Page 43 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

Only three. I scanned through them. The first was a no: everything on the application was misspelt apart from their name – at least I hoped they hadn’t misspelt their name. The second one was spelled correctly, but there wasn’t much experience. However it was worth an interview because we were growing desperate. The last one gave me pause: April Arctos.

April was the bear-shifter mother of one of our juvenile delinquents whom we’d caught breaking into the Grimes brothers’ trading post and who’d taken fisheye. I’d met her a few times and she’d come across as bossy, controlling and competent. I moved her to the top of the list. She’d get us organised in no time, and right now it felt like we needed it.

Chapter 25

‘April Arctos?’ Sidnee repeated as she noisily slurped a milkshake. ‘She’ll either be horrendous or she’ll be running the show in a day.’

I laughed. ‘My thoughts exactly, but who better to be in the office alone? No one would get away with anything.’ I took another bite of my burger.

‘She has my vote,’ Sidnee agreed.

‘If it was a democratic process I’d hire her now, but it’s got to go through Gunnar and the council first.’ I swallowed down some more tasty beef. ‘Hey, I noticed that we aren’t getting any hotline calls. Have you had any?’

‘Oh, yeah, I was getting most of them during my shift, so I had them sent to my phone. I leave you messages if it’s something you need to deal with.’

I’d had a few, but not many. ‘So the calls have died down a lot?’

Sidnee didn’t look at me; she was playing with the salad on her plate. ‘Yeah.’

I nodded, but something was niggling at me and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Suddenly Sidnee looked beyond me and glared. I turned to see who had earned her wrath and saw a young man and a woman smirking at her. ‘Who are they?’ I asked.

‘No one. Just assholes.’ She speared a tomato with her fork.

‘Mermaid assholes?’

She tried to give a nonchalant shrug. ‘Yeah.’

‘You want me to say something to them?’

She gave me a bitter smile. ‘Say what, Bunny? “Please leave Sidnee alone, or else?”’ That had pretty much been my plan. Then she grinned suddenly. ‘That was your plan, wasn’t it?’

‘I was maybe going to flash my gun, too,’ I confessed.

She laughed aloud. ‘You’re the best! You know that, right?’

‘I’m trying. I’m not good at this friendship thing, but I want to be there for you.’

‘You are – you have been and I really appreciate it. Come on, let’s go. I’m full anyway.’

We paid the bill and I made sure to level a glare at the two mers as I walked past. They didn’t look cowed in the slightest so I was tempted to flash my fangs, but luckily the little buggers didn’t listen to me and refused to drop down. As the local law enforcement officer, starting a fight would have been a bad idea.

I hurried back to work. Gunnar and I had an appointment offsite with Liv and she didn’t suffer fools, let alone unpunctual ones. We headed out about twenty minutes before we were due to meet her leaving Fluffy and Shadow to hold the fort. Shadow was doing the very serious job of snoozing and Fluffy was in guard-dog mode.

Gunnar took me to a side of town I’d not visited before. Portlock was on the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, on the south-east side of Port Chatham Bay, but there was an additional spit of land that jutted into the bay with a few expensive houses on it.

We drove to the last one. With water on three sides it had an amazing view, though I wasn’t sure I could have lived there. I’d be spooked in a storm, and the water around the house would be tempestuous.

The house was made of wood and stone and looked very solid, except for its huge windows. We knocked. Liv answered the door and we entered the stylish, nautically themed interior. The homeowner had a love of quotes: things like Shore is nice! and My sense of direction leads me one way: to the beach! were splashed on the walls. That was how I knew the house definitely wasn’t Liv’s: no way she’d have anything cute on her walls. She’d have something dead, for sure.

A sturdily built woman stood up. She had dusky colouring, suggesting she was native to the area, and two thick, dark braids that hung to her waist. Her dark eyes were framed with eyelashes that any celebrity would have killed for.

Liv introduced us. ‘This is Adelheid Paneok, the water witch. I’ve been here all day strengthening the wards. See what additional security measures you can put in place,’ she ordered briskly. Her eyes lingered on Gunnar but there was no trace of her usual flirtatiousness; she didn’t even sashay as she showed us to the room at the end of a hall.

My scalp started to itch as we neared the door. When Liv opened it, we saw that it was a vault. The door was four inches of steel with a complex locking mechanism. I was impressed: this was the most secure location I’d seen so far. Liv showed us that the box containing the water gem was securely on its plinth.

‘Are the walls reinforced as well as the door?’ I asked Adelheid.

‘Yes, reinforced concrete like a bank vault.’

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