Red Tide: The Flavel House Horror / Vampires of the Morgue (The Ian McDermott, Ph.D., Paranormal Investigator Series Book 2) by David Reuben Aslin Read Free Book Online Page B

the day, I think I’ll climb that sucker and take a good look around.”
    Ian, being one who by nature paid attention to most every little detail, decided upon entering the tower to count how many steps it took to reach the top of the column.
    Less than a month ago, if Ian had attempted the same climb, he would have been severely winded. But all the hill climbing and spelunking that he’d done recently back around Harmony Falls had him in pretty good cardiovascular condition. Even so, after Ian had been climbing for a few minutes, he began to get a little disoriented, almost motion sick, from the round and round, up and up you go, dimly lit, somewhat dank, massive spiral staircase that resounded with incessant reverberating echoes created from other climbers, whose chatting and clamoring feet on the metal staircase were only slightly less than thunderous to his ears. After another minute of climbing, Ian could see the top of the stairs. He was rapidly closing in on reaching the top of his climb.
    One hundred sixty-two … one hundred sixty-three … one hundred sixty-four. “Piece of cake.” Ian smiled and proudly proclaimed out loud as he opened the door and crossed the threshold to the outside world. He was a little out of breath but not too bad, and he was very glad to get out into the light and the fresh air.
    “Fantastic!” Ian said in a feeble attempt to proclaim out loud the fabulous, panoramic view that the climb to the top of the Astoria Column afforded him. He then began walking around the tower’s wrap-around viewing platform, taking in all that he could see, and he could see for miles.
    From below in the parking lot looking up at the height of the column, he’d figured he’d get a good view from up above. But he never would have guessed that on such a cloudy day he would be able to see so very far in every direction. Ian especially noted that off to his left from where he stood was Saddle Mountain. He’d noted that it was a particular place of interest from his brochures and that it had a popular hiking trail that went from a parking lot below all the way up to its summit. Ian then gazed ahead towards the mouth of the Columbia and the ocean beyond.
    After taking one more look all around, Ian glanced downward and noticed that a light gray Toyota Camry was pulling into a parking spot below, just two parking spots away from Ian’s Jeep. Ian hurriedly began his descent down the column.
    Officer Parker spotted Ian’s egress from the column. He rolled his window down and held his arm out of the window up in the air.
    Ian spotted Officer Parker’s hand, and proceeded to walk briskly up to the driver’s side of the car.
    “Ian, go around and get in. I figure this is about as good a place to talk as any,” Officer Parker said. Ian figured that the officer had chosen this particular area of the parking lot because he would be able to see all vehicles that were coming and going with ease.
    Ian did as instructed. He walked around to the other side of the car, opened the door, and climbed in.
    “What’d ya think of our little tower?” Officer Parker asked Ian with pride in his voice.
    “It sure offers a fantastic view.” Ian said earnestly.
    Officer Parker smiled and nodded his head in agreement as he replied, “Yeah … the view is really something from up there all right. Ian, I see your Jeep comes with a security system.” It took Ian almost one long second to get what Officer Parker meant by that.
    “Oh, yeah that’s my German Shepherd, Scout. He’s a trained … He was a police dog that the former sheriff of Harmony Falls owned. Scout was given to me by the … new … sheriff there.”
    Officer Parker suddenly adopted a serious expression. “A large police-trained dog … Nice.” Ian nodded his head in total agreement. He knew Officer Parker was wrapping up his chit-chat and was about to start talking shop. Ian, in prior quick study of the officer, had noticed the man could change topics and