Chapter 156

Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1974
The receptionist, Veronica, who was also Elliott’s live-in girlfriend of a couple of years, paged him to the front of the dealership over the loudspeaker. He looked up from his desk and surveyed the sales area. He was certain he’d spoken to every couple that had come in to purchase a vehicle so far, but now he spotted a pair he hadn’t had a chance to interact with yet and straightened his jacket. These two looked different. They weren’t looking at cars. Rather, they leaned against Veronica’s counter speaking to her, and while he wouldn’t blame them for wanting to talk to the cute brunette, they didn’t appear to be flirting with her either. He had a funny feeling in his stomach.
The two men looked like they were in their mid-twenties, though he had a hunch him they were actually older. They wore black suits with white shirts beneath them and had sunglasses sticking out of their breast pockets. One of them had long brown hair that fell almost to his shoulders and looked like he could’ve been the lead guitar player for Steely Dan. The other had short blond hair and a mustache that nearly covered his upper lip. Something told him these two cats had asked for him by name, and this wasn’t about buying a car.
“Howdy folks,” he said in his thickest Southern accent. He found it put people at ease almost immediately. “How can I help you?”
“Mr. Sanderson?” Mustache asked, offering his hand. “I’m Curtis Rickman, and this is my associate Todd Bickendorff.” Elliot shook hands with both of them. “We want to talk to you about… a car… but we’d like to step into your office, if you don’t mind.” He looked around him, like he wanted to make sure they weren’t being spied on by any of the other sales people.
“Oh? A car? Is that what you want to talk to me about?” Elliott asked, his cheesiest smile on his face. “Lucky for you we got every kinda car imaginable here at Anderson’s Used Car Emporium. And if we don’t have what you’re looking for here, we likely have it at one of our two sister sites in Oklahoma City and Norman.”
Both of them looked slightly annoyed. “We have heard about your dealership and have been quite impressed,” Todd said, managing a smile. “But as my associate said, we’d really appreciate it if we could step into your office.”
“Right, right,” Elliott said, certain he had a feel for what was about to happen. It wasn’t the first time he’d been approached in the last fifteen years, but he really hoped it would be the last. “Veronica,” he said, turning to lean over the counter so he could see her better, “I’m going to take Mr. Rickman and Mr. Bickendorff back to my office for a few minutes, but if I am needed on the sales floor for any reason, please let me know.” He winked at her, and she blushed, assuring him she would do as instructed as he led the pair through a maze of desks back to his office.
He ushered them to chairs and then closed the door behind them before slowly walking around his desk, unbuttoning his powder blue suit jacket and having a seat. “Now, gentlemen, what do I have to do to get you in a new car today?” He smiled, his eyes twinkled, and he waited to hear their sales pitch.
“I think we can cut the bullshit now, Mr. Sanderson,” Curtis said, his tone matter-of-fact but not rude. “I’m sure you know why we are here.”
“I thought you said you wanted to buy a car. Look, if this hush hush business is because the two of you are a couple, that’s fine by me. I don’t judge.”
The two looked at each other as if he’d just said he thought they should marry their sisters. Todd shook his head and ran his hands down his pant legs, like his palms were sweating just thinking about it. “No, Sanderson. We’re here to talk to you about an opportunity.”
“Oh, an opportunity? You two opening up a dealership? I’ll tell you, I make a fine living here. It would take quite a substantial amount of money….”
“No, not for that.” Curtis shook his head and smoothed down his mustache. “We are from LIGHTS—”
“LIGHTS?” Elliott interrupted. “Why, you don’t say? Because pretty much every day of the week I have two guys dressed in black suits saunter into my dealership asking to buy a car in private. I am shocked to hear that!”
“Listen, we know that others have come before us to talk to you, and we know that you’ve said you don’t want to join our team, but just hear us out, okay? We’re not from the Kansas City team. We’ve come all the way from Los Angeles.” Todd paused for a breath, and Curtis picked up where he’d left off.
“That’s right. We really need your help. There’s a lot going on out there right now, and with all of the news reports and television shows being filmed, we are having a hell of a time keeping everything hidden. If we had someone with your set of skills….”
“All right, fellas, that’s enough,” Elliott said, tempted to put his hands over his ears and sing so that he could drown them out. “I’ve told Jordan the half dozen times he’s called. I’ve told Janette. Hell, I’d tell Jesus if He was here to ask. The answer is no. No. No. I don’t want to be part of your secret organization. I don’t care if the Vampires are set to take over the planet, and I’m the only one that can stop them. I am not going to join you—not now, not ever, got it?”
“But—” Curtis began, but he didn’t get anything else out before Elliott was up and showing them to the door.
“Don’t make me call security. I know you could kick their asses, but that might just make the news, and I’m pretty sure I could convince the reporters and the cops that the two of you are here to try to case the joint. Just go.”
Muttering, Curtis and Todd got up and straightened their jackets, headed toward the door. He didn’t care how far they’d come or how upset their Leader would be that they’d failed. He didn’t care about any of it. As far as he was concerned LIGHTS could grow an ass and kiss it.
Shaking his head, he returned to his desk and contemplated his life choices, a topic he tried to avoid as much as possible, but those jerks had brought him right back to it. He ran his hands down his face and thought about the night he’d Transformed. It had been so easy—none of the pain he’d been expecting, and no need for the magical serum Peggy had mentioned. If only everything else in his life had been so simple.
He didn’t talk to Peggy anymore. It hadn’t happened all at once, but over the years since Jimmy died, and then Frank, they’d had more and more arguments about petty shit, the kind of things Elliott didn’t want to face and Peggy thought he needed to deal with. Nancy and Peter had taken the boys and moved to Florida. He hadn’t seen his sons in over five years. He would’ve gone anywhere to spend time with them, but the last time he’d visited, they’d both told him they didn’t want to see him anymore, that Peter was their dad now. He knew he could convince them otherwise if he wanted to, but there was something about manipulating his children’s thinking that he decided wasn’t ethical—even if Nancy seemed to disagree.
He’d made a lot of money selling cars and lost a lot of money on horses. He’d also made his fair share of cash playing pool, a skill he’d discovered a few years back that had certainly been enhanced by his change. He and Veronica had a nice place, but he couldn’t quite seem to stay ahead of the curve. It seemed every paycheck he brought in, he’d spend most of it paying off debts, mostly gambling debts, and he needed to figure out a way to get that under control.
And he needed to pick his opponents a little better when he entered the pool hall, too. He’d had to duck out the back door on more than one occasion to avoid a fight that wouldn’t have been fair and would’ve left a lot of people asking questions.
Every once in a while, he’d encounter a Vampire. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach. They could usually tell what he was, too, but then, as long as they were buying a car or playing fair, he didn’t give a shit. He certainly wasn’t about to kill another one if he could avoid it, even though he remembered how easy it had been the first time.
If he could go back and do that again, though, he wouldn’t have. The worst thing about his shitty life was that he was caught in it for eternity, unless he chased down a Hunter and asked him to blow his brains out. And it sucked. He was getting a little older now, almost thirty-five, but he still looked like he was a twentyish year old baby. He could play that off for a few more years, maybe, but he had no idea what he’d do when he needed to alter his birth certificate or driver’s license. He supposed at that point, he’d have to call Janette, and then she’d probably want something from him.
He saw the front door open and an older couple come in. It was time to get out of his own head and get back to what he did best. At least Transforming had given him something worthwhile, the ability to take money right out of a customer’s hands.