Code 61

TEN

Saturday, October 7, 2000

21:19

We had to get him, and we'd be one hell of a lot better off if we got him soon. I headed out the door and just hollered “Stay here” to Sally as I passed. I didn't want any more people splitting on us. By the time I got out the door, there was nothing to see but the blackness surrounding the small area lit by the light from the Mansion's windows. Black ground, black grass, black trees, and a black sky speckled with stars. I thought I heard some movement off to my left, but since I didn't have a flashlight with me, I'd never know what it was. Then silence. Shit.

I could hear Hester's voice, Sally's voice, and then the screen door opened behind me, and Hester said, “Where'd he go?”

I didn't even look back. “I don't know. See if one of the reserves can get some flashlights out of their car.” I was trying to get my eyes adjusted to the dark as soon as I could. It wouldn't help much, but at least I would be able to see if I was going to collide with something within a couple of feet. I couldn't imagine Toby making very good time, wherever he was headed. Not without breaking his neck.

Sally came around the side of the house a few minutes later, with her flashlight on, and said, “Here's a light for you, too.”

So much for my night vision.

It was so damned dark up there in the woods, we brought two squad cars around the side of the house, on the lawn, and tried to light the area with spotlights and headlights. Not much help, but we extended our sight line to the surrounding woods. No sign of Toby. Since Sally and I had the only flashlights, we began to move toward the nearest trees.

“I think I might have heard a noise over that way,” I said, shining my flashlight to my left.

“Okay.”

Hester and Reserve Officer Knockle, who was nearly seventy, and had been on the reserve since 1966, stayed at the residence. We'd called for assistance, but it would be a good twenty minutes before one of the regular deputies on the night shift could get up to us.

“We're never gonna find him, Houseman,” said Sally. “Not in a million years.”

“Probably,” I said. “So we better spread out.”

“No way,” said Sally. “I'll come along, but I draw the line at wandering around out here by myself.”

I raised my voice. “Toby! Come on, now, Toby!”

“Like that'll help,” came a soft mutter from my partner.

“Hey, Houseman!” I heard the screen door slam, and Hester hurried over to us. “Better be careful. Knockle says there are lots of foundations scattered through this area.”

“Really?”

“Says they're from the old German commune? I don't know… ”

“Oh, hell,” I said. “That's right.” I pointed my flashlight beam to my left again. “About a quarter of a mile, I'll bet. It was the start of a small town, called Kommune, in the 1820s or so, up here on the hill above the river. Sure… failed by 1860 or '70, I think. Abandoned.”

Sally'd heard of Kommune, as well. “My grandpa used to tell us about that.” She looked over to our left. “Shit, I thought that was miles from here.”

“There's probably a path along the bluff or the hill, to the river, then,” said Hester. “They would have had an access of some sort, and it sure wasn't the current road.”

Well, that made sense. “If there is, we'll try to find it. We were going to start over that way, anyway,” I said. “I thought I might have heard him over there when I first got out the door. See if you can contact whatever car's responding, and have them take the road as close to the base of the cliff as they can. Shine lights up toward the top, and see if they can find a path. Might be enough to keep him up here.”

“Got it,” she said. “You sure you'll be all right in a few hundred feet of uncharted wilderness?” I knew she was grinning.

“I'll be just fine,” said Sally. “Carl's going first.”

“Watch him,” said Hester. “He's a little out of shape. Wouldn't want you to have to carry him back.”

“I'll just call for a wrecker,” said Sally.

We traversed the lawn in seconds, now that the headlights let us see where we were going. The wooded area was going to be a different matter altogether. It didn't look like the headlights penetrated the trees beyond a few feet.

There was something of a path. It was dusty, and big bunches of dry leaves and twigs were clumped along it.

“Might as well assume he took the path,” I said, and headed forward.

I stepped on some twigs just about as soon as I got to the path, causing a brittle snapping sound, and eliciting a pithy “Shhhh,” from Sally. “Don't step on every twig you can.”

I assured her I wouldn't. We called out Toby's name three or four times, but got no response. We were on a gentle downslope that was taking us out of the splinters of light thrown by the cars. The house, I noticed as I looked back through the trees, had all but disappeared from view.

I told Sally to turn off her light. There was no reason to deplete both sets of batteries. After a few more yards, I told her that I was going to turn mine off, too, and to stand very still.

“If Toby's near here,” I whispered, “if we're quiet, I'll bet he spooks first.”

“Don't be too sure,” came the whispered reply.

We stood on the path for about a minute, in darkness and dead silence. I was about to turn on my light and start moving again, when we heard a rustling off the path, to our left. I heard Sally's intake of breath, but she didn't make another sound.

We stood stock-still. We waited at least another minute. Damn. It was still way too soon for my eyes to adapt. That would take another twenty minutes. Come on, Toby. Jump.

Suddenly, I heard a twig crack and snap. To my left, but kind of behind me. My first thought was that it was Sally, trying to get past me for some reason.

“Did you hear that?” Her whispered question came from directly behind me, right where she should have been.

When you're in the dark, and your partner asks a question, you really have to give some sign that you've heard, or they just keep asking.

“Yeah,” I whispered back, not turning. I reached down, and unsnapped my service weapon, leaving my right hand on the butt.

“It's just me,” she said, as I felt a hand on my back. There's always a need for reassurance, and to tell the truth, I was glad she'd reached out her hand. Reassurance goes both ways. “A deer?”

Possibly. I said as much. Then I said, “Shhh.”

We waited a few more seconds, and there was another sound, a little farther ahead and still left of the trail.

I decided it was time to turn on the lights.

I snapped my flashlight on, and could see nothing but trees.

“Shit,” said Sally, caught by surprise. Her light came on immediately.

We did both sides of the path. Nothing.

“What the hell is it?”

“Not sure,” I said, pointing the beam of my light down. I couldn't tell which, if any, of the twigs I was looking at had been the one that had cracked. Roots, some limestone showing through the surface of the path, and the twigs pretty much ruled out a footprint.

“Let's go toward it, anyway,” I said, starting forward along the path.

All of a sudden, there was a loud rustling in the dried leaves off to the right, of somebody or something moving fast. Then a yell and a thump.

Silence. Both our flashlights shined toward the sound. “Toby?” I hollered. “That you, Toby?”

“Help! Help! I broke my fuckin' leg!”

Sally and I both went crashing through the small branches and leaves, toward the sound of Toby's voice. We had to glide our feet, making whooshing sounds in the leaves that blocked out everything else. We stopped again, and he was so loud and clear, we had to be within yards. But we couldn't see him.

“Toby, where are you?”

“Down here! My leg's all broken!”

Sure enough, about ten yards out, off a bit to the left, if you looked really close between two trees, you could see sort of a lumpy area when the flashlight beams moved over that way.

We reached him in just a few seconds. He was lying on his side, in a limestone foundation, on a bed of about a half billion leaves and twigs. He was holding his right leg, bent at the knee, with both hands. Both Sally and I clambered in with him.

“Which leg?” asked Sally. It's training: You're taught not to assume anything if possible, but sometimes it just sounds dumb. I'm sure she thought so, too.

“This one. Aw shit!” He indicated his right leg. It looked fine to me.

“Let me see,” said Sally. She had just finished her EMT training, and sounded suspiciously happy. She began to feel his leg.

“Ouch!”

“Hurt?” Sally has a way.

“Oh, shit, yeah, it hurts! Jesus Christ, lady!”

“Toby,” I said, as much to distract him as anything else. “What the hell'd you run for?”

“ 'Cause you're gonna find out, that's why!” He was pretty near tears.

“Find out what?”

“Just find out,” he said. “Ouch!”

“Your leg looks just fine to me,” said Sally. “It's not broken.”

“Fuck of a lot you know!”

“You might have a sprained knee,” she said. “Don't be such a baby.”

“Toby!” I barked out. His head jerked around to face me. “Toby,” I said, very slowly, “tell me what we're going to find out.” I lowered my voice deliberately, to give it the contrast that would make him listen. “I mean it, Toby.”

“He did it,” said Toby. “He killed her. He finally fuckin' killed her.”

“Who killed her? Kevin?” He hadn't been at the top of my list of suspects.

“No.” He was very quiet. “Oh, fuck, you'll find out anyway. And he'll know all about it… ”

“Who?”

I waited. Finally, he said, “Daniel. It was Daniel. He did it. And now he'll get us, too.”

“No, he won't,” I said, just about automatically. Always reassure the victim.

“Don't fuckin' count on it,” said Toby, his voice shaking from both pain and fear. “He ain't just anybody, you know… ”

“Well,” I said, “I'm not, either.” I smiled reassuringly.

He reached up, almost as if he was going to try to grab my collar. I was at least a foot too far away.

“You're a nice guy,” he said, “but you just don't know who you're dealing with.”

“Try me.”

“Daniel's… Daniel's… ”

“Come on,” I said encouragingly, and trying not to sound exasperated.

“He's a vampire.” He looked about as startled as I suspect Sally and I did. “Oh, fuck, I can't believe I said that.”

“Vampire? Who's Daniel? What do you mean, he's a vampire?”

“Daniel Peel,” he said. “And I call him a vampire because he fuckin' is one. A real fuckin' vampire, man, who drinks blood, and never ever dies.” He moaned. “Fuck, Toby's dead. Toby's dead and fuckin' gone now. Just plonk, plonk, plonk.” He started to shake.

“Oh, come on, Toby, cut the bullshit. Who in the hell ever heard of a vampire called Dan?” I snorted.

Toby said, in a startlingly cold voice, “I have. And you will, too. Don't you fuckin' laugh, he's probably coming for me right now.”

The memory of whatever had made those sounds a few moments ago, on the opposite side of the trail from Toby, suddenly gave me a spooky feeling in the middle of my back.

I heard Sally rustle around, and then heard her working the slide on her department-issue. 40-caliber Smith amp; Wesson. Snick, clack. Bothered her, too, I guess.

“You sure he's out here?”

He paused, then said, “No.”

“Do you know where this Daniel is right now?”

“No.”

“Where is he usually?” He was clamming up on me.

“Could be anywhere,” he muttered. “Anywhere.”

Well, vampire or not, whoever this Daniel Peel was, Toby was certainly convinced that he'd killed Edie. We had our first suspect. We also had our first murder witness.

“Can you get to your feet?” I asked.

“What for?”

“For we don't have to carry your ass all the way back,” I said, in a friendly way. “Try to put some weight on that knee.”

I reached my hand down, and helped him up. He stood on his good leg.

“Go ahead, put the other one down, Toby.”

He gave me a dirty look, but did. Gingerly. Then with more weight. “Ow.” Sort of an obligatory complaint. Now that it appeared it really wasn't broken, I think he was beginning to realize that he'd scared himself into calling for help when he really hadn't needed it. Excellent. He was in good enough shape to go to the office, and be thoroughly interviewed. Very thoroughly.

“Sally, you go up first.” I leaned toward her, and whispered, “Safe and holster your weapon.” She did, with a snap as she lowered the hammer drop. But she did it reluctantly. If you're spooked, though, the place for your gun isn't in your hand. “When you get to the top, tell everybody that we've got him and he's okay.” She had a walkie-talkie, but with the combination of limestone foundation and beaucoup trees, there was little chance of her contacting anybody from where we were.

Toby said, “Be careful, lady.”

Sally climbed up a pile of soft dirt that had washed out of one of the limestone block walls, stuck one foot into a large horizontal crack, and simply stepped out of the foundation and back onto firm ground. I could see her removing her walkie-talkie from her utility belt, and heard her calling “81.” That was the number assigned to Knockle.

“Hokay, Toby. Look, we'll have Sally grab your hand, and I'll give you an assist from down here. See how she got to the top using that dirt pile?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Sure.” His head was moving around like he was going to see something. Fat chance of that in the dark.

“Just don't step in her tracks, or you'll sink down too far.” I shined my flashlight on Sally's path out of the foundation, just to let him know exactly what I meant. I looked up, and Sally indicated she was ready. She held out a hand, and helped Toby up as I pushed.

I went up the same way that Sally had, but sank appreciably farther into the dirt. I had to put my flashlight down, and use both hands to get to the top of the wall, and as I pushed myself upright, one of the blocks I was kneeling on came loose and went thudding back into the foundation.

“You okay?” asked Sally.

“Yeah, just fine.”

“You sure make a racket,” she said.

I assumed the lead, with Toby close behind me, and Sally bringing up the rear. “Just where can I find this Dan the vampire?” I asked.

“I don't know. Hell, anywhere. He could be down in the woods back there,” said Toby, his voice tense. “I don't know.”

Almost as if by magic, Sally was in the lead.

“What's he do?” I asked. “Drink blood?”

“Sometimes.” He sounded out of breath.

“You want to stop for a few seconds?” Even though Sally had said he was all right, I didn't want him fainting from the pain of a possible sprained knee or ankle. It was still too far to carry him.

“No!” he whispered, but with considerable emphasis.

As we got closer to the house, and the trees thinned, the headlights of the cars we'd positioned to help began to interfere with our vision.

“Tell Eighty-one to turn off the car lights, just parking lights will do,” I said. Sally complied.

They went out about five seconds later. Much better. I realized that Toby hadn't really complained about any pain since we got out of the foundation. “You okay, Toby?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Just fine. Dead man walkin', that's me.” I thought the sarcasm was appropriate this time.

It was a strange situation, really. I was in possession of a name, purportedly that of a suspect. That was good. The fact that I didn't have the foggiest idea who this Daniel Peel was didn't bother me much, seeing as it was fairly easy to find people in the information age. I was about to set Toby down and have a nice, heart-to-heart chat. Whether or not this Peel was actually a suspect didn't really bother me. Just the additional name would enable us to open more avenues of inquiry, as it were. Sure didn't hurt to have Peel's name, though. Not a bit. The problem, in a nutshell, was Toby's announcement that Peel was a vampire. I mean, it's always better to have your only witness not be delusional. Sanity really does enhance credibility, no matter what they say.

We kept Toby outside in the back of a squad, with Sally standing right by his door, while Hester and I talked.

“Vampire? You're kidding. Carl? You are, aren't you?”

“No. 'Fraid not. That's what he says, anyway.”

“Named Daniel?”

I found myself getting a little defensive. “Well, nobody's really called 'Count' much anymore.”

“And,” Hester asked, struggling, “is there, maybe, a werewolf named Bob?” She lost the battle, and kind of giggled. “Jesus, Houseman. Where do you ffnd these people?”

“Okay, okay.” I sighed. “But, we do have Toby saying that this Daniel Peel dude killed Edie. And he did run out of the house… ”

“He probably couldn't keep a straight face anymore,” she said. Then a deep breath. “Okay, right. Look, it's just late, and we've all had a long day, and it looks like it's just getting a good start, so, what do we need?”

It was good to get back to business. “We need an interview with Toby, a good one, and real soon. First of all”-I thought for a second-“I don't think we want Toby back in the house with the rest of them, especially not with the vampire business. If we do have something to that, I don't want them to know that we know.”

“Can we keep him isolated?” Hester asked the question even as she came up with the answer. “Of course we can. He's a runner.”

“You got it. A material witness, who's demonstrated his desire to flee.”

According to the Iowa Code, any officer may arrest any person as a material witness, provided that the person is a material witness to a felony, and if the person might be unavailable for subpoena. Toby claimed knowledge of a felony, all right. He'd already run once.

And we were, via the bridge across the Mississippi at Freiberg, less than five miles from Wisconsin. We can't subpoena from another state, and we sure can't subpoena somebody we can't ffnd, even if they stay in Iowa.

I went to the squad car.

“Hey, Toby?”

“What?”

“You know that I'm a deputy sheriff, don't you?”

“Now what?” He had a right to be suspicious, and he certainly appeared to be.

“Well, Toby, since you've run once, and since you're a material witness in a felony case, I'm placing you under arrest as a material witness.”

“You can't do that!” They always say that. Hell, even their attorneys say that.

“It's done, Toby,” I said. “Don't be too bothered about it. I told you about that earlier today, didn't I? We'll take good care of you.” I gestured to Sally. “Go ahead and take him in. Stop and have him checked at the Maitland Hospital before you book him. Just in case of some lawsuit over his leg.” I moved a bit closer to him. “Okay, now, you've got the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court or courts of law. You have the right to an attorney, and to have him present during questioning.” I smiled. “Got that?”

“I don't believe this,” said Toby. “I just don't believe this.”

“But, do you understand what I've just said? You gotta understand it, Toby.”

“Yeah, yeah, I understand all that shit. But it just isn't gonna help, is all.”

“Don't worry,” I said. “It should be a lot easier than running through the woods in the dark.”

“Yeah. Right.”

“Hey, Toby, just consider it revenge for scaring the hell out of me.” I smiled.

“What?”

“When you ran right by us in the woods. Just before you fell in the foundation.”

He shook his head. “I never ran by you. I was lying down until I got up when you turned your lights on. When I ran into the hole.” He gave kind of a satisfied smile. “Like I said, dude. Like I said.”

Sally and I exchanged what I would call meaningful looks and then she glanced back toward the woods. “I think we'll be leaving now,” she said quickly. She turned to Toby, in the backseat behind the thick Plexiglas screen. “Now you behave, Toby, and just be quiet back there, and put on your seat belt.” She got into the squad, and left the door open while she buckled herself in.

“Don't pick up any hitchhikers,” I said. That earned me a look from Sally. “Don't forget, cite under Code Chapter 804.11. Make certain you include that.”

“Okay, boss.”

“And no questions to him until one of us gets down there.”

I went back to Hester. “We can talk to him when we get back to Maitland. Ought to be good enough.”

“You know what bothers me?”

“Tonight? Hard to tell,” I said. “What?”

“The man who joined us at the restaurant. That Chester dude.”

“Yeah.”

“So, somebody shows up who hunts vampires, then we have a suspect say that our victim is killed by a vampire. What're the odds?”

“Tonight? Pretty good.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I'm afraid we better talk to this Chester guy again. Not right away. Damn. Not tonight, anyway.” She brushed a wayward strand of hair from her forehead. “But this stinks. It almost feels like some sort of setup.”

“Maybe… ”

“Do you want your office, then, to get hold of this vampire hunter and set up an appointment?”

“Oh, Harry will keep us in touch,” I said, half kidding. “Right now, the two of us are the only people who know all the connections. I'd like to keep it that way.”

“There's a third one, Carl.” She was beginning to smile, broadly.

“Who?”

“Dangerous Dan the Vampire Man,” she said, and snickered. “Honest to God, I'm never coming to Nation County again.”

“We're entertaining, you gotta admit,” I said.

“Right. So, anyway, regardless, then we need a search warrant application for the house and related property, real quick.” She looked tired. “And then we need to do the damned search, and in a house this big, that could take a day or more.” She regarded the Mansion, looming in the dark. “Easily. Can your department stand the cost of putting the residents up for the night?”

Well, we sure as hell couldn't leave them in the house.

“Let me call Lamar,” I said, “but I think we should talk to the group inside, first.”

“Sure.”

We explained to Hanna, Huck, Kevin, and Melissa that we were going to make out an application for a search warrant, and submit it to a judge.

“Then what?” asked Huck.

“Then,” I explained, “the judge either issues the warrant or he doesn't. If he does, we begin the search.”

“If he doesn't?”

“Then,” I said, “we go home to bed.”

“What about us?” asked Melissa.

“Well, that's the tough part,” I said. “We can't let you just go about your business, because we have the right to secure the premises while we make application to search it.”

“You mean we can't go to our rooms?” This from Hanna.

“Not without an escort,” I said.

“I don't think you can do that,” said Kevin. “I don't think that's legal.”

I sighed. “Okay, let me explain it this way. If I tell you it's legal, and it isn't, then I can't use anything in court that I find here at the house. See?”

He just looked at me.

“Neither can I use anything that I'm led to by any evidence in the house that I've discovered under the search warrant.” He was still quiet. I sure had their attention, though. “Judges call that the fruits of a poisoned tree. Means it's all tainted and unusable. Okay so far?”

“Yes.”

“Good. So, then, you understand that when I say we sure as hell can do that, that only an idiot would tell you that if it wasn't true, because then it would totally screw up his investigation. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“So you don't have to worry, even if I am an idiot.” I grinned. “And what are the odds?”

He didn't return the grin, but Melissa and Huck did.

“The bad news,” Hester said, “is that, if we do get the warrant, you all won't be able to remain here tonight, and can't be let back in until we're done.”

That didn't go over well.

Once we got that all straightened out, and the group had started to settle down, I dropped the bomb.

“Oh, yeah. Before we do anything else, any of you know the whereabouts of a Dan or Daniel Peel?”

You could almost hear their mouths clamp shut. They tried as hard as they could to communicate with one another without speaking, and I think they were remarkably successful. Even I could read the looks that selected Holly Finn, or Huck, as their spokesperson. Not bad at all.

“Certainly,” she said. Her mind was racing, I could tell by the clipped tones and her eyes darting upward, left, then right, then back to me. All in a split second, she appeared to have considered what she wanted me to know, what Toby might have said, Toby's precipitate flight, and the death of Edie. I know by what she said next.

“Dan comes here once in a while, just like other people do. I don't know where he lives, and I'm not even sure what he does for a living.” She glanced around, having given her instructions to the crew. She continued, “He's okay, he seems to be harmless.” She looked me straight in the eye. “I assume Toby told you he thinks he's a vampire?” She grinned, and it looked genuine.

“Peel thinks he's a vampire, or Toby thinks Peel's a vampire?” I wasn't quite clear.

“Oh,” she said, “Toby thinks he's one, all right.”

“Why's that?”

“In case you hadn't noticed,” she said, with mock confidentiality, “Toby is a little bit dorky.”

“So, you're saying that Dan Peel doesn't think he's a vampire?”

“He might,” she said. “It's hard to tell what somebody thinks.”

“Sometimes it's easier than you think.” I stared at her for a second. “You know where this Dan Peel is now?”

“I wouldn't even guess,” she said.

Huck had just established herself as leader, and written Toby off as an idiot. And, incidentally, dodged the Dan Peel question for the moment. I filed it away, and got on with the search warrant application.

I called Lamar, and he came through with the authorization for housing the displaced residents of the Mansion. Hester and I went directly to our office in Maitland. I did the search warrant application, while Hester interviewed Toby, and various reserve and off-duty officers were called out to get ready to transport the house residents to the two motels that would take the county's payment vouchers. Two of them would stay at the house, to secure it from any interference. They went north, waiting for word from us.

Hester and I went to the judge, search warrant application in hand, arriving at 01:44 on the eighth. Judge Winterman was the chief judge of the district, and was an exceptionally thorough man, with very high standards. If you got a search warrant from Winterman, you'd done a good application. Hester and I'd been absolutely accurate, naturally, and even Judge Winterman had to smile when he got to the “vampire” part. Didn't say anything, though. Didn't even guffaw. Bless him.

He did say, “Good luck to you.”

As soon as we got back in the car, we radioed the others, and set things in motion. We headed back, as well.

At 02:28, Hester and I took the lab crew into the sitting room of the now deserted house. The plan was this: They were to complete photography, and then reseal Edie's bedroom and closet for tonight, then go to a motel and get some well-deserved sleep. This would establish the true beginning of the search, for the record. Two sheriff's deputies would guard the premises, and at the same time search the music room and the main dining room, photographing thoroughly everything of interest, and recording anything of evidentiary value they discovered. Which meant nothing, we hoped, and why we'd picked two areas where we least expected to discover anything interesting.

The search warrant generally permitted us to search for “materials relevant to a criminal investigation,” but the more specific section delineated “blood, in any form, or any substance appearing to be blood, on any implement, interior or exterior surface of the house, upon any object or item within the house, or in any device that may have been used to transport blood away from the residence; or any device or instrument that may have been used to remove, or eradicate, or conceal any blood or bloodstains, whether within the principal structure or at any point in the contiguous yard,” as well as “any knife, or other cutting instrument that may have been used to inflict the wound to the person of the deceased.” Not too likely they'd find that in the music room or dining room.

We also had the office make every effort to contact Jessica Hunley, the owner of the house, and try to have her present as soon as we could. We didn't want to break the locks on the doors to the third floor if we didn't have to, for one thing.

Hester and I had a fast conference in my office, way in the back of the building. Privacy was pretty well assured. Toby had told Hester that this Dan Peel subject had visited Edie several times in the past, and that they'd sometimes gone up to the “private” third floor. Private, because it was the area of the house especially reserved for Jessica Hunley when she was visiting. Toby thought Edie had been in possession of a key to one of the two doors to Jessica Hunley's private apartment.

“No shit?” I said. I was very glad we hadn't let Toby back into the house.

Hester had also asked Toby if he knew if Edie and this Peel had been upstairs on the third floor the night before. He said he didn't know, that the Mansion was really a quiet place, and it was hard to tell where anybody was at any given time, unless you saw them.

Hester and I had both noticed how quiet it was in the Mansion, and I suspected it was the fact that many of the older homes in our area had insulated interior walls, as well as exterior ones. Especially places built before 1900. Frequently sawdust-filled, the walls were usually left intact unless there was extensive remodeling. So, Toby was probably telling the truth.

Well, at least about the quiet.

When asked if he had a key for the third floor, Toby had said “no.” When asked if he'd ever been to the third floor, he'd replied, emphatically, “No way.” Hester had asked him what he thought Edie and this Peel did up there. “Really private stuff,” he'd answered, but said he couldn't elaborate. She'd pressed, and all she'd been able to elicit was “Well, you know, intimate stuff, sex stuff and things.” Hester asked if Edie and Peel had done that sort of thing elsewhere in the house, and Toby had said that they hadn't.

That made sense, at least to me. Edie was, or had been, the building super, more or less. There was every reason to believe she'd had access to the third floor. That would mean she had her own key. With the prohibition on visiting the third floor, it would guarantee privacy for her and her lover. We had to get to the third floor, where I fully expected we'd find the murder scene. But we had to do it methodically, so unlocking it could wait until the full lab crew was ready some time tomorrow.

What Toby failed to do, or refused to do, was give Hester anything on the subject of vampires. Hester said she asked him, and he just wouldn't say anything. He just looked away and wouldn't say anything about it.

“Why?” I wondered aloud. “I mean, the little shit brought it up in the first place… ”

“The fact he seems to wish he hadn't brought that up makes me think he gave something up he shouldn't have. And that's big,” she grinned, “because Toby tends to run on just about everything.”

“You don't actually think… ” I said.

“Oh, hell no, Houseman. Not for a second. But I think we might have some blood games in the bedroom going on. That's my take, for what it's worth. So don't be surprised if we find something like that, that's all.”

“Close enough to a vampire for my tastes,” I said. “Don't they read about blood-borne pathogens?”

Hester grinned. “When you smoked, Houseman, did you read any of the literature about lung cancer and heart disease?”

“None of your business,” I said. I smiled. “Yeah. I didn't read much of it, anyway.”

“Can't run, can't hide, Houseman.”

We got to the nitty-gritty. “Speaking of running,” I asked her, “why do you think he was really running out in the woods tonight?”

Hester smiled. “ 'Sa matter, you don't believe that he was running to warn a vampire that there were cops on his trail?”

“Nope. I don't, you don't, and he doesn't.”

“I can't tell, yet,” said Hester slowly. “He wasn't just running to get away. To avoid the entire event, I mean.”

“Yeah. You're right.” I looked at her. “Distraction? Are these people that good?”

She tilted her chair back on its rear legs and stared at the ceiling. “What would you say Toby's main character trait was?”

I thought for a second. “Know-it-all?”

She chuckled. “No, deeper than that, though you're right, that's a big chunk of it. I'd say 'eager to please' summed him up. Wouldn't you?”

“Well, sure,” I said. “Now that you mention it. The know-it-all comes from him just sort of falling all over himself to let you know he'd like another dog biscuit.”

“Exactly,” said Hester. “Exactly. So, he was running to please somebody. To do what somebody wanted him to do… or what he thought they'd want him to do.” Her chair came back level, and she pursed her lips. “Who would benefit from his running like that? Huck? I don't think so. We gotta find out who, Houseman. 'Who' would make the 'why' a lot easier.”

“Easy in theory,” I said. “It's in the finding out that we get to the hard part, here.”

“I'll keep at him,” she smiled. “I'll find out.”

There was no doubt in my mind.

“I hate to get all legal,” I said, “but can you think of any reason not to let Toby take off? I mean, he's talked, and there's no pending action.”

“No, not really. I think he'll stick now, and he's probably over being so scared. Especially when he can stay away from that house tonight.”

We called Magistrate Benson, who sleepily agreed to release Toby on his own recognizance. The night shift could let him out, and give him a ride to Freiberg. I walked back to the cells, and told Toby. He did seem pleased.

Before I left, Sally was given the assignment of coming up with everything possible concerning both Peel and Hunley. She was scheduled to start her dispatch shift at 04:00. She'd assured us that the vampire-induced adrenaline rush was guaranteed to keep her alert through the rest of the night.

I got home at 03:36. Sue had left a note telling me that there was some chow mein in the refrigerator. I put it in the microwave, and discovered while eating it that I should have left it in at least a minute longer. The edges were cold, the center a bit cooler. Too tired to wait any longer, I ate it anyway, with a slice of bread.