Page 24 of The Rising Dark
“Really?”Lavinia said, raising her eyebrows, mimicking surprise.“What happened?”
“Must be an absolute nutter.Sliced him with a knife, the police said.No idea why anyone would want to hurt the man.He was a bit odd, kept to himself, not the chatty sort.But great with the animals, always.A bit like your father, love,” she said to Michelle.Dora the German Shepherd sauntered over from her bed and sniffed Michelle’s hand.She was a handsome dog, her fur coat healthy and shiny.
“The police asked whether anyone would want to hurt him and I said to them, no, absolutely not.He minded his own business, and that’s that.”
“You don’t think he was doing anything…illegal?”Lavinia prodded.“Like drugs?”
“Oh no, nothing like that,” Nasim dismissed the suggestion.“Liked a spot of gambling now and again, but that’s neither here nor there.Seemed pretty lucky, too.But never felt too good to work with the dogs.There are always so many poor sweethearts that need a new home.”
Dora looked at Michelle with a single, plaintive brown eye, allowing the soft fur of her chin to be stroked.
“Been a working dog, that one.She was abandoned when she lost her eye though—no longer good enough for the farm.She’s retired now, sweet girl.”Nasim patted Dora’s haunch.Despite the loud barks of some of her fellow creatures, Dora stayed quiet, looking almost melancholic.
“She’s gorgeous,” Michelle said.“Don’t you think, Lavinia?”
“She is,” Lavinia said, smiling.For a moment, Michelle lost herself in that smile; it was as if they were truly just two women, looking for a canine companion to complete their family.Then she had to remind herself that this was all a ruse.They weren’t here for a dog, and they weren’t together either.They were hardly even friends, really.And yet, there was that connection that ran between them, forged irrevocably the night Lavinia had saved her from the demon.
Nasim showed them some other dogs, but Michelle kept looking back at Dora, who sat at the fence, attentively following their every move.With an expert touch, Lavinia extracted all information Nasim had on the victim, which wasn’t much.It seemed like he’d kept to himself mostly and, although Nasim loved to gossip, she didn’t know much of substance.Still, they’d been in the kennel for over twenty minutes by now, allowing Quintia sufficient time to find out as much as she could.
“I think we should head home, have a think,” Lavinia said to Michelle, nodding to Nasim.“Thank you for showing us around.”
“Yes, thank you,” Michelle echoed.She threw one last glance at Dora, still sitting at the fence, waiting for someone to take her home.
“I think she’s already sold,” Nasim said to Lavinia.“I know that look.Same one I gave my little Bitsy when she came into the rescue!”They walked back into the reception building.“And if you would like to hear more about your father, sweetheart, just let me know.It’s just me and Bitsy at home, and we love to have some company over.I can’t bring him back, but it’s nice to reminisce sometimes, isn’t it?”She gave Michelle’s arm a squeeze.Once they’d reached the reception, she grabbed a leaf of paper from a stack on the desk.“And here is an application form for Dora.I think she would be perfect for you two.”
Nasim waved at them through the window as they walked back to the car.
When they were safely out of earshot, Michelle said, “Why do I feel like we’re the ones who got played?”She looked at the adoption form in her hand.
Lavinia laughed, holding the passenger door of the car open for Michelle to get in.
Chapter Thirteen
Quintia updated them on her progress on the way back to Thornblood.Computer security had been non-existent at the rescue.Nasim hadn’t thought to lock the computer when she’d left the reception and Quintia had been able to look through all of their records.She’d transferred whatever had seemed worthwhile onto a USB stick so they could look at it in more detail later.More interesting, at least to Michelle, was her report of the various smells at the rescue.Clearly, vampires had a keen sense of smell, closer to that of a hound than a human.
“That’s offensive,” Quintia said when Michelle said something to that effect.Lavinia was quiet, but Michelle could see the little quirk at the edge of her mouth that showed her amusement.
There hadn’t been any witches at the rescue in the last week or so.(“What do witches smell like?”Michelle ventured, but neither of the vampires was able to give a clear answer.“They just have an…odour.Magic smells,” Quintia said.) Nor was there any trace of any other vampires.The whole affair was somewhat of a disappointment to Michelle.Despite the implausibility, she’d hoped that she could have added some value to this whole solving-her-almost-murder mystery.
“This all looks so much easier inHarrogate Homicides,” she muttered.
“There are always a lot of dead ends and setbacks,” Lavinia said, throwing a short glance towards Michelle.She was a careful and diligent driver, sticking exactly to the speed limit.“So don’t worry about it.We won’t let go until we find who wanted to hurt you.Besides, there might still be something in the files Quinn got for us.”Quintia grunted in assent.
But if there was a clue in the rescue’s data, it didn’t readily reveal itself.After the vampires’ reluctant agreement, Michelle spent three days poring over every inch of the computer files that Quintia had taken.Meanwhile, while the vampires explored various leads based on rumours in the vampire community, or patrolled areas where they thought the killers might be hiding.She only caught glimpses of them: Quintia and Brigh, a shy but huge red-haired vampire, muttering in the kitchen.Lucretia called various meetings, the door closed solidly to keep out Michelle’s curious eyes.Lavinia, too, was called away again and again, never giving them much of an opportunity to talk beyond the bare basics.
While the vampires were away from home, Michelle looked through the rescue’s files, but there was nothing that looked even remotely suspicious to her.In the last couple of months, several dogs had been adopted.New adopters filled in extensive reports about their living circumstances, professions, and even how many hours they spent at home every day.Still, if there was a murderer among the families, they unsurprisingly hadn’t declared it in their adoption forms.
The outing to the rescue had briefly suspended Michelle’s cabin fever, but by the fourth day it had returned with a vengeance.She’d been forced to take annual leave from work, and her remaining balance of days off was dwindling fast.Still, she couldn’t go home, either.Seeing the pictures of the warlock’s victims had resolutely put that thought out of her mind.There was no way she could protect herself from that.It was better to run out of vacation days than die a gruesome death in her flat.
Complicating matters, friends and family became increasingly suspicious of Michelle’s sudden disappearance.She constantly had to field phone calls, especially from her mum, and it became more and more difficult to find evasive reasons why she couldn’t pop by for breakfast or lunch.She couldn’t even pretend to be busy at work, as her mother would only suggest to stop by the hospital with a homemade meal to share in the cafeteria.Usually, Michelle loved that her family was close, but it was suddenly quite complicated now that she was the target of a homicidal person with magical powers.
“I think my mum is days away from reporting me missing to the police,” Michelle said on Sunday.For the first time in days, Lavinia had stayed home, joining Michelle in combing through data they had collected, both from the rescue and files sent by the Witch Council.They had sat in companionable silence for over an hour, working side by side in the upstairs office.They had found an equilibrium again after their fight in the foyer, focusing on their joint efforts to find both the warlock and the rogue.
“How come?”Lavinia leaned back in her desk chair.She stretched her arms overhead to compensate for the bent-over position she’d been in for the last hour.Apparently, even vampires got stiff after a while.
“Look at this message.”Michelle held out her phone, screen still cracked.She hadn’t had an opportunity to get it fixed since the night of the attack, and it hadn’t really been much of a priority.
Lavinia squinted at the screen, reading the message through the spiderweb of fractures.
