Vamp-Hire by Gerald Dean Rice Page A

mean, for all they know I could be the killer.”
    He expected Dolph to at least chuckle, maybe
the man was physiologically incapable. He gave Nick a very sober
look.
    “You better not be.”
    There were a lot of words Nick felt could
have come after those four that he left hanging in the air between
them. They made it to the Hummer and climbed in.
    “A guy like Leonard will never catch this
killer,” Dolph said, starting the mighty diesel engine. “He can’t
deviate from his playbook. He has no vision. No guts to trust.”
    Dolph was getting upset again. Nick knew just
the thing to head this off.
    “Adolphus?”
    “Dammit!” He slammed the side of his fist
into the steering wheel. “Anyone who knows that name, knows I hate
it. That bastard researched me.”
    “Is that such a bad thing? That he looked you
up?”
    “I don’t expect you to understand. It’s an
old guard, new guard thing. The rivalries between the armed forces
are more of a ‘mine is better than yours’ kind of thing. There was
still fraternity between us. There was always still cooperation
across the board, at least most times. These post-Conflict types
more often than not want their way to be the only way. He probably
got the word from on high to reach out to me and decided to do it
in a way to humiliate me to keep me out of it.”
    Nick decided not to press any further. He
could understand a person not liking being called by his given
name; Dolph's reaction was on the extreme end of dislike. And there
was something more to it than simply disrespect.
    They rode a while in silence, Nick
remembering the occasional landmark for reasons other than them
passing the other way a short while ago. There was so much of him
that was either gone or simply had never been there, like he wasn’t
a complete human being. Or human whatever he was. Nick had heard
the genus and phylum for vampires, homo vescus, but he didn’t know
if a new one had been determined for people with his condition.
    He longed for the family he couldn’t
remember. Brief snatches of a mother sitting with him, reading to
him, stroking his hair. And a father, a single image of him sitting
at the breakfast table, a big cigar in his mouth. Nick could recall
no interaction with the man. He only assumed he had loved him. He
certainly missed them both. Nick wondered what had happened to
them. Had they died? Did they contract the same disease as him or
been part of the collateral damage of the Conflict?
    “Where can I drop you?” Dolph asked. Nick was
jarred from his thoughts.
    “What?”
    “Your home. Where do you live?”
    “I… the Pig. You can drop me at the Big
Pig.”
    Dolph grunted. Whether it was in
disappointment or how the man laughed, Nick couldn’t tell.
    They pulled into the parking lot of the Big
Pig a few minutes later. Before Nick climbed out of the Hummer,
Dolph turned to him, pulling something out of his pocket.
    “You did good work yesterday. I can’t pay you
for that consulting debacle, though. It didn’t go the way I wanted
and I’m going to have to pursue this a different way.”
    “So you’re still going to help out on
this?”
    Dolph nodded. “There’s a killer out there.
And so far, only a gaggle of idiots have been looking for him.”
    “Gaggle. Nice word.”
    “You like that, huh?” Dolph looked out to the
street then back to him.
    Nick opened the door and slid out. For some
reason he felt hurt. He had expected to go back home with Dolph for
some reason. To his home. Then he remembered Dolph didn’t know he
lived there and wasn’t supposed to. He would have to call Phoebe to
find out when this whole thing was going to be over.
    “One other thing,” Dolph said before he
closed the door. “People like Leonard are famous for taking other
people’s ideas. I found you, but I don’t have a single doubt that
now that he has discarded me that he won’t come back for you. Be on
the lookout. And whatever you do, don’t go with him.”
    Nick nodded.