As I watched the small figure of the ghost child lower his head and turn away, he slowly melted back into the trees until I could no longer make out the small, dark form. The moment he disappeared, all the ghostly activity at the drive-in vanished just like it had never been there at all. I stood beside the Civic, blinking my eyelids. I wasn’t even sure I’d seen what I’d just seen.
That wasn’t entirely true.
The specters had been there. Their 1950s and 1960s cars with their rounded fenders and sharp fins had been there. The ghosts of small children had run through the lot in between cars, laughing, playing just like they had probably been doing as living people.
Most of all, the small figure of a lost child had been separate from all the others, standing on the periphery of the lot, unnoticed by anyone but me. I’d felt the child’s deep sadness and even now, as I stood in the cold night, I reached up and rubbed knuckles over my sternum, trying to soothe the ache I felt in my no longer beating heart. What I’d seen had been real and as I turned away from the now empty lot with its weeds poking through cracked asphalt, I felt utterly bereft. Perhaps the way that small figure had felt as he’d hung his head and then turned away.
I got into the car and started it up again, looking up at the now blank screen once again spattered with rivers of colored paint and caked with dirt. The old drive-in sign was blank, the cartoons gone, the concession stand, drooping and most likely filled with mold and mildew. The poles where speakers had once hung, were crooked, some falling down, rusty and weather-beaten, having been reclaimed by the elements.
I drove into town, feeling more anxious than I had in a long time.
Chapter Seven
Prosper Woods Chronicle. Letters to the editor:
“Ever since moving to Prosper Woods, I’ve been having problems with ants in my kitchen. What I want to know is why no one told me the ants around these parts scream when you point a can of Raid at them?” Signed, “Worse than a room full of crying women.”
Romeo
It was well after seven p.m. when Dr. Willoughby’s faxed autopsy report finally came through. I was on edge. It felt like I’d been waiting for bad news all day. Since Sally had gone home in time to pick up her child from school, and Precious took off just around five, I’d been left alone to pace through the station. Every so often I stopped to drain a fresh cup of coffee. There just wasn’t anything else to do until the report came in. I put down the fifth cup of coffee when I noticed my hand shaking. Enough was enough. Still…I had things on my mind.
Big things.
I’d spent the majority of the day trying to decide whether to call my best friend Mel and confess that I was a unicorn. Every time the thought ran through my mind, I mentally punched myself in the face. Maybe I’d just invite him to come and stay in Prosper Woods for a few days, let him get the feel of the place. My buddy wasn’t stupid. He’d been our scout sniper in the Marine Corps and besides putting the rest of my buddies to shame when it came to the handling of weapons, he was sharp as a tack. If there was a person I trusted more, I couldn’t think of who that’d be. Working out how to explain my newly discovered identity was something that had confounded me all day.
I studied the coroner’s report and was pleased to see that Sally was right. Doctor Tammy Willoughby was a hell of an ME. After rehydrating the corpse’s fingers, she’d been able to pull a clean set of prints that exactly matched the former sheriff, confirming his identity. From there, she’d run every test she could on the body and checked over every inch of skin. She’d taken multiple x-rays and had finally come to the conclusion that the sheriff hadn’t been murdered after all. She’d found very little food in his stomach which meant he hadn’t eaten right before death. She found no evidence of cancer or other disease processes, including heart disease.
Dr. Willoughby concluded that the sheriff died of natural causes right where he sat, based on the external examination of his body.
I had to admit, I was as surprised as hell to find out that there were no signs of a werewolf attack. I had no idea whether the ME was a supernatural or not, but either way, if she’d seen evidence of an animal attack on the sheriff’s body, I had no doubt she would have mentioned it. The ME was a professional, and I really appreciated the thorough report she compiled for my case file. I was just tucking it away in the folder Precious made for that purpose when I heard a throat clearing. I looked up, only to find Vincent standing in my doorway, grinning at me.
“Hey there!” I said, standing up and walking out from behind my desk to meet him halfway as he crossed the floor of my office. He swept me into his arms, and as he lowered his face, I caught a whiff of Vincent’s unmistakable scent. He smelled like mint and tea and the citrus bodywash I’d used when taking a shower with him. He felt simply incredible in my arms and even better when his mouth crashed down on mine.
He kissed me like I was the last man on earth, and I kissed him back ravenously. Our tangling tongues quickly hardened my dick and it pressed decadently against the zipper on my blue jeans. I badly wished we were
