Krista Winter sat in her small office at the law firm of Merrell, Rothstein, and Hogarth, gazing longingly out the window at the blue sky. It was one of those November days in Dallas when it was still warm and sunny. She wished she could be out on the golf course or the tennis court, but she still had a lot of paperwork to wrap up from her last case.
Krista was 32 years old and, like most attorneys her age, fully engaged in the shark-like battle to the top in her profession. She was currently a "non-equity" partner at the firm, meaning that she was allowed to use the title of partner, but didn't get a share of the firm's profits like the equity partners did. Still, she was doing quite well. She was one of the youngest lawyers to make partner, even a non-equity one, and though she didn't get to share in the firm's profits, her promotion had come with a very nice raise. And she had her own office, unlike the cubicles the junior attorneys were stuck with.
A knock on the door made her look up. Her boss, Mr. Hogarth, entered the office. "Good morning, Krista. Just got in and heard the news. Congratulations on your victory in the Jones case."
"Thank you." She smiled in her well-practiced, confident but not too cocky manner.
"Ready for another one? This one may sound dull, but things could get a lot more...interesting."
"Sure. Tell me more."
"Well, recently, one of our clients, an 83-year-old man named Anton Vonn, passed away. He owned a large mansion in Maine, and in his will left it to his only known living relative, his nephew, Darren Vonn. Unfortunately, Darren seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. He was living in Maine, near his uncle, but vanished around the same time the old man died. We need someone to go to Maine, find Darren Vonn, and straighten this whole thing out."
Krista perked up. She enjoyed traveling, especially if it was on the firm's dime, and loved a good mystery. "Sounds interesting already, actually."
"That's not even the most interesting part. There are rumors that the old man, Anton Vonn, was, well..."
"Was what, sir?"
"That he's...well...a vampire. That when he was about to die, he performed some crazy ritual, turned himself into a vampire, rose from the dead, and is haunting the mansion." Hogarth, seeing the expression on Krista's face, quickly said, "I know, I know."
"Is there any...evidence for these rumors?" she asked.
"Well, the old man's body disappeared from his coffin. And he was always very eccentric, living alone in that creepy old mansion."
"Doesn't sound like very strong evidence to me. Some weirdos probably just stole the corpse for God knows what."
"Probably. But at any rate, there's a missing body and a missing, presumably living nephew. How soon can you be ready to go? How are you coming along with the Jones paperwork?"
Krista glanced briefly over her desk. "I can get it wrapped up today no problem and be ready to go tomorrow."
"Great. I'll have our travel secretary make the arrangements." Hogarth handed her a file. "Here's all the information you'll need about the new case. Good luck."
* * *
TWO DAYS LATER
Krista sat at the counter of the small-town Maine diner, going over the information in the file one last time as she ate her sausage and eggs. Yesterday had been a long day of traveling, flying from Dallas to Philadelphia, changing planes, flying to Bangor, Maine, and renting a car for the two-hour drive to this small town deep in the Maine woods. By the time she had gotten there, the November sky was dark. The lumpy bed in the cheap motel, the only one in town, hadn't been the best for her sleep schedule, and she found herself thinking longingly of the elegant luxury hotels she'd stayed in on trips to big cities. At least the firm had paid for first-class tickets for her on the plane. And at least the breakfast was good. She finished her meal, paid the check, leaving a generous tip for the waitress, and went to the restroom to freshen up.
Inside, she studied her reflection in the mirror. Krista was a very attractive young woman, with long auburn hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, and an elegant, high- cheekboned face. Long hours of soccer, ballet, and gymnastics practice growing up, along with good genes, had granted her a muscular but feminine athlete's body (and a full soccer scholarship to a Division I college). She carried all the archetypical female athlete traits on her 5'7", 130-pound frame - toned arms, long and well-muscled legs, a slim wasp waist, perky and natural 34C breasts, and a round, hard dancer's ass.
She took equal pride in her beauty and her intelligence, knowing that both were vital to getting ahead in her line of work. She loved outsmarting opposing attorneys, and also enjoyed it when those men (and sometimes women) were clearly attracted to her. But though she was ambitious, she hated the petty office politics that everyone had to be dragged through. This case - if it did turn out to be something more than a simple missing person, if she solved the mystery - it would put her on the fast track to advancement and reduce the number of years she would have to wait until she could rise above her rivals.
Making a final adjustment to her hair, she checked her watch (a large-faced gold man's Rolex that hung slightly loose on her slender wrist). It was almost time. She quickly exited the restroom and headed out to her rented Nissan Altima.
It was a brief five-minute drive across the small town to the home of her contact, a man named Carl. Carl had been the closest thing to a caretaker for the Vonn mansion, driving up there once a week to clean up the grounds, deliver supplies, and check in on the old man.
Carl turned out to be a gray-haired but wiry man in his late fifties. As she shook his hand with her trademark firm grip, she could see from the look in his eyes that he was clearly attracted to her, and also both intimidated and turned on by her wrist strength. She allowed herself a small smirk at that when he wasn't looking.
Carl knew little more about the case than what Krista had already learned from her file. He informed her that on one of his weekly visits, he had discovered old Anton Vonn peacefully dead in his bed and had called the authorities. As for the missing nephew, Darren Vonn, Carl had last spoken to him two days before he had discovered Anton dead, and hadn't seen Darren since then.
"Would you like me to take you to Darren's house to look around?" Carl asked.
Krista shook her head. "The cops probably combed the place already. I'd rather go out to Anton's mansion. The old man apparently died a natural death, so the police wouldn't have looked around too closely. Anyway, it gets dark early, and I'd like to use what daylight we have to look around."
"If that's what you want. It's about twenty miles out of town, with a bumpy dirt road the whole way. Does your rental car have four-wheel drive?"
She shook her head. "The rental place was all out of them."
"Then we should take my Jeep. Come on."
* * *
Krista looked out at the gray sky as the Jeep bounced along the narrow dirt road, meandering between the tall trees of the dark forest. Quite a contrast in the weather, going from 75 degrees and sunny in Dallas to 35 and cloudy here. It looked like it might rain, or perhaps snow.
She looked over at Carl. "Have you heard the rumors that old Anton was...a vampire?"
"Of course. Rumors are all over town. The whole thing is ridiculous, of course. Vampires? For real? Come on. But people in towns like these are superstitious, and like to believe anything as long as it sounds cool and dark and scary."
"What about the body disappearing?"
"Probably some of our local punk kids stole it as a prank. We've been having some issues with a group of our local teenage boys. They think of themselves as some kind of occult club, and they've really been getting into this whole vampire thing. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if they lifted that corpse for some kind of so-called ritual."
"And Darren? What do you think happened to him?"
"Don't know. The guy was always going off on unannounced trips, though. Most likely he's off on one now and will turn up a few days later."
Krista nodded, but she was skeptical. Darren vanishing at the same time that Anton died...it was too much to be a coincidence. No, something more was going on here, vampires or not.
When they finally reached their destination, Carl parked the Jeep near the front entrance. Krista climbed out from the passenger seat, stretched her limbs, and looked around.
The large two-story mansion was built in the Gothic style. At first glance, it appeared luxurious and elegant, but a closer look revealed scratched walls, a damaged roof, and boarded-up windows. That, combined with the gloomy skies and the dark woods all around, made for the perfect archetypical eerie vampire setting, Krista couldn't help thinking. As a cold wind began blowing, she shivered despite the warm coat she was wearing.
Carl unlocked the front door. As she followed him in, Krista stopped in surprise at how warm the interior was. "The heat shouldn't be on, should it?"
The caretaker shook his head. "No. Dunno why it's on. No one should be here." He took off his heavy pea jacket. Krista removed her long black coat, standing there in her black leather pants, knee-high black leather boots, and white blouse.
"So where should we start..." she began, but stopped upon hearing a noise. "That sounded like footsteps," she whispered.
Carl, an alarmed look now on his face, nodded. "Sounds like it's coming from behind there," he whispered back, pointing to a heavy oak door on the right side of the entrance hall.
"Well, shall we? I wish I had a vampire stake or something." Krista's words were only half joking.
Carl made his way over to the door, Krista right behind him. On the count of three, Carl yanked it open suddenly.
A large and dusty dining room was revealed. A long table surrounded by ten high-backed chairs was in the center of the room, but there was no one else there. "You sure those were footsteps?" he whispered.
"Pretty sure. But there are no other humans here. Whoever it was must have gone out the other door."
"Unless whoever - or whatever - it was isn't human..." Carl trailed off.
"I thought you said you didn't believe in that stuff."
"That was before all this happened."
"Well, we're not going to figure anything out just standing here," said Krista. "Let's check the next room."
The next room turned out to be a large, empty kitchen. The far side of the kitchen opened up into another hallway. "Let's split up and each take a direction," she said. "We can meet up at the front entrance. If we don't find anything, we can check upstairs next."
"You sure you're going to be all right by yourself?" Carl asked.
She laughed, flexing her right bicep, which bulged underneath her blouse. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."
Krista went through several uninhabited rooms, including a study, a library, and a living room. As each room turned out to be empty, she relaxed a little. That was why she was so startled when she opened the next door.
A teenage boy was in the room. He stared at her for a second, then jumped up, looking as if he was about to take off running. "Hey! Wait!" she called out.
He froze, looking at her with fear and intimidation, both from being caught and from her beauty. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded.
