Page 15 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

‘We went out for like aminutebefore he started dating the mayor’s daughter,’ she huffed. ‘We didn’t even sleep together before he became abusive and I cut him loose. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women and he didn’t take the rejection well. Apparently I’m the one that got away. He’s been tormenting me ever since, calling me names, hinting that I’m a whore, spreading it around that I’m a half-breed. He’s got the mer population to hate me even more, if that’s possible.’

She sank deeper into the cushions. Despair and loneliness dripped from her and she angrily dashed away a tear that told me how hurt she was. My heart ached for her. Sidnee was such a good person that I didn’t understand how anyone could hate her.

The phone between us lit up and Sidnee grabbed it, grateful to have something else to focus on. She read the message and said, ‘She’ll look at it but we need to take it to her now. She’ll meet us at the diner.’

‘Perfect, we’ll collect the laptop from the office, take it to her and then eat. Let’s go!’

Chapter 9

The hacker looked about our age, mid-twenties at most. Her bright pink hair was gathered in a messy bun, she was wearing a black leather jacket that looked like it was four sizes too big, ripped jeans and the ubiquitous fishing boots. She scowled at me as she took the laptop. ‘My usual fee,’ she said.

‘I’ll give it to you once you have something for us,’ Sidnee told her.

‘Cash.’

Sidnee sighed. ‘I know.’

The woman left with the computer but without another word. ‘She was super chatty,’ I said sarcastically as we sat down at our usual booth. ‘What’s the usual fee?’

She shrugged. ‘For this, she charges a flat five hundred. I’ll take it out of petty cash.’

It sounded cheap to me – but then I had zero computer-hacking skills. ‘Are you just having her open it or do anything else?’

‘Open it and scan for anything fishy, like any plans Kate had to take off with her bestie, weird comments on posts in her social media – anythingoff.She’s good with that kind of stuff.’

I nodded. It sounded like the hacker would save us time and that was something that was in short supply.

The harried waitress came and we ordered our usual: burgers. As I’d predicted, once Sidnee took that first bite she was instantly ravenous. She inhaled her food and even picked at my fries when I was done.

She dunked a fry in ketchup, studiously not looking at me as she said with quiet desperation, ‘I’ve gotta find him, Bunny.’

I didn’t need to ask who she was talking about because she thought about Thomas every waking moment. As I looked at her and she finally met my gaze, I knew with total clarity that if we didn’t find Thomas she would never get over this.

Sidnee stared at me intensely, her eyes harder than normal. Shit – I wasn’t sure she’d get over this even if wedidfind Thomas. She seemed to be in such a dark place and I wished I could take away some of her pain but I couldn’t; this wasn’t the kind of problem that was halved if it was shared.

I reached over to squeeze her fingers. ‘I know, and you will.Wewill. This is Thomas we’re talking about and he can take care of himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he took all the Knight Stalkers down from the inside then charged back here with their heads on pikes.’

She smiled, only because she knew I wanted her to.

‘The second we learn anything about his location, I’ll go with you,’ I continued. 'You know that, right? We’llRambothe hell out of the Knight Stalkers to get to him.’

‘Yeah. Thanks, Bunny. You’re the best friend a girl could have.’

‘Back at you, Sid.’

I walked her home then stopped at my own house to pick up Shadow because I hated leaving him home alone for too long. His barkingmrrowgreeted me as I slid the key in the lock: one pissed-off cat – check. With some yowling, I managed to bundle him into his pram and headed back to the office.

When I arrived, a dog-hair-covered Sigrid excused herself to go home for an early night with Gunnar. I thanked her profusely for coming out. Nothing had happened in my absence; our jailbird was snoring like a freight train.

The rest of the night was quiet bar the snoring; even so, worry about Kate and Essie clawed my guts, not to mention the threat of Connor’s dad’s imminent arrival. I did have an idea about something I could do after my shift, however.

As soon as April arrived to look after Donovan, I packed up my animal companions and headed to the store for a dozen doughnuts. Perhaps Matilda could help me. She could access every spot in Portlock because of her ability to walk through the earth like we did the air, and I’d happily take her all the doughnuts in town if she could help me find the girls.

I drove the long road to the Chrome mine. The dwarves had been busy: the front structure was completely cleared and I was impressed to see that building work had already started. That was insane in just two weeks, but apparently they didn’t believe in hanging around. I left my pets in the car and took the doughnuts up the side of the mountain away from the construction site.

At the place where we’d met before, I did my hag-summoning routine. ‘Matilda, Matilda, Matilda!’ I called out. I hadn’t seen her since our run-in with the Knight Stalkers, and my conscience pricked with discomfort. I should have checked on her sooner, not just when I needed something from her. Ugh: that was a total Mum move.

I stood there as the sun rose. Nothing. I sat on a rock and called again. Finally, I shouted, ‘Hey! Matilda, Matilda, Matilda – I brought sugar snacks!’

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