Vampire Zero (Laura Caxton, #3)(44)
Caxton frowned. “I had to give her some bad news. Her mother died last night.”
A vein in Margot’s left temple throbbed alarmingly. “Yes,” she said. “I know.”
“You do?” Caxton was confused.
“The police called me last night, and when I said they couldn’t talk to her, they told me what it was about. I decided, after long contemplation, that it would be best for Raleigh to not be exposed to such negative outside influences.”
“Do you think that’s fair to her?” Caxton asked.
Sister Margot lowered her eyes. “She’s undergoing extensive therapy for drug addiction, and that takes a great deal of time, rest, and peace. The first time, when they came to tell her about her uncle, I allowed her to go to the gate and hear the news herself. She came back quite disturbed. I would have told her about her mother eventually, of course, but I decided that two such shocks in such a short space of time would completely unhinge her.”
“I see,” Caxton said.
“I wasn’t sure whether to let you talk to her at all, but in the end I decided I did not wish to create trouble with the police. I’m beginning to wonder if that was a mistake. Is your business with us done now?”
“No,” Caxton said. “Believe me. I’d love to leave the whole bunch of you in peace. I’m afraid I’m going to have to spend the night, though.” She could see Margot’s face darkening again, so she added, “This is an emergency situation. Do you know about Raleigh’s father?”
“The vampire?”
“Yeah,” Caxton said. “I have reason to believe he’ll come here and try to harm her. It looks like he’s intent on destroying his own family. If I had any choice in the matter I’d take Raleigh out of here right now and get her somewhere safe.”
Margot didn’t seem impressed. “I can assure you there’s nowhere safer than here, especially from that sort. No such creature would ever dare cross the threshold of this place. It’s still holy ground. And as he is a man there is no chance of any of the sisters inviting him inside.”
“You mean, because a vampire can only enter a place where he’s been invited first? That’s a myth,”
Caxton said. “They don’t have to be invited into a place. They can go anywhere they want. Even on holy ground. Sorry.”
“Perhaps we’ll see,” Margot said, with a wry smile. “Very well, I’ll find a place for you to sleep—”
“I’ll need to sleep in the same room as Raleigh,” Caxton interrupted.
“You might find it a tad crowded. She shares a very small room with Violet,” Margot warned.
“I’ll make do.”
“So be it. Is there anything else you require, Special Deputy? If not, dinner will be served at five o’clock. If you would be good enough to leave Raleigh alone until then, I would appreciate it. And please, would you do something for me? Don’t tell her you think her father wants to kill her. That would just be too much for her mental constitution to take.”
That sounded like a terrible idea—Caxton had always lived by the notion that forewarned was forearmed—but she just nodded her head.
When Sister Margot was gone she considered going back into the small room to comfort Raleigh, but then decided she wasn’t the one for that job. Instead Caxton found her way out of the dark building and into the fading light of afternoon. It was three-?thirty and already the sun was low in the sky, casting long sharp shadows across the snow-?crusted lawn. She spent a while just walking around, checking out the wall, looking for any place a vampire could sneak through. Of course, a determined enough intruder could climb over the wall anywhere, but she thought Jameson might try for a stealthy approach. The biggest weakness she found in the wall was a brick-?lined arch at either end of the property where the creek flowed through. Neither arch was more than three feet high, but Jameson could easily crawl in through them.
It would be next to impossible to guard both arches unless she had some help. She had to make some phone calls.
Caxton took out her cell phone—she didn’t want to antagonize Sister Margot again by using her office phone—and was not surprised to find that she got terrible reception even outside the ex-?convent, just a single bar that flickered in and out. She tramped around the grounds until her shoes were soaked through, hunting a clearer signal. She only found it as she approached the iron gate where she’d left her car. Immediately the phone chirped, telling her she had a message waiting. It was from Clara. “Hey, honey, I hope you’re having a good day. I dropped by your HQ earlier so I could meet with your forensics guys. I missed them, but they left a report for me to read. There were two things in it that sounded important. One was that they couldn’t get a positive ID on the half-?dead, but that they were trying to rebuild its skull so they could build up a computer-?enhanced facial reconstruction. I wouldn’t hold your breath, though—they said it could take a couple days to do the rendering. The other thing was that they were able to match the fibers taken from the motel bathroom window. They found three different kinds of thread: cotton, nylon, and an aromatic polyamide, um, which they said also goes by the trade name of Twaron. I hope that helps.”
Caxton bit her lip. It didn’t help at all, of course. It was just like she’d told Fetlock. Fiber analysis was no use on this case. She called Clara, intending to thank her for her help anyway, but the number went straight to voice mail. She left a short message and hung up, then dialed Fetlock.