Chapter 11
Irun a brush through my hair, eyeing the time. I woke up fifteen minutes before my alarm went off and was alone, missing Thomas the moment I realized he was gone. He opened up last night, showed me there’s very much a man behind the mask, and I almost wish he hadn’t.
I have no idea how to break the curse.
I have no idea how to use magic.
And I’m still not sure I actually have powers.
I set my brush on the bathroom sink and messily braid my hair, then go back into the living room and poke at the fire in an attempt to put it out.
Thomas must have put another log on before he had to go take his place on the porch in the morning.
The fireplace is large, with a wide stone hearth, but leaving with a fire burning isn’t something I want to risk.
Once I’m dressed, I go into the kitchen to throw away the leftovers, but discover there is nothing left.
Making a mental note to get even more food tonight, I bag up all the empty containers to take with me and toss in the recycling at work.
I gather up the rest of my stuff and put it on the couch in the two-story living room.
As I’m leaving, I see Emma on the coffee table in the front sitting room. I stop, thinking of Jacques.
And Thomas and Gilbert.
And Hasan.
The more I get to know them, the less I see them as monsters and the more I see them as the men they used to be. The men they want to be again. I move into the foyer, taking one last look around the house before stepping out onto the porch.
“I’ll see you guys tonight.” I put my hand over Thomas’s.
Turned to stone, his handsome features have taken on a monstrous appearance once again.
The sun is glowing behind hazy clouds, and the air is humid.
I get in the car and fiddle with the air conditioning before taking off.
I watch the house disappear in my rearview mirror, missing the estate already.
Obviously, I can’t sell the place. But I can’t pay rent on my small apartment and cover the cost of owning such a large piece of property.
The utilities alone will be a lot, and the property tax is pretty insane.
I’m locked into three more months at my current dwelling, though there might be a chance I can get out with at least one month’s fee given back.
I’ve lived in the same place for the last seven years and have never been late on rent. I’ve never had an issue. No one has complained about me. It’s worth a shot to at least ask. Though the estate is far from livable for every day.
My head starts to spin. Moving into an old house is a big enough project on its own, and I’m going to have to wait on it. Vampires first. Curse-breaking second.
Streaming 4K Netflix will be my reward.
I get drive-thru coffee and breakfast again and arrive at the office a few minutes before I need to be there.
We have a meeting this morning, and it’s afternoon before I’m able to call Gavin’s girlfriend, who’s the one who reported him missing.
I leave a message, go down to the lab to go over DNA evidence with Sam, and then fill out reports as I eat my lunch at my desk.
Gavin’s girlfriend calls back, and I arrange to meet her at her house once she’s home from class at three-thirty. She lives on the other side of town, and I have the guy coming to look at the furnace at five.
Shit. I don’t know how I’m going to fit this all in. Whatever. I’ll make it work. I have to.
“Checking out another lead?”
I turn, following the sound of Beasley’s voice. He eyes the folded missing person’s report in my hand. “Oh, uh, yeah.”
“What ever happened to the one from yesterday?”
“Dead end,” I lie. It’s not like me to not check in with everyone working on the case.
I’d been in such a rush to get out of the office I forgot.
“No sign of foul play, but no sign of him running away either.” What I said is true to an extent, but I still feel like the world’s biggest ass.
“I got another one to follow up on, and I’m trying to catch her as she leaves work. ”
Officer Beasley smiles, eyes lingering on my face too long for comfort. “All right. See you tomorrow then.”
“Yeah. See you.”
I get to Francine DeBoy’s house at three-fifteen. I’m early and was hoping she’d be early, too. The sooner we talk, the sooner I can get to the estate. I have no idea how long it will take to fix the furnace, and I can’t have the guy there once the sun sets.
Twenty-five minutes later, a car parks in front of the house and a twenty-something-year-old girl gets out. I’m leaning against the door of my car, scrolling through social media again trying to find something—anything—to tie the vampires together.
“Are you Detective Bisset?” the woman asks.
“Yes. Francine?”
She nods. “That’s me.”
I push off the car and follow her into the garage. “My roommate’s not home yet,” she starts. “She gets home around four.”
She doesn’t have to tell me she’s hoping I’ll be gone by then. A fast interview works for both of us.
“Did you find him?” Her voice shakes as she unlocks the door. “He’s not dead, is he?”
“No,” I flat-out lie. Yes, I found him, and yes, the man I cuddled myself to sleep with last night ripped your boyfriend apart and enjoyed it, called it “fun,” actually. “I have just a few questions for you.”
“Okay.”
We sit at the kitchen table. “Have you or Gavin ever been to the bar Delirium?”
“Yeah, I went once. Does this have to do with him disappearing?”
“It might.” I open my notebook. “When did you go?”
“A couple of weeks ago.”
“Did you two go together?”
“Yeah.” She brings her hand up, subconsciously rubbing her neck. “It was Gavin’s idea.”
“You say that like you didn’t want to go.”
“I didn’t.” She shakes her head. “We have friends who like to go and they’re always trying to get us to join. I’m not…I don’t like…that stuff freaks me out.”
“What stuff?”
Heat colors her cheeks. “You know…freaky stuff.”
“Are you referring to the Gothic theming?”
“Kind of.”
I know exactly what she’s referring to since I now know what goes on behind closed doors, but I’m not going to egg her on. How the story unfolds can be just as telling as the words themselves.
“Can you explain?”
“I don’t know.” She looks at the floor.
“It might help me find him.” Another lie. Though I really don’t know where his body is.
“It’s like a meet-up for people into BDSM. Like hardcore into it.”
So vampires like it rough. “And you two went?” I put my pen down and do my best to do that girl-to-girl bonding thing.
I’m not good at it. “Look, whatever you’re into is your business.
Going there to partake in whatever kind of sexual acts you want isn’t against the law.
I don’t even need to put it in my report.
” That part is true. Mostly because I haven’t decided if I should even write up reports on this yet.
The fewer paper trails, the better, right?
“We tried it once. For Gavin’s birthday. It wasn’t my thing, and I got mad at him for liking it. He thought it would be fun, you know, and bring us closer together.”
“Did you go back?”
“No. It freaked me out too much.”
Her body language tells me there was more going on than freaky sex between her and her boyfriend. “Francine,” I say gently. “I need you to tell me exactly what happened to freak you out.”
She lifts her eyes, surprised I was able to pick up on her thoughts, and nods.
“When I agreed to go, I thought it was like going to one of those couples’ getaway sort of things.
You know, where they set the mood with a romantic room, a bottle of wine, and have chocolate-covered strawberries on a silver plate on the bed. ”
“And it wasn’t like that?”
“No, not at all.” She shudders. “It was like a strip show, and the strippers encourage the couples to make out and go backstage with them. There were two people fucking in the back. Just out there in the open. And the strippers…they’re not just stripping. They’re, uh, involved.”
“Was it only couples watching?”
She shakes her head. “It was mostly men.”
“Did Gavin ever go back?”
“Not that I know of. He agreed it was way too intense for the both of us. Nipple clamps in the bedroom…yeah, I’ll try it. But getting naked in a dirty room full of strangers…no thank you.”
“Tell me about the night he disappeared.”
“The night he disappeared,” she repeats, and her eyes gloss over.
“He went out to pick up Chinese and never came home. I had him on Find My Friends and tried to search for his location, but his locations had been disabled. I was told his phone couldn’t be traced, that whoever stole it knew what they were doing. ”
I nod, having read the same thing on the report. Bryan Porter’s phone couldn’t be traced either. “You said you went to Delirium for Gavin’s birthday. Did you go out on his actual birthday?”
“No, the week after.”
That makes their first trip to the bar about a month ago, and Gavin was reported missing nineteen days ago.
“Was he acting weird before his disappearance?”
“No,” she says, becoming defensive. “He didn’t leave me. I already told the police this ten times and no one will listen! Somebody took him, and he’s….he’s…” Tears roll down her face.
“Francine.” I speak her name slowly, keeping my tone calm. “I believe you. That’s why I’m trying to piece things together, and I need you to answer my questions.”
She takes in a deep breath. “Okay, and no, he wasn’t. He was busy with work, and I had an exam that week. We didn’t see each other much the days before he went missing.”
I make a note of the dates and, getting all the information I need, offer my condolences to Francine and lie through my teeth when I tell her I’ll do everything in my power to find Gavin.
The guy from the repair company is parked in front of the house by the time I pull into the driveway.
“Sorry!” I call, getting out of my car. He steps from the van and looks at his watch. I’m only five minutes late, and I did call on my way to let him know.