Bad Moon Rising (Pine Deep 3)

Jonatha looked at her for a long time before she answered. “Yes,” she said slowly. “There is a way…but it’s dangerous. ”

“So what else is new?” asked Newton sourly.

2

After Jonatha outlined her plan, Val said she needed some time. Crow walked her down to the hospital’s chapel, but at the door she stopped him with a gentle hand on his chest. “Honey, I need a few minutes to myself. I have to think this through…and maybe talk to Daddy about it. ”

He nodded. “You don’t have to be there when we do this. Saul and I can do it. We have the two cops…”

“No. ”

“You’re pregnant, Val…Crow Junior doesn’t need his mom to—”

“I said no, Crow. ” She put a finger to his lips, then kissed him, sweetly and long. “Give me fifteen minutes, okay?”

Crow sighed, nodded, hating it.

Back in Weinstock’s office, he saw that Newton and Jonatha were gone—out to get sandwiches for everyone—and the others were watching TV coverage of the Halloween parties that were in full swing in town.

“There’s a lot of people in town,” Ferro said dubiously. “I don’t like it. ”

“Tomorrow it will be even crazier,” Weinstock said.

“That’s just peachy. ” LaMastra rubbed his eyes. “No way to keep control of this. ”

Ferro said, “We’ve established that the Halloween stuff is going to happen. What precautions have you taken?”

Crow told them about the security team he’d brought into town. Ferro was familiar with BK and Billy Christmas. “They did security a couple of times for some big-ticket election events in Philly. BK’s a levelheaded guy. ”

To Ferro, Weinstock said, “Are you concerned that something is going to happen during the holiday activities?”

Ferro pursed his lips, then shook his head. “I doubt it. With all the media coverage…it’d be too high profile. But with all that’s going on, we’ll have no way of seeing what is going on behind the scenes. There’ll be no way to keep track of who goes missing, which means we have to take a closer look at those statistics you’ve been keeping over the last month, Saul. You’ve logged an increase in mortality rates, and although each of them individually appears to be normal—house fires, car accidents, heart attacks, and such, in light of what we now know we have to ask ourselves whether any of these could have been attacks by Ruger or Boyd. And, if so, are any of these people also likely to be infected?”

“There’s also tourists. How would we know if any of them went missing?” LaMastra asked.

Crow looked at Weinstock. “Saul, how many people do you actually think may have been attacked?”

Weinstock licked his lips with a nervous tongue. “There’s no way to know for sure. I didn’t examine everyone. And I couldn’t arrange for all of them to be exhumed. ”

“That’s not good,” LaMastra said. “If there are even one or two more of these things out there…”

Crow nodded. “I know. ”

“Hey,” LaMastra asked, snapping his fingers, “what about holy water and crosses?”

“Jonatha said that wouldn’t work. At best it would depend on the faith of the vampire—not, as is sometimes mentioned in fiction, on the faith of the person holding the cross. At worst they won’t work at all. Besides, even if the vampire is religious, it’s a crucifix, not a cross. ”

“Not if the vampire is a Protestant,” Ferro offered. “They don’t use the crucifix, they go for the empty cross, symbolic of the resurrection, not the whole death-for-sins thing. ”

“Sure,” said LaMastra. “Plus, the vampire could be Amish or a Mormon, or even a Jehovah’s Witness. ”

“Or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu,” Crow said.

“Or Jewish,” Weinstock offered hopefully.

“Great,” snapped LaMastra. “Go wave a Star of David at Ruger. ”

Weinstock shook his head. “Actually a mezuzah would be better. It’s symbolic of the torah and the laws of Moses. Far more religiously significant than the Star. ”