Tom was silent. He'd been insisting that vampires didn't exist for years now. On the other hand, he'd also insisted that the tooth fairy existed. He prided himself in taking the unusual in his stride. He looked over at Tony. He probably already knew. It would explain why he had seemed a little distant.
"A vampire. So you want to know if you still own something you owned when you were alive?"
"It's not as simple as that. It's something I should have inherited, had I been alive."
"That's even more compli... You're... Are you Louie Greenthorpe?"
"That's very impressive, considering how old I was when I last had my picture taken."
"I think I have a vested interest in you now. The Greenthorpe mansion..."
"...Is exactly what I'm interested in."
"Oh, right. You'll want it back. You must be pretty attached to it."
"It's not that," Louie started and then hesitated. The mansion had been his home for hundreds of years. He was sick of it, and yet at the same time he felt attached to it. "It's not for me. I want it to be a shelter for refugees."
"From Diamondus?" Marjorie nodded. Tom fell silent again. The mansion would house plenty of people, but what about the company that wanted the land? That deal meant everything for Greenthorpe. But then again, the shelter would mean everything for the refugees. "I'd have to check the law books. But I think you have a case."

"Mrs. Bradhurst? Will you make the decision in place of your husband?" Susan considered Dalton's request. She was only there as a stand-in, but Tom did need the site cleared.
"I think we can act without an absentee's consent in this case!" exclaimed Parker. "It's an emergency! We're not even changing the land ownership; we're just tearing down a building which we all recognize as dangerous!"
"We have to follow the proper procedure," Dalton replied. Parker scowled.
"It's okay. I'll decide. Yes, we should have it torn down." said Susan. She looked across at Parker. There was a gleam in his eye. Perhaps it was because she didn't like him, but it looked malicious.
"Excellent," said the leader. "We'll need to call in the armed forces. They haven't been deployed to Diamondus yet, but we'll have to act quickly before they are."

Several hours later, Susan was back home and lying in bed. It had been a grueling day, organizing the demolition, and she hadn't slept since the previous night. Despite this, she'd been lying there for about an hour, wide awake. In the distance, she could hear hoof beats approaching. Her ears pricked up, but the horse road on by, a few streets away. She turned over and tried to get comfortable for the umpteenth time. Several minutes passed with no sound but the ticking of the alarm clock. Then she heard the back door slam shut and her husband's voice call out. She leapt out of bed, threw on her dressing gown, and ran downstairs.
She stopped abruptly when she saw that they had company.

A while later Tom, Tony, Majo and a properly clothed Susan were sipping tea in the living room. Louie had declined the offer of a drink, but sat with them as Tom recounted the events of the last few days.
"...And it turns out that Louie here is none other than Louie Greenthorpe."
"Greenthorpe, as in the Greenthorpe, Greenthorpes? Are you descended from...?" Susan began.
"I'm Louie Greenthorpe the first. Brought to you by the wonderful world of the supernatural." said Louie, running out patience. Beneath her fur Susan's face went white.
"It's okay. He's more sanguine than sanguinary," said Tom. He laughed feebly.
"That was terrible, dear." Susan only managed to smile, ever so slightly.
"It's better than the one about the waffles."
"Fine, fine. He's not 'sanguinary'. But someone else from the Greenthorpe mansion is."
"What?" chorused Louie and Tom.
"The night before last a TV crew and a bunch of marines went into the mansion. We saw the tape in the council. There was this dark figure. He - it - killed them. It killed them all."
"Oh no," said Louie, gravely. "I thought he was dead. It was self defense. He was trying to kill me. I left him for dead. That's why I wanted to get away from Greenthorpe." There was a pause.
"Who?" inquired Majo.
"Theodore Thatcher. He came in when you were unconscious." There was silence. After a while, Susan spoke.
"The council asked the Carrotus government for help. They said they'd deal with it, but we didn't think they took it seriously. So Councilor Cobley put the video up on the net."
"Anonymously?" guessed Tom. Susan nodded.
"It should get a response in a few days."
"But what kind of response? A few experts or a full-scale invasion? It would be nice if the town were left standing," said Tom.

The sun had set. Susan entered Tom's study with two mugs of tea.
"There you go. I thought you might like something to drink."
"Thanks," replied Tom.
"So, what are you looking for?"
"I need to find out what Louie's legal status is with regards to property law. We need to find out if he can get the mansion for the Diamondus refugees."
"The mansion? But..."
"What?" asked Tom. Susan told him about the council's decision. Tom sighed. Now he'd also have to go through the building safety laws in order to save it. This was going to be a long night.

Several days had passed since the television broadcast had gone online, and there was still no sign of any kind of Special Forces. The cold, lonely mansion loomed menacingly over the surrounding grounds. There had been no sign of the new inhabitant, but it had been a tense few days in the Bradhurst household. Tony had decided to stick around and salvage what he could from the wreckage of his ship. Tom had spent most of the time buried in tome upon tome of legal jargon. Susan was continuing to take care of his council duties, with nobody knowing that he had returned.
The vote passed: a town-sponsored symbolic funeral would be held for Theodore Thatcher, who had disappeared into the Greenthorpe mansion and, they thought, hadn't been seen since. Susan knew otherwise, but kept her mouth shut.
"The next item on the agenda," announced Dalton, "is the Peddleburg Forest refugee camp, as decreed by his Royal Highness King Jazz and passed by the Carrotus Assembly."
Susan's ears would have pricked up, had she not been exercising full self-control.
"I for one think the proposals are on too small a scale," said a short, dark green rabbit two places to the right of Susan. "The proposed camps will not offer enough space for the number of people likely to leave Diamondus, and a larger camp in the area would certainly be sustainable."
"But that is how the powers that be choose to allocate their funds, and it is beyond our power," said Dalton. "The debate should focus on the impact of the camp on our community, and what our actions should be."
"Mr. Chairman," began Susan. "Does the camp or any part of it lie within the boundaries of the Greenthorpe municipality?"
"I regret to say I do not know. They have provided a map of the proposed camp, if you would like to check."

"Where are we going?" asked Tony. He and Susan were strolling along one of the roads out of Greenthorpe.
"The forest, Take a look at these two maps."
"'Greenthorpe Municipal Service Map', and 'Carrotus Immigration Ministry Ordinance 27B/6 Appendix C: Map'. It’s all very official."
"Look at the longitudes and latitudes."
"Ah, so this appendix corresponds to this part of the forest?"
"Yup."
"So we're going to look at it? Why?"
"Look at the Municipal Service map. There's a rectangle approximately where the toilet facilities are on the other map."
"Yeah, I see it. What's it for?"
"That's exactly what we're going to find out." They had passed the last house of the town, and were walking through the narrow strip of fields that lay between the town and the forest. Susan was enjoying the walk. It was nice to escape the daily council duties and get some fresh air. Tom spent most of his time cooped up in the office. It was no wonder he was so eager to go to Orleton. And now they were both stuck at a desk all day. They had to get out of Greenthorpe. When the current situation was wrapped up. But the news from Diamondus was getting worse every day. Would they ever leave?
Eventually the road veered away to the right. Row upon row of carrots lay before them.
"We'll have to cut across this field," said Susan. "Don't break any of the stalks, it'll attract carrot flies."
They made their way carefully across the field, and eventually came up to the forest. As they proceeded inwards, they found themselves wading through the decomposing leaves. After a while, Susan stopped. "This should be it. Do you see anything?" Tony looked around at the trees which grew in every direction.
"Nope."
"There must be something. Come on, let's keep going." They had trudged a bit farther when Tony suddenly fell flat on his face.
"Are you okay?"
Tony got up, spitting out a few leaves. "Yeah. The leaves cushioned the fall, but my foot hurts from whatever I tripped over." Susan scrabbled about in the leaves and unearthed a slightly rotted wooden fence post, attached to thick wires which presumably led to more fence posts. Right enough, as Tony joined her in clearing the leaves, they came up with another fence post, and then another. On the wires between these two hung a metal sign. "Danger - Radioactivity."
"Y'know, I'm thinking..."
"That we should leave? Yeah."