Page 33 of Whispers at Dusk
There was a door in the kitchen and she opened it, finding stairs to the basement as she had expected. She flicked on a light. The basement was filled with shelves and storage, and also a pool table and a few comfortable chairs. She imagined that this house was popular among travelers and was usually on a rental site. She guessed someone in power had really wanted help from the Krewe, because they had gone out of their way to see that she and Mason were accommodated.
She turned off the light and headed back to the entry and checked the windows for locks as she went. All seemed in order.
“The back is an office,” he told her.
“Well, that’s nice. And hey, if we run out of work, there’s a pool table in the basement. Doors secured and windows locked as well. I think we’d have to hear it if someone tried to break in on us.”
“Right. But curious, no alarm system.”
“It’s Lillehammer, Norway,” she reminded him. “And their crime is much lower than ours—other than the stray vampire here and there.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Well, hmm. Let’s see the rest. After you.”
Della nodded and headed up the stairs. She looked in the left bedroom. It had a four-poster bed, two dressers, and a stand with a television. There was luggage at the foot of the bed.
Not hers.
“This is you,” she told Mason.
“Yeah, your stuff is in here.”
They brushed by one another, changing places.
“Ah, good night!” Della said awkwardly.
“Good night. I’ll have the alarm set for seven, and that will get us out of here by seven thirty, if that works for you.”
“Like a charm,” she assured him, smiling, stepping into her room and closing the door.
She heard his door close as she looked around the room. It was small, but she thought that at some time in the last years, the owners had installed bathrooms in both the bedrooms, necessarily having to take space from what was there. But the room also had a four-poster bed, dressers, and a television with a cable box. All the comforts of home.
She brought her toiletries into the bathroom and arranged them, thinking she’d shower in the morning.
But then the length of the day seemed to wear at her, and she opted to shower then. She’d move faster in the morning.
And it was good. The water, sweetly hot, poured over her, cleansing away travel, her crawl through the woods, and her nearness to death.
But just as she turned off the water, she heard the slamming of a door below. The front door.
Stepping out, she snatched a towel, wrapped it quickly around her and grabbed her Glock—thankfully set behind the commode. She never went anywhere on assignment without it near her.
She ran out of the bathroom and then her bedroom, checked Mason’s room and saw he wasn’t there, and went racing downstairs, Glock ready and barely aware she was wearing nothing but a towel.
They’d left a night-light on, but once she left her room, the house was filled with shadows. She held her Glock at the ready and approached the front door—which stood ajar. She carefully approached in a manner to use the open door as protection.
The door pushed inward.
Della lowered her weapon. It was Mason. He was breathing hard, as if he’d just had the run of the century.
“Whoever the hell it was, he got away!” Mason said angrily. “I was on him like a flash, but there was a car waiting. I don’t think we’re looking for just one vampire. I think our worst fears are being realized. Someone has others convinced they need to be vampires to achieve immortal life or something of the like.”
“I... What happened?” Della asked.
He was silent, frowning, apparently realizing he was staring at a woman wearing a towel and carrying a Glock.
“I saw our so-called vampire, or one of the so-called vampires, out there,” Mason said. “He was down in the street, staring up at the house. I slipped away from the window and out the door—but he was already heading down the street, and there was a car waiting for him—a dark SUV. And, of course, I couldn’t get a license plate number because it was covered with mud. I called the local people and thankfully they understood me, so they’ll have their eyes open.”
“Maybe we need to sleep in shifts,” Della said.
