Page 55 of Midnight Coven

“They’re famous, Midnight,” Morley said. “The victims. Rich. Famous. Articles are already popping up in the feeds. Some of them have maps showing where the murders went down. You’d get looters. Gawkers. People who wanted souvenirs. There’s no way they could leave this place unlocked.”

Nick nodded, not answering.

He and Morley still stood outside the featureless house.

Morley was on his headset, trying to get the lab techs on the line so one of them would feed him the security code to get inside the garage.

Nick wondered if he should just break the lock.

He definitely wouldn’t do that without a warrant though, not after yesterday. Doing it without authorization would be damned risky even when Nickwasn’ta potential suspect with links to the victims. It would be batshit insane for him to do it now.

Especially if it turned out the vamp got into the main house this way.

Something around that thought reminded Nick of something else.

Imagery rose behind his eyes. Images of a Japanese-style garden outside a huge, Japanese and gothic-style house that lived in the middle of a dense forest.

Nick fought back a wave of nausea.

The baby.

Jesus fuck… that baby and its mother.

All of a sudden, it all came back.

Everything he’d seen while drugged up inside that I.S.F. medical facility flickered and shimmered through his head. Nick remembered the red door. He remembered the gardeners, the wall of swords, the woman on the floor in the black silk robe covered in blue, green, and red butterflies. He remembered the twisted smile on the guy with the black hat.

He remembered the baby.

Nick frowned, staring sightlessly up at the metal building.

He spoke entirely without thinking that time.

“They’ve got someone on that other house?” Nick asked. “Someone watching, I mean?”

Morley looked over. “What? What house?”

“The one out on Long Island. Where that other couple and their kids came from. You said they lived in a big house with other people, right?”

Morley, who was still communicating with someone on his headset, looked over in surprise. He finished whatever he’d been doing and walked over to where Nick stood.

“They say they can open it from their side,” he said.

“Who?”

“The squints. And no. I didn’t say that. About that house. I couldn’t have. It’s the first I’m hearing there’s a bunch more Tanakas out there.”

“Well someone said it.”

Morley’s brown eyes hardened. “No. They didn’t. Not unless the I.S.F. medicos told you that while you were back with them. Or those assholes from Long Island told you on the ride down to Manhattan.”

“They didn’t tell me anything.”

Morley frowned. “What’s your interest in that other house?”

“I want to know if they put a car on it,” Nick said, exasperated. “It’s not a trick fucking question, James. I want to know if anyone’s keeping an eye on that other house, in case this sick fuck decides to finish the job.”

“Finish the job?”

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