Page 24 of The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine

He grimaced. ‘Unfortunately there isn’t a chopper in town, nor does anyone have a licence to fly one. Edgy couldn’t fly one without it being properly modified. Jim used to be able to fly one.’

But I’d burnt Jim to a crisp.

‘The truth is,’ Gunnar went on, ‘the mountain is so rocky and uneven I don’t think a chopper could land there anyway even if we sourced one and could afford it…’

I squared my shoulders. ‘So we’re on foot. That’s fine. I’ll go,’ I volunteered.

‘Not alone. I’ll call Patkotak.’

‘Yeah,’ I brightened. ‘That would be good.’

Gunnar fixed me with a firm look. ‘I’m going, too. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.’

I blew out a breath and explained about the alpine azalea and Fluffy’s curse.

‘I’m sorry to hear about Fluffy being cursed. Whatever it is, we’ll fix him.’ Gunnar reached over and touched my arm. ‘If he’s not been harmed by it so far, I’m sure he’ll be okay a little while longer. Either way, Patkotak and I can go alone.’

I wanted to take him up on that, but what kind of officer would I be if I had others do my job? ‘Thanks, Gunnar, but I’ll go.’ Last time my fire had saved us; in fact it had saved us more than once.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Definitely.’ I was no shirker.

He pressed the number five on his phone and hit the speaker button. Thomas Patkotak picked up after three rings. ‘Gunnar, what can I do for the Nomo?’ he asked, his tone friendly.

‘It’s a pretty big favour,’ Gunnar said heavily. ‘We have an out of towner in the hospital because of a curse. We have a limited amount of time to save him, and we need to go fetch some weed from beyond the barrier. And Fluffy is cursed too. We were hoping for your assistance.’

The phone was quiet; even Thomas Patkotak, the scariest human I knew, wasn't thrilled with the task. ‘I’ll help – for Bunny. Small problem, though – I’m in Homer. I’m not due back until tomorrow.’

‘We have a little time,’ Gunnar confirmed. ‘But not much. We’ll wait for you, but it would be great if you’d get back as quickly as you can.’

‘You got it.’ Thomas hung up; he wasn’t great with hellos or goodbyes.

‘Well, Bunny Rabbit, we have a day’s reprieve.’

I sighed. ‘Frankly, I’d rather get it over and done with.’

‘This way we can plan better, make sure we have what we need to fight the beast,’ Gunnar said.

Fight? Survive, more like.

Sidnee wandered in carrying Shadow draped around the back of her neck. Gunnar looked at her sharply. ‘Maybe this time we should take your cat,’ he suggested.

I considered it but shook my head. ‘He’s too small – he’s only a baby. Plus, he isn’t Fluffy and he’s not trained to walk on a lead. I’d be devastated if something happened to him.’ I couldn’t cope if I saved one pet only to lose another.

‘True, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the little fella. Still, I saw what he did to the beast when it was trying to get through the rift.’

‘And that bit of action wiped him out for over a day,’ I argued. ‘And that was a little smoke from the beast, not the whole creature itself!’ I wanted my dog and my cat safely at home. We didn’t need Fluffy to find a body this time, it was a plant we were after and he wouldn’t know its scent any more than I did. The animals could stay home safe whilst we blundered head first into danger.

‘Calm down, Bunny. I agree – but maybe when Shadow is full-grown we should think about training him. He could be the first-ever police cat.’ Gunnar grinned. He was trying to ease my fears. Shadow was safe, Fluffy would be fine for now and Anissa would fix him. I clung to that. First, I had to go beyond the barrier.

I coughed out a small laugh, more from nerves than humour. I had twenty-four hours before I set off and I was already terrified.

Chapter 14

The dinner at Sig’s had grown from the four of us to include Stan and Sidnee. ‘Why don’t you see if Connor wants to come?’ Gunnar asked indulgently. ‘You know Sigrid will have made enough food for a small army.’

I weighed it up. Stan and Connor could be a bit fractious and I didn’t want them bickering in front of my mum, but even more I wanted to see Connor. Needed to see Connor. ‘If you’re sure it’s okay.’

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