by Judith Post
“Does Kevin Vorley live here?”
She looked Danny up and down—a mass of wrinkles—then turned her attention to Enoch, cashmere sweater and leather coat. Danny showed her his badge. “The car dealership where your husband works was robbed last night. We're hoping he can give us information that will help us.”
She reluctantly stepped aside and let them enter. Enoch lifted his eyebrows in surprise at living room walls that were painted eggplant purple. Danny hadn't expected modern in an old brick home either. A vivid yellow sofa and two crimson chairs were arranged in a seating area around an Oriental rug. Antique, oak side tables added eclectic comfort to the room.
The woman watched their appraisal. “You like it?”
Enoch nodded. “Very much.”
She smiled and led them through pocket doors to the dining room. Here, the walls were bright apricot with a deep blue ceiling. Kevin and her daughter were sitting at a round, oak dining table. Plates with scraps of eggs and toast sat at three places.
“These are two detectives. They need you to answer some questions.” She lifted her daughter out of her high chair and disappeared into a kitchen with gleaming white cupboards and black and white floor tiles.
Kevin rose to his feet immediately. He wore crisp jeans and a striped, cotton shirt. “Has someone been in an accident? The streets are bad—"
Danny shook his head. “Nothing like that. The car dealership where you work was robbed last night. The thieves took three cars. If you have any information that would help us catch them, we’d appreciate it.”
Kevin paused a minute. He appeared to be trying to calm himself and shift gears. Then he said, “We have inside and outside security. How could they get away with three cars?”
“They were fast. They knew exactly what they were doing and cut the wires. Then they stole the keys and drove off in the cars.”
Kevin’s black brows rose in surprise. “You mean they were pros? Why would they hit our lot? There are new lots across from the mall with expensive makes of cars.”
“The other lots are pretty visible. They’d be a bigger risk.”
Kevin considered that. “What did they take?”
“The Mercedes…”
“It has a bad transmission.”
“They don’t know that,” Danny said. “A Volvo and a Chrysler.”
“Our high end cars. They should stand out. You should be able to spot them.”
“Not that easy. They were off the streets before we knew to look for them.”
Another silence. “How’s Jim taking it?”
“Your boss? He’s been happier.”
“He’ll be able to stay open, won’t he? He has insurance?”
Danny looked to Enoch to include him in the conversation. Enoch answered, “He has coverage, but he wasn’t sure it’s enough.”
“I hope it is. I like working there. Jim’s a nice guy.”
“Did you notice anyone who came to look at cars and acted a little different, as if maybe he was casing the lot?” Danny asked.
Kevin shook his head.
“Anything suspicious?”
“Sorry.”
Danny gave him a card. “If you think of anything, call me.”
Kevin walked to the phone. “I think I’ll give Jim a ring. See how he is.”
Before he could dial, Enoch asked, “Does Jim have a family?”
Another quick head shake. “His wife left him last year. He has a new girlfriend, though. Maybe she’ll give him a little comfort.”
“For his sake, I hope so.” When Kevin started to lead them to the door, Danny raised a hand. "No need, we can find our way out."
Enoch trailed behind Danny. As they slid into their cars, he called, “Could you meet me at the diner on the corner? Just coffee if you're in a hurry. Thoughts are tumbling around in my head and I need to sort them out."
Danny gave a thumbs-up and pulled away. Talking to Enoch would help him too. There wasn't any real hurry to get to Maggie's house. The killer never attacked in the day light, and her brother would still be at her place. Enoch followed him. When they found a booth and ordered coffee and rolls, Danny said, “Do you think it’s the new girlfriend?”
"No idea." Enoch sipped his coffee, frowning. “I wanted to talk to you about the clown killer. If I'm guessing right, and Gail Lahmeyer was killed by someone trying to rob her, then our guy has to be getting pretty desperate by now. I think we’d better keep track of Maggie every minute she’s not at work or surrounded by people. Our killer's ready to blow. He'll take any chance he gets.”
“And the robberies? What about them?”
“A hardware store bothers me. That means that our burglars are going back to small time stuff again. The car lot feels different, like it doesn’t fit. And I'm worried about the owner.”
Danny rubbed his forehead in frustration. “Nothing quite fits in either of these cases. It’s enough to make me nuts.” Enoch gave him a look. Danny raised a hand. “Don’t say it. I know, I know, I’m already halfway 'round the bend, but why would our local crooks go big time and steal cars?”
“And how are they connected to Gail Lahmeyer?” Enoch asked. “Because her murder’s part of it somehow.”
Danny finished off his roll and drained his coffee cup. “My brain’s on dim right now. I need to get some sleep. If you come up with any answers while you wander around today, let me know." As they started for the door, Danny stopped and turned to Enoch. "Will you go out tonight since I'll be watching Maggie and you and Voronika can stay home? The rogue took off, didn't he? When will the next guys get here?"
"I don't know."
Danny grimaced at Enoch's tone. "Sorry, I know you really wanted to nail the rogue after what he did to your friend."
"I'm not worried about him right now. I'll get him some day. Maybe not now, but eventually."
"He made an enemy out of the wrong person, didn't he? You have decades to track him down."
"And I will."
Danny knew that kind of determination. He looked at unsolved crimes once a year to see if any new technology or discoveries could help him solve a case. In his mind, the victims deserved that kind of respect. "So, are you staying home tonight? Maybe a little soft music, a bottle of wine?"
"I want Voronika to stay home from now on," Enoch said.
"Why? What happened?"
"I've found out that Vlad's on his way."
Danny had no idea who this Vlad was exactly, but he sounded like bad news. Just his name sounded like a character out of a horror movie. "I don't get it. You kill vampires. Vlad's a vampire. So what's the big deal?"
"We've avoided each other for centuries. He only pushes me so far, and I only hunt him half-heartedly. He's Caleb's favorite."
"Who's Caleb?"
Enoch gave him a level look. "That story gets involved."
"Right. Got it. We can deal with that some other day." Danny held up his hand. He didn't want to know. At least, not right now. "Vlad's a bad ass. So should you stay home too? To take care of Voronika?"
"If she stays in my apartment, she'll be safe, with or without me. I'll have to talk to her about that."
"Good luck, buddy." Danny had seen the look on Voronika's face when Enoch tried to talk her into something she didn't want to do. He had a strong hunch that his friend had met his match. But he hoped that Voronika would listen this time. She had to. Danny wanted her to be safe.
They were walking to their cars when Enoch stopped so abruptly, Danny turned to stare. "What is it?"
"I get it. I understand. Jim, the owner of the dealership, wasn't killed during a robbery. I saw him slumped over his desk at the car lot. He'd shot himself, put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. That's why the top of his head was gone. He committed suicide."
"But you saw him in a vision. He has to be a victim."
"He is. Whoever robbed Gail Lahmeyer is part of the group who robbed him. That's how they're connected. They ruined him. His insurance won't cover e
nough. He's lost his wife, and now his business. He's desperate. We have to talk to him."
Danny didn't argue. He followed Enoch's Land Rover to the car lot and prayed they'd get there before Jim reached in his desk drawer and took out his gun.
Chapter 31
It had taken some convincing, but between the two of them, Enoch and Danny gave Jim some hope. While they were talking to him, a customer who'd been at the lot a week ago, returned to buy a car. Jim's eyes lit up. Whatever wolf had been scratching at his door had been turned away for the moment. And Danny promised he'd do everything in his power to find Jim's lost cars. When they finally left the lot, Jim seemed less shaken, more optimistic.
"He should be okay for a while," Danny said. "We can't do more than that. I can't arrest a man for being depressed."
The episode bothered Enoch. Whoever had stolen the cars from Jim didn't care what damage it wreaked on his life. If he and Danny hadn't gotten to Jim in time and he'd have committed suicide, they wouldn't have felt responsible. But they were. It made him want to rush home and be with Voronika. He felt an urgent need to wake her and warn her about Vlad, but he knew he was overreacting. Vlad couldn’t stalk her in the daylight, and Caleb would keep him away as long as possible. He was glad he was heading home, though. He'd reached Main Street when Danny called.
"Tony just got a hold of me. I have to be in court in an hour. I don't suppose…" he hesitated. "Could you keep an eye on Maggie for a while? Just until I can get there?"
Enoch sighed.
"I'm really sorry. I know you want to get home to Voronika, but she's safe in the day time, right? Maggie might not be."
"I'll head there now," Enoch said.
"And Voronika is safe when there's sun light, right? That hasn't changed?"
"Until Vlad sends a familiar after her."
"A cat?"
"No, a human who gets special favors for working with vamps."
"What human would want to do that?"
"You'd be surprised. Some mortals are attracted to the dark side, but you already know that in your line of work."
"You guys go darker than I ever thought about," Danny told him, "but thanks, pal. I'll relieve you at Maggie's as soon as I can."
Enoch turned at the next corner and drove to North Highlands. He parked his Land Rover across the street from Maggie's house and gave her a call. "I'm here if your brother needs to leave."
"Thanks, he called work and he's going in late, but he was beginning to worry."
A half hour later, Maggie's brother left her house and went to his car. When he pulled away, Enoch settled in for his watch. His cell phone rang and he answered it.
“I have coffee. Want a cup?” Maggie didn’t like the idea of his being outside in the cold, he could tell. If he didn't go to her, she'd come to him.
“Sure, let me move my car so no one sees me get out of it to come to your place, then I'll be there.” He drove it to the parking spaces for the baseball diamonds and walked the short distance to Maggie's house. If the killer came, there wouldn't be a car for him to notice, and he'd assume that Maggie was alone. Enoch circled her house to the back door and Maggie greeted him. The warmth of the kitchen welcomed him. He looked around at its white cupboards, black appliances, and red brick floor tiles. Cozy. There seemed to be a rooster theme prevalent with cocks crowing on kitchen towels and posing on hot pads that dangled from hooks.
She had scrambled eggs and toast waiting on the kitchen table, along with the coffee. “Hope you’re hungry.”
“Thanks.” He shrugged out of his leather coat and took a seat. “Danny should be here soon. He got called to court, and then he'll stand watch today.”
“Why?” She tilted her head. She didn’t have on any make-up, and her skin was flawless—fair with a sprinkle of freckles on the bridge of her nose. Brown curls framed her face. To Enoch, every mortal had some sort of beauty when you really looked at them. Some beauty was more easily overlooked than others, but Maggie's was obvious.
She grinned. “Your mind’s wandering. Mine does that all the time.”
“Sorry. You asked about Danny.”
“Why is he standing watch during the day? I thought your killer only struck at night.”
“He’s attacked two women, but we saved them both. He didn’t get his usual fix, and he’s like a junkie—he needs it. He’ll be getting antsy and dangerous by now. He might break from his routine.”
“He’s addicted. I’ve worked with addicts at the hospital before. They’ll risk anything for their habit.”
Enoch studied her. How did she do it? She seemed so innocent, so upbeat and positive. They couldn't let anything happen to her. “You probably deal with a lot of life’s nastiness in your line of work.”
“That’s part of it. But there’s always more good than bad. Always.” It was her turn to study him. “What about you? I’d guess in your line of work, the bad outweighs the good.”
“The majority of people try hard to make something of themselves. It’s my job to protect them from the predators in life.” Predators was putting it mildly, but there was no reason for her to know the real monsters who lurked in the shadows.
“And the predators themselves?” she asked.
Enoch shrugged. “I'm not here to judge them, just to stop them.”
“The judicial system can handle the rest, right?”
“Right.” That hadn’t been Enoch’s first thought, but it would have been Danny’s.
Enoch was helping Maggie wash up when Danny knocked on the door.
“If I knew you'd be here so soon, I'd have saved some breakfast for you,” she said, motioning him inside. “We just finished, but I can make more.”
Danny shook his head. “I grabbed donuts on the way here. I’m fine. I didn't see Enoch's car, so I panicked a little. Thought maybe he was called away in a hurry. Wanted to make sure everything was okay before I started my watch.”
"I thought you'd call before you came. I was going to tell you then." Enoch could see that Danny was shaken. When he didn't see the Land Rover, he must have assumed that someone tried to grab Voronika.
"It was my fault." Maggie hurried to explain. “I thought I’d be safer if you guys stayed in the house with me. Won't that work better?”
“Not many people like the idea.”
“I do. You’ll probably be bored because I always clean the house on Friday and then run around and do chores, but it's better than sitting in a cold car, isn't it?"
“Yeah, I can keep better track of you that way. I’m pretty handy with a vacuum too.”
She smiled. “Do you carry in groceries?”
“My mom trained me right. It’s one of the skills on my résumé.”
“Good.” She turned to give Enoch a quick hug. It caught him off guard. He felt stiff and clumsy. He didn't usually elicit that kind of response in people. “Thanks for taking care of me," she said. "I’ll be all right now. My friends are coming at five-thirty tonight, and then both of you can quit worrying about me until they leave.”
“That works." Danny looked at Enoch. "What if I come back tonight and take my turn on guard? Then you can stay home. You have things to do."
Enoch hadn't realized how worried Danny was about Voronika. It made him appreciate his friend even more. Danny wanted him to be with her tonight, to convince her stay in the apartment and not take any chances. Why did a mortal show more concern than the One did? Maybe perfection made people too complacent. He held out a hand to Danny. "Thanks." Then he left Maggie with his friend and drove home.
When he entered the apartment, he went straight to Voronika’s door. Danny's alarm had unsettled him. Voronika was safe at the moment, he knew, but anxiety was building inside him. He needed to do something, form a game plan. He knocked on her door and called, "Can we talk?"
"Now? Can't it wait?" Her voice was groggy.
"I have news."
She sounded suddenly alert. “Come in. It’s too bright for me out there.”
> It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the gloom, but then he saw her sitting, Indian style, on the center of the queen-sized bed, her bare flesh as flawless as alabaster against the black satin sheets. The heavy canopy that draped the bed was pushed back on one side. She patted the bed to indicate a spot for him. “You have my full attention.”
He let out a long breath. “You make it hard to concentrate.”
"Do I?" A slow smile lifted her lips. “That’s the nicest compliment I’ve had for a long time.”
He forced himself to look away from her. This wasn't the time for ogling. He walked to the small desk in the corner and dragged its chair close to the bedside. Proximity to Voronika was dangerous. “Drape a sheet around yourself. We need to talk.”
“Uh-oh, all business.” She tossed her long legs over the edge of the bed and pulled the sheet loosely over her torso and upper thighs.
“I’ll get straight to the point. Caleb and I can transport visions of ourselves to each other, sort of a mental connection we have, the way vampires use telepathy. Caleb knows Vlad found you and came to ask me to stay out of it.”
Her yellow eyes searched his face. “Did he offer you a trade? Me for Danny and the humans in the city? I won’t blame you for taking him up on it.”
He reached for her hand, squeezed it reassuringly. “Has that happened to you before?”
“Once, the one time I trusted a fellow vampire. Believe me, the trade wasn't to save mankind or for anything noble.” She didn't elaborate, and he didn't push for more information.
“I don’t make deals like that. Caleb knows it.”
She twisted the hem of the sheet between her fingers. “Vlad never hunts alone. He likes to send a pack. He doesn’t care if his converts live or die. He only cares about himself.”
“And obviously you.”
“He doesn’t care about me. He wants me. There’s a difference.” Her whole body started to tremble and she darted panicked looks around the room.
