Page 65 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

I gasped.

‘She split from him then and there, set up a spell to keep him away from her, and that was that. Despite my best efforts, like a lot of domestic violence victims she refused to press charges. I started going around to check on her make sure she was okay. One evening – later than I usually stopped by – I heard screaming.’

He looked at me wryly. ‘I smashed through her door and burst in. It turned out she was having a nightmare. I woke her, and well…’ He flushed. ‘She kissed me. After that, I was a goner. I tried to take things slow but there was no stopping our love. We got married six months later and neither of us have any regrets.’ His eyes were soft with nostalgia.

He cleared his throat. ‘I’ve avoided dealing with Sampson – I don’t trust myself. In his defence, losing Sig seemed to be the wake-up call he needed and he appeared to clean up his act. He married someone else and she’s never complained about violence, at least not to the Nomo’s office.’

He grimaced. ‘I’ve always wondered if he just got better at hiding it once he knew I was waiting for him to screw up – but then I thought it was just me being biased. And like Sig says, everyonedeserves a second chance.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But not a third. If Sampson is our guy, then that’s it.’

We called Lily; she and the girls were still happily ensconced at Connor’s watching his ridiculously big TV. We told her we were sending a picture of a suspect to her phone; could either girl identify him as the skinny kidnapper?

I snapped a photo of Bob Sampson from his file and sent it to Lily. She had us on speakerphone, so we all heard Kate gasp, ‘It’s him!’

‘Definitely,’ Essie agreed.

‘I’m going to draw up a statement for each of you confirming he is one of the men who took you,’ I said. ‘Once you’ve signed them, we’ll get a warrant for his arrest. You stay at Connor’s. I’ll be around with the statements within the hour.’ We rang off.

‘You start the statements,’ Gunnar said. ‘I’ll start the warrant for his arrest.’

As I stood to leave, I asked, ‘How’s Sidnee?’

‘She came home with us. I won’t lie – she’s still shaky. I’ve given her a couple days off to recover.’

‘She’s been through a lot. Any more news about Thomas?’

Gunnar sighed. ‘No. I hit up my contact again this morning and they promised that they’re digging.’

We all wanted Thomas home safe, and the longer he was away the more I wondered if we’d ever see him again.

Chapter 40

When the paperwork was complete, it was time to pick up Bob and see what he had to say for himself. Remembering his threats and the fear on the girls’ faces, I really hoped he’d try to resist arrest.

He lived in a ramshackle house down by the water. It was on stilts, like a lot of houses near the coastline, and it looked like it was a few months away from being condemned. Part of the original wooden walkway had rotted away and a wooden pallet had been thrown down to make the house accessible.

I looked at it dubiously. ‘Gunnar, this place is a death trap.’

He shook his head. ‘Can you imagine Sig here?’

I imagined that if Sig had married this guy the house wouldn’t have looked like this, but I kept my mouth shut.

In stark contrast, the top-of-the-range truck on the driveway was gleaming. It was easy to see where Bob spent his money.

I knocked on the door and a middle-aged woman opened it. She didn’t smile or greet us, just looked at our badges and hollered over her shoulder, ‘Bob, it’s for you.’ She obviously knew what sort of man she’d married.

Heavy steps pounded down a dark hallway and Bob appeared. ‘Out of the way, Karen,’ he groused. She sent him a sour look, but moved,

Like Gunnar, Bob was tall though he was a lot thinner. My boss had a bit of a beer belly even though the remainder of his bulk was solid muscle but in contrast Bob was full scarecrow. He had long greasy hair and a bushy, dirty beard, and he smelled of body odour, greasy food and cigarettes. His vest and jogging bottoms were stained and dirty.

He looked at the two of us then focused on Gunnar. ‘What do you want?’ he snarled.

‘Robert Sampson, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Kate Robertson and Essie Kaleak.’ Gunnar didn’t even try to hide his satisfaction.

Bob shifted his weight to bolt but I moved first. I grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back and drove him down to the ground in one fluid motion. He hit it with a grunt, the wind knocked out of him. Before he could recover, I unhooked the magic-cancelling cuffs and secured them around his wrists.

Gunnar beamed at me. ‘The academy was good for you.’

‘Except for the whole poltergeist situation,’ I pointed out.

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