Page 29 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

I watched the young woman walk away until I couldn’t see her anymore. My mind kept replaying the conversation because it had raised a question: if the sex ring wanted weak supernat girls, why the hell had they taken Kate and Essie? One was a rare vampire from a two-parent family and the other was a powerful shifter, albeit with a single mum. Neither of them fitted the MO perfectly but my gut said the same group was responsible.

I just had to hope that I’d closed the harbour down in time and they hadn’t already escaped our net.

Chapter 17

I drove to the Nomo’s office on autopilot; despite the rush of the recent discoveries, the daylight exhaustion was crushing me hard. I needed to type up some notes and then I could crash.

I had just opened the car door when my phone rang: Connor. ‘Bunny!’ His tone was desperate. ‘They’re here.’

‘Who?’ My tired brain connected the dots before he answered: the vamp soldiers had arrived in town. Fuck!

‘My father’s men. They’re headed to the Nomo’s office. If you’re there, leave now!’

‘On it,’ I promised. I cut the call and looked around quickly but I couldn’t see any interlopers: they hadn’t arrived yet. I’d grab Fluffy and Shadow and go home. I could write my report from there.

I peered carefully into the main office before I went inside but there was only April sitting at her desk. I hurried in and plonked Shadow into his pram. ‘Fluffy, we need to sneak out. Now!’ He yipped and moved close to my heels.

I turned to our stalwart receptionist, ‘April, some vampires are on their way here. Refer them to Gunnar or Sidnee but don’t mention me! I’ll text you more details, but they can’t see me.’

Her expression was grave. ‘Got it. I’ve got your back.’

I blew her a kiss. ‘I know you have!’

I opened the front door and checked both ways. The coast was still clear so I hurried out, pushing the pram. As I reached the end of the block, three large men dressed in black combat gear passed me. Luckily they ignored me: I must have looked like a normal mum with a child and a dog and I wasn’t worth a second look. The cat pram had mesh around it so most people assumed it contained a baby, not a ten-kilo lynx.

I breathed out and hurried home. Once I was safely inside, I texted April to tell her what was happening and what she should say, then forwarded the same message to Sidnee and Gunnar. Next, I called Connor.

‘Did you see them? Are you alright?’ he asked, the second he picked up.

‘I passed them on the street but they didn’t look at me twice.’

After a second, he said, ‘Good. That’s good.’

‘Now what? I’m the lead on this case. I could have a call any minute and then I’dhaveto go out.’

‘You can’t! You’ve got to trust your team. These men can’t know about you, Bunny.’

‘I feel like I’m in the dark here, Connor, and that’s not a nice feeling.’

I heard him pass a hand over his face; the stubble made a distinct sound to my vampire ears. ‘We should talk face to face but I can’t risk it until I can give them the slip. One of them is visibly on me, which means at least one other will be shadowing me unseen.They’re always in pairs. I’ve gotta go – a car just pulled up. Keep in touch via text as much as possible – those can’t be overheard.’

‘Got it. I love you.’

‘I love you too, Doe. So much.’ He hung up. I wished those words had been spoken from a place of affection rather than grim determination.

After that conversation I felt even more weary, but I forced myself to type up the notes from my conversation with the young woman. I sent in the report and asked April to look into any residents with a known background of pimping, sexual assault or violence towards women.

Portlock was a last-chance destination, which meant we’d have a depressing volume of suspects but we could narrow them down by focusing on anyone who had access to a van – either their own or through work.

I asked April to ask our contact at the DMV; it wouldn’t be quick, but at least it felt like we were making progress. Finally I asked if we could access any housing records where the properties had some sort of bunker. Between all of those searches, surely we’d be able to pinpoint where the girls had been taken?

Feeling optimistic, I fed my animals and turned on the kettle for a much-needed mug of tea. I plonked a cup of blood in the microwave and sat down at my table to stare into space for a while. My body was exhausted but my brain wasn’t quite ready to stop.

Text messages popped up on my phone to acknowledge my warnings. Damn: I’d been out of the loop for all of ten minutesand I was already itching. I had serious FOMO. I drank my blood and prepped my tea. Then I paced.

We had a prostitution ring operating out of Portlock. I had no idea how many people were involved, but according to the woman I’d met one was tall and thin and one was big and bulky. I knew Kate and Essie were hidden somewhere in the south end of town, most likely in a bunker. If they were being held by the same criminals, they’d be transported to Homer or Anchorage, probably by boat. We had stopped the commercial boats but there were still private boats to worry about.

I was still baffled as to why Kate and Essie had been taken. Neither girl was magically weak, like my young lady had said the others had been, so what was the reason that these two in particular had been selected? I needed a link.

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