Night of the Living Dandelion (37 page)

A nice-looking guy about my age saw me coming and held the door open. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but most offices don’t open until nine.”

“I’m going to the coroner’s office,” I said.

Eyeing my obviously inconvenient mode of travel, he said, “Well, then, maybe I can save you the hassle of getting to the lower level. I work at the coroner’s office. Is there something I can help you with?”

Wow. That was the second time the Evil Ones had worked in my favor. I gave the guy a smile. “Actually, there is.”

Ten minutes later I hobbled out of the courthouse with a document in my hand. My mom hadn’t returned, so I stopped on the sidewalk below the steps and hit speed dial number two—Marco’s number—hoping against hope that he would answer so I could tell him the news. But it went to voice mail again. All I could do was leave a message and hope he got it.

“Marco, I just left the coroner’s office, and guess what. You were right about Lori being drugged. She had enough insulin in her system to keep her in a coma for days. And we know who has unlimited access to insulin. So I wanted to let you know that I’m going to poke around Trumble’s house and talk to his neighbors to see what I can find out. I’ll call you later with an update. Oh, and Vlad is still missing. I hope he’s in contact with you, because it’s beginning to look like he’s on the run. And, Marco, I miss you. I wish I could talk to you.”

I hung up and searched for Mom’s van, but there was no sight of it on the streets around the square. I finally called her cell phone to find out where she was.

“Abigail, I’m stuck a block away, on the other side of the train tracks. The longest freight train I’ve ever seen is coming through at about five miles an hour.”

“That’s okay, Mom. I can make it across the street. Go on home.”

“I’m so sorry, honey. Call me as soon as you get inside.”

I dropped my phone in my pocket and headed across the courthouse lawn to Franklin Street. Dawn had broken, but there was still no sign of the sun through the thick rain clouds gathering overhead. Luckily, there was almost no activity on the town square at that time in the morning, so I went straight to Bloomers’ front door without encountering a soul.

The shop was dark when I let myself in. The only illumination came from the twenty-four-hour security light in the workroom that right now was making the purple curtain glow an eerie plum color. I locked the door, phoned Mom to tell her I was safely inside, then dropped my purse on the front counter. But when I went behind the counter to shut off the alarm, I realized it hadn’t beeped when I’d opened the door. I checked the keypad and saw that the green light was on. It wasn’t armed.

Hadn’t I set it before I left the shop yesterday? I glanced around the room, but nothing seemed to have been disturbed. I knew the alarm hadn’t been deactivated by Lottie or Grace because they would have turned on the lights. It had to be my fault. Maybe I’d been so intent on getting down to that press conference that I’d forgotten.

Oh, wait! It was probably Claymore. Jillian must have sent him for her things. She had a key and knew the code. With a sigh of relief, I switched to the wheelchair and stowed the crutches behind the counter. I heard a rapping on glass, and backed around to see Kyle outside the door. He wore his navy EMT jacket and pants, and had a piece of paper in his hand.

He motioned me over and said through the glass, “I saw you coming out of the courthouse, so I thought I’d drop this off. It’s the tox screen I promised to get for you.”

Instantly, my antennae were up and quivering. His being there felt wrong. Was it by chance that he was around when I had come out of the courthouse? Thank goodness the door was locked, because I suddenly felt vulnerable. I decided against telling him that I’d already obtained a copy.

“Put it through the mail slot,” I said, then smiled. “Thanks.”

He stuck the paper through the slot and watched as I turned it over. I was looking at a line graph with a bunch of chemical names and symbols on it. It didn’t look anything like the document I’d picked up. I held up the paper and said, “I’ll give it to Marco.”

“I thought I heard Marco was out of town.”

“He’ll be back. I’ve got to start the coffee now. My assistants are due in anytime.”

Kyle gave me a puzzled look. “Sure. No problem.” He turned and walked away.

I waited until he was out of sight, then let out a breath of relief and rolled toward the curtain. The phone rang, so I continued into the workroom to answer it at my desk. I picked up the receiver with, “Bloomers Flower Shop. How can I help you?”

There was a click on the other end as the line went dead. My heart thudded heavily as I put the receiver back. I tried to tell myself that it was just a wrong number, but that panicky little voice inside kept whispering,
It might be the killer. Call Reilly
.

But what would I tell him? Someone hung up on me? On the other hand, having him know I was at the shop alone might have been a wise move.

I dialed his cell phone and got voice mail. “Hey, Reilly, it’s Abby. It’s almost seven thirty and I’m at the shop alone. Just wanted you to know.”

As I hung up, I heard a slight sound from the front. I paused to listen, but it had stopped.

Okay, Abby, it’s an old building, and old buildings make lots of strange noises
.

I turned on the computer to check for orders and heard another sound from the front, like something scraping against the window. Old building or not, I didn’t like it. As I started toward the curtain to investigate, I heard a loud bang and then glass shattering. My first thought was that someone had thrown a rock through the window.

But when I parted the curtain, I saw a hand-sized hole in the door pane adjacent to the lock, with broken glass on the floor below. The door was shut and no one was standing outside. Someone was in the shop.

I immediately backed up and turned to go for the phone, but my chair was spun around and I found myself facing Kyle.

He held up a syringe. “I almost forgot to leave this.”

I swallowed, trying to find my voice. “What for?”

“You know what it’s for.”

My chest tightened in fear. “My assistants will be here any second. You’d better get out.”

He glanced at his watch. “We’ve got time. They won’t be here for another twenty-five minutes. Grace, maybe twenty.”

He could only have known that if he’d been watching the shop. Quickly, I snatched a pair of clippers I’d left on the worktable and threw them at his head, then backed up and snatched the handset off the base. But before I could dial 9-1-1, he grabbed the phone and tossed it through the doorway into the kitchen.

“Come on, Abby! That doesn’t even work in the movies.”

I backed away, my gaze darting around for something else to use as a weapon. All I saw was my floral knife at the far end of the worktable—too far for me to get to it before Kyle did. I’d have to stall, and hope one of my assistants arrived early. “Why do you want to hurt me? What did I do?”

“What did you
do
?” He shook his head as though he couldn’t believe I was asking. “Besides telling the cops to investigate me? Besides telling the whole friggin’ world that I got kicked out of nursing school?
What did you do?
”

“I didn’t name anyone. No one knows who . . .” I drew in my breath as Kyle swept his hand across the worktable, sending a glass vase crashing to the floor.

“Those questions you asked me at the bar the other night, they were intended to belittle me. Don’t deny it! I know you, Abby Knight. You’re just like Lori. You’re two of a kind.”

I edged closer to my desk, where I had a heavy ceramic pencil cup in the shape of a cat. “Why would I want to belittle you? I barely know you.”

“You know me well enough to stick it to me about being kicked out of the nursing program. It was a bad time in my life, and you took great pleasure in making me relive it.”

“Kyle, I only asked you—”

He kicked over a basket I’d set beside the table. “What did I ever do to you to make you treat me like that? Wasn’t I always polite? Wasn’t I a nice guy to everyone? Good old Kyle, always ready to help a friend?”

“You’re not going to get away with killing me, and you certainly won’t get away with Lori’s murder. Marco’s got all the evidence he needs to—”

“Stop it!” he cried, spittle flying as he hit his head with his free hand. “Stop. Lying. To. Me!”

My heart was racing so fast, I was light-headed. “Okay, Kyle, calm down and think about what you’re doing.”

“Liar!” he shouted. “You’re a
terrible
liar. We both know there’s not one shred of evidence that points to me. It all points to that
idiot
. . . that
buffoon
who likes to parade around as a friggin’ vampire! He wants people to think he kills for blood, so why shouldn’t he pay the price?”

“Because he’s not the killer,” I managed to say.

“Of course he’s the killer! Ask anyone in town. Do you understand how easy it is to convince people that there’s a murderous vampire on the loose? A few rumors, a Web site with some phony photos, some vampire sightings, and then the pièce de résistance—a body drained of blood. The absolute stupidity of the people in this town! I mean, really, a police-led vampire hunt? The
Garlic
Party? I couldn’t have asked for a better setup. It was just too good to pass up.”

I tried to calculate how much time had passed, but it was impossible. It felt as though we’d been there for hours and yet I knew it was minutes. “You must have been planning to kill Lori for some time.”

“I’ve thought about it for years. Dreamed of it, in fact. But I didn’t seriously consider it until she put the moves on me at the bar. And then, just like a prayer answered, Vlad moves to town.” He wiped his damp face with his sleeve. “Can you believe an old hag like Lori going after a stud like me? And the irony of it? She didn’t have a clue as to who I was. I was just another hot guy.”

And I thought Jillian was delusional.

“That woman ruined my life,” he said with a sneer, “and she didn’t even
remember
me.”

“Maybe Lori did remember you, Kyle. Maybe she was attracted to you and figured what happened was in the past. Let bygones be bygones.”

“No,” he said, as though explaining to a slow child, “she did
not
remember me. Not until I reminded her. But by then it was too late. I had the syringe in her throat.”

I was almost within reach of the pencil cup. “Why did you put her in a coma? Why didn’t you kill her right away?”

“Correction.
Vlad
killed her. But to get people to buy that, I had to build up the vampire myth first. Then, to keep the myth growing, I drove her car to the parking lot behind Vlad’s building, held Lori for a few days to up the drama, then bled her in a way that looked like bites.” He curled his fingers to look like fangs, then touched them to the side of his throat. “Weren’t those marks on her neck convincing?”

“Where did you hide her?”

“Abby, really. You’re not going to need this knowledge. Why do you care?”

“Come on, Kyle. Indulge me. It was an ingenious plot.”

“It was ingenious, wasn’t it?” He pulled a stool out and sat down in front of me, as though preparing to be interviewed. “And you don’t know the half of it.”

“I know you told J.C. you had to stop at the casino to make a payment so you could be sure Lori was there. And I know you returned later and hid in the backseat of her car.”

“Wrong! How stupid would that be? I followed her home and she welcomed me in. I didn’t want to risk any nosy neighbors seeing me carry her out, so I invited her to come back to my place. She was so hot for me, she went willingly.”

“You killed her at your apartment?”

“You know the saying ‘Nosy people don’t live long’? You’re trying to prove it, aren’t you?”

He was acting cocky now, clearly sure of himself. If I could keep him talking, there was a good chance Lottie or Grace would arrive. “At least tell me how you disposed of the blood.”

“I bagged it up and stowed it somewhere safe. Soon it’ll be in the hospital’s blood bank, helping those in need of a few pints. Lori was type O positive, a universal donor. I figured it was a way for her to give back to the community. Generous of her, wasn’t it?”

I doubted he’d be able to simply slip it into the blood bank, but I congratulated him again on his ingenuity. “You took quite a gamble, Kyle. A lot of things had to fall into place for your plan to work.”

“I did my homework. I knew that once Lori started playing the slots, she’d be there until one, two o’clock in the morning. All I had to do was find a patsy to blame the murder on. And then along comes Marco’s fanged friend.”

Kyle snickered. “What a fool. I figured I’d have to break into his place, but then your cousin got sick and gave me the perfect excuse for being there. You’ll have to thank her for me. Oh, wait. I guess I’ll have to do that. You won’t be around.”

I heard my cell phone ringing in the other room. Was it Marco? Reilly? My parents? When I didn’t answer, would they know I was in trouble? “So you took Lori’s jewelry and planted it in Vlad’s apartment when you picked up Jillian? Then tipped off the cops?”

“Clever, wasn’t I? Vlad was so perfect. Dressing like Count Dracula. Drawing in all the women. You know, that really bugged me. When Vlad was around, none of us guys had a chance. But with him out of the way, the playing field will be level again. And now that he’s on the run, it’ll be easy for people to believe he killed you, too.”

I grabbed the ceramic cup and hurled it at his head, hitting him squarely in the center of his forehead. Then I turned the wheelchair and raced toward the other end of the table. I had to get to my knife.