by Tim Myers
With nothing to lose, it made him fearless, and Bailey’s serum had no doubt enhanced that as well.
When my hands steadied, I opened the door. With my darkened flashlight in one hand and my gun in the other, I walked softly down the stairs, not sure what I would find at the bottom.
I waited until my eyes adjusted to the dark, then slowly crept down the last of the steps to the basement floor. There were no lights anywhere, and I couldn’t hear a sound besides the dripping of a water pipe and the scurrying of rats. It took a great deal of control, but I shifted my hearing into phase, and the werewolf in me fought to gain complete control. Like a whip, I used my mind to keep it in the shadows, allowing only a part of it free.
There was no one there.
I turned on my flashlight and searched for a switch. When I found it, the basement lit in faded illumination. There weren’t enough bulbs to let me see anything clearly, but it was pretty obvious that someone was using the space. I found a pallet of blankets and clothes in a dry corner, and there were spent bags that had held food from DeMarco’s. A squalid bathroom was still working, but I couldn’t imagine anyone growing up in the Granger estate using it.
Unlike the motel room I’d found earlier, there were dozens of signs that this nest hadn’t been abandoned. Unless I was wrong, Harkins and Jennifer would be back.
But where could he have taken her? I looked among the things near the bed, and I found a telephone book opened to the business section. A page had been torn out of it, and I wrote down the missing page number so I could trace it back at my office.
It was pretty clear why Harkins had been after the Granger money. He was living on the edge of poverty, and forcing Jennifer Granger to endure it as well.
I had a few options, and I wasn’t quite sure which one to follow. I could wait there, lying in ambush for Harkins to return. I could call Dalton and let him take care of the entire mess of the rogue wolf and his captive. Or I could try to find Harkins myself before he did any more harm.
I’ve waited a thousand hours in my job as a private investigator, and I’ve come up with a dozen dodges on how to pass the time, but waiting wasn’t what was called for here. While I was hiding, lurking in the shadows, Harkins could be on another killing spree. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened. Logically, I knew I should call Dalton and turn it over to him. He had the manpower, and the firing force to bring Harkins down, and he could do it better than I could.
But at what price? Would he be as careful about Jennifer as I would, or would bringing down the rogue werewolf be all that mattered to him? Could I afford to take that chance? Maybe I was overreacting, but I’d agreed to save Jennifer Granger, and that didn’t mean calling the police when things got tough.
The choice was clear.
This was something I had to do myself.
I was going to bring the wolf down and safe the girl.
Or die trying.
I got back to my office and pulled out the telephone directory. The missing page had a dozen listings for pawn shops, both inside Dogtown and in the norm part of the city. I didn’t have a photograph of Harkins, but maybe he was dragging Jennifer around with him. By now, he had to have some kind of hold over her, and I didn’t doubt she’d do whatever he ordered her to.
I hit the shops in Dogtown first. I had no luck at the first three places, but at the fourth one, my luck changed.
A skinny, gray haired woman was behind the counter, and the second I walked in, there was a scowl on her face.
“I don’t want any trouble with you,” she said.
“How do you know I’m not a customer?”
She shook her head. “You’re armed, and you don’t look like you’re on your last dime. I’ve got a gun under the counter aimed right at your heart, and don’t mistake my aim or my intentions. It’s loaded with enough silver to put you down.”
“I don’t want any trouble. I’m just looking for someone,” I said. “I’m going to reach my hand into my pocket and get her picture.”
“Do it slowly,” she ordered, and I gladly complied. The old bird would probably just as soon pop me as put up with me, and I didn’t want to give her any reasons to act on her instincts.
I retrieved the photo and held it out to her. The woman squinted at it, then said, “I can’t see that far away.”
“I’ll bring it closer then,” I said.
“Just watch yourself.”
I approached slowly, the photo held out in front of me like some kind of shield.
When I was two feet away, she barked, “Stop right there. That’s close enough.”
She studied the picture, then said, “Why do you want her?”
“She’s been kidnapped,” I said.
The woman looked surprised by that news. “She didn’t look kidnapped to me.”
“So she was here. Was a man with her?”
I described Harkins, but the woman shook her head. “No, she was alone.”
Why hadn’t she called for help, if Harkins wasn’t right behind her? It was too soon for her to have a Stockholm syndrome fixation for him, wasn’t it? It was hard to imagine anyone falling for Harkins, especially a captive of his. “What did she hock?”
The woman pointed to a gold necklace in the case. It was priced at two hundred dollars.
“Can I see it?”
She scowled at me. “Are you going to buy it, or are you just wasting my time?”
“I don’t have enough cash on me,” I said. “Do you take personal checks?”
“Do I look stupid to you? Cash only.”
There was a branch of my bank around the corner. “I’ll be right back.”
I went inside, since we didn’t have many ATMs in Dogtown. After getting a few hundred dollars out of my account, I came back to the pawnshop.
The necklace was now priced at five hundred.
“Hey, you can’t do that. We had a deal.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t shake on it. Prices are subject to change without notice,” she repeated, tapping the sign above her register.
“If you’re going to be that way, you can keep it,” I said. “The cops might want it as evidence, and then you’re out what you paid for it.”
I was nearly out the door when she said, “Four hundred.”
“Sorry, I’ve just got two.”
“Fine, break an old woman’s spirit. I’ll take three.”
I looked at her carefully. “Do I look like I’m haggling? I’ve got two hundred. That’s it.”
“You’ll be back,” she said.
“I don’t think so.”
I was out on the sidewalk when I heard a tap on the window. She was openly scowling at me as she held two fingers in the air.
I nodded and went back inside. After I bought the necklace, I moved on to other pawnshops and found they’d made more stops, jettisoning bits of Jennifer’s jewelry along the way. Pawnbrokers aren’t exactly fonts of information on good days, but I did see a pattern. Harkins was in need of cash. That botched kidnapping demand was hurting him enough to risk being caught outside with his captive.
He probably had enough money to last another week or two, but I had a sharper deadline. If I didn’t find her by midnight, I was off the case, and my chance of saving Jennifer-and earning my fee-would both be gone.
Chapter 10
“Jacob, come by the diner as soon as you get this. It’s important.” The message was on my office answering machine, and there was no mistaking Jasmine’s voice. I didn’t exactly have time to deal with my personal life, but I owed her a call.
“Hey, I just got your message,” I said when I called her.
“Thanks for calling me back. We need to talk,” Jasmine said. “Bowen was just here.”
“Sorry, I should have given you a heads-up,” I said. “I told him about us.”
“I know, that’s why I called you. Can you come by?”
“I’m looking for Jennifer Granger, and I think I have a lead,” I said. “Ca
n it wait?”
“It won’t take long, I promise, but I need to see you right now.”
I’d exhausted my list of pawnshops, but I had no way of knowing if Harkins and Jennifer would be on their way back to the basement of the Claremont, or if they had already taken off for somewhere new, now that they had some money in their pockets.
I said, “I’ll come by later, but I can’t, not right now.”
“As soon as you can, then,” she said, and hung up.
Whatever Jasmine wanted to talk about, I doubted that it was a conversation I wanted to have.
But it would have to wait. I was going werewolf hunting.
To my relief, no one was in the basement when I got back, so I decided to settle in at a place I could get the drop on Harkins without him realizing I was there until it was too late. As I waited in the shadows, I thought about what I was doing the night before with Jasmine, remembering every curve of her body and each sigh from her mouth. It was a pleasant way to spend my time as I waited on Harkins and his hostage to reappear.
I was just replaying a particularly delicious moment when I heard the door open above.
Someone was coming downstairs.
The voices were muted, and I couldn’t afford to phase just yet to hear them distinctly. I knew I had a better chance with my silver bullets than I did with my own speed.
I could see the area they’d staged as a bedroom, and watched as Harkins and Jennifer Granger came into view. It was the first time I’d seen her in real life, and she barely looked like her photograph. It was a wonder any of the pawnbrokers had recognized her. Being with Harkins had changed her somehow, taken away her soft, young girlish edges and replaced them with etched lines and an expression decades older. Harkins was in human form, so I was starting to believe I might get out of this alive.
I waited until I had a clear line of sight, then stepped out of the shadows. Harkins started to shift, I could see it in the way he tensed.
I had the gun aimed directly at his chest. “If you change right now, I’ll put so many silver bullets into your heart you’ll be able to start your own jewelry shop.”
Harkins eased a little, and I could tell he knew I wasn’t bluffing.
Keeping my eyes on him, I asked Jennifer, “Are you all right?”
“Thank God you found me,” she said, and I could hear the tears starting to flow.
“Jennifer, I want you to come over to me. Harkins, don’t touch her, or even breathe in her direction, or you’re going to die.”
There were no words, Harkins just glared at me as if he wanted to rip out my heart and eat it.
Jennifer moved slowly toward me, like a woman a thousand years old.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said as she neared.
“I know,” she said as she got behind me.
Keeping my eyes on Harkins, I said, “Go up the stairs and tell the first person you see you need Detective Dalton. He’ll take care of you.”
“What are you going to do with him?” she asked, her voice suddenly husky.
“If he behaves himself, I’ll turn him over to the police. If he doesn’t, he’s going to die right here.”
That’s when she hit me from behind, knocking the gun out of my hand and freeing Harkins from my sights.
Harkins and I both started to shift at the same time, and if I hadn’t been a split second faster, I would have died right there. My instincts told me to fight, but the part of me that was human shouted for escape. Harkins was enhanced, and I was no match for him in werewolf phase. I had been stupid not asking for help, letting my pride stand in the way. She had helped him, but after learning what I had about her behavior at the pawnshop, a part of me had suspected she might all along. That was still no excuse. She’d fooled me with her tears. I turned toward Jennifer to try to get her out of there alive, when I suddenly realized just how wrong I’d been.
She was phased as well, and if I didn’t break free of them in the next two seconds, I was going to be fighting two werewolves, and not one.
I made it to the door just as Harkins leapt for me, and I barely managed to get up the stairs before he nearly brought me down. Ripping through the first floor, I didn’t care who saw me phased, and Harkins must not have, either. There was a crowd outside of the hotel, and I was a block away before I realized that no one was following me. Phasing back into human form, I was angry and shaken as I hurried to the police station. It was out of my hands now. I had to bring in the biggest guns I had.
Dalton was gone for the day, and I wasn’t about to tell anyone else what I knew. That option was not viable anymore. It was time to bury the hatchet with Bowen, and get every friend and ally I had. The mission had switched from a search-and-rescue to a werewolf hunt, and there were two on the list instead of one.
But I had to get another gun first. I went back to my office, and was surprised to find the black armored Hummer sitting in front of my place.
Emmett, the bodyguard, was out front, and he nodded as I approached. He grunted out, “She’s upstairs,” as his gaze kept sweeping the street.
“Good. I need to talk to her.”
I found Stephanie standing outside my office door. “You should have told me everything before I almost got myself killed. You owed me that much.”
Stephanie Granger’s face crumpled as I spoke. “So now you know the truth.”
“Yeah, she shifted right in front of me, so it was kind of hard to miss. I could have used that information when you hired me.”
I was yelling now, and didn’t really care. She’d put my life in jeopardy, and there wasn’t enough money in Dogtown for me to let her get away with doing that.
“I thought she’d grow out of it,” Stephanie said. “If I can get her back home, we can find doctors to treat her.”
I laughed, then said, “She’s a freak, a sport, a genetic mutation. It’s not like she’s got VD, or acne. How long have you known?”
“Not long. You’re not quitting, are you?”
I walked around my office. “It’s making more and more sense why you came to me in the first place,” I said. “This wasn’t something you wanted to share with the cops, let alone the FBI. Why’d you even call them?”
“I didn’t, it was my idiot husband. He thought we could keep it from them, and we couldn’t even keep you from finding out. It’s more important now than ever that you bring my baby home to me.”
“Lady, I hate to break it to you, but your sweet little girl is home right where she is. She belongs in Dogtown, just like the rest of us.”
“You’re wrong. She’s not like you,” Stephanie shouted.
“What, because you’ve got money, you think you’re immune to the curse? Wrong. The mutation can show up anywhere. She’s a werewolf, and your daughter is in the worst company she could be in. You’ve got to prepare yourself for the fact that when they catch her, she won’t be going to New Pitcairn. She and her boyfriend are going to be executed in the town square on prime time television.”
“It’s all his doing,” Stephanie said, the tears pouring down her cheeks. “She was the victim here.”
“She didn’t look like one when she hit me from behind trying to save her boyfriend,” I said. “You’ve got more problems than you know.”
“It’s not too late. Please. You can save her.”
“As far as I’m concerned, she’s past all redemption,” I said, letting my words slam into her. “It’s time to face it. Your daughter’s gone.”
“She’s not,” Stephanie said as she slammed her fists into my chest. I put my arms around her, and held her as the rage slowly leaked out.
After a few moments, she said, “I couldn’t tell you the truth, you see that, don’t you? You can bring her home to me, Trask, I know you can. Please.”
“There’s not enough zeros in your checkbook,” I said. “I don’t work for people who’ve lied to me.”
“I was desperate. I love my daughter. You’ve got to help me. Hire an army, I don’t
care, but don’t let her die like a criminal.”
The tears were getting to me, but then I remembered her sweet little girl knocking a gun out of my hands. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, wiping away the tears. “I’ll pay you whatever you want.” Stephanie took her checkbook out and scribbled in some figures before signing it. She tore it out of the book, then shoved it into my chest.
It was more than I made in five years.
“It’s not enough,” I said.
“That’s just the first half. You get the rest when she’s back in my care. You have to help me. Please.”
I stared at her, trying to ignore the check, and tried to put myself in her shoes. How would I feel if my daughter changed on me, turning into something the world hated? Would I give everything I had to try to protect her? I knew without a doubt that I would. What Stephanie Granger didn’t know was that there was nothing on earth that could keep me from seeing this through. I’d take her money, but it was more as punishment for her lies than my bank account, no matter how anemic it was at the moment.
Finally, I’d had enough. “I’m not sure what I can do at this point, but I’ll try.”
“Thank you, Trask, thank you.”
I held her shoulders before she could hug me. “It’s not the money, it’s important that you realize that. You didn’t just buy me, you bought my help. There’s a difference, and if you don’t know what it is, I’ll tear this up and help string her up myself.”
“I know, I understand. Please, just save her.”
“It’s going to be ten times harder now,” I said. “They had a trump card, and I forced their hand.”
“I don’t care what you have to do. Just bring her back to me.”
I nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
I walked her to her escort, then I went straight to the bank before they closed. What I had in mind was going to be expensive, and I needed cash in hand to recruit the kind of help I was going to require.