Baited Blood by Sue Ann Jaffarian

exhausting. “Okay, so from the way he’s disappearing, can you tell how old a vampire he is?”
    Dodie cocked her head to one side and considered the vampire on the ground. “He’s definitely not as old as Samuel.”
    “That’s for sure,” added Doug. “I once saw a two-thousand-year-old vampire die. He was dust in a matter of minutes. I’d say this one is a few hundred years old.”
    Madison looked down at the body. The face was quickly resembling a dried apple doll. The torso and limbs were drying, the skin beginning to cling to the skeleton like plastic wrap covering leftovers. But still Madison was stumped. “Then why wasn’t he decomposing in the pool? He looked normal when you pulled him out.”
    Doug continued perfecting his sketch. “Because water preserves our bodies. They don’t even have to be submerged, just wet.”
    The information caused a chain reaction in Madison’s brain. “That means whoever did this wanted to make sure the body was found, no matter how long it took.”
    “Most definitely,” Doug said, not looking up from his drawing. “It was probably dumped right after we went to bed this morning, and it would have kept until we got up this evening.”
    “But what if it had been found by someone who didn’t know about you?” Madison shuddered at the thought of an outsider calling the police to report a pool death. “If it is this Annabelle, she’s determined to cause you trouble, isn’t she?”
    Dodie’s jaw tightened. “Sure looks that way to me.”
    A knock at the back door made them all jump. Instinctively, Madison moved to block the body from the view of anyone coming through the door.
    Pauline looked out through the sheer curtain at the door’s window. “It’s the knacker,” announced the housekeeper, unlatching and opening the back door.
    Everyone sighed in relief. The Dedhams seldom had random visitors, but until the body was gone, they would all be on edge.
    A short, stout middle-aged man with bandy legs and light brown skin was let into the kitchen by Pauline. He was dressed in old jeans, a dirty knit work shirt, and heavy work boots. As he entered the house, he removed a beat-up ball cap to display thinning black hair peppered with gray and a broad face lined by the sun. He reminded Madison of a hobbit who’d become a day laborer.
    “Jesús,” Pauline said to the man, “this here’s Madison. She lives with the Dedhams.”
    Jesús gave her a crooked smile of small, uneven teeth. “Ah, I hear much about the fair Madison already.”
    Madison wasn’t sure if being known was a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, it made her uncomfortable. “You have?”
    The small man nodded. “You did much to help Mr. Samuel and the others a few months ago. We’re all very grateful.” His voice had an upbeat, friendly tone to it.
    When Madison looked puzzled, Jesús offered, “If the vampiro fall, we all fall. All our businesses.”
    “He’s right about that,” Pauline added with a jerk of her head.
    Madison had learned that there was a very tight community of the living who served the vampires in various ways—as housekeepers, hairdressers, lawyers, drivers, and even some who provided fresh blood. Whatever services the vampires needed to continue their way of life but could not provide for themselves was outsourced to those amongst the living who vowed silence in return for extra-large paychecks. When Madison had agreed to work for the council, she had joined their ranks.
    In an awkward gesture, Madison held out her right hand to Jesús, who took it between both of his work-worn hands and pumped it firmly. Done with the formalities, Jesús smiled at the Dedhams and walked over to study the body.
    After crossing himself, Jesús pronounced, “Easy job.” He turned back to the door. “Be right back.”
    When Jesús returned, he was carrying a large cooler. He placed it on the counter. “Here’s your order.”
    Pulling a kitchen-size plastic garbage bag from his back