Cemetery Club Read online

  Dawes didn’t know what to say. Things were even worse than he’d thought. He glanced at Corish. “Is there anything you can add to all this?”

  The ME shrugged. “All we can do is process the evidence that’s given to us. So far, other than the patrol car that belonged to Foster and Harris, we haven’t had anything to work on. Travers’s men gathered forensic evidence from some of the alleged disappearance sites, but it’s going to take a long time to separate prints and DNA traces from home owners and regular visitors and determine if there is anything substantiating intruders. What we need to find are commonalities between several of the potential crime scenes. Then I’ll be able to give you some real information.”

  “So that’s it then? We just sit around with our thumbs up our asses?”

  “Goddammit, we’re not just sitting around Warner,” Travers said. “My people are doing everything they can. I’ve got everybody working double shifts but we’re three men down and we can’t ignore the regular calls we get in.”

  “Maybe it’s time to call in some outside help, like the FBI or Staties?” asked Corish.

  Travers and Dawes responded in unison. “No!”

  “That would be a PR nightmare,” Dawes continued. “For now we keep it to ourselves. Hell, as far as we know this might not be as bad as it seems. Like you said, a lot of the disappearances could just be drunks or people running away from bad marriages. Focus on the missing cops and the murders at Gus’s place. Vandalism in the Lowlands isn’t as much of a priority.”

  Smith cleared his throat. “Um, sir? There is one other thing we should discuss.”

  “What’s that?” Dawes looked down the table. He hated when Smith sprang surprises on him, especially during meetings.

  “I’ve been getting a lot of calls from the townspeople. Not just the usual loudmouths either. The Rotary Club, homeowners associations, even the Chamber of Commerce. Everyone’s worried that nothing’s been done about the murders at Gus’s or the cemetery. I was thinking...maybe we should have a town meeting. Let everyone know we’re not sitting on our asses. We can play up the missing officers angle - people hear that, they’ll automatically believe we’re putting all our resources into this.”

  “We are!” Travers slapped the table with his hand. Across from him, Betty Smyrna jumped.

  “I -we - know that Sheriff. But the constituents don’t.”

  Dawes thought about it. If his deputy mayor was convinced a town meeting was necessary, it probably was. He was an asshole but he did have brains.

  “All right.” The Mayor glanced down at his schedule. “Set something up for...tomorrow night. Put a notice in the paper. A very small one. I don’t want every yahoo in town showing up. Let’s keep it short and simple. The fewer questions we have to answer the better.”

  “Yes sir.” Smith typed something into his Blackberry.

  Dawes looked around the table. “Anything else?” No one responded. “Then everyone get back to work. Sheriff, you’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow. See if you can come up with something that will make us look good at this meeting.”

  Everyone stood and headed for the door. As Betty Smyrna went past, Dawes placed a hand on her shoulder. “Um, Betty, could you come into my office for a moment? I have some memos for you to write up.”

  Betty glanced back, a knowing smile on her face. She’d only been working for him for six months but she’d learned very quickly what kind of memos he enjoyed dictating, and she'd proven very willing to put in the extra work required.

  As he headed for his office, his eyes on Betty’s shapely ass under her conservative skirt, Dawes rationalized his cheating the same way he always did: It’s a job-related necessity. Being Mayor is stressful. In order to perform my job well, I need to eliminate the stress. Better a ten minute hummer in my office than being caught in a sleazy massage parlor. And it’s not like my wife is going to drag her fat ass down here and crawl under my desk.

  The image of Abby’s hefty bulk wedged under his desk caused him to snort laughter, which he covered up quickly with a cough, lest anyone think he wasn’t focused on the serious situation at hand.

  Only when his door was securely locked and Betty’s mouth wrapped just as securely around his dick, did he allow himself to smile.

  Chapter 12

  Kush Pachuri was doing his usual Monday night inventory when he heard Ana, his daughter, shouting for him. Fearing another robbery, he dropped his clipboard and ran to the front of the combination gas station and convenience store.

  Instead of a masked gunman or a group of drug-addled teenagers from the nearby Lowlands, he found his daughter pointing towards the gas pumps. “Help them papa! They’re killing them!”

  Kush looked out the window but it took a moment for him to register what he was seeing. A car was parked at pump three, its doors open. Four people stood by the car and at first it looked like two of them were embracing the other two. Kush had seen such vulgar displays of public affection many times since opening his business, men pinning their girlfriends or wives against the car and kissing them with a passion only appropriate in a bedroom, but never two couples at once. He was about to turn away when one of the men lifted a hand and drove his fist directly into the face of the woman he held.

  A carjacking? Here? Kush looked back at the counter. No time to call the police. “Give me the gun, quickly!”

  Ana, to her credit, didn’t question him. She just handed him the pistol he’d kept loaded and ready under the counter ever since they’d been robbed last year.

  Clutching the weapon he ran outside, shouting at the men. “Go away! Leave them alone. I have a gun!”

  Instead of backing away or running, the two attackers dropped their victims and came towards him. As they passed under the gas island’s lights, he saw fresh blood covering their faces, dripping from their mouths.

  Allah save me. They are crazy. Kush immediately changed direction, now moving backwards as the two men kept approaching.

  “Father?”

  Ana’s voice from behind him. Keeping his eyes – as well as the gun - on the two men, he called out to her. “Daughter! Run, now!”

  He heard her footsteps behind him as she did as she was told. He thanked his ancestors that she wasn’t a spoiled teenager like so many of her classmates, that she still knew to obey her parents. Then one of the men changed direction and started walking faster. Kush wondered if he’d made the right decision. He knew Ana would have run around the back of the building, to the employee parking lot. If the man reached her before she got to her car...

  Deciding he had no choice, he turned and fired the gun at the man following his daughter. His first shot missed but his second hit home, sending the man staggering back against the propane tank cage that sat at the corner of the store.

  Propane?

  Kush’s finger had already pulled the trigger two more times before the STOP signal from his brain reached his hand. He never heard the metallic ping of metal striking metal over the sound of the gun’s firing. Just as he never saw the spark created by the last bullet hitting the metal screen of the cage.

  He couldn’t miss the effects that followed though.

  Escaping propane from a punctured tank ignited, producing a plume of flame that sent the damaged tank bouncing around like an out of control rocket. The metal tank knocked the valve off another cylinder, creating a second flash of fire that caught the wounded man’s shoulder and set his clothes ablaze.

  Kush watched in shock as the stranger ignored his burning arm and the bullet in his chest and turned back towards the pumps.

  Movement from the corner of his eye caught Kush’s attention, reminding him of the second attacker. He tried to bring the gun around but the man was already on him, fingers curved like claws and mouth open wide, displaying blood-coated teeth. Kush managed to scream once before the man bit into his neck.

  As he struggled to break loose, Kush felt the weight on top of him shift and he knew the crazed man had shifted posit
ion. Before he could break free, sudden pain, far worse than the bleeding hole in his throat, erupted in his groin as the lunatic bit down again.

  Then everything went bright and the world disappeared in an explosion of light and sound. A scorching wind whipped past, the sizzling gale sending Kush and his attacker tumbling across the asphalt, their bodies engulfed in flames. Metal shards filled the night air with razor-sharp death as more than forty propane tanks turned into red-hot shrapnel.

  Kush had just enough time to call out to Allah before superheated air entered his lungs and incinerated him from the inside out.

  Behind the building, Ana Puchari rose from her hiding place behind her six-year-old Nissan, stunned by the sound of the explosion. She saw that the propane cage and the side of the building facing it were on fire and reached back into the car to retrieve her cell phone and call for help.

  Her hand was still moving down when a six-inch piece of steel shattered the windshield and lodged itself in her face.

  In the time it took the fire department to put out the blaze and discover Anna Puchari’s body, six more people disappeared within Rocky Point’s town limits.

  * * *

  Tyler Lavine smoothed out the blanket and patted his hand on the soft cotton.

  “C'mon, don’t just stand there. Sit. I promise I won’t bite.”

  I sure plan on nibbling though, he thought, staring up at Katie Reyes with what he hoped was an innocent expression.

  Katie looked down at him. Although the quarter moon sitting low on the horizon didn’t provide much light, it was still enough for Tyler to see there was no nervousness or animosity in her look, just distrust. And that was fine with him. Better they both knew what was going to happen over the next couple of hours than her be caught off guard and ruin the night by demanding he stop.

  “If I sit down, you're going to be all over me like a shore leave sailor.” She smiled as she said it, her teeth as white as the moon against her dark skin.

  She’s being a cock tease. That's okay, as long as teasing isn’t all she does. “I swear I’ll keep my hands off you until this is all gone.” He held up the bottle of wine he'd swiped from his parents’ cellar. It was the one promise he intended to keep, figuring it’d be a lot easier to get Katie’s panties off if she was drunk.

  “Really?” Katie knelt down next to him and took the bottle from his hands. She tipped it up to her mouth, pretending to drink from the still-corked container, her back arching and her large breasts sticking out as she did so. Tyler felt himself grow hard as he noticed she wore no bra.

  Katie laughed, tossing it behind her. “Well, what do you know. All gone.”

  Before Tyler could say anything she let her body fall forward, landing across his chest and pushing him onto his back.

  “No more games. We both know why we’re here,” she said, rubbing one hand across his crotch. Beneath his jeans, his cock twitched and jumped.

  Tyler slid his hands inside her t-shirt, feeling her nipples harden against his palms. Katie moaned and gripped him harder, then pressed her mouth against his.

  The next fifteen minutes were the best of Tyler’s life, as he finally got to do all the things he’d only seen on internet web sites.

  With the after-effects of his orgasm subsiding and his pulse no longer doing a demonic jungle drum beat in his ears, Tyler took a deep breath and leaned over Katie to grab the bottle of wine. “I don’t know about you but I need a—”

  “Quiet!” Katie grabbed his arm, her nails digging into his flesh in a way that was far less pleasant than the scratches she’d left on his back just a few minutes earlier.

  “Ow! What—”

  “Shhsh! I heard something. I think someone’s watching us.” She picked up her shirt and held it to her chest as she sat up, her eyes wide and round as an owl’s.

  “Where?” Tyler didn’t want to say anything but he had a feeling he knew who it might be. He'd bragged a little – okay, maybe a lot – to Jerry and Chris in gym class that he was taking Katie to the football field. They both had girlfriends and constantly teased him about his inability to get laid. Tired of sniffing last night’s pussy stink when they shoved their fingers under his nose, he’d been more than happy to rub it in their faces that he was going to get something off one of the hottest girls in homeroom.

  I should have figured they’d come sneaking around to see. Maybe even to ruin things for me.

  “I think I saw something over that way.” Katie pointed to their left, where the bleachers sat a good forty yards away.

  “I’ll check it out.” Tyler stood up. Cold wetness against his leg reminded him he was naked and still wearing the first of the three condoms he’d hoped to use before the night was over. He pulled the sticky rubber off his cock and tossed the deflated balloon shape off to the side. Slipping into his pants, he headed across the field, leaving his shoes and shirt behind. If it turned out to be nothing he’d have that much less to take off when he returned to Katie. If it was Chris and Jerry getting ready to bust his balls, he’d make sure they went home bruised.

  He’d almost reached the bleachers when two people emerged from the shadows, only they weren’t Chris and Jerry.

  Cops! Tyler almost said it out loud, then he saw that the second person wasn’t a police officer, it was a fat lady in a nightgown. What the hell, is one of Rocky Point's finest getting himself a little action under the bleachers?

  At first, nervous about getting caught trespassing by the police, he felt himself growing calm again. After all, no officer was gonna bust him if it meant having people find out he was getting a BJ while on duty. Tyler figured he would just tell him to pack up his shit and leave. And the whole episode might even make him look better to Katie – he’d be the guy who talked them out of trouble with the cops. She didn’t have to know the whole truth.

  Just as he was about to say hello, he noticed something strange. Both of them had dark stains on their clothes. And their faces. Stains that looked like...

  Blood? Oh my God, is that—

  They came at him before he could finish the thought, charging forward and smashing into him so hard it knocked the air out of his lungs. He tried to call for help but all that came out was a croaking gasp. Unable to shout or move, he could only lay there as a third figure appeared, a figure made of darkness except for its devilish eyes.

  Even when the creature dug its way down his throat with icy fingers, Tyler’s screams were only in his head.

  Katie watched Tyler cross the field, his arrogantly self-confident attitude doing nothing to ease her fears of getting caught. What Tyler didn’t know – and she had no intention of telling him – was that she’d been nabbed by Campus Security three weeks earlier, in the middle of an ankles-behind-the-ears fuck session with Andy Wilson. It hadn’t meant anything, just an old fashioned booty call, but she didn't want Tyler to think she was some kind of slut. The guard, who’d probably gotten quite an eyeful before he made himself known, had let them go with a warning. But if he caught her again he might not be in such a forgiving mood. Worse, he might let it slip that he remembered her.

  So as Tyler approached the bleachers on the far side of the field, she took a moment to put her clothes on and fold the wine bottle inside the blanket. When she looked up again, Tyler was coming back across the dew-damp grass, his pale naked chest and dark jeans turning him into a ghost sailing through the night.

  “Tyler? Everything okay?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer, just kept walking. As he drew closer she saw that he had a serious expression on his face and she wondered if he’d encountered the security guard and gotten a lecture.

  Hopefully that's all it was and not a phone call to Tyler’s parents. If he gets in trouble—

  Katie didn't have time to finish her thought as Tyler let out a loud growl and threw himself at her. For one brief moment she thought he was playing around, was maybe hoping for round two.

  Then his teeth sank into her throat, crushing muscle and cartil
age, and all she knew was pain, pain so great she never even tried to scream. She just laid there as he tore a huge chunk of flesh away, spit it out, and then stuck his face into the hole and started chewing.

  Her last thought was of her parents and how disappointed they’d be to find out she’d been having sex with boys on the football field.

  Chapter 13

  Marisol held her coffee in both hands, trying to force the chill from her body. Outside the city offices the summer sun was already driving away the cool of the night, warming Rocky Point like a pie in an oven, an oven whose temperature would slowly rise throughout the long, hot day. Marisol’s chill had nothing to do with the previous night's cool breeze that had blown through her windows while she tried to sleep. No, her shivers were the after effect of the secrets the night had nurtured, secrets the breeze had carried along on its whispering sighs.

  Death. Violence. Unnamed horrors.

  She’d heard the sirens all night long, knew what their high-pitched wails warned of.

  They’re back again. The things that lived underground, the things she’d tried so hard to drive from her memory and for the most part, she’d succeeded. Her nightmares of the creatures she and her friends had encountered beneath Gates of Heaven Cemetery had dwindled over the years to only occasional bad dreams, usually brought on by indulging in too many chili dogs or jalapeno pizzas.

  Until now. John Boyd had seen them again, right by their old crypt. Add to that the violence and disappearances plaguing the town for the past week and even a stubborn fool - like me! - could see what was going on.

  What the fuck was John doing by that crypt anyhow? They’d had an unspoken agreement to never go near it again, never venture into the cemetery at all unless absolutely necessary. Had his drinking really gotten that out of control? She’d known about his DWI; it had been in all the papers when it happened. She’d even sent him a letter - a short note really - expressing her sorrow and asking him if there was anything she could do. Back then she’d still been married to Jack and had the power of the Mayor’s office behind her. But John had never responded and she’d figured he’d accepted his jail time as penance for what he'd done. During the months he’d been locked away she'd forgotten about him, the tragedies of an old friend pushed aside by the travails of daily life in a loveless house.