"Lawson was there?" "Heather asked
"Yes Amos had summoned him as soon as he knew that Beverly was coming. Kind of hoping that he would talk sense into her…but not only that… the link he had with Lawson let him know how Lawson felt about him.. a measure of fear and disgust… and he wanted to… to make Lawson think better of him.
"Why?"
"It was too close to what he saw in Genevieve's eyes as she run away from him to her death… it was again relieving his tragedy. but the situation resolved itself.''
-0-
Lawson felt the call and shuddered.. what did that creature want now? Was it his blood this time? That he listened again to his self-justifying rambling? He had to obey… and then there was this command "bring your bag with you"
Lawson went, and his imagination conjured the spectacle of Beverly drained to the point of death…and what could he do then? And what would Amos do if he failed to save her?
But he was pulled to the roadside, to a fire and when he got there saw that it was a car that had gone over… and Amos was bending over a body… and there were other bodies on the ground…
"What have you done?" he asked.
"I did what I could… but they need a doctor.."
"He saw the three bodies.. all breathing. And they had some improvised bandages and there were burns on them..
"You pulled them out of their car?" he understood.
"She… called.. I could sense their distress… and I had to come… I got in time…"
"Where did you learn to make bandage like this?
"In the war."
"I see." He checked on them and called for an ambulance. "You better make yourself scarce wen they come. I will say they got out on their own or were thrown.."
"Will they...?"
"I think they will make it… You have fed off them at one time have you?"
"Yes."
"Well, I do not know how much you took, but it was worth it for them"
-0-
"And so Lawson's attitude changed."
"Of course, Amos could have staged it, caused the accident, and made himself look good in Lawson's eyes." Heather said acidly. "I would have done it."
"You forget, Lawson could sense Amos' emotions… and Amos was genuinely distressed."
"I see.. In the meantime I was trying to figure out who the vampire was…"
"You knew that there was one?" Beverly asked.
"Sure. What do you think that I asked Lawson to test samples for? I had to know if he or she was still around. From what I gathered I was dealing with a cautious sort… but still one that could slip every one of them.. I send Herb Whitby to check… Yes, he worked for George Midler so I could ask him to run errands. He looked for someone a bit paler than the ordinary who kept his or her throat covered… so he met you, and gathered that you were a history buff.."
"And then you approached me posing as another history buff… and we compared sources."
"And sooner or later you'd let a name slip by."
"And we knew nothing of it" Danny said. "Life continued as before… me working on restoring the place – with Amos doing some heavy lifting when he would not be observed…And Lawson coming by getting chummier by the minuet… I do not know how, but he and Amos hit it off.."
"Not like in the show".
"I wish the scriptwriters had put less of the scary stuff and more of the funny stuff that happened…Lawson had a sense of the ridiculous and that was good for Amos… he learned not to take himself so seriously.. I remember when Amos came with the scheme that Frank Carruthers had told him."
-0-
"So he wants you to bite a few prominent men and have them tell you stock market tips?
"He said that it would be no different than taking surveys."
"No different?" Lawson guffawed "He said that? I hope you did not do it."
"I am tempted."
"Taking surveys is a perfectly legal activity. What he s proposing is insider trading. And that is a Federal Offense"…. He laughed again "You do it, and you'll be the first vampire busted for white collar crime."
-0-
"So of course he did not do it. But Frank kept getting n trouble…"