Ed stared at Annie for a five count. Then he put the phone away.
15
THE CONVERSATION
The deluge stopped by the time Sheriff Pete and two of her deputies arrived at the scene, which was to say that the rain didn’t last long at all given the station was only a few blocks away. It actually took them longer than Annie would have guessed, only because it never seemed like there was an actual emergency in this town so they had nowhere else to be.
The ambulance came a minute later, and then Annie was in the back of the ambulance with Beth while Ed tried to explain what they knew to Pete, and Pete’s men began to scour the area for a man who had been blinded by pepper spray and stabbed in the thigh by a pair of keys, and who might also have been a zombie.
“I had the late shift today, you saw,” Beth said. She was lying on a gurney while a paramedic Annie didn’t recognize wound a bandage around her head.
“I did. Last one out?”
“Last one out, check the lights and lock the doors, that’s the drill.”
“I know it.”
“I got out here, and it was about to rain so I was hurrying, and then this… guy comes up like from out of nowhere. He was, I think he was behind my car, like, waiting for me maybe.”
“He jumped you?”
“Not really. Not at first. He just like, stood there, and looked at me, and it was sort of murky out, right, so I couldn’t see his face, I was just like, ‘can I help you?’ And he took a step forward and said… what did he say? He asked me a question. I can’t remember what. By then I had my mace in my hand, and I didn’t know really what to do because he was between me and the car, but I was like, I don’t know what you want but… oh, I remember! ‘Are you?’ That was his question.”
“’Are you?’ That doesn’t make sense.”
“Right? But I was like, I do not know what you’re talking about, but back off. That was when he grabbed my wrist.”
Beth looked up and away from Annie, because she was welling up. Her shoulder was in already in a temporary sling, and as soon as her head was taken care of and she was strapped in, they’d be moving her to the clinic up the street to see if she needed to continue on to one of the hospitals for an overnight. Annie was about to perform the unenviable task of calling Beth’s parents to let them know where to find their daughter.
“He grabbed your wrist, and then what?” Annie asked.
“He asked me the same question, only, I don’t know, more aggressively. Then I sprayed him with the mace and it didn’t do anything. He just, like, blinked, and tilted his head like, like a curious bird, you know? It was… anyway that was when I recognized him.”
“Beth.”
“I know what you’re thinking. It was dark, the rain was about to start, I was scared, but I waited on Mr. Blake for four years. Over easy, crispy bacon, side of hash, wheat toast, strawberry jam. I know my regulars.”
“But…” Annie shot a glance at the paramedic. She was clearly listening, even if she was pretending not to. Annie leaned forward and whispered. “But he’s dead.”
“I don’t care. That’s who it was.”
The paramedic coughed. It wasn’t a real cough; it was one of those I am interrupting politely coughs.
“I’m sorry,” she said. The woman was in her forties, and if Annie didn’t know her that likely meant she was a stringer with the ambulance company and from one of the nearby towns. “I’m just about done here, but… I wanted to say, regarding what you two are discussing? It would not be he first story I’ve heard like this, not lately.”
“Mr. Blake attacking other people?” Beth asked.
“No, honey. People being attacked by people who aren’t exactly people any more.”
Oh, I do not have time for zombies in my life right now, Annie thought.
“All right, so maybe we have a zombie George Blake running around. He grabs you, barks an incomplete sentence, and then what?”
“I screamed a lot. You probably heard me.”
“Yeah, that’s what got us running. Then what?”
“I balled up the keys in my fist, remember how they taught us that trick in gym?”
Annie remembered. It was a basic self-defense mini-course that was mandatory for the girls in the school. They all called it anti-rape class because that was what it was. Annoyingly, while the girls were in that course, nobody was teaching a boys’ course called don’t be a rapist.
The trick was to put your keys in a closed fist so the sharp parts stick out between the knuckles. Then you punch an attacker’s fleshy part.
“You stabbed him?”
“Yeah, like I told them…” them being the sheriff, “…I got him in the thigh. But that didn’t get him to let go either. I don’t think he felt it any more than the mace.”
“But then why’d he run off?”
“Honest, I think the screaming bugged him more than anything. I wouldn’t say he let me go, though. He threw me against the car. I went down pretty hard. I’m gonna have a hell of a bump, I bet.”
“You are indeed,” the paramedic said. “But good for you for fighting him off.”
Ed walked up. It looked like someone dropped him in the Connecticut River a few times. He was soaked through, and pulling his wet clothes tight to ward off the breeze, which had a tendency to cut through anything damp. Annie was just as wet, but wrapped in a blanket from the ambulance.
“How are you doing, Beth?” he asked.
“Super, Mr. reporter.” She gave him a thumbs-up.
“It’s Ed.”
“Thanks for coming to my rescue, Ed.”
“Sure.” He looked at Annie. “You want to go with her, or come back with me? Sheriff has some questions for us, but we can do that any time.”
“Do we get to ride in one of the cruisers, or will we have to walk to the station?”
“We can ride.”
“Cool, let’s do it.”
THE NEXT HOUR was notable for the fact that all of the adults Annie spoke to appeared have lost their minds.
First she sat down with Pete to talk about what she and Ed heard, saw and did, up to and following the attack. That went pretty well. Then Annie offered up what Beth told her, in as much detail as she could recall, omitting the identity of the attacker but nothing else. She even included the part about the mace not having an impact and the equal lack of response to the key stabbing. None of this caused so much as a skeptical grunt.
“Did she recognize her attacker?” Pete asked, looking up from her notes. She took notes longhand and didn’t appear to have an interest in recording equipment. The sheriff’s office was a small affair though, with only two holding cells and nothing in the way of an interrogation room. They were talking in Pete’s office.
“I don’t know,” Annie lied. Pete seemed to know it, too.
“I spoke to your… boss? Is that how this is?”
“You mean Ed? Coworker, how about?”
“Sure. He said she gave a name.”
“She did. But she was mistaken.”
“Annie, babe, give me the name and let me decide that.”
She sighed. “Won’t it, like, invalidate her testimony somehow? Like, when you catch the guy, if she named someone else…”
“The name, Annie.”
“George Blake.”
Pete nodded and slowly wrote George’s name down on her pad of paper.
“And which direction did you say he ran?”
“I’m… sorry, what?”
Ed had his zombie theory, and it was a crazy theory. Sure, it appeared to be coming true right in front of Annie, but that didn’t mean it was in any way a respectable theory.
“Direction?” Pete repeated.
“North. But, George Blake.”