“I’ll be calling my lawyer,” Paton said calmly.
“In that case I’ll be taking you in for questioning.” There was something gleeful in Margot’s voice. “Read Mr. Paton his rights, Officer. Cuff him, and put him in my unit.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the cop said.
“Don’t touch anything,” she added. “I want a warrant for this one.” Margot came back in the main room.
“Be sure to include the backyard in the warrant,” I said softly for her ears only. “And his business office. And anyproperties he might own or rent. And whatever he watches on the TV in the main room.”
“Why’s that?” Margot asked.
“Church-dar. For creepy old men.” For things that seem wrong.
•••
Back in the Blalock yard, I asked the crime scene tech to step back and used the psy-meter 2.0, reading the spot where Raynay disappeared. I caught a hint of vampire. Which was strange because vampires in the daylight were impossible. But Paton’s description of the abduction sounded like the way well-fed blood-servants moved—faster than normal. And paneled vans with tinted windows were a common method of transportation for vampires.
I looked back at the window of Paton’s house that faced this spot. Compared it to the front of the house where Raynay lived. On a hunch I packed up the psy-meter, thanked the tech, and made my way to the Blalock house. Quietly, I made my way down the hall to the bedroom where two cops and a crime scene tech were standing. Green walls and carpet. Unmade bed. Clothes on the floor. High school banners hung on one wall. The room of the abducted girl faced the front of the house, overlooking Paton’s house, with a clear view of the window where Margot had said,Gotcha, you lying son of a bitch. What had she seen?
My cell dinged. JoJo had sent a text to Margot and me.Found a Peeping Tom report from twenty years ago, and one count of lewd behavior with a minor. Nothing since.
Margot texted back,He went underground.
She meant that Paton was a sexual predator who had learned to hide his activities enough to be considered safe around neighbors. But why would a sexual predator claim he had witnessed an abduction if he was the culprit? Why not just remain silent? I thought about the sanctimonious predators at the church and considered them in light of the evidence here. I texted back,I’ll access all reports of missing girls when I get back to HQ. But I think he really saw the girl abducted. It fits the MO of a man hiding his own activities. In warrant, look for child pornography.
Margot texted back,My money says we got him.
I hoped her money was right, but just in case, I sent a text to Yummy that said,Can vampires smell other vampires and their blood-servants? If so, when you wake and get this, I’d like you to take a sniff at the abduction site of a human teenager.Then I sent a shorter text,Please.
•••
Because a child was missing, Margot got her paper in record time. I spent the next hours working on my search on Isleen and Loriann, running back and forth between Paton’s house and the Blalock home, updating people at HQ, and keeping my nose in everything important.
In the middle of the running around, my laptop dinged. I took it to the truck and plugged it in to charge while I looked at the results of my search. I sat for a while, sweating, my fingers on the keyboard, limp, as I stared at the results. Then I called JoJo on her cell.
“Jones,” she said.
“I may have found Loriann, Rick’s ink blood-magic witch.”
“Go, probie!”
“Not really. Things are convoluted. There’s an NOPD complication from the two years after Rick was inked.” I told what I had discovered.
Jo listened and then said softly, “I’ll do some more research and then call Soul.”
“Copy that.” I ended the call. If I was right about what I had discovered, Rick had been hiding things from his unit.
•••
Two hours after the call had first come in, we had significant evidence against Jim Paton for possessing child pornography and for watching Raynay Blalock through her window with a telescope that was usually set up on a tripod in his bedroom. The scope was found under the bed, but the feet of the stand had made indentations in the carpet that were impossible to explain away. Jim claimed he had nothing to do with Raynay’s kidnapping, but he was in deep trouble and his lawyer was trying to arrange bail and a safe place for the man to stay. So far no judge was willing to consider letting him out onpersonal recognizance, and Jim wasn’t going to be safe in his own house anymore, not since word had gotten out to his neighbors that he was into abuse of children.
But. Raynay was still missing. Margot and another FBI agent I didn’t know had spent hours with the mother of the missing girl, but she knew nothing. I still didn’t think Paton had anything to do with the kidnapping.
It was finally dark and Yummy was on her way over to add more evidence. Waiting on her, I sat in the overheated truck cab, windows open, sweating, making cell phone calls and typing up reports, my skin coated with that oily, greasy sweat that results from high humidity and midsummer heat. The temps were making me gripey and impatient and I was hungry and thirsty and I had forgotten to refill my water bottle, which meant I’d had to refill with city water from the Blalock kitchen tap. The taste was chlorinated and awful. And Yummy was late.
That thought was still echoing in my brain when the truck rocked and a fanged face slashed at my windshield. I had drawn my weapon and aimed before I realized it was Yummy. False vamp laughter, mocking and insulting, echoed down the street. Playing a vamp game. My heart was stuttering around one-eighty, and my breathing was still trying to catch up. Knowing she would hear me through the open window, I muttered, “I’m loaded with silver-lead ammo. Be glad I didn’t fire.”
“Maggoty Nell would make me true-dead?” she asked through the glass, still laughing. But it was now human laughter and her fangs snapped back into place in the roof of her mouth as her eyes bled back to human.
