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to. It didn’t take long for me to get myself arrested—it was on a breaking and entering charge, though it could have been any number of things; that was just what I got caught doing.
    “So Alec did the only thing he could think of: he sent me away to military school to straighten me out. It worked, too. After I graduated, I went into the Marines as an officer and stayed in the military for twelve years.
    “By this time, Alec’s grandfather had died, his father was a partner in the firm and Alec was well on his way to becoming a partner, too. That’s when they got mixed up with the vampires.
    “I don’t know exactly what happened. I’m not sure anybody knows. But it had something to do with a real estate transaction—that’s mostly what Alec’s father, Benjamin, dealt in. As best we can figure, some big-honcho vampire hired the firm to negotiate the sale of a building the vampires owned.”
    Nick paused to take a bite of his lunch. I realized that my mouth was hanging open.
    “Vampires own real estate in Manhattan?” I asked incredulously.
    “Apparently,” said Nick. “I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess they own a lot more than just real estate. Wouldn’t you, if you were going to live forever?”
    I nodded. “I guess so.”
    “Alec says that they all knew something weird was up. Their new client, a Mr. Salvaggi, refused to meet them during the daytime. He refused to meet with anyone other than Benjamin. By all accounts, he was a difficult client.
    “But the Pearsons were used to dealing with difficult clients—according to Alec, the very rich are often also the very demanding. So they really didn’t think anything of it.
    “At least, not until Benjamin Pearson turned up dead.” Nick paused and took a long drink from his cup of coffee. I had forgotten all about my salad and was leaning forward across the table so as to catch every word.
    “Alec was the one who found him, of course. Benjamin had a late-night meeting with his client, and when Alec came into the office the next morning, Benjamin was stretched out behind his desk.
    “He called in the police, and they ruled the death a homicide.” Nick laughed that short barking laugh of his. “They never could figure out why there was no blood at the scene—they finally decided Benjamin must’ve been killed somewhere else and dumped back in his office. The body was all carved up; the police assumed that the two puncture wounds in Benjamin’s neck were part of the ‘ritualistic’ murder.
    “Alec might have bought the whole ritual murder scenario, too, except for one thing: his father had left detailed records about his dealings with Salvaggi. And his father had figured out the truth.
    “By the time Alec brought me in, he’d done some investigating on his own. I would have thought he was crazy—sane people don’t believe in vampires, right?—if he hadn’t managed to capture one of them.
    “He had it locked in a walk-in safe when I went up to his office. He’d told me his whole story and shown me a whole bunch of documents, but I was still about to walk out when he opened the curtains in his office and opened the door to the safe. All I saw at first was that some guy was hog-tied and gagged.
    “Alec turned around to me and said, ‘This is what we’re dealing with, Nick.’ Then he grabbed the rope and hauled the guy out into the sunlight.
    “It was the most horrible thing I’d seen in my life up to that point—and I’d seen some pretty terrible stuff. The guy didn’t burn so much as…. It looked like acid was eating away at his skin from the inside. It started where the sun touched him and spread.”
    I pushed the remains of my lunch away, no longer hungry. Nick, intent on his story, had long ago given up on eating.
    “I took a little more convincing—it’s not an easy thing to believe, that vampires are hanging around in Manhattan—” I had to agree with him there “—but eventually Alec won me around,” he said.