Page 66 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

‘Even that. You really found your feet there. I’m proud of you.’

‘Aww,’ Bob mocked from the ground. ‘How sweet.’

‘Give me an excuse to kick you and I’ll take it,’ I said lightly. He wisely fell silent.

We hauled him to his feet, secured him in the Nomo’s vehicle then went back to search his property. His wife, Karen, was in theirbedroom packing a suitcase. She looked up when we walked in. ‘I’m taking this opportunity to leave his sorry ass,’ she said quietly.

‘He’ll be gone a while,’ Gunnar reassured her. ‘You can take your time.’

Karen’s hands stilled on her clothes. ‘He killed Donovan, didn’t he?’

Gunnar swerved the question. ‘Did your husband know Donovan well?’

She snorted. ‘He spent more time with that asshole than with me. They were always drinking and carousing together, talking in code and snickering at me like I was too stupid to understand what they were saying.’

‘Whatwerethey saying?’ I asked.

‘Like I said, they spoke in code, talking about “going hunting” and “securing the game”.’ She snorted. ‘Neither one of them has hunted properly a day in their life. Donovan was mer and he ate fish rather than meat.’ Her tone indicated this was the height of madness.

‘What do you think they were talking about?’ I pushed.

‘I figured drugs, but then Donovan got his head bashed in and Bob’s been real freaked out. I figured he did it.’

‘He didn’t kill Donovan,’ I admitted. I didn’t mention that, according to their ghosts, he’d killed Cadence and Casiah. ‘He’s been kidnapping girls.’

Her hand rushed to her throat: she would have clutched her pearls if she’d had any. ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Did he…?’ She bit her lip. ‘What did he do to them?’

‘As far as we can tell, he sold them. He was part of a sex trafficking ring.’

She closed her eyes and crossed herself. ‘Holy hell. I’m done! I’m outta here and I ain’t looking back. I’m going home to Chicago and I’m gonna pretend real hard I don’t know jack about anything supernatural. I’m gonna be a boring-ass human for the rest of my life, and I’m gonna be grateful for it, too.’ She started packing her clothes now in earnest.

‘Does your husband have a quad bike?’ I asked.

‘A what?’

‘A four-wheeler,’ Gunnar translated.

‘Oh sure. It’s out back. He’s got this shed, real private – I’m not allowed in. I’d bet good money whatever you’re lookin’ for is in there.’

‘You didn’t ever peek?’ I asked. I couldn’t understand that, I would totally have peeked.

‘Nah. It wasn’t worth catching a beating over.’

‘He hit you?’ I asked sharply. ‘Will you press charges?’

‘You certain you got the bastard on the kidnapping?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then no, I don’t need that in my life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to pack and book a plane to get the hell out of here.’

Her comment reminded me that I still needed to give Edgy the all-clear to resume normal flights now the girls were safe. I texted him quickly then Gunnar and I donned gloves to search the residence.

It was a sad-sack place with few luxuries and hardly any basic amenities. Karen wasn’t a homemaker and I couldn’t blame her – I wouldn’t want to make a home with that asshole either. The cooker was rusty and takeout boxes were stacked on every surface. An old metal tray still had the remnants of some cookies baked onto it, so we bagged it. I’d bet any money that testing those found us our drugged cookies that Cobalt had fed his daughter.

Besides the tray we found nothing of interest in the property, but in the shed – which magically opened all by itself with a little help from Gunnar – we struck gold. There was rope and duct tape, military ration packs and a couple of potion bottles.

‘MREs,’ Gunnar grunted, pointing at the ration pack. ‘These are what they fed Essie.’

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