Page 19 of Thunder Road

Vic turned to see Ross looking at him. “Trolls?”

“They’re badass in the old stories. Let’s not mention it to anyone until Simon does his research-fu and we have more to go on.”

“Where do we go from here?” Ross reached for his coffee cup, found it empty, and grimaced.

“We work this like any other case.”

“Except it’s got a troll.”

“We’ve dealt with worse people.”

“True.”

Vic started to pace again. “The motorcycle club made a deal to stop a gang war. Maybe the other disappearances weren’t as random as they seem, even if they aren’t tied to a decades-long bargain.”

“What do you have in mind?” Ross got up to fill his coffee cup and realized the pot was empty. He started another one as they talked.

“I think we find out whatever we can about the people who were never found. Some of them still probably have family and friends who are alive. Find out why they ran or what they were escaping. If they were escaping.”

“We don’t want to give the families false hope,” Ross pointed out. “We aren’t likely to find their loved ones, even if we figure out who took them.”

Vic nodded. “Yeah, I know. But if there’s a pattern to why those particular people were taken, we might be able to help Simon decipher the magic. And if we can do that, we’re working the case from the other end. He’ll gather what’s needed to bring back the protections, and we can figure out who’s vulnerable.”

Ross sighed. “Okay. Let’s get to it. But you’re buying me dinner soon for making me do dialing for dollars.” That was what Ross called the process of calling people from a list to gather information, one of the things he hated most about the job.

“I’ll even spring for beer because I’m that awesome of a partner,” Vic joked.

Ross printed out a list and they split the pages, then got comfortable before they started calling.

Vic looked down the list, only a portion of the full roster of the disappearances from the past forty years. Ross had done his best to sort by age, but there were other variables as well, especially last known address and prior police record.

It didn’t escape Vic how many of the missing people had no known next of kin or contact listed. Serial killers often preyed upon people no one would miss, and he wondered whether monsters were savvy enough to do the same.

After an hour and dozens of calls each, they compared notes.

“Each of the family members I talked to said that their person was down on his luck—and it’s all men, by the way,” Ross said. “Lost a job, got divorced, bad breakup, going bankrupt, poor health diagnosis. They didn’t know for sure what made them come to Myrtle Beach, but they figured it was to get a fresh start and cut ties.”

“So maybe the motorcycle guy was an outlier, making a deal to benefit someone else. Maybe the people most likely to be taken think that anywhere is better than here,” Vic mused.

“Not always true, but I can see why people might think so.”

Vic tapped his fingers on the desk as he thought. “Simon said the creature could shapeshift. So maybe it switches to human form to size up its victims. Hangs out in bars. Maybe it can literally smell desperation.”

“Plenty of human serial killers and grifters do that—I’d think that something with magic would be even better at it,” Ross suggested.

“We don’t know what happens next,” Vic said. “Does it follow them and suck out their soul? Do they need to make a deal or ask for a favor? It might just get the jump on them like aregular predator, but in a lot of the old tales I’ve heard Simon tell, there’s usually something transactional, even if the victim doesn’t realize it at the time.”

“Did any of the people you talked to say that someone had looked for the missing person?” Ross asked.

Vic shook his head. “No. They might have been related to the victims, but there wasn’t any real attachment. Pretty sad, actually.” He and his large family weren’t always in agreement, but Vic always knew he was loved.

“And more common than we like to admit,” Ross said. “I keep thinking that the connecting thread is that each of the people who went missing had gotten themselves into a jam they didn’t see a way to fix on their own. If you’re desperate enough to think about changing your name and running away, you’ve run out of good alternatives, and you’re ranking the bad ones.”

“Ditching everything and going missing is one step removed from just checking out completely,” Vic remarked. “Maybe the creature can spot the ones who got separated from their herd, so to speak. Less risk.”

“That’s giving the creature a lot of credit, don’t you think?” Ross leaned back and stretched.

Vic thought for a moment. “Is it? Wild animals are smart enough to take on the prey that stray from the group, lag behind, or are too weak to put up a fight. The creature we’re talking about might not even have to worry about health—like with Carter Edwards—because it’s not consuming the body—just the soul.”

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