Читать книгу Barry and the Vampire in the Rosedale Encounter - Darrell Bartell - Страница 9

Nurse Smith gave Barry’s mom simple instructions. “Enjoy a good meal, clean the kitchen, and go to bed. Wake up rested for work and don’t worry about Barry. He’ll be on a field trip in Oklahoma and won’t be back until after spring break.”

After Barry threw a few clothes into a suitcase, they both walked outside.

She looked to make sure nobody was around. “Hang on.”

“Where are we going?” asked Barry.

“My place.” Grabbing Barry underneath his arms, they flew up into the night sky. A few minutes later they landed on the roof of the same abandoned apartment building on Rosedale Street from the previous night.

They went through an open door, which she closed and double-locked behind them. Then they walked down a flight of stairs to the top floor. Barry’s eyes couldn’t adjust. All the windows were boarded up from the inside.

“Wait here,” she instructed.

A few seconds later she flipped a switch and a chandelier illuminated the darkness. Half of the top floor had been converted into a huge studio apartment. Against the north wall, a canopy bed with blue satin sheets stood on a fifteen-foot square Oriental rug. Her hospital scrubs were hanging off to the side of the bed. The east side had been turned into a living room complete with a sofa, coffee table, and plasma-screen television with a DVD player.

“Wow! Nice place.” Barry put his suitcase down next to the door.

“Thanks. Feel free to look around, but don’t touch anything. We won’t be here long.”

The library against the south wall caught Barry’s attention. Along with the bookshelves containing what appeared to be some exquisite first editions ranging from the works of Mark Twain to Ernest Hemingway, there were pictures carefully placed on top of the grand piano. Barry walked over to get a closer look.

“Is that who I think it is?”

“Which one?” she answered. “When it comes to music I have a variety of tastes: Toby Keith, Sting, Beyoncé, Dr. Dre, Queen, Journey, and the red-haired stranger himself.”

She wasn’t kidding. The piano had pictures of her with some of the top singers in the music industry of the last twenty or thirty years. “How did you meet all of these people?”

“Getting a backstage pass is easy when you have talent,” she joked.

Something appeared odd about the pictures. “I thought vampires couldn’t be photographed.”

“And we don’t cast a reflection in mirrors, and we sleep in coffins during the day. I’ll bring you up to speed later.” Nurse Smith started typing at her computer. “Come over here.”

Barry strolled over to Nurse Smith seated at the desk, intensely staring at the computer screen. She found the website she needed.

“Stand against the white wall, smile, and say cheese.”

Barry did and a bright flash of light went off. “What was that?”

“Your picture. I’m getting you a driver’s license.”

“You hacked into the DMV?”

“It’s the age of computers. They come in handy when you want to change your name and have to relocate.” She continued typing. “You do know how to drive, don’t you?”

“My dad taught me.”

“Good. What’s your date of birth?”

He told her.

“We’ll add four years to it.”

“Why do I need a fake ID?”

“Because some of the places we’re going won’t allow you inside unless you’re twenty-one,” she typed again.

“Like where?” he inquired.

“I’ll tell you when we get there.”

Nurse Smith worked like a pro, using the computer to print and then laminate Barry’s picture to the driver’s license. “Complete with the state seal on the front and magnetic strip on the back,” she said, handing the small document to Barry.

“Never thought I’d see this.”

“Why, haven’t you had a license before?”

“No car. Mom couldn’t keep up with the payments so it was repoed. I walk to school. She takes the bus to work.”

His attention focused on a framed picture of two young girls in cheerleading uniforms. One of them appeared to be Nurse Smith. When he picked up the photograph from her desk, she quickly grabbed it away from him and replaced it.

“I said, look around, but don’t touch anything,” she growled.

“Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.” He took a moment to choose his words. “Is that you and your sister?”

“Maybe.”

Barry watched the vampire stand up from the desk and stroll over to her closet in the bedroom area. After putting a few things in a suitcase, she pulled out a large gym-style duffel bag and put it on the bed. Then she removed a small strong box from the top shelf, opened it, and tossed him a stack of used fifty-dollar bills wrapped with a rubber band.

“Catch.”

He did. “What’s this for?”

“You’ll need it.” She put on a light tan suede jacket and stuffed a few stacks of fifties and hundreds into the pockets before replacing the box in the closet.

“How much is here?”

“Should be five grand.”

“Five grand?” The money started to burn his hand. He had never seen so much green.

“It’ll go fast, so don’t get used to it.” She closed the closet door. “Let’s go.”

Barry grabbed his suitcase and followed her to the elevator. The chandelier’s lights slowly dimmed as the doors opened. When they stepped inside, the doors closed and the elevator descended into a downstairs parking garage.

Nurse Smith flipped a switch and several florescent light fixtures brightened the area containing a Dodge Charger Super Bee, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and the best car he’d ever seen.

“Whoa!”

“Like it?”

“Is this what I think it is?” Barry knew they existed, but seeing one up close put his adrenaline into overdrive.

“It is.”

“An XKR Jaguar convertible, V8 engine, automatic transmission, with a front splinter, rear signature blade, air intakes, and twenty-inch kalimos gloss black alloy wheels. Price tag, $122, 000 dollars.”

“$124, 000,” she shot back. “How does a kid from the East side know so much about a Jaguar?”

“My dad and I used to talk about getting one. It drove Mom crazy.” Barry asked the big question. “Are we taking the Jag?”

Nurse Smith laughed as she hit a button on her key chain. The car alarm disengaged and the doors automatically unlocked on the Dodge. “In your dreams.”

Barry didn’t mind. He felt privileged to be in the same room with one. After placing their baggage in the trunk, they entered the vehicle. She plugged an address into the GPS system, started the car, and traveled down a long, winding, underground tunnel.

“Had no idea this was here. I thought the only tunnels in Fort Worth ran from downtown to the stockyards.”

“That and the utility tunnels around Throckmorton.” She pushed a button on what appeared to be a garage door opener above her sun visor.

“You won’t find this on any map.” A metal door rolled up and she drove the car through an abandoned sewer system underneath a warehouse on South Main Street. Another push of the button and the metal door closed.

“Jane, where are we going?”

She looked at him and smiled. “It’s Casey.”

“What?”

“Call me Casey,” she reminded him. “That’s my name and we’re going to Lubbock.”

“Why?”

“To find out where Kelly ran off to.”

“But the website said she went to Los Angeles.”

“I know it did.” She followed the instructions on her GPS. “And for her sake, I hope she didn’t.”