might.”
“Will it help
you find him any quicker?”
“It’s really
too early in the investigation to say whether or not anything is
important. I can only trace down any lead I get and see where it
takes me. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to your
case. I will call you when I have something to report.”
Mrs Veilchen
regarded her for a moment longer, then nodded once. She left
without further word. Ivan scurried back in a couple of minutes
later.
“That was the
longest toilet break ever.”
“That woman
freaks me out. She’s the whole reason I’m gay and I only met her
yesterday.”
Erin
smiled.
“Did you find
anything out at the court house?”
Smile
vanishing as if it had never been, Erin shook her head. “Apparently
Jessica Harrington was underage at the time of the incident. The
records have been sealed.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, so we
need to start looking for those phone numbers.”
Ivan got up to
leave.
“Oh, and
Ivan.”
“Yeah?”
“If you see
Mrs Veilchen on the security camera coming up here, turn the sign
over to closed and hide.”
He grinned.
“We don’t have a sign.”
“Get one.”
Chapter 7
I dropped Roberts at his apartment
building and then dithered about in Myer for a while, ending up
paying an average mortgage payment for a new watch. It was a Rolex,
though, and had a compass, light-up display and the highest quality
shock resistant technology you can get. A must for any vampire
hunter. Then I spent the rest of my money paying for the parking.
On my way out of town, I had second thoughts and turned around and
went back to see Jacob.
Jacob Whyte
owns a bookshop on Edward Street, down at the Botanical Gardens
end. Vogon Books is squeezed in between a boutique bar and a
beautician. It specialises in ‘genre’ and ‘illustrated’ novels.
Science fiction and comics for those who aren’t up with the
parlance. Its usual customer is someone who’s pasty but isn’t a
vampire, wears clothes ten years out of fashion but isn’t a ghoul,
knows loads of useless trivia but isn’t a troll, and knows
immediately the origin of the name ‘Vogon’. Sometimes, seriously
cool people go in there too. I’m one of the latter. Jacob had to
tell me about the Vogons.
It’s a long,
narrow place and kept rather gloomy, you know, to enhance the
atmosphere. There were two guys loitering in between the shelves,
near a bunch of books with fur-bikini clad, buff warrior-women on
the covers. I grinned at them on the way past. They eyed me with
wary suspicion usually reserved to inbred hillbillies watching a
douche and his impossibly perky girlfriend roll up to their
ramshackle hut in a car with a flat tyre.
“Hey, Matt,”
Jacob greeted me. He was a narrow man. Narrow of body, narrow of
face, but thankfully, not narrow of mind. You could tell because he
had no hair to cover it. At my best guess, he was pushing forty and
might still live with his parents. He didn’t look up from reading
the comic… eh, illustrated novel, on his counter. “Your book hasn’t
come in yet. I’ll call when it does.”
“Yeah, I know.
I was just wondering if you had any word of…” I paused and checked
on the two guys in the store. They were standing together, heads
close as they whispered furiously. “Any new players in town. I took
down a mob on the Goldie last night, at Surf Wars.”
That got his
attention. He shoved his glasses up his nose and also made sure we
weren’t going to be overheard. “Not heard a thing. What clan were
they?”
“They weren’t
displaying any flavours. Too young. Not a psychic compulsion
amongst them.”
“Whoa, that
makes them, what, younger than a month? Fresh meat.”
I leaned on
the counter and looked at his comic. Some new superhero type
character I had no hope of recognising. Ooh, half-naked girl. No.
Don’t get distracted, Matt.
“Very fresh.
Whoever turned them left them out on the street. Barry at Surf Wars
told me that they had been
“Will it help
you find him any quicker?”
“It’s really
too early in the investigation to say whether or not anything is
important. I can only trace down any lead I get and see where it
takes me. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to your
case. I will call you when I have something to report.”
Mrs Veilchen
regarded her for a moment longer, then nodded once. She left
without further word. Ivan scurried back in a couple of minutes
later.
“That was the
longest toilet break ever.”
“That woman
freaks me out. She’s the whole reason I’m gay and I only met her
yesterday.”
Erin
smiled.
“Did you find
anything out at the court house?”
Smile
vanishing as if it had never been, Erin shook her head. “Apparently
Jessica Harrington was underage at the time of the incident. The
records have been sealed.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, so we
need to start looking for those phone numbers.”
Ivan got up to
leave.
“Oh, and
Ivan.”
“Yeah?”
“If you see
Mrs Veilchen on the security camera coming up here, turn the sign
over to closed and hide.”
He grinned.
“We don’t have a sign.”
“Get one.”
Chapter 7
I dropped Roberts at his apartment
building and then dithered about in Myer for a while, ending up
paying an average mortgage payment for a new watch. It was a Rolex,
though, and had a compass, light-up display and the highest quality
shock resistant technology you can get. A must for any vampire
hunter. Then I spent the rest of my money paying for the parking.
On my way out of town, I had second thoughts and turned around and
went back to see Jacob.
Jacob Whyte
owns a bookshop on Edward Street, down at the Botanical Gardens
end. Vogon Books is squeezed in between a boutique bar and a
beautician. It specialises in ‘genre’ and ‘illustrated’ novels.
Science fiction and comics for those who aren’t up with the
parlance. Its usual customer is someone who’s pasty but isn’t a
vampire, wears clothes ten years out of fashion but isn’t a ghoul,
knows loads of useless trivia but isn’t a troll, and knows
immediately the origin of the name ‘Vogon’. Sometimes, seriously
cool people go in there too. I’m one of the latter. Jacob had to
tell me about the Vogons.
It’s a long,
narrow place and kept rather gloomy, you know, to enhance the
atmosphere. There were two guys loitering in between the shelves,
near a bunch of books with fur-bikini clad, buff warrior-women on
the covers. I grinned at them on the way past. They eyed me with
wary suspicion usually reserved to inbred hillbillies watching a
douche and his impossibly perky girlfriend roll up to their
ramshackle hut in a car with a flat tyre.
“Hey, Matt,”
Jacob greeted me. He was a narrow man. Narrow of body, narrow of
face, but thankfully, not narrow of mind. You could tell because he
had no hair to cover it. At my best guess, he was pushing forty and
might still live with his parents. He didn’t look up from reading
the comic… eh, illustrated novel, on his counter. “Your book hasn’t
come in yet. I’ll call when it does.”
“Yeah, I know.
I was just wondering if you had any word of…” I paused and checked
on the two guys in the store. They were standing together, heads
close as they whispered furiously. “Any new players in town. I took
down a mob on the Goldie last night, at Surf Wars.”
That got his
attention. He shoved his glasses up his nose and also made sure we
weren’t going to be overheard. “Not heard a thing. What clan were
they?”
“They weren’t
displaying any flavours. Too young. Not a psychic compulsion
amongst them.”
“Whoa, that
makes them, what, younger than a month? Fresh meat.”
I leaned on
the counter and looked at his comic. Some new superhero type
character I had no hope of recognising. Ooh, half-naked girl. No.
Don’t get distracted, Matt.
“Very fresh.
Whoever turned them left them out on the street. Barry at Surf Wars
told me that they had been
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