Page 39 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

When we were done searching the caravan I asked, ‘Would you mind if we looked in thecar?’

She sighed. ‘Sure, why not?’ She passed Gunnar the keys.

‘Can we call someone for you?’ Gunnar asked.

Haavale took a shaky breath. ‘My parents – would you do that for me? Call them, I mean?’

‘Sure,’ Gunnar replied. ‘We’re heading there next so we’ll let them know what’s happened.’

She sniffed. ‘My dad will be so happy,’ she said bitterly then burst into sobs.

Gunnar looked helpless, so I sat next to her and hugged her. ‘Do you have someone close by I can get for you right now? A friend?’

‘Yeah,’ she managed between sniffs. ‘My best friend lives next door. Her name is Angie.’

‘Which direction? I’ll fetch her.’ She pointed and I gave her another squeeze before releasing her and going to find Angie.

A curvy woman with shoulder-length brown hair answered when I knocked at the door. ‘Angie?’

‘Yeah? Who’s asking?’

‘I’m Officer Bunny Barrington with the Nomo’s office.’

‘Bunny?’ she snorted. ‘Your mama have a tryst with Bugs?’

‘Something like that. Listen, your friend Haavale has just had some bad news. She asked me—’

She pushed past me before I finished, hurried to Haavale’s caravan and let herself in.

Gunnar came out a moment later, unlocked the fancy vehicle and we searched it. It was a top-of-the-line model, very much at odds with the static caravan, large as it was.

It was pristine and there wasn’t a speck of lint to be found. Annoyingly, there wasn’t a contract for the hire of a quad bike or anything else incriminating: no massive coils of rope and rolls of duct-tape, nothing that said, ‘I am an evil kidnapper.’ That sucked because we really needed to getsomethingon this asshole that would help us free Sidnee.

Donovan hadn’t been carrying any weapons when his body was found, which weakened any claim of self-defence, but he was a strong and violent man. As a full mer, he was a weapon in his own right as Stan had once so arrogantly claimed to be.

When Gunnar sighed heavily, I knew his thoughts were mirroring mine. ‘Nothing. God damn it.’ He thumped the dash angrily.

Rather than disturb the new widow further, he closed the door, locked the car and posted the keys through the door. Our work here was done – for now.

Gunnar was in the passenger seat so I climbed in the driver’s side. Clearly, he had a plan and that didn’t include him driving right now. He passed me the SUV’s keys wordlessly and I started the engine and pointed us towards Mafu’s home. It sucked that the mayor was our main suspect other than Sidnee, but we had to go where the evidence took us. Mafu was strong as hell and had plenty of reason to despise his sticky-fingered son-in-law.

‘I guess we’d better get a warrant for the mayor’s house,’ I said.

‘Yeah – and it’s not going to be easy. I’ll have to call Stan and get either Liv or Calliope to sign it. Without Thomas, and withthe mayor a suspect and Connor under surveillance, we’re running out of council members.’

He started phoning while I drove. Calliope didn’t answer, so he bit the bullet and spoke to Liv once more. I was worried his grip on the phone might crush it but he looked relieved when he hung up. ‘Liv and Stan will sign off on it.’

‘Great,’ I said, though it didn’t feel great. I hadn’t had a tonne of interaction with Mafu, but when the chips were down he’d come with us into the mine; getting a warrant to search his home felt duplicitous, and shitty. Half of me wanted him to have a solid alibi and half of me didn’t because that would put Sidnee one step closer to being free. Ugh, I was a bad person.

I’d half-expected Mafu’s home to be palatial because of his position, but I recalled that once he’d said he had to fish when everyone else was holding out for a higher price from the local fish plants, so maybe that meant money was tight. I wondered if he was still supporting Haavale financially.

When Gunnar directed me to a modest council home, I was a little taken aback. Maybe the mayor’s office came with accommodation.

Another Tongan woman answered the door. I assumed she was Mafu’s wife because she looked like she was early forties and she was in a bathrobe as though she were heading to bed. It was dark, but not that late by supernat terms.

‘Mrs Finau, sorry to bother you,’ Gunnar said.

‘Hello, Gunnar,’ she said pleasantly. ‘How can I help you this evening?’

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