Bad Moon Rising. Джонатан Мэйберри

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      She managed a weak smile. “Well I did start this off by asking you not to hate me.” She came over and gave him a hug. “Just think about it, okay? I’m going to have Terry’s computer and files brought in anyway…just in case.”

      He grinned, too. “But no pressure.”

      “Oh, heavens no. Pressure? Here in bucolic Pine Deep, where the nights are quiet and sleepy and nothing ever happens and everyone’s just happy as clams.”

      “Yep, that’s us, that’s Pine Deep.” He sighed. “Whoever coined that phrase ‘America’s Haunted Holidayland’ should be stood against a wall and shot.”

      She patted him on the cheek. “That was you, sweetie. Ten years ago when you were interviewed by Don Polec for Action News.”

      “Yeah, well,” he said, remembering, “it sounded good at the time.”

      “And now?”

      “Now it just sounds too much like truth in advertising.” Down the hall he saw Saul Weinstock and Gus Bernhardt coming out of the elevator. “Okay, Sarah, let me think about it, and when Val wakes up, I’ll run it by her. No promises, though, so if you have another backup plan you should start looking into it.”

      “There’s no other—” she started to say, then stopped, nodded, and said thanks.

      Crow watched her head down the hall, saw Weinstock give her a reassuring smile, and then she was gone. Crow saw that the smile lingered on Weinstock’s face and that made a frown form on his own.

      “Hey, Crow!” Weinstock said as they came to stop in front of him.

      “Any word on—” Crow began, but Gus cut him off.

      “No,” Weinstock said, “Gus thinks that it really was those jackasses from the college.”

      “Little Halloween is bigger than Mischief Night around here,” Gus observed. The Pine Deep police chief was a big, sloppy fat man with a perpetually sweaty face and boiled-red complexion. “This whole morgue break-in is turning out to be a Little Halloween stunt. We were dealing with crap like this all night. Trash can fires, webcams hidden in the girl’s bathroom at the dorms, the doors to the school bus arc-welded shut.”

      “But, Boyd…” Crow began.

      “We’ll find him eventually.” Gus shook his head. “These college jocks love their friggin’ jokes.”

      “Glad they think it’s funny. Personally I’d like to kick their asses. Better yet, wait until Val’s on her feet and then lock them in a room with her. That’d teach them.”

      “Speaking of which,” Gus said awkwardly, “tell her that I’m, you know, sorry for her loss and all. Mark was pretty okay. Connie, too.”

      “Sure, Gus, I’ll tell her. Your guys learn anything more from the crime scene? Like…how they got in?”

      “Yeah, well we’re working on that. Got a few things locked down, though, like the security camera. Someone poured a cup of coffee into the switching box that runs all the cameras on the basement level. That doesn’t require any kind of special access except getting into the electrical room, and since Ruger broke in a couple of weeks ago and shut all the power down, that door’s been left open more often than not because of all the work they’re doing to reinforce the locks and frame.”

      Crow smiled. “Let me get this straight…while working on improving security to a sensitive area of the hospital physical plant they left the door open…for convenience?”

      Weinstock’s face went red. “Yes,” he said slowly, “and when I say heads will roll, I mean actual heads will be on the floor.”

      “Christ on a stick.” Crow shook his head.

      “The hospital morgue is still a crime scene,” Gus said. “I posted a guard, and the doc here has authorized installation of a new video security system. There’s a guy coming up from Lower Makefield to install it today.”

      “Screw the budget committee,” Weinstock growled. “I’m tired of this place being a laughingstock.”

      “A little late for that. Well, see you guys. I’ll keep you posted.” Gus gave them a cheery wave and headed off.

      “Jackass,” Weinstock muttered under his breath. He and Crow headed down the hall to the solarium and bought Cokes from the machine. The room was empty, and Weinstock closed the door.

      “Before you even ask,” he began, “I examined Mark and Connie as completely as I could—ostensibly to check for damage as a result of the prank—and as far as I can tell they’re actually dead.”

      Crow looked skeptical. “You’re telling me you know how to check to see if someone’s a vampire?”

      Weinstock sipped his soda. “Not as such, no. It’s just that they are both in phases of the rigor process consistent with normal corpses who’ve been dead as long as each of them has been.”

      “Which tells us what?”

      “Hell if I know. It might surprise you to know that they don’t cover vampirism in medical school, not even in Pine Deep. But…I thought you’re the expert, you’re Mr. Halloween. You tell me how I’m supposed to tell.”

      “I’ve been thinking about that all night, but the folklore and the fiction just contradict each other. I don’t know what to believe.”

      “Give me something I can try, damn it.”

      “Well…vampires aren’t supposed to have reflections, so we could try a mirror.”

      “Good…that’s easy enough.”

      “After that, most of the rest of the stuff are things we can try if we’re face-to-face with one. I mean, crosses, garlic, holy water…that sort of stuff.”

      That didn’t sit well with Weinstock. “If it gets to the point where we are actually face-to-face with a vampire who is awake and smiling all toothy at us, I think I might want something a little more substantial than a piece of garlic. And, news flash, Einstein, I’m Jewish. We’re notoriously short on crosses and holy water.”

      “There’s that.” Crow thought about it. “There’s always, um, the whole ‘stake’ thing.”

      “I was waiting for you to get to that, and I would love to hear how you’re going to explain to Val that you want to drive a stake through her dead brother’s heart.”

      “She knows what’s going on.”

      “Go on, tell her you want to stake Mark. I’ll watch.”

      “Isn’t there something you can do during the autopsies to kind of ensure that they’re dead?”

      “Considering the fact that I autopsied both Cowan and Castle and determined with all medical certainty that they were dead, and then caught them on morgue video walking around, I’d say no.”

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