and snow. His scruffy appearance had made her only too aware of her own suddenly. ‘Fine thank you, Brenda. Is it still raining out?’ ‘My name’s Beth.’ ‘Whatever. Is it still raining?’ ‘I’m afraid it’s worse than that. It’s snow and hail stones.’ Rockwell stepped out of the elevator and staggered past Beth out in to the hall corridor. He reeked of booze. She watched him steady himself by pressing his hand against the wall as he made his way to the front door. ‘You go easy, Mr Rockwell,’ she called after him. ‘It’s very slippery out there. Might be best to stay home for a while.’ ‘I gotta stock up on whisky,’ he called back. ‘Been waiting for it to stop raining all mornin’. Can’t wait no more.’ ‘It’s not raining, it’s snowing.’ ‘Whatever.’ Beth spotted the elevator doors closing and quickly stuck her arm through the gap to prevent them from meeting. The doors reopened and she stepped inside. She pressed the button for the fourth floor and turned back to watch Rockwell walking slowly towards the front door. As he reached the door he looked like he was falling over headfirst but he somehow managed to grab a hold of the doorknob to hold himself up. He twisted it and opened the door. It swung open with surprising force. Someone had pushed it hard from the outside. The door caught Mr Rockwell full in the face, knocking him to the ground. Beth was about to rush out to offer him some help when she saw the person who had pushed open the door from the outside appear in the doorway. He was a giant of a man, soaked through from the downpour outside. His most distinguishing feature was a long pink streak of hair down the middle of his otherwise shaved head. After walking through the door he looked down at Jerry Rockwell who was lying on the floor in a daze. ‘You okay, old man?’ the hulking figure asked. Beth heard Rockwell respond with something that sounded like, “I landed on my balls.” The man with the pink hair leaned down to offer Rockwell some assistance before recoiling and holding his nose. ‘Jeez, you fuckin’ stink,’ he said, stepping back from the old man on the floor. As the elevator doors began to close the man looked over at Beth. Their eyes met for a second. She realised that she recognised him as one of four military guys she’d seen in the Tapioca on the previous night. A second later his eyes seemed to reveal that he recognised her too. He started walking towards the elevator. Before he reached it, the doors closed and it began moving upwards. Beth had no idea why this man was in her apartment block, but she didn’t like him and was glad he hadn’t made it into the elevator with her.
Fifteen
Vanity had parted company with Dante and Kacy shortly after the morning meeting at the Casa de Ville. They had other business to attend to moving themselves into the Swamp. They had told him that their clothes were still in a hotel room somewhere, so Vanity left them to it and went out with Cleavage and Moose to try and find some new members of his clan. Unfortunately he’d barely gotten started when he received a phone call summoning him to the office of the great Rameses Gaius. He’d been told it was urgent so there had not been time to change into a suit or anything smart to impress the new boss, so he turned up in his jeans and his black leather Shades jacket. This wasn’t likely to make a great impression. He arrived at Gaius’s office knowing that his days could well be numbered. He was head of the clan that had been infiltrated by the Bourbon Kid. That wasn’t something that was going to make him popular with the vampire hierarchy. Gaius had some serious anger issues and Vanity might be about to feel the force of his wrath. He hoped he would be given time to explain himself before Gaius passed sentence on him. History had shown that the former ruler of Egypt was a merciless killer, one who didn’t usually offer his