He inhales, then blows the air out slowly. “That magazine, Echo Mills Today.”
I’ve never heard of a magazine by that name, but Night Haven has its own periodicals. I do know that Echo Mills is the tiny rural town where Eloise lives.
Eloise frowns. “When did you say this place stopped printing?”
He scratches the back of his head. “‘bout six weeks or so. It was weird as hell. Place was cleaned out overnight.”
“Just one more question.” Eloise taps her phone and brings up a picture of Tony. “You ever see this guy here?”
The man’s eyes widen slightly before shifting to the side. “Not sure. A lot of guys have his colorin’, ya know? Besides, I don’t have a good head for faces.”
“But if you had to say...”
His eyes focus on the money in her hand. “Yeah... I think he was here before.”
She hands him the cash and then gestures for me to step aside. I don’t.
“Damien,” she says through her teeth.
Reluctantly, I shift out of the man’s way. He starts for the door but stops and turns back to her. “You won’t tell nobody I told you nothin’, right? I really need the work if they come back, and that was the one rule. Don’t talk about it.”
She shakes her head. “Of course not. I don’t even remember who you are. I’ve never seen you before.”
He smiles and gives her a little nod, then with one last apprehensive glance in my direction, leaves.
“You should have let me interrogate him,” I bark, angry that once again she’s let the best hope for her salvation walk out the door. “We could have mined him for more information if I’d used my powers.”
“Like you did with the gas station attendant?”
I growl, baring my teeth. “We weren’t interrogating the gas station attendant. He was slamming your head into the pavement.”
She sighs. “True. That wasn’t a fair comparison. But I think we have what we need. Tony was here, and he was printing a magazine called Echo Mills Today. I’ve never heard of it personally, but it counts as a business. That should nullify the prenup.”
“If you can prove it exists and that Tony owns it,” I drawl, exasperated. “You just let your only witness to its existence walk out the door with the last money in your pocket.”
“But... I mean...” She rubs her eyes with her knuckles like a child. “Well, fuck!”
I level a dark look in her direction. “Are you wondering what I think you should do next?”
“No,” she says emphatically, but I can see it’s a lie. She’s young, so painfully young compared to me. And an orphan. She wants my help, she’s just too proud to ask for it.
“You should let me kill Tony,” I tell her definitively.
“No!” she cries. “We’re not killing anybody. How do we find out more about this place and what they were doing here? If he packed everything up six weeks ago, someone must have seen something.”
A muscle in my jaw twitches with annoyance.
“I mean someone other than the man who just walked out the door.” She waves a hand in the direction of the exit.
Fuck. I can think of someone, but it’s risky. I decide not to offer it as a solution. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
She follows after me as I head toward her car, mumbling to herself. I hear her say something about monster instructions under her breath and feel myself smile.
“Vampires are up at night, right?” she says suddenly.
I turn the key. “Obviously.”
“Well, do you know any? If they moved this place overnight, maybe one of your vampire buddies saw something and could help us.”
