from Sudden Cool Dark

Dalton reserved one of the small study rooms available. Inside, there was a table and three chairs. He set up his lap top and waited for Barb to bring him the books or for Ms. Roberts to show up, which ever came first.

Barb showed up a few minutes later, a little flustered but cradling a pile of books in her arms. She laid them out as gingerly as possible on the table next to Dalton’s computer. They were an eclectic variety of texts. Dalton sifted through the pile one by one until he had a few distinct heaps: local geography and history, the Catholic Church, vampire novels. The latter pile included Bram Stoker, Stephen King, Anne Rice and others.

“They checked out these books?”

“Well, they usually just looked at them in here.” She gestured to the walls and then made one of those characteristic pauses before looking back at him. “Well, not here, of course!” She laughed. “I forget that this place is so new. We were in the trailer back then. Gosh, it has been a long time.”

“Tell you what,” Dalton said, “I’ll just look at all this while I wait. When Ms. Roberts shows up, please send her in.”

Barb nodded, smiling and left. 

Dalton perused the piles of books disinterestedly. He had never read any vampire books but he had seen some movies. Gary Oldman. Winona Ryder. Tom Cruise. Brad Pitt. He thought about the stake in the John Doe’s body.

The books on Catholicism were very old. There was an old missal. He had never owned one before but he knew what they were. They contained the guide to liturgies, particularly the mass. He flipped through it. Each page was divided into two columns of words. One in Latin, the other in English. That might come in handy. He started a new pile: Books he would check out.

He started into the pile of history books. There was a history of Arizona, a history of the Southwest, a few books on the Anasazi, the Hohokam and the Mogollon. The latter seemed to be the most worn. Finally, there was one book about local history called the Witch Cave Massacre. He flipped it open and immediately noticed that someone had written a familiar phrase on the inside cover in red ink.

Satan is King.