Trail of Dead (Scarlett Bernard #2)(77)

“I’m not positive that it’s anything big. But she’s not answering her phone, and this isn’t really the night for her to do that.” He studied her face. “You don’t know where she is, do you?”

“No…wait. What is she driving?”

Jesse smiled ruefully. “She took my car. I suppose I could always report it as stolen, but—” He slapped his head, feeling impossibly stupid.

“What?”

“I’m such an idiot. I have LoJack.”

He made the calls, pacing a few feet away toward the waiting-room windows so he could get better reception. Runa looked up when he returned. She showed no signs of getting up from her waiting room chair, and he figured she must be sticking around for Kirsten.

“The car is at Hair of the Dog,” he said.

“That’s good, right?” Runa asked. “She probably had a cleanup job there or something. And Will will keep her safe.”

“Yeah, I guess.” But something felt wrong, he decided. He scrolled through his phone and found the right number. “I’m gonna call the bar.” He went back over to the seats by the windows.

It rang forever. When someone finally picked up, the line was shockingly quiet. Every other time he’d called there, he’d had to shout over loud music to be heard. “This is Will,” said a tired voice. Jesse identified himself and asked for Scarlett.

“Yeah,” Will said heavily. “She’s here. We had a…well, she can fill you in, I guess. I don’t have it in me to talk about it. Hang on, I’ll go have her pick up the line in the office.”

There was a long pause, and Jesse found himself listening to a horrible Muzak cover of “Tainted Love.” Then “I Want to Run to You.” Just before the final chorus, Will finally picked back up. “Detective?”

“Jesse,” he said automatically.

“Jesse. She’s um…she’s not here. I left her in the office, but she must have walked out the back door. Her wallet is gone, but she left her phone here.”

“She couldn’t have gotten far,” Jesse objected. “My car is still parked there, or it was five minutes ago.”

Will coughed. “I actually went outside and checked. If your car is a blue sedan, then yeah, it’s here. But Eli’s truck is missing. His keys are gone too.” Will paused, and finally added, “I…um…think she’s gone rogue.”





Chapter 27


I drove south, blasting the heater in Eli’s truck. I was shivering in my borrowed T-shirt and boxers, but there just wasn’t time to stop at Molly’s for a change of clothes and the White Whale, not if Mallory was really going to perform her spell at midnight. I was going to have to face Olivia just as I was, bloody boots and all.

She had given me directions to the San Mateo Clinic in Redondo Beach, which was a small, modern outpatient facility that had closed down in the mid-2000s. The once-prestigious clinic had grown famous for a perfect storm of controversy: within eighteen months, a corrupt chief of staff had set up an elaborate insurance scam and escaped the country, a huge sexual harassment lawsuit had been filed against a cardiologist on behalf of the support staff, and a little girl had died in a freak accident when she’d been climbing too quickly down a set of fire stairs. The clinic might have survived any one of those incidents, but not all three at once. The building’s owners got tangled up in legal repercussions, and even years later San Mateo stood vacant while the court battles raged on. It wasn’t much to look at: a squat, lonely brick building with a parking lot in back and faded No Trespassing signs to deter vandals and homeless people. Or, now that I thought about it, perhaps the deterrent was that anyone who wandered in would be eaten by vampires. I had to admit, it was an excellent choice for an evil lair.

I pulled Eli’s truck around the back of the clinic building, as instructed, and saw no signs of life: no lit windows, no cars in the lot, no sound from the building’s heating or air-conditioning systems. Cautiously, I followed the sidewalk to the clinic’s enormous loading dock and climbed up the short ramp that led to a human-sized door beside it. I knocked twice.

After only a second, I felt a vampire enter my radius from the other side of the door. Olivia had been waiting for me. Even though I’d walked into the situation of my own free will, I still felt cornered when the door swung open and she stepped forward. “Scar-bear!” Olivia cried gaily. “You made it!”

Like we were at a goddamned brunch.

I allowed myself to be enveloped, and even managed to hug her back. “Hey,” I said helplessly.

She took a step back, and her smile faded to a disapproving frown. “What on earth are you wearing?”

“Um, my clothes got shredded. Long story.”

“I see. Are you all by yourself?” Olivia asked, peering around behind me. She was a human at the moment, so her night vision wouldn’t be any better than mine, but I understood she had to make a show of it.

“Yes. Just like you said.”

“Wonderful!” she said, beaming. We were back to brunch mode. “Follow me, please.”

When the door had closed behind me she paused to type a code into a little numeric pad by the door. An alarm system. Her back was to me, and for a second I thought about just shooting her right there in the doorway. Could I do that? I wondered. Just shoot her in the back, cold-bloodedly? It didn’t matter: I still needed to know where the witch was and what they had been planning. I followed her into the clinic building.