“Yeah, well, my source in town says the ME’s report’s been snatched up by NCIS and everyone’s been told to clamp their yaps and move along smartly, which tells me the rumor’s got some legs. I can just imagine how this is gonna play over in the admin building.”
“Man. The incident came up at morning staff, of course, but only in terms of a media-relations problem. No hint that it might be more serious than suicide.”
“As if suicide wasn’t serious enough.”
Got that right, Jim thought. According to the JAG this morning, the boy’s parents were already asking some pointed questions. “You got any traplines into NCIS?” he asked.
“Well, you know me, Cap,” Carlo said. “Nothing I could admit to.”
Which meant no, he didn’t. “I hear you, Chief,” Jim said. “I’m just curious-I have no role in this mess, for which I’m increasingly grateful.”
“Yeah,” Carlo said with a chuckle. “Don’t you just love that exclusive jurisdiction rule, though? Oh, and did you hear about the vampire?”
Jim saw a joke coming. “Haven’t heard that one, Chief.”
“No, no, not a joke. One of my buds downtown said they had a complaint of some guy getting the shit kicked out of him by Count Dracula.”
“Ri-i-ght.”
“Seriously. Somebody called nine-one-one, cops came, found two guys passed out, with their pants down in a-what’d they call it-a compromising position. Third guy, on the other hand, had to be scraped up off the concrete.”
“Sounds more like a general-purpose mugging.”
“Yeah, well, the injured kid claimed they were following a couple of those Goth girls out of a bar. You know, that all in black, abraca-fucking-dabra, white face, green hair scene? Anyway, kid says the girls were hot to trot, despite the weirdness.”
“They always are.”
“Yeah, right. So our poor vic and his two asshole buddies get misled, probably not for the first time in their miserable lives, an’ follow their dicks right into a- ta da -dark alley. Where, naturally, things turn to shit.”
“What a surprise. And this is when Count Dracula shows up?”
“Ten feet tall, cape, face to stop a clock. The vic in the hospital apparently becomes one helluva witness, comes to this face: dead-white skin, red lips, red eyes like coals, fangs, the whole salami. Had a serious hiss in him, too, apparently. The two nuclear physics majors with him heard the big hiss, but as they’re turning around, some thing knocks them flat on their asses. Fearless leader says he tried to defend himself, but the docs said he most likely fainted out of fright and then got his ass stomped. No defensive injuries, other than he pissed himself. I don’t know if that works on vampires or not.”
“A vampire in Crabtown. Hey, I gotta know: Did old Drac do his signature deed?”
“Nope, no bites. Count Dracula apparently has his standards. But he did indulge in a pretty vicious beating. Guy’s seriously fucked up. Get this: The cops told this guy, he needs to check the mirror the next time the moon is full. See where he’s growin’ hair.”
“I love it. Poor bastard’s gonna wonder for a whole month. Guess a working vampire has to be careful these days, all this HIV going around.”
Bustamente laughed. “There you go. Safe-sex vampires. Maybe that’s why he beat the shit out of the guy. Frustrated. No blood and gore.”
Jim laughed and hung up.
And then he had a thought: as the Naval Academy’s security officer, should he not be telling his superiors that the word was leaking on a possible homicide? He hesitated. Was this his military mind-set talking? What would a civilian bureaucrat do in this case? A savvy civilian would probably keep his mouth shut and his head down in anticipation of a galactic shit storm, that’s what. On the other hand, the supe and the dant were probably operating under the mistaken impression that they had some maneuvering room and time, which, if the rumors were already flying, they probably did not have. He pushed the paperwork aside and picked up the phone.
Cmdr. T. Prentice Walsh, the elegant executive assistant, answered. “Rear Admiral McDonald’s office, this is Commander Walsh speaking, sir?”
“Commander, this is Jim Hall. Have some intel for you.”
“Ready to write,” Walsh said. The EA was very switched in to getting inside information.
Jim told him what he’d heard. Walsh whistled softly. “Damn,” he said. “Very well. Thank you.” Then he hung up.
Hey. Have you heard? The word’s out on campus. Not our campus, silly, the campus of King William’s School, founded a few weeks back, in 1696. Now called St. John’s. Not sure why old St. John won out over His Majesty, but, whatever. It seems the Annapolis cops have been on the campus, asking questions about the Goths. The Johnnies, being Johnnies, God love ’em, are telling the Filth absolutely nothing, other than there are hundreds and hundreds of Goths, and is there one in particular you might be looking for, Officers? Pretty good for a school of about four hundred lost intellectuals.
Seems like one of the town boys had to be hospitalized after a run-in with-are you ready? A vampire! Yes! A vampire. Right here in River City. The cops apparently talked to one of my tasty little moths, started questioning her about her vampire associations. She’s a devotee of Anne Rice, so she comes back with a laundry list of famous vampires, starts in on a regular lecture. Lestat, et al. Annapolis’s finest finally figure out they’re being diddled and give it up for Lent. But now, of course, the girls want to lay low for a while. Problem is, I don’t have awhile. I’m out of here in a few weeks with the rest of my very upstanding, honorable, ethical, and supremely righteous classmates. And I’m enjoying this shit, you know? It’s great practice for my upcoming career in the Mameluke Brigade.
So here’s the hot flash: I’m going solo, just like I told you before. Only this time, I’m going to lure one of the locals back into the tunnels. My tunnels. Assuming he’ll be brave enough.
One little problem, though: It seems as if somebody on the Dark Side has been poking his cop nose into my tunnels. Messing with my art. At first, I thought it was Public Works, you know, the diggers and fillers who chase down steam leaks and electrical grounds. But now I’m not so sure. I found a new cryptogram. Got the impression that, whoever this Communist is, he’s trying to tell me something. Like, Stay the fuck out of here.
As if.
Say, what do you hear about the Dell thing? I hear they’re questioning midshipmen. Anyone you know? They still think he jumped, don’t they? They might be wrong about that.
At 12:45, just as Jim was getting ready to go over to the Natatorium for a swimming workout, his boss, Commander Michaels, stopped him in the hallway. There had been a hurry-up department head meeting, at which it had been announced that the Dell incident might have been a homicide. He instructed Jim to beef up security on the gates to keep media types from sneaking in and interviewing mids. Town liberty for all midshipmen had been canceled under the pretext of the security alert, and the Public Affairs office had been told to apply the “full armadillo” posture to any questions about this development. The Academy chaplain had been ordered to Norfolk to talk to Dell’s parents.
Jim went back to his cube and called the chief to pass on the new marching orders. Then, once again, he tried to get out of the building to get his exercise in. This time, he ran into the commandant, who was walking back over to his offices in Bancroft Hall. Captain Robbins indicated he wanted Jim to walk with him.
“That department head meeting was the result of your warning,” Robbins said. “Good headwork. Now, I have an assignment for you.” He paused for a moment as a gaggle of midshipmen walked by, saluting by the dozen. “You were CO of the MarDet here? Before you got out and took this security job?”
“Yes, sir.”
Robbins nodded slowly as they resumed walking. “Why’d you get out, if I may ask?”
Jim knew he had to be careful with what he said. He didn’t know whether or not the commandant knew about what had happened in the Balkans that brought him to the Academy in the first place. “I figured out that I didn’t want a career in the Corps,” he said. “I decided to take some time out, to work out what I really wanted to do with my life. This job came open at the end of my tour as CO of the marine detachment, so I took it.”