Keeper of the Night (The Keepers: L.A.)

by Heather Graham

  Brodie was silent. Yes, more than one killer. Someone calling the shots. Someone else carrying out commands. And one of them able to glamour the guard to let them through. But...what was the underlying motive?

  “So, Brodie, more than one killer, right?” Adam asked eagerly.

  “Yes, Adam, more than one killer.” He took a deep breath. “So, you said you said you had a couple things.”

  “Yeah, I have a name for you. That newspaper article really got things going. We got a tip from a woman named Shirley Henson. She was friends with our last victim—Rose Gillespie. The last time she saw Rose was about ten days ago. They met for lunch at the Mystic Café. Rose told her that she was going to go to see Vampire Rampage. She’d heard they were going to be casting the touring companies, so she wanted to see it again. Which means you were right—she most likely disappeared right after the play.”

  * * *

  “Please, Sailor, I know it isn’t a hardship for you, hanging out at the Snake Pit,” Rhiannon said to her cousin. “Now that Barrie’s article is out, I’m really afraid. The killer is either going to be gloating because his work has been noticed or afraid because of it. Please, stick with us tonight?”

  Sailor sighed. “Rhiannon, I’m just tired of Declan Wainwright being a—a dick. I’ll be perfectly safe at home with Merlin. And all my windows closed, of course.”

  “Sailor, please? Can we just stick together for the next few days?” Rhiannon asked.

  “What if you and Brodie don’t find out anything in the next few days?” Sailor asked.

  “We have to,” Rhiannon said, desperation in her tone. “So, what do you say? Will you come?”

  Sailor sighed dramatically. “All right. But you’re both coming running with me tomorrow morning.”

  Barrie and Rhiannon looked at each other.

  “Well, it is good for our health,” Barrie said. “Though I’d rather be hiking or rock-climbing, or...well, you know—doing something a little more interesting.”

  “And I’d rather be in an air-conditioned gym with earphones and a little television screen showing something entertaining,” Rhiannon said. “But tomorrow we run.”

  Sailor grinned. “Then I’ll go with you tonight.”

  * * *

  Brodie took the few free hours between performances to talk to Shirley. She seemed unusually surprised to see him.

  “You’re...a detective?” she asked. “I could swear I saw you in that new play, Vampire Rampage. I’m an actress, too. I saw it about two weeks ago—I’d heard they would be casting the touring companies soon.”

  Brodie offered her a rueful smile. “I’m undercover. I believe someone associated with the play is responsible for Rose’s death, along with the others you read about in the paper this morning. I’m even more convinced because of what you told Adam. Tell me about the last time you saw Rose Gillespie.”

  Tears instantly filled Shirley’s eyes. “It was a Saturday—two weeks ago tonight.”

  Brodie felt as if there were rocks in his stomach. That had been his first show. He hadn’t really known anyone, and he had tried to watch them all as they left. He hadn’t seen any of them leave with an audience member.

  The couple next door to the pond had said there were two cars, so presumably Rose had been in the first, part of that happy couple, and the other had arrived after. She had been lured to her doom and then killed...by the second party?

  He stayed with Shirley a little while longer, listening as she rambled on. She obviously needed to talk about the friend she had lost.

  But there was nothing else he could gain from her. When he left her house, he called Adam again, this time getting him at the station.

  “I need you to go through the victims’ credit card receipts. I want to know how many times they saw the play, and the dates.”

  “Once might not have been enough, huh?” Adam asked.

  “Just find out for me, please,” Brodie said.

  He headed back to the theater for the night’s performance. As he parked, he called Rhiannon, anxious just to hear her voice.

  “We’re fine,” she assured him. “We went to the House of Illusion for lunch and got a tour of the place.”

  He frowned at that. “Rhiannon, I’m not sure that was safe. We’d agreed we would all go together tomorrow night.”

  “We were fine. We stayed together. And now we’re home, getting ready to head to the Snake Pit. We’ll stay close there, too. Oh, I had to promise to go running with Sailor tomorrow, so make sure you have sneakers,” she said lightly.

  “Stay safe,” he cautioned her.

  “I swear I will.”

  “Everything is all right at home?” he asked, feeling anxious, though he told himself there was no reason for him to be afraid. The woman were together, and Merlin was there to play watchdog.

  He just didn’t have a sense of smell—or teeth.

  “You need a dog,” Brodie said, and thought about the ones that had been at the theater that afternoon, looking for homes.

  “I would love to have a dog, I told you that,” she said. “But let’s get through this first, huh?”

  “I’ll be at the Snake Pit when the show lets out,” he promised.

  The minute he hung up, his phone started to ring. He picked it up and checked the caller ID. Adam, and he sounded excited.

  “Brodie, you won’t believe this. They all saw the play three times. Every one of them went three times. Strange, huh?” Adam asked.

  “All right, do your computer magic. Check out a woman named Penny Abelard. Find out how many times she’s seen the show,” Brodie said. “And check out Shirley, too.”

  “Will do,” Adam said.

  Brodie parked the car and saw that Joe and Bobby were at the stage door entrance. They waved, smiling, as they saw him. He waved in return.

  As he started to get out of the car, his phone rang again.

  It was Adam. “Penny Abelard has seen the show twice. She has a ticket to see it tonight for the third time. The dates of the performances are on the sales receipts.”

  Brodie felt an icy chill run up his spine. He didn’t know why three was the magic number, but it clearly was. He thanked Adam and hung up.

  Nothing seemed unusual. Joe and Bobby greeted him as he entered. Hunter Jackson arrived, and he and Brodie chatted as they did their makeup. Places were called. The show began.

  Brodie saw Penny Abelard immediately; she was sitting in the first row, looking enthralled.

  He couldn’t wait for the play to end. When it did, he dressed with record speed and was ready before Hunter even made it to their dressing room. He ran past the director on his way out, dimly aware that he’d agreed to meet everyone at the Snake Pit later.

  He found Penny waiting backstage.

  “Well, hello,” he said, pretending to be surprised by her presence.

  “Oh, hey! Great to see you. You were brilliant tonight,” she told him.

  Wide-eyed hope and innocence, he thought. It was such an L.A. look, at least for so many new arrivals. All too often it was followed by a dull look of weariness, of exhaustion and lost hope, as the young and the hopeful became the drained and hopeless.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Who are you here to meet?”

  “I’m hoping to see Audrey—she’s been so nice to me, and so has Lena Ashbury.”

  Lena! How the hell could he have missed it?

  Penny was still smiling and talking. “I’m hoping to bum a ride with Audrey again, maybe get a chance to hang out with some of her friends at the club, like Declan Wainwright, and maybe even Darius Simonides. She knows all the cool people.”

  Cool people who might be murderers.

  He didn’t know what to do. Take her with him so he could keep her safe?

  Or wait to see who was anxious to give her a ride?

  Audrey Fleur, Kate Delaney and Lena Ashbury came out of their shared dressing room, laughing together.

  “Hey, Brodie, Snake Pit?” Audrey called. />
  “Definitely,” he said.

  “Penny!” Lena called in greeting. “I saw you out in the audience.”

  “Hey, Lena,” Penny said, flushing happily.

  Hunter emerged from the dressing room just as Bobby Conche came walking over. He looked as hopeful as Penny. “You all heading to the Snake Pit?” he asked.

  “Absolutely, and I hope you’re coming, too,” Hunter said.

  Bobby seemed to bask in the glow of Hunter’s words.

  “Hey, where the hell is Joe?” Audrey asked. “If we’re going, he should be going, too.”

  “On three,” Kate said playfully. “One, two, three...”

  “Joe!” they all cried as one.

  Joe popped his head out from behind the curtain. “What? What did I do?”

  “Heading out to the Snake Pit! I’m taking the sheet music for the show. Maybe Miss Gryffald will play it for us.”

  “It’s a plan,” Joe said

  Brodie gritted his teeth. With everyone there, he didn’t know what his next step should be.

  But he couldn’t risk an innocent woman’s life. “Penny, why don’t you ride with me?”

  “Don’t be silly, Brodie. Penny can come with us,” Audrey said. “You’re taken, remember?”

  “And Rhiannon trusts me completely. Stick with me, Penny. Audrey thinks she’s filming The Fast and the Furious every time she gets in a car.”

  “Who cares who drives with who?” Hunter asked. “Let’s just go.”

  Brodie took Penny’s arm politely but firmly. “It will be my pleasure to give you a ride,” he said.

  Oh, yes, my pleasure—if I can just keep you alive.

  Chapter 13

  If it weren’t for the possibility of a vampire serial killer and the attack on her cousin—okay, and the attack on her own car, too—Rhiannon thought, life would be pretty great. She was making a living playing music, and then there was Brodie. She didn’t know where that relationship was heading or how long it might last, but she intended to enjoy every minute of it while she had the chance.

  She noticed Brodie the minute he arrived with the cast and crew from the show, along with a young woman she didn’t recognize, and she smiled at him, nodding toward the table where Sailor and Barrie were sitting. Sailor waved as he approached with the woman, while Barrie didn’t notice him until Sailor nudged her—she was engrossed in reading something on her tablet.

  Even from a distance, she could see that he looked troubled. She couldn’t desert the stage, but she suspected Brodie would find a way to join her as soon as he could.

  He did, sliding onto the bench next to her when she paused between songs.

  “Sorry if I’m acting distracted, but I’m trying to keep my eye on a woman,” he said.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to tell me that you’re watching another woman while we’re sleeping together,” she told him with a sexy grin.

  He grinned back. “Rhiannon, I found out that all five victims disappeared after having seen Vampire Rampage three times. And this woman—Penny Abelard—also auditioned for the show, and she saw it for the third time tonight.”

  Rhiannon nodded. They both had a clear view of the table where Penny was now seated. “I’ll try to keep an eye on her, too. Plus you have help here, if you want it.” She started playing again, but this time she let the piano speak for itself, so she and Brodie could keep talking.

  “Who?” he asked, frowning.

  “Well, Declan is walking around looking like an eagle on the hunt. Hugh’s here, too, but mostly he’s just staring at me as if I were a caged wolf someone suddenly set loose. I meant your tech buddy, Adam Lansky. He’s at a table a couple of rows back from where my cousins are sitting. He’s alone. See him?”

  “Thanks,” he said, but he was getting more and more curious as to why Adam was suddenly showing up in a lot of places where he didn’t need to be. “I’d better get back to the table. Our murderer intends to kill again tonight, and I’ve got to—damn! She’s leaving the room.”

  Worse, Adam Lansky was following her.

  Without even taking time to say goodbye, Brodie stood and hurried off the stage in Adam’s wake.

  The minute Rhiannon reached the end of the song she announced that she was taking a break. Not even caring what people might think, she went racing through the club and out into the night.

  She didn’t see any of them.

  Then she heard a groan coming from behind some bushes.

  It might be a trap, she realized, but she had to do something.

  Plunging into the bushes, she gasped.

  “Rhiannon! Is that you?” It was Brodie’s voice, coming from somewhere off to the left.

  “I’m over here!” she called.

  Brodie thrust his way through to her. “That little rat bastard. I was two steps behind. I can’t find Penny—Adam has her somewhere.”

  “No, Brodie,” she said. “Adam doesn’t have her. Adam is here. Call an ambulance. He’s bleeding.”

  Brodie had his phone out even as he hunkered down over the tech, who, judging from the blood, had been bashed on the head.

  “Son of a bitch,” Brodie cursed. “Get Humphrey out here until an ambulance comes. Then you get back inside with your cousins.”

  “I can’t hide from what’s going on, Brodie. I’m a Keeper. Finding a vampire killer is what I’m supposed to do.”

  He grasped her by the shoulders. “The killer isn’t out for you tonight. He’s out for Penny Abelard. I have to find her—quickly. It might already be too late. Please, watch out for your cousins. There’s more than one person involved in this, and for all I know at least one of our killers is still inside. Rhiannon, please, go now.”

  Rhiannon called for the bouncer as she ran for the door. The minute she had his attention she sent him over to help Brodie with Adam, then hurried back inside.

  “Rhiannon, I know there’s serious stuff going on, but you can’t just disappear every few minutes and keep your job here,” Declan said, catching her as she entered the room.

  “A cop was attacked just outside, and a woman is missing. I think that’s a good reason for taking a break, don’t you?”

  Declan paled. “Go back to the piano. I’ll go out and see what’s happening.”

  Rhiannon scanned the room as she headed back onstage.

  The entire cast of Vampire Rampage was now gone, except for Lena Ashbury, who was sitting with Darius and laughing. Then, to her surprise, she spotted Audrey, who was flirting with a tall attractive stranger at the bar. But everyone else was among the missing.

  She sat down and started to play, glad that her fingers could find the keys by rote, because her mind was racing.

  Declan found her on her next break and told her that she needed to give a statement to the police.

  “Is Adam hurt badly?” she asked the officer who sat down to talk to her.

  “He was still unconscious when the ambulance left,” he told her. “But the paramedics said his pulse was steady, so with luck he’ll come out of it soon.”

  “Have you seen—” She broke off before finishing the question, remembering just in time that Brodie was undercover.

  The officer smiled, then lowered his voice and spoke close to her ear. “Detective McKay is still looking for the young woman Officer Lansky was following.”

  He took her statement and her number in case of additional questions, then let her return to the stage.

  Finally she saw that the crowd was thinning out. Eventually the only other people remaining at the club were Sailor, Barrie, the workers who were closing up and Declan Wainwright.

  “I’ll follow you girls home,” Declan told her.

  “We’re together—we’ll be fine,” Rhiannon assured him.

  Declan smiled. “I don’t doubt it. I just don’t want Brodie on my case, okay?”

  Rhiannon nodded. “All right. And I’m ready to go. I’m exhausted. Of course, I probably won’t be able to sleep after all this,” sh
e said.

  “But you’ll be home. I still have to drive to Malibu,” he reminded her.

  “Good point,” she said, feeling guilty. They all stood, and she noticed that Sailor seemed a little unsteady. “What’s with you?” Rhiannon asked, slipping a supportive arm around her cousin.

  “Five cosmos. I mean, hell, we’ve been here for hours,” Sailor said.

  “Can she make it?” Declan asked sharply.

  “Of course,” Rhiannon said indignantly. “All she has to do is walk to the car.” The man owned a bar, and now he was being insulting because Sailor had actually been drinking there.

  Barrie moved around to Sailor’s other side, and together they walked out to Rhiannon’s car. Just as they got there, Rhiannon’s phone rang. It was Brodie. “Hang on,” she said as she pulled her keys from her purse.

  “Toss me the keys,” Barrie said. “I’ll drive, you talk.”

  “Thanks,” Rhiannon said, handing them over. She balanced the phone between her shoulder and her cheek while she got Sailor settled in the backseat. “Brodie?” she asked a moment later as she slid into the front.

  “You okay?” he asked anxiously.

  “We’re fine. Declan is going to follow us home.”

  “I’ll be there soon,” he told her.

  “Did you find her?” Rhiannon asked.

  He sighed. “Oh, yeah, I found her.”

  * * *

  Penny Abelard was alive. Just barely.

  And she still had her fingers.

  The killer—or killers—must have known he was on the trail, Brodie thought.

  He’d headed for the nearest body of water—a lousy little rock pit beside the ramp to the 101. She’d been attacked, but the killer hadn’t had time to finish the job.

  He’d found her facedown in the water, and his heart had dropped—it had felt as if it were sinking right into the mud—but when he dragged her out and started to perform CPR she had spewed water into his face, then begun to cough and wheeze.

  For a moment, a brief moment, her eyes had opened and she’d stared at him. They’d been wide and filled with terror.

  “It’s all right. I’m here to help you,” he’d said.