*Two*
Bexley Residence
Fort Dodge, Iowa
5:23 p.m.
Scully knocked on the door with a kind of authority that sounded professionally bored. A middle-aged woman wearing one oven mitt answered the door.
"We're Agents Mulder and Scully of the FBI," I told her, displaying my badge. "Are you Mrs. Bexley?"
"Why, yes. Can I help you?"
"We're investigating a double murder in the area. May we come in?" Scully asked tiredly.
"Oh, sure." She let us in. "Would you two like some brownies? I've been baking all day," Mrs. Bexley offered with a smile as she shuffled back into the kitchen.
Scully's expression brightened a little, and then she looked at me sheepishly. "Actually, that would be really nice," she said.
"Mrs. Bexely? We'd like to ask you a few questions," I called to her. "Where were you last Tuesday around 9 p.m.?"
"Oh, please, call me Penny," she said, returning from the kitchen with a plate of brownies. "Now, last Tuesday? Well I was at my bridge club meeting, of course. Over at Holly Kesper's. Say, you're talking about those vacationers they found, aren't you?"
I pulled out a series of photographs and showed them to her. "The victims were Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Welling. They were reported missing by one of Mrs. Welling's co-workers after she failed to show up for work, and recently their bodies were discovered in a wooded area near here. We talked to their families and the co-worker, but no one can say if they came here for any particular reason. Do you know of anyone who had contact with them while they were in town?" I inquired.
"Holly said she'd seen ‘em in the diner, and they'd told her they were ‘going wherever the road may take them'. She took that to mean they were just passing through, but I guess they stayed here a little longer than they'd planned to ..." Mrs. Bexley stifled a giggle.
"Can you tell us where we might find Holly to ask her about this?" I asked, frowning.
"Oh, Holly won't tell you nothin' new. Everybody knows it was the Savages."
Scully, in mid-bite of her third brownie, shot me a patronising glance. I sent her back a you're-the-one-with-frosting-on-your-chin glance.
"Thavages?" Scully asked.
"Yeah. The vampires. In the mansion." Mrs. Bexley looked at us like we must be very naïve. "That's who you ought to be asking all these questions to. But they didn't do nothin' wrong. They're very nice boys. What d'you expect them to do? It wasn't anything personal. S'just how they live."
"Mrs. Bexley," Scully began, " – Penny. How exactly do they live?"
Mrs. Bexley popped a brownie in her mouth and shrugged. "Like vampires."
onward and upward