Four Smokers of the Apocalypse, Part 2

Four Smokers of the Apocalypse (Part 2 of 4)
an4@anon.lelnet.com

   The house was quiet. Sarah relieved the squad car at noon. She'd decided that
they'd let Monica know she was being watched because she seemed to enjoy the
attention. After profiling her, Sarah had come to the conclusion that if
Monica was involved, the increased risk of trying to avoid that scrutiny, of
pulling off something really daring, would overwhelm her common sense
eventually.
   It was a risky course of action, but Sarah was seldom wrong about these
things. 
   Still, it came as quit a surprise when an attractive blonde woman walked up
to her car and knocked on the passenger side window.
   Sarah held out her shield, expecting the civilian would go her own way. But
instead she reached down and opened the door.
   "Mind if I join you ?" she asked brightly, as though this was a sightseeing
tour.
   "Yes." 
   As if she'd said no, Lisa settled into the seat. She saw the cigarette in
Sarah's right hand and smiled.
   "Good. You're a smoker. Mind if I join you ?" 
   As she asked, Lisa pulled a new pack of Marlboro Lights 100s from her purse
and quickly lit one.
   "And you are ?" Sarah asked, annoyed.
   "Lisa MacDonough. I'm the webmaster of that vampire-related site you've been
pounding for the last three days."
   "Excuse me ?"
   "I use Webstar with reverse DNS lookup. It wasn't hard to figure out who you
were- or why you're interested."
   "It's policy not to discuss open cases with civilians, Ms. MacDonough. Now if
you don't mind, I'm a little busy-"
   "I know exactly what you're doing, and I can tell you that Monica isn't your
suspect. She might be able to tell you who should be, but she'd just playing a
game, more or less."
   Sarah reached her cigarette out the window, tapped the ash from it, and
paused to inhale before speaking again.
   "Look, Ms. MacDonough, I really am not going to discuss this with you. Now if
you'll please exit the car- watch your head- and let me do my job-"
   "I'd like to think I didn't drive over three hundred miles just to get the
brush off, Sarah."
   "Well, I'd like to win the lottery and kiss this job goodbye, but it's not
going to happen. I appreciate your concern, but-"
   "You can't spare five minutes ?" Lisa said, getting annoyed by Sarah's tough
cop act.
   "I'd rather not, if that's all right with you. I have two rules. No partners,
and no wild goose chases. I have a feeling that if I give you five minutes
that I'll end up breaking both."
   "How long have you been a smoker, Sarah ?"
   "What ?" the detective asked, perplexed by this change of direction.
   "I started when I was a teenager. I was-"
   "Just trying to make conversation." But the truth was that she'd hit the one
topic Sarah would gladly discuss with anyone. The truth was that she wanted to
talk about smoking to anyone who would listen. "I started yesterday
afternoon."
   "Do you mind if I ask why ?"
   "Well, as much as I mind you being here at all. That's the one thing I'll
gladly discuss. You must think I'm weird, starting at my age-"
   "Twenty-six or seven. That's not so odd," Lisa said with a smile as she drew
deeply on her own cigarette. Her inhale reminded Sarah of her sister, a real
smoker's inhale, matched by a glorious exhale which made her think back to the
way she'd smoked yesterday, lying in bed with nothing on but a t-shirt, her
nipples hard-
   She decided against following that line of thought any farther.
   "I talked a friend of mine our age-"
   "Actually, I'm twenty-eight. But thanks."
   "My friend Richard. He wanted to date one of us, and I told him the only way
he could hope for success was to be one of us-"
   "One of what ? A smoker or a vampire hunter ?"
   Sarah didn't bother to turn her head out the window as she exhaled.
   Lisa smiled. "I wouldn't wish the later on any friend. No, he had a crush on
a school teacher friend of mine who smoked and she only dates other smokers."
   "Did it work out ?"
   Lisa's exhale coated the windshield and Sarah found herself gratified by
that. By the end of her portion of the stake-out, the car would be thoroughly
smoky- which was exactly what she wanted.
   "Not the way he expected, but yes, it did. I think he ended up with more than
he bargained for."
   "So, you wouldn't wish the vampire thing on a friend, but you're here to wish
it on me ?
   "You're a detective- sooner or later, it's a bridge you might just have to
cross."
   "You honestly believe, don't you ?"
   "If I told you some of the things I've seen, you'd boot me out of this car so
fast-"
   Sarah exhaled. "Why do you say that ?"
   "Because you not only don't believe, but you don't want to. How can I argue
with a predetermined point of view ?"
   "You can't," Sarah said honestly.
   "Why did you spend all the time on the site ?"
   It was a good question. An investigative question. Sarah didn't sense any
annoyance in her lack of faith. Just curiosity.
   "Because I think that I have someone on my hands who would like nothing
better than to have someone like me wasting their time tracking down the most
ridiculous theories like that a real vampire is loose in the city."
   "So your suspect is a large male using some sort of prosthetic device to
inflict those wounds, right ?"
   "Not that it's your concern, but yes."
   "It's not a male."
   Sarah flicked ash out the car window and smiled at this naive young woman
with her gothic ideas and her well-tended website.
   "And you know this because ?"
   "I know how they work. Male vampires almost never make more males. It's an
ego thing. They see themselves at the top of the food chain and would never
risk upsetting the balance. Females on the other hand-"
   "Not that I believe in any of this, but what do you mean, `make more males
?'"
   "You should go back and check your graves. One of them is empty."
   "What ?" Sarah asked incredulously. The very idea was preposterous.
   Wasn't it ?
   "I said that one of your graves is empty."
   This certainly wasn't what Sarah had been expecting- or what she wanted to
hear, either. Bad enough that a little web browsing had put her in this
position where she was being exposed to a well-meaning lunatic with a belief
in one of the most ridiculous facets of the horror genre. Worse that she was
looking at the possibility of disinternment.
   "Which one ?"
   "Jonathan Fraktor. He was the seventeen-year old senior."
   "I know who Jonathan Fraktor was, Lisa. What I want to know-" She paused to
stub her cigarette out, then lit another. Here it was, her first day as a
smoker, and she was already learning about how smoking and stress were
related. As she inhaled, she found that her stress level dropped-
fractionally.
   "-is how I know that the grave is empty, right ?"
   "Exactly."
   Lisa smiled, and then paused to light another cigarette of her own. "These
aren't your typical murder cases. The Fraktor family is buried in the oldest
section of Whispering Arms. The part that isn't covered by the perpetual care
agreement. Basically, that section of the cemetery is overgrown, neglected,
and to top it off, Jonathan was the child of a single parent- one in a wheel
chair. His mother-"
   "I don't need the family background," Sarah said, cutting her off. "What
you're saying is that my murderer intentionally killed a boy based on the fact
that his grave would be easy to rob after the dust settled."
   "The grave wasn't robbed, Sarah-"
   Instead of extending the debate, Sarah pulled her cell phone out of her
pocket and called the station house. It was fortunate that she didn't need to
actually explain why it was that she wanted a patrol car sent to check a
graveyard. 
   "There isn't any part of you which is capable of believing the least bit of
this, is there ?"
   Sarah smiled. "Finally, some progress. Now, if you'd be so kind as to step
out of the car- my car, actually- I'll get on with the exciting world of
police stakeouts."
   "I think I'll wait until your plainclothes get back to you."
   Unable to get rid of her, Sarah settled back and concentrated on her smoking.
On inhaling completely. On the different sorts of exhales. Nose. Mouth.
Combinations. Slow. Forceful.
   Lisa noticed, but didn't say anything. She could remember what it had  been
like, way back when, those first weeks when it had been entirely novel.
   She missed that occasionally, and she was a little jealous of Sarah for
feeling that now, but not much. 
   "So, tell me more about what it's like to be a new smoker," Lisa said
conversationally.
   She could see Sarah warm fractionally.
   "It's amasing. It's like all my life this thing has been right in front of me
but I wasn't looking at it, you know ? Really, I feel stupid. My sister Paula
must have tried to get me to just try it a thousand times, and I always
resisted. I'm not sure why, but in a way, I'm glad that I did. It's really
something to be twenty-eight and discover-" She held her cigarette away from
herself, admiring it. "- something so perfectly enjoyable, you know ?"
   "I'm envious in a way," Lisa admitted. "Oh, I would never trade all the years
that I've smoked for what you must be feeling right now, but still-"
   "It's nice to hear you say that. You know-" She paused to inhale, and then
lowered her voice as she spoke, the words travelling outward on small clouds
of smoke. "- I talked a friend of mine into starting again this morning. It's
probably cruel, but I enjoyed it- the way you did with Richard. I mean, here I
am, one day in, and-"
   "Casting your net for converts. That's a wonderful start." Lisa's exhale was
more voluminous than any Sarah had yet managed, but her inhales were deeper as
well. It gave Sarah something to shoot for.
   "It was fun. I knew she'd give in, but it wasn't an ego thing, either. It was
for her."
   "Exactly."
   "But it felt great. It was for me, in a way, you know ?"
   "Smoking evangelism is terribly underrated. It's like if you or I try to get
someone to smoke, it's cruel. But non-smokers are the same way, and they're
the ones trying to run the world. It's a terrible double-standard."
   "I'd never thought about it quite that way, but I guess you're right."
   Lisa tapped ash from her cigarette, inhaled with that same deep passion which
Sarah hoped to be able to mimic soon, and smiled. "I actually feel a certain
responsibility as a smoker to promote smoking. I still hope to get married
someday, have a daughter, and teach her to smoke-"
   "What do you mean, someday ?"
   As Sarah asked the question her cell phone chirped and she answered it
reflexively.
   "Yeah-"
   "I'm patching through Baker-Nine. Please hold."
   There was a short span of dead air, followed by the grainy voice of Jenkins,
a day shifter.
   "I don't know how you knew, Detective, but this grave is emptier than a
message parlour on raid day. That's not the strange part, though-"
   "Let me guess. It looks like our cadaver dug it's way out  of the grave,
right, Harry ?"
   "Damn straight, Detective. What would you like us to do ?"
   Sarah stuck her head out the window and stared up at the darkening sky. It
would be raining in half an hour- no, twenty minutes, if her sense of smell
was right, a brief but strong afternoon shower. "Get groundskeeping over there
and have them put a tarp up like they do when they've got a rainer, and then
bring in forensics. We're looking for fingerprints in the dirt, shoe
impressions, tire tracks- anything. If they miss a fucking strand of hair I'll
have Kary's head. You understand, Harry ?"
   "Yup. I'm on it."
   Lisa produced the pictures at that point.
   They were polaroids, just about an hour old.
   "I got in last night and checked a few things out before I came to see you,"
she said, slightly sheepishly.
   Sarah studied the pictures. There was no question what it looked like. It
looked very much like Jonathan Fraktor had dug himself out of deep, dark hole.
Lisa couldn't know that Fraktor's autopsy had revealed something different
than the other victims. The wounds on his neck were nowhere near as deep, and
pernicious anemia had been listed as the cause of death, not trauma.
   "You just leapt way up the ladder on my suspect list," Sarah said flatly, not
so much because she believed that Lisa might be capable of digging up a body
to promulgate as myth but because she needed to see her reaction.
   "I didn't dig him up. I'm not one of those telephone psychics. I don't want
any of this to be true any more than you do, but I live my life with both eyes
wide open."
   "Why didn't you just show me these ?"
   "I would have, but I got the early impression you aren't a believer."
   "Belief equals faith, and I don't subscribe."
   "Well, you do have some unanswered questions, don't you ?"
   Sarah admitted to herself that she did, and this time when she asked, Lisa
did leave. A quick check of the case file on her Powerbook, and she knew just
who she needed to speak with.

   The girl was nervous. Of that there was no question. Monica had decided
against interviewing her in the school- Monica probably still had one or two
fellow teachers who were `on her side' and she couldn't take that chance. 
   Taking her down to the station was also not in anyone's best interest. That
would almost certainly get the parents involved one way or another, and right
now, the less people involved in this, the better.
   "We're going to take a little drive, Kim. I want you to know that you
shouldn't be worried about anything. I just have a few questions to ask and
then I'll drop you back off and you can pretend none of this ever happened."
   Sarah caught the look Kim gave her pack of cigarettes.
   "Do you smoke, Kim ?"
   "No," Kim said, shaking her head non-committally. But Sarah knew it was a
lie.	
   "Well, I smoke. I find it very relaxing." She picked up the pack and lit a
cigarette. "If you'd like to join me, I won't say anything to anyone."
   The girl, who was an attractive sixteen year old with natural strawberry
blonde hair and a sweet face sitting above very ample breasts, thought about
the pros and cons and then picked up the pack and extracted a single
cigarette, which she lit with moderately shaking hands as Sarah pulled away
from the school.
   "This is about Jonathan, isn't it ?"
   The question was perfectly natural but the girl's voice was entirely strange.
   "Why do you ask ?" Sarah said, as though there could be any other reason for
pulling her out of class in the middle of the day.
   "I saw him-"
   "At the wake. I know. I was there."
   "Not at the wake. This morning. I haven't slept well since- since it
happened. I was up around five thirty. It was still dark outside. But I know
what I saw."
   "This morning ?" Sarah asked, wondering why she wasn't shocked.
   "That's crazy, isn't it ? Like some grief-stricken crap you see on
television, right ?"
   Sarah resisted the urge to agree that was exactly what it was.
   "Tell me more."
   "He was under the big maple out front. Just staring up at my window. I was to
afraid to open it and talk to him. He looked- well, he looked wrong. I don't
know if that makes any sense. For two or three minutes, he just stood there,
like he wasn't sure why he'd come, and then he just shuffled away. I thought
maybe I was dreaming. But then I lit a cigarette and knew I was awake. My mom
came into my room and kind of freaked- she knows I smoke but I'm not supposed
to smoke in the house- my Dad doesn't know I smoke yet and-"
   "He probably knows now," Sarah said with a smile. 
   The girl hesitated. Inhaled. It wasn't nervous now, but rather fulfilling.
That same knowing smile crept across both their faces.
   "Yeah. He didn't really mind. But it was nice, in a way, because they didn't
realise how upset I was. They just gave me a short lecture about how I needed
to understand what smoking meant and then let me go to school."
   "What does smoking mean ?" Sarah asked, half because she wanted to make Kim
comfortable and half from honest interest.
   "To me ? Well, being able to smoke openly means that I can enjoy it. Don't
take this the wrong way, but it's probably been an hell of a long time since
you had to worry about getting caught."
   "I thought that was part of the fun."
   "Not at ten o'clock at night when you haven't had a cigarette in five hours
and you're dying for one." Kim's eyes shifted, taking a sudden interest in her
sneakers as Sarah pulled hard on her cigarette.
   "You don't think I'm crazy- seeing Jonathan, I mean ?"
   "I wouldn't be here if something wasn't happening, would I ?'
   Kim thought about that, trimmed ash from her cigarette, and inhaled again.
She had a very natural look, smoking without any hesitation now, entirely
unlike the unsettled way she'd lit up.
   "What can I tell you ?"
   "Was Jonathan close to Ms. Jones ?"
   "You mean Monica. Describe close."
   The way she said it was so odd that Sarah understood immediately. The girl
knew the answer that Sarah was looking for but she was going to make her ask
the question the right way first.
   "Were you and Jonathan close ?"
   "What do you think ?" Kim asked, the question carrying a bitter edge.
   "I think you were, just not the way that you wanted. I think that Jonathan
was close to Monica the way you wanted him to be close to you, and I'd like to
hear the whole story. Let's stop in at the Daily Grind and talk about it."
   
   They were sitting in a dark booth in the back of the shoppe, deep inside the
smoking section.
   Kim was lighting her third cigarette and Sarah was glad she'd picked up
another pack earlier.
   They hadn't talked about Jonathan since sitting down, but rather just talked,
about smoking and the weather and Sarah's work. This was called letting the
witness `get comfortable.' As her old mentor Detective Brownston put it, `Make
a friend. Your friends will tell you anything- except who they're sleeping
with.'
   Sarah didn't exactly agree with that, but it was close enough.
   "He and Monica," Kim said, starting up without any encouragement. "I couldn't
believe it when it happened. You know, she's- well, some people are reserved
and quiet-"
   "Like you-"
   Kim nodded, inhaled, seeming to relax. Sarah followed suit, washing the
inhale down with a large mouthful of coffee before exhaling. The combination
of tastes was wonderful.
   "Yeah. Then there are people like Monica. You feel like she's flirting with
you even when she's not. Even I felt that way a few times. I mean, she tried
to get close to me because I was close to Jonathan, but sometimes I felt it
was like a game. Like there were times when she was trying to be a little like
me for him-"
   "And times you were trying to be a little like her ?" Sarah asked, not
cruelly, but because she noticed the girl was wearing her hair exactly the
same way as the school teacher, a very adultish do for a teenager. Their
clothes were similar as well, Kim's strangely unlike the grungy bell-bottomed
look that was in these days.
   "That's why I started smoking. I know that must sound sillier than anything
else that I've said, but I used to watch them together or sit with him outside
at lunch while she was on her break, standing with the other teachers who
smoked. I mean, Jonathan never touched a cigarette, but you see how he was
turned on."
   "Did it work ?" Sarah asked, wondering herself where she thought she was
going with this.
   "Yeah. It did, actually. As soon as I started smoking, our relationship
changed. We- this is embarrassing-"
   Sarah tapped the ash from her cigarette, moved it close to her mouth, and
then bent her head to accept it between her lips. As so often happened, the
feel of the filter against her lips made her feel- she thought it might be
inappropriate at this moment, but what the fuck- very hot inside. The
forbidden aspect of smoking was still strong, sensual, compelling.
   "Whatever you say to me goes right in the vault-"
   "We fooled around a few times. But it never felt right. Partly because I
always got the impression her was thinking of her, and partly because I knew
it was because he got off on my smoking. Still, I don't regret it, because
smoking is- you're going to think this is nuts, but it's very sexual."
   "Of course it is," Sarah said, thinking back- looking forward, perhaps- to
her bedroom and her free hand. "That's why he found it so appealing in Monica.
I've watched her smoke. It's quite a show."
   "She is special. I have to admit that I enjoy watching her smoke."
   "So did I. That's why I started."
   Kim turned her head and exhaled. It drew the attention of a Steve Jobs-
dressed twenty-something a few table over. He made eye contact with Sarah and
immediately developed the need to check and see if his Birkenstocks were on
straight.
   "You just started. I would have never known."
   "I envy you- learning about smoking at a younger age. I had plenty of
opportunities, but-"
   "It's so cool, isn't it ?"
   Sarah smiled. She was enjoying this, but the real reason they were here had
never gotten far from her thoughts and now she went back there.
   "Do you- is there anything strange about Monica ?"
   "That I've noticed ?" Kim asked, turning her head towards the embarrassed
young man who had gone back to watching them. This time he let his gaze linger
as Kim wrapped her unpainted lips around the cigarette and inhaled deeply.
   "What isn't strange about a woman who fools around with an high school kid ?"
   "I think what I'm trying to ask," Sarah said, choosing her words carefully,
"is if you think Monica could have hurt Jonathan in any way ?"
   "Physically ?"
   "Well, yes, that would be the general idea."
   There were times when trying to get the right information was not easy.
   "I don't, I mean, the person to ask that question would be Jonathan."
   The answer was obvious, correct, and just a wee bit loony.
   Sarah didn't know quite what to say. She drew on her cigarette, thankful for
the relaxing quality of the nicotine and the carbon monoxide high which
accompanied it.
   "You are going to look for him, aren't you ?"
   Hard as it was to admit, Sarah realised that was exactly what she would need
to do.

   Tamara sat down next to Sarah and promptly lit a cigarette. She took a deep
draw on the Virginia Slims, smiled, and then regarded Sarah with those serious
blue eyes of hers.
   "You want my help looking for Jonathan Fraktor ? Why not put out an APB on
him ?"
   "The `he's been dead for a week' thing is holding me back a little bit, you
know."
   "But if the girl is right-"
   "If the girl is right, something is very wrong in our little corner of the
world. I was at the funeral, remember. I saw him lowered into the cold dark
earth. Saw his mother lean forward in her wheelchair and throw the first
handful of dirt on the coffin. That's the loneliest sound in the world. Dirt
and rocks on polished wood. I can still hear it."
   Tamara lifted her head so that she could watch her own exhale. The smoke
jetted from her mouth and danced in the air.
   "Did you go home ?"
   Tamara nodded. "Yes I did. You know, I would never tell anyone else this, but
I dug my vibrator out from under the wonder bras and had a good time. I
haven't felt so alive in months. I owe you. So if you want me to look for a
dead kid, then I'm your woman. Where should we start ?"
   "The Fraktor house. If he's not dead, that's the first place to look."
   "Didn't the plainclothes detail check it out ?"
   "No," Sarah said, and then she lit a cigarette. Or tried to. The wind had
picked up and she couldn't get a light until Tamara cupped her hands around
the tip of the cigarette.
   "You need some practise lighting up outdoors, Sarah. It takes a while to get
it down."
   "I told them to stay clear. I want the forensics data first, and besides,
something tells me that if anything happened to Melissa Fraktor, it was before
the sun came up this morning."
   "Are you starting to buy into the vampire angle ?" Tamara asked in a way only
someone who'd never worked with Sarah would. Then again, Sarah didn't work
with a partner, so what could she expect ?
   "My thinking's changed a little bit. I'm working on forcing myself to realise
that what our suspect believes may be much more important to solving this case
than what I believe."
   "If you're suspect thinks he's a vampire- or she's a vampire- that's one head
I don't envy you having to get inside."
   "That makes two of us. The thought of drinking another person's blood- well,
let's just say that's more than a little disturbing."
   "I think we should get moving, then. The sun is going down-"
   Sarah swallowed hard. It was indeed.

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