Chapter 12 #2
And on this special occasion, all six FBI agents, and I, were crammed into a space meant for three people. All because Jack had encouraged us to get some face-to-face time. He thought it would help with team bonding and streamline communication on the vamp case.
Though it was hard to tell if Jack’s plans had the intended effect, since the only audible conversation was between Fawzy and me, and we weren’t discussing the vamps.
“You have to order it five-way if you want beans.” I spoke from experience.
My first time ordering a bowl of chilli in Cincinnati people looked at me like I had two heads.
Chilli here was a sauce. It came on spaghetti, or hot dogs, not by the bowl.
“You’ve been here three days and haven’t tried it yet? ”
“We’ve been busy.” Zhou flashed a glare at me from her spot on the couch, before returning her attention to her phone. “We haven’t had time to enjoy the sights, or attend parties, like some people.”
Jack cleared his throat.
“Sorry, Hess.”
I still didn’t know what I did to make Zhou dislike me so much. Beyond her speculation a few months back that I was sleeping with either Jack or Todd when I hadn’t. Yet.
Things had changed somewhat since then.
And I know it really shouldn’t have bothered me. Not everyone needed to like me. What bugged me was not understanding why, and whether or not her resentment towards me was founded.
My restlessness didn’t help matters.
Arms crossed, I leaned against the wall, drumming my fingers against myself. I’d tried to get my energy out before the drive up, but the need to move itched under my skin. I had the overwhelming urge to pickpocket someone. Just for fun.
Don’t do it. Not a good idea.
The last time I pickpocketed an FBI agent, I had stolen Fawzy’s watch. It had only been for a moment, but if I recalled correctly, she’d been somewhat impressed.
Well, it would be good to get some practice in…
I did a quick scan of the room.
Fawzy was still nose-deep in the menu.
Thruppy clicked through something on his laptop, rhythmically pulling on his FBI badge which spooled back onto the retractable lanyard clipped to his waist.
Zhou was on her phone.
Kaatz was reading a report, while working her way through her third round of knuckle cracking.
And the two agents I’d come in with were too busy talking amongst themselves to contribute to the dazzling dynamic.
Yeah, team bonding was going real well.
“You think?” Jack finally spoke at a volume loud enough for people other than Todd to hear.
Glancing over his shoulder, Todd gestured in my general direction before signing… something… back to Jack. Unfortunately, my view was obstructed by Todd’s broad shoulders.
“Good idea.” Jack clasped Todd on the arm, giving him a nod. “Take Kaatz with you and keep me in the loop.”
Kaatz all but sprang to her feet, waiting for further instruction.
“You, me, outside.” Todd directed, slowly weaving past on his way to the door. “I’ll text details.”
Kaatz nodded before slipping into the hall after Todd.
The door was only closed a fraction of a second before Todd reappeared in the doorway. His sights set on me, his finger pointed. “Be good.”
Who? Me?
“Yes, you,” he signed, leaving no room for argument as he shut the door behind him.
Well, now I had to pick pocket someone.
And the four remaining agents were just so pickpocket-able.
I drummed my fingers on my arm once more before pushing off the wall, pulling the elastic out of my hair I let my waves fall loose about my shoulders. “Any headway on who brought the victims to Spring Grove Cemetery?”
Fawzy held up her fingers in an O, watch glistening.
“Hess is aware of our activities.” In case it wasn’t obvious, that was Zhou.
“Yes, I am,” Jack’s on-the-job authoritative demeanor returned in full force, “and now, it’s time to share with the rest of the group.”
Sliding her phone onto the coffee table, Zhou relented. “Spoke to local PD, cemetery staff, canvassed, and got nothing. No updates through social, no tips provided. Video cameras found nothing. Family and friends didn’t provide anything useful. No one knew the victims were involved with the vamps.”
Sounded like a list to me. Just effort, not results. The last part, however, was of interest. “They kept their familiar status a secret? From everyone?”
“Wouldn’t you?”
If I loved something enough to commit my work, my life to it, I sure as hell wouldn’t be ashamed of it.
Even if vamps were secretive, someone in my personal life would know what I really did for a living.
Assuming there was someone I was close to.
Someone I shared interests with. Secrets.
Problem was anyone who meant anything to me was in my line of work. Or dead. “I’m the wrong person to ask.”
“The victims told their family and friends they were hired as personal assistants.” Fawzy gave up on the chilli menu and tossed it next to Zhou’s phone. “We assume it was so they didn’t get questioned for getting called away at all hours.”
“Makes sense, but it’s not much to go on.” Though I didn’t believe for a second no one knew what the familiars really did. “Anything else?”
Fawzy held up her zero again. “Nothing came up from cyber either. Everything was at a standstill… until your visit to the vampire gathering in Huntington.”
“You found something, then? Something useful?”
“Why don’t you show her, Thruppy?”
“Yeah. Well. Just a sec.” Thruppy clicked a few buttons on his laptop. “Your contact. The vampire club owner—”
“Lenore.”
“—Lenore sent us over some footage.” Thruppy turned the screen towards me, and I intentionally squeezed past Fawzy to get a closer look.
With a pinch and flick of my fingers, my foot bumping into the coffee table as a distraction, I rolled my hair elastic onto Fawzy’s wrist replacing her watch.
Apologizing, I turned my attention to the laptop. “What am I looking at?”
Thruppy hit a button and a grid of videos started to play, each square showing a different perspective. “Video footage from the last fang ceremony. From sixteen different cameras.”
I put a hand on Thruppy’s shoulder before leaning over to get a better look. I was close enough to smell the burnt tobacco and mint on his skin. “Is that?”
“Mercy. Zayd.” As he said their names, Thruppy pointed to each victim where they were all alive and well in their video squares. “Celeste. Dorian. Kian.”
“Looks like they all gather in the main hall. Get bit by their vamps,” I scrubbed through the footage on the laptop watching the familiars leave the fang ceremony, “then they head out and get picked up by a… what is that? A van?”
“Mhmm.” Thruppy double clicked, zooming in on the pixelated footage of five familiars getting in a paneled vehicle. “The blurry shape on top says taxi. Which is a bit of a conundrum.”
“We’ve been making our rounds to the local taxi companies.” Fawzy leaned against the cream wallpaper. “None of them have any record of a call. The neighborhood is too out of the way for a cab to have been hailed.”
“So, a phantom taxi appears. They get in, assuming one of them ordered it, and then what? Where did they go?”
“That’s the question.” Thruppy circled the screen. “This, this moment right here, is the last footage we have of the victims alive. They never made it home. No one made contact. And a little over twenty-four hours later, their bodies were found at Spring Grove.”
“I’m assuming we don’t have security or doorbell camera footage from the houses along this road following the ‘non-taxi’ to a final destination?”
“Negative. Nothing useful. Nothing to track.” Thruppy played around with the video footage zooming in and out, moving the video one frame at a time. A glint caught my eye.
“What’s that? On the lawn?”
Thruppy paused his navigation and zoomed out. “It’s a cross. Earlier in the evening the lawn is littered with them. The vamps, or familiars—or whatever the people who work and run the events for the vamps are called—remove them all before the event begins.”
There was an earmarked stretch of video along the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Thruppy scrubbed to the highlighted section. The footage was from earlier in the day, sun still out, and the front lawn spiked with at least twelve, no—thirteen, crosses.
“We don’t have access to the footage before the vamp events team arrives, so we don’t know who put the crosses there in broad daylight.
” Thruppy took a deep breath before letting it all out.
“I know, not helpful, but a couple more crosses pop up on the lawn throughout the night. Whoever placed them wore head-to-toe black. Can’t get much more than that. ”
“You’d think with the fang ceremony taking place at a mansion, they’d have better security cameras.” Zhou’s tone was full of attitude and resentment, but she had a point.
The footage wasn’t great, and I bet there were whole rooms that didn’t make it on camera… for one syrupy reason or another. “And why does the footage only start once the events team arrives?”
“The events team set up the cameras.”
How convenient… unless….
“They do this at all their events? Set up cameras?”
Thruppy nodded.
We were getting somewhere.
And while we were getting somewhere, I brushed past Thruppy’s arm as I pinched, flicked, and buckled. Putting Fawzy’s watch on Thruppy’s wrist was like riding a bike, if not as smooth as I remembered.
Slipping the lanyard clip off Thruppy’s waist, however, was child’s play.
“How about the other familiars?” I picked up the takeout menu fanning it over my face, hoping it wouldn’t look too out of place with the air conditioning on full blast. “The two familiars Jezebel said were found in a cemetery in Lexington, not in Spring Grove. Did we get the footage from their last fang ceremony too?”
“Wait, wait. Hold up. Before we confuse Thruppy, we should get the locations straight.”
“Zhou.”
“We normally have a board for this, Hess. I’m just trying to ensure clear lines of communication, and we all know Thruppy thinks better in pictures. Why do you think he makes all the presentations?”