Page 7 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

‘Ones to prevent intrusion into the house. Someone can only enter if one of us allows it.’ Cobalt’s voice was clipped.

‘Or Kate?’

‘Yes,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘Or Kate. It’s clear the girls opened the window for some fresh air, enabling someone to get in and snatch them.’

Faye pressed her lips together. She clearly disagreed that the girls would be so reckless.

‘If the girls didn’t open the window themselves, how hard would it have been to breach the wards and open it?’ I asked.

‘It would have required blood,’ Cobalt said tightly. ‘A sacrifice.’

‘A necromancer could break it?’

‘Yes, but no one else. And Liv and I have an … understanding. She wouldn’t lower our wards – and she’s the only necromancer in town.’

She was? I hadn’t realised that. I pressed, ‘So which is it? Either the girls left the window open or Liv broke the wards.’

‘They’ve been taken!’ Faye wailed. ‘Kate wouldneverleave the window open!’

Cobalt grimaced. ‘Another necromancer could have come from out of town,’ he suggested. ‘Or the girls opened the window. Teenagers can be reckless.’ He wasn’t wrong, but even so the strength of the wards, and their subsequent failure, tallied more with the kidnap column.

‘Come with me,’ I instructed Faye and led her to Kate’s walk-in wardrobe. ‘Let’s see if you can see any clothing missing.’

My eyes widened at the colour co-ordinated spread of outfits. Whoever their maid was, she wasn’t a slouch. They looked like they’d been sorted by a professional organiser; at least that should make it easier to determine if anything had gone.

Biting her lip, Faye looked around. ‘The clothes she was wearing last night are gone. She was dressed in jeans and a medium-blue sweatshirt with a faded “Portlock Daze” logo on it, and matching ankle-high XtraTufs.’ She grimaced at the mention of the unfashionable – yet oh-so-practical – footwear.

‘What was Essie wearing?’

She shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t remember. Something similar, but I think her sweatshirt was a dusty pink. I can’t recollect a logo or anything. Sorry.’

Not everyone had my observation skills but Faye’s lack of awareness of her child’s friend struck me as uncaring. I hoped Essie’s mum could give us a better description.

‘Phones?’ I demanded.

‘Kate has the latest iPhone with a bright-purple cover. I haven’t seen it. I don’t know about Essie’s phone, but she definitely had one.’

‘Did Kate carry a purse or a bag of some kind?’ No point asking about Essie; Faye clearly didn’t recall much about her. I’d noted the lack of a backpack or bag in the room. Both girls were in school so they had to have something for their laptops and books.

‘Yes, Kate has an old leather messenger bag she bought at the black market. She loves that hideous thing.’

Even the teenagers of this town knew more about the black market than I did. Typical. ‘Colour?’

‘Black, but faded and cracked.’

‘Have you seen it in the house?’

Faye shook her head. ‘No.’

I assumed that each girl had their own bag with them, since I saw nothing in Kate’s room that indicated that Essie had even been there. That tipped their disappearance back into the ‘potential runaway’ column a little.

I broached my next question gently. ‘Could the girls be out for fun? Have you overheard them talking about a party or something they’d sneak out to? Music, concerts, that sort of thing?’

‘No, Kate would never run away like that! She knows we’d let her do anything she wanted so long as we knew where she was. And as I’ve told you … the window was open and our wards were down.’

Yeah, and that was the kicker – but the girls could have opened the window and climbed out themselves. Still, my gut said they’d been taken even though I didn’t know why I’d reached that conclusion.

I opened the window and looked down. It was large enough to step out of, and a vampire and shifter could easily make the two-storey jump. ‘Does Kate have a daylight charm?’ I asked. It wasn’t considered polite to ask but, if you knew someone was a vampire and you saw them in the daylight, it wasn’t hard to extrapolate. I assumed she had one but I needed to know for sure. If someone had taken her and she didn’t… One slip-up and goodbye Kate.

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