Dead Secret

and Mike.
    “What does that mean exactly?” said Diane. “Why did you stab me?”
    “It’s what you do with rabbits.”
    “And Mike. Is he a rabbit too?” If she could get him talking, maybe she could get some sense out of him.
    He frowned; his eyes went dark again. “Tried to steal my rabbits.”
    “You know, fella,” said Diane, “you aren’t making a lot of sense.”
    “You don’t have to make sense to a rabbit.”
    “For the sake of argument, pretend for a moment that I’m not a rabbit. What the hell are you talking about?”
    She made a dash for the nearest table and stood at one end. To her good luck, the brakes were off and it rolled easily. She held on to it as if it were a weapon.
    He crouched and began easing around the table. She moved so that it stayed between the two of them. She backed up then and ran at him, pushing the table into him, knocking him onto his back on the slick floor. His knife bounced into the corner.
    She ran for Emery’s gun, but the man jumped to his feet with an inhuman swiftness and ran at her, screaming. She tried to get away, but he knocked her sprawling against a table, overturning it with a bang. The table just missed falling on her. She tried to scramble up, but he caught her foot and dragged her to him. She kicked and he twisted her foot. She cried out in pain.
    “Gotcha, rabbit.”
    She looked for any kind of weapon, but there was nothing. She tried to scramble away from him, grabbing at the table for leverage, something to hold on to to keep from sliding in his direction. She kicked as she scrambled, freed herself and almost made it to her feet before he caught her legs again and pulled her toward him. Damn, he was strong.
    He hit her across the jaw, stunned her and picked up his knife from the floor.
    “You’ll mind what I tell you,” he hissed. “Get on the table.”
    “The hell I will.” Diane punched him in the throat with her fist.
    He squealed and raised his knife over his head.
    The shot was deafening in the enclosed room. The specter paused, knife in midair. Diane didn’t wait to scramble away from him. He fell forward.
    She looked over to see Emery half propped up with his gun aimed in her direction.
    “I hope you don’t intend to shoot me after all this,” she said.
    He lowered the gun. Diane went to him. He collapsed again into a pool of his own blood on the floor.
    “Don’t tell my family, please. I’m sorry.”
    “I’ll tell them you’re a hero,” said Diane.
    He closed his eyes and Diane ran for the phone. It had been pulled out of the wall. She ran to her office phone. It was dead. She opened the vault. The phone in there was working. She dialed 911.
    When she came out of her office, she expected to see the wild man gone, vanished the way demons did. But he lay on his face still, his blood spilling into an expanding puddle.
    She felt for a pulse in Emery. There was none. His life had been shorter than he thought. In some odd way, his fall from grace may have saved her life. If Emery hadn’t been there, the madman would have killed her. She shivered at the thought. The smell that clung to her clothes sickened her. She went to the sink and threw up.
    Her crew, including Mike and Korey, came in with the paramedics. They stood in the doorway like a startled Greek chorus and stared at Diane and the bloody scene. Garnett appeared soon after, looking equally as baffled.
    “What happened here?” He went over to look at Emery, then at the stranger. “Who is he?”
    “I have no idea. Emery saved my life. The other man was trying to kill me.”
    Garnett looked at her and they locked gazes for several moments. “Okay, that works for me,” he whispered. “You have no idea who this other man is?”
    “He’s the one who stabbed me and Mike.”
    “Him?” said Mike, and started to walk toward the body. A policeman held him back. “Why?”
    “I don’t know. He babbled something about you trying to steal his rabbits.”
    Neva slid her arm around Mike’s waist and he put his arm around her. Anchoring each other from evil, it seemed to Diane.
    “That’s him too?” said Mike. “Who is he? Damn. What is he?”
    “A demon from hell, as near as I can tell,” said Diane.
    “We now know where that strange smell came from,” said David.
    Neva’s face blanched. “How long do you think he’s been in the museum?”
    “And why didn’t someone see him?” asked Garnett. “Guess we’ll never know the answer to that.”
    Neva was