Vampire Dreams (Bloodscreams #1) by Robert W Walker Read Free Book Online

really,” said Banaker curtly. “But if that boy was put in the earth here, well, the faster we dig, the better.”
    “You're a medical doctor, Banaker,” said Stroud. “What the hell do you know about bones besides the ones you've set?”
    “So happens I'm a bone specialist.”
    “Among other things?”
    “I'm also Chief Medical Advisor for the police, Doctor Stroud, and frankly, I don't believe you have any say in this matter, since it is a police investigation.”
    “This is a grave site of some sort and you're devastating it!”
    “Tell him, son!” shouted Dr. Martin Magaffey who came up beside Stroud. Magaffey was visibly put out, shaking with indignation, his features pinched. Banaker represented the medical profession in Andover. Martin Magaffey--at an advanced age that caused him seizures during which he dozed off while standing, sometimes while performing an autopsy--was to be replaced by a man appointed by Banaker as soon as the one with the right stuff came along. “He would have to be a fool,” Magaffey had confided in Stroud once, “a fool to take the putrid pay, the indignities, and the overwhelming tasks!”
    Before all this had exploded in Stroud's face, he had been looking over the arcane system which had made Banaker Magaffey's superior. It was an odd mix of medicine and politics that smacked of the sort of horror that usually occurred whenever government and medicine crawled into bed together. Stroud didn't like it, but today's fiasco was real proof that Banaker only made evidence-gathering in Andover inexcusably muddled. Whatever happened to scientific police investigation?
    “Banaker's in charge,” Briggs said.
    Stroud carried his argument over to Magaffey as the backhoe was churned up again. “You get Banaker out of it, and I'll see what I can do,” Magaffey said. “If he's involved, I'm not! Sorry, son ... just ineffective, whole damned process. Used to think that my having to report to the police chief as his underling was bad. This structure now, ten times worse. Banaker's a two-faced--”
    He let it drop suddenly when from across the length of a hundred yards he looked up and saw Banaker's eyes riveted on him and Stroud. “He's wondering how soon he can get rid of me; look at 'im. Doesn't like your being here, either, if you'd like to know, Stroud.”
    “Likes to run the show, huh? Can't accept an idea not his own?”
    “You got it.” Magaffey, his wild thin hair lifting and falling with the a.m. breeze, laughed at this. “Sure ... sure, and my mouth's got me into more trouble than anyone in Andover oughta have. I don't know.... Was a time Andover was a nice place to live, raise a family.”
    “You small-town lifers don't trust anyone, do you, Doc? Banaker's father started the clinic, didn't he?”
    “His father wasn't like him.”
    “Fair man?”
    “No, but at least he didn't pretend to be! Say what you will, Stroud ... town's changed, and it ain't all for the good. Not no more.”
    “So, what do you think of the bones, Doc?” Stroud wanted very much to get the white-haired old gentleman back on course before he went on another tirade or had a bout with his dropsy.
    “Bones is bones, some say. Me, I know bones, son. I tell you one thing.” He came close and conspiratorially whispered, “These here bones've been buried twice.”
    “What?”
    “You heard me.”
    “What do you mean by twice?”
    “Not so damned loud, Stroud. Want that chickenshit Briggs, or that TV man to hear? Just what I said, damn it--the bones I've seen buried here aren't fresh. They've all seen better days.”
    “Some sort of archaeological find, you telling me? An Indian burial mound, maybe. I've seen the Cahokia find up north of here. Northwestern University, Dr. Treller.”
    “ Nooooooo ! Damn it, Stroud, how'd you ever get so far on your own?”
    Stroud dropped his gaze, rubbed his unshaven face, and felt for some reserve with the old man. Maybe Banaker was right about Magaffey. Maybe