27. A Tool
Chapter 27
A Tool
Poway—Around the same time
T ig approved the expense when Jayden reported that the only hotel with availability this late at night was the Poway Country Club. Fortunately, the suite’s king-sized bed was large enough for her and Liza to double up, and Zeke and Brucie would take the pull-out in the living room. A second, separate room was reserved for Jayden and Bob to share—which meant the mortals wouldn’t disturb the sleeping vampires during the day.
Tig killed time at the hotel, going over the plan with Bob before he and Jayden went to sleep. When Jayden called it a night, she handed him her business credit card. “Tomorrow, take Bob shopping. He stinks. Get him and Zeke new clothes.”
“Will do, chief.”
To justify the vampires’ daytime absence, Tig told Bob she’d be working on police business in the suite, and he wasn’t welcomed.
Of course, there was more truth in her lie than she’d hoped.
As soon as the door closed behind Bob and Jayden, Liza shoved her phone under Tig’s nose. “The Mordida Gazette is at it again.”
“Huh?” Tig held the screen at a comfortable distance to read it. “Didn’t they already—”
“That was only the first article. They’re doing a six-part exposé on us.”
Tig read the new online article, her stomach twisting. The reporter had gone through official records and learned that for the past seventy years, Dr. Grayson Clarke had signed all birth certificates for the current Hill residents, even though the mothers of those children hadn’t lived in Sierra Escondida at the time they gave birth and couldn’t be traced. Shit . This was a new wrinkle, one not noticed before by the outside world.
Even worse, he’d also signed all death certificates for the same period.
The paper concluded the report by pointing out Dr. Clarke was ninety-five years old, and posed two questions: why was a doctor who practiced exclusively in Sierra Escondida signing birth certificates for so many transient mothers? Sierra Escondida didn’t have a hospital. And why was someone that old acting as coroner for a small town?
The report implied something fishy was going on.
Yes, Grayson was long overdue for a new identity, but it was getting harder to qualify for a new medical license in California. While he had a younger identity living in South America, putting that identity through medical school—via bribes—to produce school transcripts, and then sit for the California licensing exams, was proving almost impossible. Not to mention what it’d take to create a fake personal history that would withstand a modern criminal background check.
The situation revealed a flaw in their current system. Out of laziness or convenience, Grayson had signed most of the fake birth certificates. In the future, they needed to find—and bribe—other doctors to sign birth certificates to establish new identities each Hill vampire would phase into as they became too old to conveniently maintain their current identity.
Tig tsked and handed the phone back to Liza. “Accuse them of ageism, for starters. Then call the mayor’s secretary and see if anyone prepared a rebuttal regarding Grayson. If not, Marcus might have some ideas for what to tell the press. But we really need a replacement, and soon.”
“No kidding.” Liza huffed. “The council is recruiting a new coroner. We’re eying candidates with up-to-date medical licenses who could replace him, at least on paper.”
“Good.” Tig collapsed onto a chair and motioned for the others to gather around. “Now, we have to prepare for tomorrow night.”
Hawaiian Desire cruise—Around the same time
A fter returning Cerissa to her cabin, Henry laid her on the suite’s bed. She morphed so her ankle healed, and he stayed with her, holding her as they rode the sea’s rocking motion and watched a movie. During the wee hours, the ship’s stabilizer came back online and their ride smoothed out.
He switched channels on the in-room cable television to the map displaying the ship’s route, which now showed the tropical cyclone’s path as the storm continued its northern journey. The harsh waves and furious rain died down, and before dawn, the captain routed the ship south, putting them below its edge and closer to the Hawaiian Islands.
Henry stayed with Cerissa for the rest of the night. She shifted to her cougar form and stretched across his legs as he watched another movie. He petted her back and scratched her head, listening to her purr. Ten minutes before sunrise, she transformed back to mortal form for a kiss, wishing him a good sleep as he left for the day.
When he reached the sleep room, Jill was fast asleep on one of the twin beds, and Rolf settled onto the other. Each morning Jill returned to the sleeping room first, to take the bed that had been Henry’s, and he would lie on the floor. He and Rolf had flipped a coin for who would take the floor—Henry called heads while the coin twisted in the air and graciously conceded defeat when it landed tails up.
Grabbing his folded blanket, he spread it on the floor between the twin beds, tossed a pillow on the far end, and crawled to it, stretching out. He sighed and felt the inevitable tug of the sun.
Poway—Dusk
T ig had the unusual experience of waking up at sunrise next to Liza in a hotel bed.
A half-hour before the meetup with Santa Claus, they loaded into the police van, which had a short third seat. She put Brucie back there and positioned the handcuffed Bob between Zeke and Liza. Jayden drove, and Tig rode shotgun again.
When they were almost at the Loco Horse, she looked over her shoulder at Bob. “Okay, you know the plan. Take the list in, make the trade, and come back here. If you bail on us, I will find you. Count on it. No slipping out the back door. Zeke will be stationed there, and you don’t want to piss him off. He already spent a night smelling like garbage because of you, and it’s made him surly. Hear me?”
“Yeah, whatever. But if this guy comes after me—”
“He won’t.” She tossed her business card onto his lap. “If you get any hint that he’s after you, call me or come to Sierra Escondida and we’ll provide protection. But I hope to shut him down tonight.”
“So you’re coming in with me, after all?”
“No. Jayden will. He’ll be at a nearby table and spend the entire time on his phone. Don’t worry—in actuality, he’ll video your meetup and we’ll watch remotely.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
“Play it cool, and nothing will. But if something does, I can be inside in under a minute—Zeke’ll be there even faster, because he’s closer.”
Bob shot her a suspicious look. “And I get to keep the money?”
Tig snorted. “If Santa Claus pays you, you get to keep it.”
“And you won’t bust him until I’m outside?”
“That’s the plan.” As she knew too well, few plans survived contact with the enemy. But Bob didn’t need to know that.
They circled the bar once to drop off Zeke at the back door. Then Jayden pulled into the parking lot and found a space. “Okay, Liza, unlock Bob.” He twisted in his seat, giving Liza access to the handcuffs.
“You’re an eager beaver.” Liza slid the key in with a click , and the cuffs fell off.
“Yeah, eager to get this shitshow over with.”
Tig snapped her fingers to get Bob’s attention. “Any last-minute questions?”
Bob rubbed his wrists, then stuffed the business card Tig had tossed on his lap into a back pocket and jumped from the van. “Nah. I’m good. You just keep your eyes on me. If that guy comes after me—”
“We’ll have your back.”
“Hey, rookie.” Liza held out the fake address list. “Don’t forget your cover story.”
Bob grabbed the papers, saluted her with them, then sauntered to the Loco Horse.
Jayden followed shortly afterward.
Soon, Tig was watching the video relay on her phone.
Bob ordered a beer, and a man looking nothing like Santa Claus sat opposite him. “Did you find the customer list?”
“Huh? Who are you?”
“The guy who hired you sent me.” The brown-haired man laid a short manila envelope on the table and tapped it with his finger. “Got your payment here, if you’ve got the goods.”
Something about the stranger looked familiar. Tig had seen him somewhere before. Near six feet tall, white, a hundred and eighty pounds more or less, and a narrow nose that twisted slightly to the side. But how did she recognize him? A wanted poster? A V-Trak entry? Where?
Bob slid the stapled sheaf of papers to him. “I found a mailing list. Don’t know if it’s what your guy wanted or not. No guarantees.”
The brown-haired man seized the list and thumbed through it. “I don’t see her name on it.”
“Whose name?”
“The woman the boss is looking for. You sure this was the only list?”
Bob pinched the money envelope and dragged the payout to his side of the table. “It’s the only list I found, and I went through all four file cabinets. One cabinet had nothing but designs and instructions for magic tricks.”
Brown Hair frowned. “Yeah, the casino owner had—I mean, has—a hobby.”
“It took time to go through all that. Another file cabinet was accounting stuff. Bills paid, bank statements. I found this list in the cabinet with a file marked special clients . Figured that’s what you wanted. There was a computer, but it needed a password.”
“Did you bring it?”
“No. Wasn’t a laptop. Someone would’ve noticed me carrying a boxy computer down the street. Besides, that wasn’t the deal. You want it—you go steal it.” Bob unfastened the envelope and thumbed through the money without flashing the cash, then tucked the packet in his waistband. “All here. We’re done. Don’t contact me. I did the job your boss asked for, and I’m finished with you people. I don’t like changes in the plan.” With his hands flat on the table, Bob pushed himself to his feet. “He should’ve been here.”
The man’s hand shot out, gripping Bob’s wrist. “You aren’t holding out on me?”
“Why would I do that? Your list is useless to anyone but you.”
“Extortion. To get a bigger payout later.”
“Look, I had to hide in a dumpster because someone came in when I was leaving. You’re lucky I changed clothes and showered. Like I said, I’m done with you people. Now let go.”
The man released him. Bob strode to the bar and paid for the beer, and while he did, the stranger went out the back door, the one Zeke guarded.
Tig keyed the radio. “Zeke, a man’s headed your way. Six feet, brown hair, brown eyes, medium build, white skin. Do not engage. Watch where he goes. Get the license plate number if he gets in a car. Trail without being seen.”
“Ten-four, chief.”
Just as Zeke got the words out, Bob opened the back door to the van. “I did what you wanted. I’ll catch an Uber.”
“No, get in. We’ll deliver you back to the casino. I can’t take the risk you’ll tip them off.”
Jayden was right behind Bob and pushed him into the van. “Up you go.”
Tig had moved to the driver’s seat, and Jayden got in the back next to Bob. As soon as the van door was closed, she eased through the parking lot and to the back of the bar.
Zeke flagged her and grabbed the front passenger seat. “I got the license. Red Corvette. Pull out and turn left. He’s at the signal over yonder.”
Tig pulled behind Brown Hair’s car. The traffic light changed to green, and he slowly accelerated through the intersection like he hadn’t seen them and didn’t expect to be followed. Driving a car like that, the guy probably had too many speeding tickets to count and had learned not to burn rubber in a business zone.
At least something might go right tonight. She tapped the voice-activation button on the steering wheel and dictated the license plate to the police van’s computer tablet, which sat in a docking station next to her, telling it to search DMV records. The screen’s slowly spinning circle meant the damn thing was taking its ever-loving time to connect to the database, which annoyed her. Maybe not so easy after all.
The Corvette led them onto the freeway, then to an off-ramp that took them into the Poway foothills, and field after field of vineyards soon surrounded them. Something in the back of Tig’s mind nagged at her. Not only did the brown-haired guy look familiar, but this area also rang a distant bell. But why couldn’t she remember the significance?