Read Online Stalking the Vampire by Mike Resnick - Free Book Online Page B

a leash I will,” said Mallory.
    â€œThen I'll scream and tell everyone you're sexually abusing me.”
    â€œYou don't even know what that means.”
    â€œNo,” she admitted. “But it always works.”
    â€œAround here they'd probably give me a prize.”
    â€œWould it be good to eat, I wonder?” asked the cat-girl.
    â€œFelina, you're here to watch my back. Now, you do what you're told, or I lock you up in the office until this case is finished.”
    She hissed at him once, then walked behind him and stood still.
    The pipe organ was joined by some truly bone-chilling wailing.
    â€œWhat the hell is that? ” asked Mallory.
    â€œUnless I miss my guess, it's the Vienna Boys' Choir,” said McGuire.
    â€œThey flew them all the way over here just for tonight?”
    â€œNo,” said McGuire. “This is the eighteenth-century Vienna Boys' Choir. They show up somewhere every All Hallows' Eve. Lends atmosphere, don't you think?”
    â€œSounds eerie,” said Mallory.
    â€œWell, this is the City Morgue,” replied McGuire.
    Mallory looked around. “Where did Felina go?”
    â€œI'm right here,” said a voice from behind him.
    â€œWhat are you doing?”
    â€œI'm watching your back,” she said. “But it's a really dull job. It just stays there between your head and your hips and doesn't do anything ”
    â€œJust make sure no one sneaks up on it,” said Mallory.
    They entered the building, found themselves in a small foyer, signed in at a registration desk, then signed statements that they were not dues-paying members in good standing of the Graverobbers Union. They were then ushered through the foyer and into a vast room, taking up almost a full city block. There were tables and slabs everywhere, orderlies rushing to and fro, the occasional pathologist examining the occasional corpse, and a huge coin-operated ice machine in one corner.
    â€œThey're not very well organized, are they?” remarked McGuire.
    â€œWhat do you expect?” replied Mallory. “They're a bureaucracy. Look around and see if you can locate where they dumped the kid. You know what he looks like, right?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œTake the left side of the building, I'll take the right.” Mallory turned to Felina. “You stick with me.”
    She leaped lightly to his back. “Yes, John Justin.”
    â€œNot that close.”
    â€œYou ruin everything,” she said, sliding back down to the floor.
    They began walking among the slabs. One housed a coffin, and a woman with chalk-white skin, a black dress, and bright red lipstick was standing next to it, arguing with an orderly.
    â€œI don't care what quality the soil is,” she was saying. “It's from the wrong country.”
    â€œBeggars can't be choosers,” shot back the orderly. “You want a place to sleep tomorrow morning, you take what we've got. And I need five bucks up front.”
    â€œBut I can't sleep in it!”
    â€œLook, lady, that soil has been fertilized by the great Phar Cry himself. Soil like this, you'd have to pay three bucks a pound anywhere in the city.”
    â€œI don't care who crapped in it!” snapped the woman. “I need soil from my home in the Loire Valley!”
    â€œHave you considered moving to Kentucky?” suggested the orderly.
    â€œ No! ”
    â€œWell, then, how about Yonkers?” said the orderly, moving to the next slab. “Now, this coffin is filled with the soil of beautiful downtown Yonkers and was fertilized less than four months ago by Harvey Melchik, who told me the entire shameful story in confidence and made me swear never to repeat it.”
    â€œYou're hopeless!” snapped the woman.
    â€œMaybe so,” said the orderly with dignity, “but at least I know where I'm sleeping tonight.”
    Mallory continued walking. Felina looked like she was about to wander off, so he decided to