Chapter 5 #2
One wall was dominated by a large community announcement board, which had prominent advertisements for such things as open mic night, a drop-in D I declined.” Arthur let that particular subject drop.
This was no time to go telling a near stranger the story of how he and Salvatore had fallen in love.
Sal preferred to be the one to dramatically spin that yarn, anyway, and Arthur wasn’t going to deny him the pleasure just because he was currently behind bars.
“Most vampires fall somewhere in the middle range as far as powers go. Flight, turning to mist, and controlling animals are all possible, but only the most powerful vampires can sustain them over long periods of time. And, of course, only at night.”
Nora exhaled, her shoulders rounding. “That’s not encouraging. A vampire could’ve scooped up George Roth, bitten him mid-flight, then dropped him into what happened to be your flower garden without realizing.”
“No,” Arthur said, thinking it through. “There was no sign the mayor fell from any real height, and…well, it takes a fair bit of concentration to actually use any of our powers. It would be dangerous to drink and fly.”
“Okay…” Nora sighed and scratched behind Rumble’s ears.
They were keeping a low profile with regard to the cat.
There was no sign on the door prohibiting pets inside, but Arthur wouldn’t put it past Ted to have an irrational hatred of cats because of his dog-adjacent affliction.
Arthur’s dislike of cats, of course, was completely rational and based in fact.
“We’ll have to be on the lookout for any vampires, then,” Nora continued.
“Leave that to me, please. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.” Arthur wrote unknown vampire element on his list of suspects. “Can you think of anyone else who might have had a grudge against the mayor, or who would’ve benefited from his death?”
“I imagine his wife will be getting a life insurance payout,” Nora said. “And most of those policies pay double for accidental or wrongful deaths. Paranormal clauses are common, too, which would increase the payout.”
Arthur didn’t know anything about life insurance, having not qualified for so many decades, but he did know it wasn’t a factor in this case. “The mayor was a widower, actually. And he didn’t have any children as far as I know.”
“Hmm, well, maybe we should look into the losing candidates for mayor.”
Arthur recalled the many political signs, some of which were still up from the recent election, but it wasn’t much comfort.
“The last city manager was his opponent, actually. I suspect that’s why he left the job.
But you’re right, we should look into his political ties.
I’m sure that will uncover something of interest. Perhaps Quinn—”
Nora didn’t let him finish, rushing to speak over him.
“Yes, well, the point is there are lots of possibilities other than Salvatore.” She glanced down at her phone, which lit up with a text.
“Oh, it’s the coroner.” Nora read from the phone.
“ ‘Are you with Arthur? My texts aren’t going through for some reason.’ ” She looked up. “Did you give her the landline number?”
Arthur would have blushed if he could.
“She’s got the preliminary autopsy results and is meeting the sheriff.” Nora stood up and downed the rest of her tea. “Let’s go.”
Arthur glanced at his mug to find it empty. “I forgot Sal’s coffee.”
“I’ll order.” Nora squeezed his arm. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll find the person who did this.”
“I hope so.”
“Someone had something to gain from the mayor’s death. You’ll figure out who. I believe in you.”
Nora headed for the counter while Arthur collected their dishes.
As he walked to the busing station, a few teenagers crossed his path.
His foot collided with something, and he pitched forward.
At night he could’ve recovered easily, imbued with limited vampiric powers as he was, but during the day vampires were hardly more graceful than humans.
Luckily, before he and the dishes ended up on the floor in a mess of broken ceramic and shattered pride, someone caught his arm.
Mean-spirited laughter filled the air, coming from a few boys Arthur didn’t know. One of them had a backpack, zipper undone and revealing several cans of spray paint inside. There was a button on it supporting Mayor Roth. Keep Trident Falls Normal.
“You okay, Mr. Miller?” asked the boy who’d caught his arm. The dentist’s son, Brody Young. He was of an awkward age, stretched and lanky in that way only teenagers could achieve. By Arthur’s estimation, he looked about sixteen, but then again, everyone looked young to him these days.
“Yes, thank you.” Arthur collected himself, straightening his jacket, though it had not fallen askew.
The other teens rolled their eyes at Brody and headed for the front door. Brody stared after them, hesitating.
“Go on, I’m really fine.” Arthur shooed him forward with his hands. The last thing he needed was an incident with that particular group. He’d seen their handiwork on the back of the building and Arthur didn’t relish the idea of cleaning spray paint off the side of the Iris Inn later.
Brody just gave him a nod before hurrying to catch up to his friends. They slugged him on the arm and one bared his teeth in a poor impression of a vampire. Brody just swatted them away, and laughter erupted from their little pack of menaces before they disappeared from view.
Arthur knew their type. He’d been haunted by the unkind attention of boys like that all his life, well before he’d become a vampire. Teenagers could be cruel, but they weren’t the only ones. Bullies could be any age—even ageless.
With a sigh, Arthur returned the dishes safely to the busing station and dipped out the front door to wait for Nora.
He flipped open his notebook and scanned his notes.
There were a lot of possibilities. A lot of places to start the investigation.
But even Arthur knew no one was as compelling a suspect as Salvatore.
He had all three—motive, means, and opportunity.
But he wasn’t the only one who had something to gain.
Someone in particular had ranked up very quickly upon Roth’s demise.
Her proposals wouldn’t face any obstacles now.
She’d also been one of the last people to see the mayor alive and had been near the scene of the crime last night.
And he’d just finished telling her a great deal about how vampires and their powers worked—just the stuff she’d need to properly frame Sal and make it stick.
While Nora was busy ordering a Grandma’s House Special to go, Arthur added a name to his suspect list:
Nora Anderson, acting mayor and city manager