Page 64 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

‘Sorry, buddy, but you’ve got to face it. This is going to be hard until it’s not. I know you can do it – youneedto do it. You’re a werewolf, not a dog.’

He didn’t make a sound – but when I turned into the car park at the clinic, Reggie was sitting in the back seat. I smiled. ‘Hey, it’s good to see you.’ He didn’t reply.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to spring it on you like this but I forgot to give you a reminder.’ Still no response. ‘You’ve got a key, right? Do you want to walk home or do you want me to pick you up when you’re done?’ It would be hard to wrangle more time off but I’d do it; Gunnar would forgive me and Reggie needed to know that I had his back.

He gave me a flat stare, looking like the teenager he was, then opened the SUV door and stormed into the clinic. I rolled down the window. ‘I guess I’ll meet you at home then!’

I half-expected a middle-finger salute but he merely hunched his shoulders and kept on walking. I hated feeling like the bad guy but I knew this would help him. He just needed to stick with it.

While I was watching him walk in, I took the opportunity to call my mum. Her phone went straight to voicemail – time zones were a pain in the ass – so I left a breezy message to say I was just checking in.

When Reggie was safely inside the building, I gunned it back to the office to see what had hit the fan while I was asleep.

Spoiler: colossal piles of poop.

Chapter 39

I strode into Gunnar’s office and sat opposite him. ‘Sorry about that. Bring me up to date.’

He sent me a wry smile. ‘Unlike you, I struggled to sleep so I decided to go back to the bunker and process the scene. My interest was piqued when I found some old comms. The place was a military mobile communications unit, SCR-299. The fact that it was military got me real curious about the contents of the barrels. You weren’t kidding about the smell, were you? Anyway, I opened them up and bagged up the remains. They’ll have to go to Anchorage for a forensic examination but the scraps of clothing that were left were definitely military.’

He leaned forward. ‘Whoever killed them hid the bodies and that got me wondering why. When I got back to the office, I dug out some old maps and property records. The bunker isn’t technically on Cobalt Robertson’s land but the tunnel leading to it is. That area used to be a military post but when the soldiers stationed there mysteriously died, they closed up shop. No replacements, no questions. Robertson picked up the land for a steal back in the 1940s.’

‘You think he killed some soldiers to get some cheap land? What an asshole. That’s another nail in his coffin. Have we got a warrant for a search and arrest?’

Gunnar gave a satisfied smile. ‘That’s why I woke you. Liv, Calliope and Mafu signed the warrant. We’re good to go.’

‘Why didn’t you ask Connor to sign?’ I asked. ‘After all, it’s one of his people.’

He grimaced. ‘That’s why Ididn’task him – I don’t want to put him in a sticky situation with his father. Connor would deal with some issues like this himself but with Robertson being an old favourite of his father’s, it’s better ifweget our hands dirty.’

April burst into the office. ‘I’ve got a live one!’ She waved some papers. ‘Robert Sampson, aka Bob. He looks like a real piece of work and he isdefinitelyliving beyond his documented means. He has one helluva truck.’

Gunnar froze. ‘Sampson,’ he growled. ‘That piece of shit!’

‘Is he a regular offender?’ I asked. I hadn’t heard the name before but maybe he’d been on his best behaviour – until he’d kidnapped Kate and Essie, that is.

‘On paper he’s been in the clear for the last decade,’ April said, ‘but my gut says he’s our kidnapper. He’s tall and skinny, like the girls said, and he has a tonne of guns. The registered truck at his last known address is an F-150 Raptor R that retails at over $100k, which is way too much for him to have on a fisherman’s salary! Something definitely smells fishy – and it’s not the fish he catches.’

I grinned. ‘You enjoyed that, didn’t you?’

She beamed back. ‘Isure did.’ She winked at me and spun out of Gunnar’s office, humming a tune as she went. I laughed at her antics. April had become the glue that held this office together; she was far more than just an admin assistant.

‘Okay, Bob Sampson. This is good.’ I looked at Gunnar. ‘You want to fry him before we tackle Cobalt Robertson?’

Gunnar looked unhappy. ‘I’ve got history with Sampson. Many moons ago, before Sig and I got married, she was dating someone pretty seriously. I’d had my eye on her for a while and she was friendly with me, but she wasn’t interested.’

I could hardly believe that because Sig and Gunnar had the kind of deep, abiding love that was the stuff of fairy tales, the kind I hoped Connor and I would grow into one day when the carnal lust faded. Real soulmates, not just fated but tried and true.

Gunnar wasn’t looking at me, which was good, because I was definitely gaping at him. I closed my mouth. ‘Right. Go on.’

‘So this guy is dirty, real dirty, but Sig couldn’t see it and I couldn’t get her to believe me. Like a lot of people that come to Portlock, he was on his last strike. Most who end up here are repentant and turn their lives around. He wasn’t changing but he was hiding it really well.’

I interrupted, ‘What was he into?’

‘Drugs, violence. He’d fled because supposedly he’d killed someone, but it wasn’t ever proven.’ He grimaced. ‘He also had domestic violence issues. He made out like he’d left all his darkness behind him, that he was a changed man. He played Sig – you know what she’s like. She thinks no one is beyond saving and he cashedin on her kind heart. Eventually Sampson proposed to her and she accepted.’

I must have made a shocked noise because he nodded, then leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled. ‘That’s when he couldn’t keep his true colours from her anymore.’ His voice was tight. ‘She annoyed him one day – turned him down when he wanted sex – and he punched her. Broke her nose.’

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