Chapter 2 #2
“According to the ambos, there’s a cut on her leg requiring stitches, but nothing major.”
Which was a relief. I’d half envisaged broken limbs or worse, given the speed at which she’d been sent tumbling.
“I’ll keep monitoring you until you reach your vehicle,” he continued, “just in case something untoward happens.”
“I really think we’ve had more than our fair share of ‘untoward’ this evening.”
He chuckled. “And, of course, now that you’ve put that out in the ether, more is bound to happen.”
“Let’s hope not.”
I signed off, pulled up the details of the forensics team, and quickly scanned their files. I doubted whoever was behind this whole farce would go so far as to impersonate Black Lantern personnel, but, as I’d said to Jack, every possibility was on the table right now.
The cops arrived a few minutes later. I showed my Society ID, gave them a brief summation of the situation, and asked them to tape off the area. As they did so, I sat down on the bench and called Ginny.
“Please tell me you got the bastard who hit me,” she said before I could say anything.
“I not only didn’t get him, I lost Monica.”
“How the fuck did that happen?”
“Long story. How’s the leg?”
“They’re about to stitch me up now, and they want to keep me overnight for observation. That’s not going to happen.” She paused as someone in the background said something I couldn’t quite catch. “The doc is here and arguing my need to stay, so I need to go. You going back to the apartment?”
“After I do the audit, yes.”
“At this hour? Damn, that’s mean. Payback for us being imported up here for the assignment rather than his team being allowed to handle it, perhaps?”
“Does Lowell look that petty to you?”
“Will the sun rise tomorrow?”
I laughed. “I’ll meet you for breakfast, and we can plot our next move.”
“Plan,” she said, and hung up.
I tucked my phone away and watched the cops for several seconds before my gaze drifted over to where the stranger had hit me from behind.
He’d said the thing that had stalked us in the curtain was a comp demon, but what the hell was that?
It certainly wasn’t one I’d ever heard of, though in truth, the only teaching I’d had on them was what I’d learned at high school before I’d quit to get married, plus the few sessions we’d had during the year-long training I’d undergone for the Society.
Even then, it had been little more than a minor part of lessons dealing with dark sorcery and mages.
He’d also said he walked in the same world as them, so did that mean he was a demon?
They came in all shapes and sizes, and just because he’d felt so very human when he’d been lying on top of me didn’t mean he actually was.
There were certainly a few demons who could assume human shape—though it tended to be a temporary thing, thanks to the fact most demons burned too hot to maintain human flesh for too long—and some who consumed a person’s soul in order to take control of their body.
And yet, something within me doubted either was the case with my enigmatic stranger. Of course, that might also be nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of hormones that had been rather... stirred... by his closeness.
A car pulled up onto the sidewalk close to the taped-off area, and two women climbed out. Both matched the photos Jack had sent me. After showing the cop their IDs, they ducked under the tape and strode across to me.
“Hanna Kang?” the blonde asked, again flashing her ID.
I nodded and rose. “Did Jack brief you?”
“Bare basics,” the other woman said. “You just need to show us where the attacks happened, and we’ll take it from there.”
I did so, then left them to it, making my way across Ann Street, then back through the lanes until I reached the smoking area.
Both the gate and the main door remained unlocked, and there was no indication anyone else had used the area.
I tugged a silicon glove from my handbag—my brother had enforced the need to carry several sets at all times, just in case a situation arose where leaving fingerprints might be problematic—then walked over to the ashtray that had held the smoking cigarette butt when I’d first stepped out here.
While there was every chance it didn’t belong to the person who’d cut open the gate or kidnapped Monica, if it did it would at least give us some DNA to confirm his presence.
I carefully picked it up, rolled the glove inside out around it, then tucked it back into my handbag and went inside, my footsteps lost to the thunder of the music.
I made my way around to the closest set of stairs and ran up them, finding a clear spot and once again peering over.
The bridesmaids weren’t in the same area on the dance floor, though that wasn’t surprising, given it had been a good half hour since I last saw them.
I scanned the rest of the dance floor, hoping their white dresses would stand out in the sea of color, to no avail.
I couldn’t even spot the gleam of crimson hair.
They weren’t at the bar, either, nor were they sitting at any of the surrounding tables and booths on this upper level.
Either they’d left or something more drastic had happened to them.
I swore and double tapped the earwig again. “In more bad news, the bridesmaids seem to have disappeared.”
“I did say you shouldn’t have put that thought out into the ether. Hang on while I contact Janet and see if she’s picked them up and delivered them somewhere else.”
Janet being the Society-installed limo driver.
The line went dead for several seconds then he added, “She says she’s still waiting to be contacted. Are you sure they’re gone?”
“No, but I can’t see them anywhere. I’ll go talk to security and get them to run through the tapes for me.”
“Keep us updated.”
“Will do.”
I pushed away from the railing and made my way back down the stairs. Security was housed in a small room behind the ticket booth and cloak room and had been made aware of our presence, though they had not been told why we were here.
I punched the code in and opened the door. A big man with a thick gray beard briefly scanned my face then raised thick, bushy eyebrows. “Given that scowl and your scraped face, I take it there’s a problem?”
“Could be. I need to know if three women wearing short white dresses, pink sashes, and pink shoes exited the building, either via the front door or the side emergency exit, in the last half hour.”
“Well, if they did, they didn’t call any attention to themselves. It’s unlikely they would have gone out the emergency exit, though, as I get an alarm in here if that happens, and I didn’t.” He half shrugged. “I can run the recordings back if you want.”
“I want, thanks.”
I sat on the chair beside his and waited while he rewound both recordings the required amount, then stopped and hit Play.
His screen split into two, the right side showing the front door, and the left the side exit.
As he’d predicted, no one went out the latter, and the guard on duty there looked as bored as hell.
At the main entrance, the two guards were kept busy not only by the morass of people coming out, but also the long line of people waiting less than patiently to get in.
At the seventeen-minute mark, I spotted one of them.
“Stop,” I said. “Backtrack the right screen ten seconds.”
He froze both screens then rewound the right-side portion. It was Lanie, and with her was the lusty young man with grayish eyes. So much for Ginny saying she was above his pay grade.
“Can you screenshot that and send me the image?”
“Phone number?”
I told him. He hit several buttons, typed in my number, and a second later, my phone pinged. “Shall I continue on?”
“Please.”
Lanie and her evening’s good time turned left, walked past the line of people, and disappeared from the camera’s field of view.
Five minutes later the other two bridesmaids came out.
They walked over to the curb and, a few seconds later, a dark gray BMW in which two shadowy male figures sat pulled up.
The rear door was opened; both climbed in and were quickly whisked away.
They’d obviously known the driver and his companion because they’d shown no qualms about getting into the car.
It was also pretty obvious they’d known what Monica had planned—at least before it all went wrong, and they wouldn’t know that bit—because why else would they leave the venue without raising any sort of fuss about their bride’s sudden absence from her own hen party?
I asked the guard to go back a few seconds then freeze the screen as the BMW pulled up.
I jotted down its number plate and the time, then thanked him and left.
After grabbing my jacket, I headed out the front door and walked down the street, heading in the same direction as Lanie and her man.
While it was unlikely they remained in the area, I just wanted to see where the cameras were so we could pull their tapes and perhaps get some idea as to whether they’d caught a cab or if the young man had had a car parked close.
Once I had a likely list, I double tapped the earwig again and updated Jack.
“I’ll run a rego check and see who owns the BMW, and requisition those tapes. Good night’s work.”
“You mean, aside from losing the woman we were supposed to be protecting.”
“Yeah, that aside,” he replied with a laugh. “You want me to send you an update when I get the rego deets?”
“Yes, because if Francesca and Marnee didn’t go back to their penthouse, I’ll need to go talk to the driver.”
“I can ring him and save you the time.”
“I’d rather talk to the man and read his energy responses.”
“You can tell someone is lying by just checking out their life energy?” Surprise and, rather weirdly, a hint of trepidation touched his tone.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but basically, yes.”
“Ha. I best not come near you then, lest my secrets all tumble out.”
“Best not,” I replied with a laugh.