“I expected to be on a first-name basis before we got to this point in the evening,” Garrett said with a twist of his lips. Smith was supposed to be guarding the front. He’d been hoping to bypass the security check. Instead, Garrett picked up part of his conversation, something about getting held up at the outdoor Loggia attached to the library.
Before he could fathom what a Loggia entailed, the guard patted him down. He motioned to the nineteenth-century pistol from Garrett’s private collection, the one he kept holstered in a shoulder strap loaded with real silver-tipped bullets for the occasion. “I’ll take that for you, sir. You may retrieve it after the party.”
Garrett let out a low chuckle. “It’s part of the costume, but if your boss deems it necessary to confiscate a prop, then knock yourself out. I’m sure the old guy who rented it to me will have a good laugh over the whole thing.”
“Smith will meet you inside in a few minutes. Try and play nice. The goal is to get you inside,” Dubrosky said in his ear.
The guard pursed his lips in annoyance. Someone called his name and the vampire turned, allowing Garrett to slip past him and blend in with the crowd.
“Quick thinking, Detective,” Denopoulos said into his mic over the crash of pots and pans in the background. We’re looking for Malcom, but so far no one’s found him yet. I suspect the bastard knows how to stay hidden. As soon as we get Lawrence, he’ll be forced to lead us to his boss.”
Garrett couldn’t respond without giving away the wire in his ear, so he simply smiled and kept on walking to the main entrance of the house. Lush, green shrubs and tall arborvitaes greeted him. He snuck a peek through the arches of the courtyard to the lawns, and Versailles came to mind. Golf carts filled with guests zoomed past.
Taking the stone steps that led to the main entrance, Garrett glanced over at the sea of costumes, from a couple dressed as Marilyn Monroe and his all-time favorite baseball player, Joe DiMaggio, to a provocative Snow White with her Prince Charming, all of whom wore masks to cover their faces. But he could sense how uncomfortable the women seemed from their body language.
Everyone came in costume, and Garrett wondered if Malcom was somewhere among them. Would he be able to recognize the bastard after all these years? A cluster of women clad in vampire costumes, complete with crimson lips and plastic fangs, walked up the staircase, teetering on stilettos with glazed looks in their eyes. He could smell their perfume, along with their fear.
An attractive female dressed as Marie Antoinette stood at the open doors. A high back stool with an ornate crystal bowl on top sat to her right, filled with red, velvet boxes. “Good evening and welcome.” With a glance at his costume, she checked her iPad. He’d been required to include how he’d be dressed via text.
“We have you right here, Mr. Beam. My name’s Joanna. Please let me know if you need anything. Enjoy.” She reached into the bowl and handed him a small box, which he placed in the top pocket of his waistcoat.
“Thank you, Joanna.” Once Garrett stepped through the threshold, he glanced at the enormous hallway. The over the top display of wealth and opulence bought from the blood of the innocent made him want to hurl the box at one of the gold filigree mirrors hanging on the wall. Between the winding staircase that appeared to go as far up as the heavens, to the high vaulted ceilings and enormous brick fireplace, he deemed the place fit for a king. Or in this case, the head of a blood ring. He reluctantly admired the architecture and imagined Malcom had the place custom-built to his specs.
“What’s with the gift?” Dubrosky asked, breaking into his musings.
“One way to find out,” he whispered back. When he opened the box, a red signet ring stared back at him. Trying to hide his revulsion, Garrett slipped the gold band on his finger, and crossed into what he knew from the layout was the formal great room where most of the guests now congregated. “We need to confirm Malcom’s here.”
“Hang on, Mulroney. We’re searching the crowd, trying to do face recognition scans, but with the masks, it’s almost impossible.”
White-gloved waiters and waitresses walked by carrying trays of flutes filled with champagne. A waiter brushed past him with a tray of hors d’oeuvres and Garrett caught the scent of the strawberry blond demon agent from the Greenwich field office. They called him Big Red.
Set up in the corner with stools and loveseats, an enormous bar seemed the place to congregate. The MBI had sent in their agents to pose as bartenders.
At first glance, the room appeared to be at capacity, buzzing with chatter. Despite having studied the blueprints, Garrett wasn’t prepared for the sheer size of the house and the number of creatures and humans inside. It made their jobs more difficult.
There was a task force nearby, prepared to bust up the place and rescue all the women as soon as they got the okay. If they went in too soon, they’d have a blood bath on their hands. Once they got Brooke Corey and the rest of the vics out of there, they’d seize whatever they could from Malcom’s computers, and hopefully, put him and Lawrence away for the rest of their miserable lives.
Garrett wasn’t sure how Lawrence had managed to pull off something this elaborate as a fugitive. He tuned into the multitude of conversations around him, hoping to pick up on something that would lead him to Brooke and the sleezebag host for the evening.
“Does anyone want to venture a guess as to how Lawrence will be dressed tonight?” he whispered into his mic.” In all the surveillance video the agents managed to listen to, nothing had given them any clue on his choice for a costume.
“Do you see anyone dressed as Attila the Hun or Lucifer? Any giant douchebag costumes?” Teague said into his mic.
Garrett tried hard not to laugh. Leave it to Teague to always provide comic relief under duress.
“You’re not helping matters,” Dubrosky shot back.
Turning his head, Garrett searched the room again for Lawrence, and his attention became diverted to an area next to a wall of windows where an eight-piece band played. Something about the bass guitar player, who was dressed as a pirate, looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure out from where.
Frustrated, Garrett exhaled, his tension mounting by the second. Shit, they could be anywhere. The song ended and a vampire dressed as Elvis walked up to talk to the band.
“We’d like to do a request from Mr. Lawrence.” The guitar player announced to the crowd. The song,Love Me Tenderbegan to play.
Searching for “The King,” Garrett crossed the room and cut through the crowd, when a vampire dressed in a Danny costume from the movieGreaseapproached him with a wide, beaming smile. “Good evening, you must be Mr. Beam. I spotted you from across the room. Lestat, right? Excellent costume by the way. I’m Jason Massey. We spoke on the phone.” He shook Garrett’s hand.
“Yes, of course. Please, call me Sebastian. Thank you for coming over to introduce yourself. I just arrived and I’m still getting my feet wet, so to speak.” Garrett glanced over at the group of young women he’d seen walking into the party and pretended to check them out, playing his part to the hilt.
“I could tell by the way you’ve been gazing around the room that you’re searching for that special someone. Let me explain how things work at these kinds of gatherings. You may choose someone on your own to be your companion for the evening, as long as they’re not currently with another vampire, of course. Or we can choose for you. But remember, as a member of the Brotherhood, you have unlimited access to all of our companions from now on.”
