. “Mr. Writeman, I
worked a very interesting crime scene recently at your bank
building. Do you know what I’m referring to?”

“
I have an idea.”

“
My partner and I found some very
strange things in your office. Then, we found even more of these
strange things in your son, Jack’s house, at the graveyard where
your daugh-ter-in-law, Autumn, was buried, and we heard about the
piles of bodies that were left strewn across a cornfield in
Nebraska.”

“
Nothing out of Gary?” Frank asked
playfully.

“
Why? What happened in
Gary?”

“
Nothing worth
mentioning.”

Gloria stared at Frank for a long moment as if
trying to word her next set of statements very
carefully.

“
Mr. Wr-”

“
Please, call me Frank”

“
Frank, before I could get very
deep into my investi-gation, the F.B.I. swooped in and took over.
Now, the feds are gone, the bodies are gone and everything’s been
cleaned up as if it never happened.”

“
Wow, that’s convenient for
me.”

“
Very. Furthermore, my partner, my
forensics team, and every other cop who viewed the scene are acting
like they were never there and didn’t see anything.”

“
Maybe they’re the smart ones,”
Frank said with sudden seriousness.

“
I want in on this; I want to know
what’s going on.”

Frank only stared at her with a doubtful look
on his face.

“
Where are your boys,
Frank?”

The Old Man looked down at the floor, suddenly
saddened by where the conversation had turned.

“
Benny is dead,” he stated
plainly.

“
I’m sorry, Frank. What about
Jack?”

“
I have no idea where he is, but
he’s in trouble and I need to find him before others
do.”

“
What others?”

Frank didn’t answer.

“
Look, I’m a detective; I could be
helpful in finding him.”

The Old Man new she was right, and though he
wasn’t comfortable with putting yet another life in danger, finding
Jack was more important than anything.

“
I’m very tired from my trip,” he
finally said.

Gloria let out a sigh of defeat.

“
I want to get some rest,” Frank
continued, “but if you have dinner with me tonight, I’ll tell you
everything you want to know.”

Gloria smiled, “Are you asking me to go out on
a date?”

“
Well,” Frank said with a sudden
nervousness, “yeah, if that’s okay.”

Again, the detective felt her cheeks blush, “I
suppose that would be alright. I can meet you back here at around
6:00, would that be ok?”

Frank grinned like a boy in a candy shop,
“6:00 is good.”

He walked the detective to the door and as she
walked out onto the porch, she turned and asked: “Where not going
to take the hearse, are we?”

“
It would probably be better if you
drive.”

“
Okay, I’ll see you
later.”

He watched her leave and felt relieved that
she didn’t look in the back of the hearse. The illegal weapons he’d
hauled across the country and back would have landed him in prison
for a nice, long stint.

Frank didn’t lie to her, he was exhausted and
he fully intended on getting some rest, but there was something
else he had to take care of first.

The stairs gave their old familiar creaks as
he walked up to the second floor, a sound he found comforting after
being away so long. As he entered the den he thought of the last
time he was there and echoes of his conversation with Benny bounced
through his head. He was trying to help his son through the grief
of losing his wife.

Now Benny was gone too.

The Old Man pushed this thought to the back of
his mind. He had spent enough time mourning his youngest boy, he
still had a son out there somewhere that needed his help and he
knew if he focused on that his sorrow would soon be forgotten, if
only for a little while.

Frank picked the cordless phone out of its
charger and dialed a number that very few people in the world knew.
The phone rang three times before a nasally voice answered on the
other end.

“
Yellow?”

“
James, it’s Frank.”

“
Oh, hey buddy, are you back in
town?”

“
Yeah, and I’m going to need your
help with some-thing. How do you feel about relocating?”

“
Where to?”

“
My place, tonight. I want to make
this a base of operations of sorts.”

“
Base of operations? Are we going
to war?”

“
Eventually, but first we have to
find Jack. I can’t really say much over the phone, just come over
tonight around 7:00 and get set up, I’ll explain everything
later.”

“
What are you going to
do?”

“
First I’m going to take a nap, and
then I’m going on a hot date.”

“
You got a date? You’ve been in
town for like three minutes. I haven’t had one for three
years.”

Frank smiled, “The first step is to leave the
house, James. Look, I’m going to go, but I’ll see you
tonight.”

“
Alright, see ya.”

The Old Man hung up the phone and collapsed on
the nearby couch. He eventually fell into an uneasy sleep filled
with dreams of things to come.

The approaching snow, his changing son and the
mysterious vampires known only as; The Wintermen.

The End.