Priceless (11 page)

The office was quiet when I stepped in, the creak of the door the only noise.
“
Mary?
”
I called out.
John should have been off his night shift by now, his wife Mary taking over in the early hours of the morning. There was no answer. I tried again.
“
John? Hello, anybody?
”

A shuffle from behind the back door and Alex began to growl. I wrapped my hand through his collar. No need to make matters worse and have Alex making more werewolves.

Another shuffle
,
and
the door opened.
“
Checking out
,
Ry?
Kinda early
,
ain
’
t it?
”
John
wheezed
out.

I blinked.
“
Yeah. You okay
,
John? You look like you
’
ve pulled an all nighter.
”

He blushed.
“
Maybe you of all people would be the one to believe me. I got a funny feeling near the end of my shift last night.
Hairs I got left all stood up on end and I got the feeling like I needed to have all the lights on. Find a shotgun and protect the homestead. Weird
,
huh?
I didn
’
t like what I was feeling
,
so I told Mary to stay in bed and lock the door.
”

His description didn
’
t really surprise me. Humans don
’
t like the feeling those from the veiled world give off, even though
we all
pretty much live side by side.
It seemed Alex was right
;
it had been his pack leader. She was quite the bitch and the amount of power she carried around could make even the strongest heart stutter. She must have
set old John
’
s spidey senses into overdrive. His rheumy eyes looked up at me and then flicked down to the large black dog at my side.

Before he could ask
,
I cut him off.
“
This is my dog, Alex. He followed me here and I didn
’
t have the heart to leave him out in the Jeep. If there
’
s an extra charge or penalty for having him in the room . . .
”
I trailed off at the look John was giving Alex.

“
Never seen a dog quite that big before. Seen a wolf once.
‘
Bout that size.
”
He stared up at me, his mind behind the rheumy eyes far more shrewd than I gave him credit for.

It was my turn to blush.
“
I guess
,
if you say so.
”
I pulled out
two
one-
hundred dollar bill
s
, more than twice what the room was worth for the night
,
and laid
them
on the counter.
“
Will that cover it?
”

John smiled at me.
“
That
’
s fine
,
Ry. You and your
. . .
dog
. . . are always welcome here. He don
’
t bite
,
do he?
”

I shook my head.
“
No, of course not. I
’
d have to have him euthanized if he was to start that sort of thing.
”
My hand tightened on the collar. Alex may be simple, but he wasn
’
t stupid and he was very sensitive to the vibes people threw off.
His tongue lolled and he kept his eyes lowered.

We left the motel, heading
west
on I
-
94,
stopping only for breakfast at
a McDonalds
drive-thru
, mostly
for Alex. I ordered a
coffee, black,
for myself and a breakfast sandwich to ease my hunger pangs. Alex had three
sandwiches
, a stack of hotcakes and
a large hot chocolate
that he lapped up eagerly. There were still some very human things about him, despite his
less-than-
human exterior.

“
Ready for a road trip
,
buddy?
”
M
y hands already on the wheel, my fingers licked clean of the fast food grease.

“
Road trip!
”
Alex howled out the window
,
which set the dogs in the area into a frenzy.

“
Back in the Jeep
,
”
I said as I leaned over and rolled the window up. He slumped in his seat and gave me his best hound dog eyes.

I let out a sigh.
“
At least wait till we get on the interstate. Then you can howl out the window all you like. Al
l
right?
”

His eyes lit up and his tongue lolled out
past his wicked sharp teeth
. I laughed at him and hit the gas as I drove up the on ramp. At least this trip would be anything but boring.

If only I knew how true that would turn out to be.

11

It was his day off
.
H
e should have been
r
elaxing
at home, not rehashing a case
, but he couldn
’
t settle himself down. For some reason, Adamson
’
s digs still stung. It didn
’
t help that
he
knew
she was out there hunting for India. Picking up a sheaf of papers he had on his retro
black-and-
white kitchen table
,
he flipped through the pictures.

India, the missing girl, showed a distinct resemblance to a young Adamson. He put the two pictures side by side
; al
though Adamson was in her teens when he
r
picture was taken, they
looked close enough to be sisters, and
that
was
a little spooky. Both of them had auburn hair that fell in waves, and there was a
softness to
both sets of
eyes that got under his skin
, made him feel like a big bastard
.

With a sudden jerk, he threw the papers back on the table and let out a sharp gust of air. He never had trouble controlling his temper,
but
something about Adamson set him off
,
and she revelled in poking at him. Like it had become an Olympic Sport for her.

He fingered the tracking device he
’
d brought home with him, thinking maybe he
’
d
drive out past her place, but the thing had flicked off like it was wont to do. No amount of changing batteries, updating software
,
or switching out parts made a difference. He
’
d learned it would come back on line when it felt damn good and ready
,
and not a bloody second before.

Reaching into the fridge
,
he pulled out a beer, paused and then put it back. Just in case he got a hit on the tracker.

Sitting back at the table, he spread the file out, flipping through it a page at a time. The similarities
in
the cases Adamson managed to pull out of her hat on her own were more than a little suspicious. The kids would go missing without a trace, local law enforcement could do nothing, somehow the parents would track Adamson down
,
and they would pay her to find the kids. A
nd on a
ll the cases she
’
d been brought in on
,
she
’
d found the kids, though not always alive.

And there was the rub. She had a better rate of
success than any FBI agent, tha
n the whole freaking agency! He slammed a fist
o
nto the table and the tracking device lit up, blinking softly.

Grabbing it, he smiled. She was heading south. This wasn
’
t the first time and the pattern was too obvious; someone in New Mexico was helping her, and it was time O
’
Shea met up with them both and had a chat with them.

Grabbing his jacket and keys, he jogged out to his vehicle
. The
wind
was
picking up and
it whistled
through the alley alongside his house.
With a couple of days off in a row, i
t was a good
time for a road trip
, and this way no one would be the wiser to his deviation from procedure.

*-*-*-*

The drive to New Mexico was uneventful. I sped like crazy, trying to catch time I didn
’
t have in the first place. I could feel India, feel her fear and confusion and
,
worse than that, her strength slipping away from her. Not like she was dying, but that her willpower was slowly being eaten away. Whoever had her was making a push to get her under their control.
I couldn
’
t
help
but wonder if
that
was
what happened to Berget
.
The two cases were too damn similar for my liking. The park, the time of day, the damn date
—
even down to the swing India had been on.
The only difference I could see was Berget
wasn
’
t a spirit seeker, which
was what
I thought India was. My hands
were wet
on the steering wheel
from my sweat,
as I continued to roll the two cases over in my mind.
My lower
back
felt
clammy,
and
I fear
ed
the worst. That this case would end the same
way
Berget
’
s had
—
in a death
where I couldn
’
t even bring the body back to her parents for closure
.

I shook th
e
thought away
. No
, I wouldn
’
t go there.
Guilt rolled over me. I
’
d been so young, both in age and ability
,
that when Berget had been snatched, I didn
’
t know what I was doing.
Still, I felt like it was my fault she was snatched, that I was somehow responsible for her going missing. It wasn
’
t hard for the detectives on the case to decide I was guilty, not when I tended to agree with them.

“
This time will be different
,
”
I said, startling Alex out of a light doze. He cocked his head at me, then closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

After what was etched into my bathroom mirror, I knew they
, whoever they were,
knew I was coming for her
. They also knew all about Berget, so I had to be ready to face whatever they would throw my way. None of this was making me feel better, not one bit.

Going as fast as I dared
, only taking a short four hour nap when I could no longer keep my eyes open
, I cut our driving time by an hour and a half, getting us into Roswell by
four t
hirty
in morning the next day
.
Or at least into the
n
orth
side of the town
.

Despite the town
’
s reputation for UFO
’
s
because of that one singular crash
,
there was actually very little supernatural activity in the area
—u
nlike North Dakota
, which
had
more than its fair share of the weird and the wild. There was only one place I would stay while in Roswell, and it was run by a very large ogre who wore a ring similar in make
to
Alex
’
s collar. In other words, he passed for human.