Page 15 of How to Stake a Vampire

My eyes glazed over a little.

Barney met our faintly accusing stares as Gladys left the room in search of her coworkers.

“It would have been rude to refuse,” he said defensively. “Ghouls are very proud of their cooking.” He tucked into the rest of his muffin with obvious gusto.

“Right,” Gavin muttered.

“This guy just likes brain muffins,” Bo whispered accusingly.

Gladys returned with three ghouls.

They all had matching gray skin and name tags that readHi! I’m Dead, How Can I Help You?

“This is Pete, Bethany, and Steve,” Gladys introduced. “They were all here on the night of the robbery.”

Pete waved shyly. His left arm dropped off.

Bethany picked it up and reattached it without a word.

“Let me make you that coffee.” Gladys busied herself at the counter while we sat at a round table that had seen better centuries. “What would you like? We have regular, decaf, and plasma blend.”

“Regular, please,” I said quickly. Didi and Gavin murmured the same.

“Plasma blend,” came Barney’s unsurprising answer.

Gladys looked at Bo.

“He doesn’t do coffee,” I said.

Bo wagged his tail. “I had it once and I don’t remember the next five hours of my life,” he said with misplaced pride.

“He ran around the park like he was possessed,” I said at Didi’s and Gavin’s questioning looks.

Steve, who seemed to be the most intact of the ghouls, spoke. “It’s terrible about the break-in.” He shook his head sadly.

Bo stared with bated breath and looked a little disappointed when Steve’s head didn’t fall off.

“We take security very seriously here,” Pete added. “Well, we did. Now we’re thinking of getting one of those fancy alarm systems.”

“About time,” Bethany muttered. “The taxidermist next door has more security tech than we do.”

Gladys served us our drinks before taking a seat at the table. “Now, then, what would you like to know?”

Didi pulled out her notepad and clicked her pen with a sound like someone cocking a gun.

“Can you walk us through what happened that night?”

Pete, Bethany, and Steve exchanged wary looks.

“It was around midnight,” Pete began. “It was my turn in the security room. I noticed the cameras going dark. At first I thought it was just a power glitch. Happens all the time in these old buildings.” He waved a hand vaguely at the ceiling.

Bethany caught it with lightning-fast speed as it dropped off his wrist.

Bo started wagging his tail.

I eyed my dog’s keen eyes suspiciously. I sure as hell hoped he wasn’t thinking of treating one of Pete’s body parts like a fetching stick.

“Sorry.” Pete twisted his hand back on with an embarrassed expression.