Robert and Derrick had listened to David’s whole monologue in silence, each working his way through his own thoughts as they adjusted to the strange revelation they’d just received about their friend. They exchanged glances and both of them could see they were thinking the same thing.

“I know what I’ll tell them,” said Robert. “I’ll tell them the truth. I’ll tell them that this madman was after us, claiming to be a vampire, if you can believe that, and you saved us from him”

“That’s right,” chimed in Derrick. “You ambushed him from behind and got the gun away from him. I guess you must have shot him with it, because any idiot can see that all this blood couldn’t possible be yours, you’re not even hurt. And then he staggered off somewhere, and by the time the police get here he’ll have made good his escape. They’ll probably never find him.”

“What…?” David gaped at them, stunned and unable to think of anything to say. Finally he simply asked, “Why?”

“Well, you did save our lives, for starters,” said Robert, with a somewhat shaky smile. “And besides, without you they’d have to hire somebody new.”

“Yeah, we’d probably get some know-it-all college kid who’d try to tell us how to do our job,” said Derrick, and though his voice had a touch of hysteria in it, he actually managed a grin as he said it.

They had to do a little bit of rearranging to get the scene to match their story, including the unpleasant job of getting the dead man’s shirt off so that David would have something to wear besides the bloodstained ruin of his own shirt. Fortunately, the plain black t-shirt wasn’t too incongruous with David’s khaki slacks. Then David picked up the body, carrying it easily despite the fact that the man had to weigh nearly two hundred pounds. He vanished into the night with it, and when he returned he simply told the other two that he’d put it somewhere where it wouldn’t be found for a long time, if ever. Neither of them asked if he’d had previous experience with disposing of bodies. They both decided they didn’t want to know.

After that it was simply a matter of waking up some nearby householder and calling the police. Several hours and a lot of questions later all three were released. The police had accepted their story; it fit the facts they found well enough. An APB was put out on the would-be vampire, but he was never found.

It was a couple of days before they could go back to work. Both Robert and Derrick recovered quickly from their injuries. Neither had been seriously hurt, though Derrick still shuddered whenever her remembered the crazy want-to-be vampire’s teeth sinking into him.

The damaged window was replaced, the ruined alarm system fixed, the phone lines restored. And while all this was going on the corporate executives fumed over all the money the delay in normal business was costing them.

On their first day back David Anderson arrived precisely fourteen minutes after sunset, as always. And, as always, he took the elevator down to the basement computer room. He found Derrick and Robert already there. The bandage was already off Derrick’s neck and the little puncture wounds the would-be vampire had left were well on their way to being totally healed. Robert’s shoulder was still bandaged, but he showed no other ill effects.

Without thinking, as David came in, Derrick said, “You’re late,” as he always had.

David, with a hint of a twinkle in his eyes, but also a bit of tension in his voice, said, “Hey, no self-respecting night shift worker should have to start his job before sundown. Otherwise it wouldn’t be the night shift, would it?”

There was a long pause as Derrick and Robert both suddenly realized exactly why David always arrived after sundown. The tension hung between them, and David held his breath, hoping that his co-workers would be able to accept him now that they’d had a chance to think about what he was.

The silence stretched uncomfortably, and then all at once Robert grinned and broke the silence with his part of the nightly ritual. “You keep being late and one of these days they’ll decided to fire you.”

David let out the breath he’d been holding and replied with a smile, “I’ve got a special dispensation from the powers that be. Besides, if they fire me they’d have to train somebody new.”

“Yeah, we’d probably get some know-it-all college kid who’d try to tell us how to do our job,” said Derrick, and he grinned and winked. The tension vanished and their old easy camaraderie returned.

David went over and sat down at his terminal. He booted up his computer. While he waited for it to start up he looked over at the other two, both already hard at work. There was a crack of unaccustomed emotion in his voice as he said, “Hey, thank you guys. Thank you both. This means a lot to me.”

Robert spun his office chair around to give David a grin. “Don’t mention it. Besides, I just thought of something. I hope you don’t mind if I ask you all kinds of personal questions. I have this terrific idea for my next story. I’m going to write one about a vampire, only he’s going to be the hero. After all, they say it’s best to write what you know.” He grinned as he added, “I think it might be a real hit.”