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“How many people knew she liked vampires?” It occurred to me that if it was common knowledge that Trixie liked vamps, it would be easy to orchestrate a meeting between her and Bryan.
“Too many. She frequented several chat rooms, but mainly the one called Fang Girl Wannabes.” Marion shook her head. “Trixie was always too open. She never learned that it was dangerous to give too much away. She even used her own name online. But why would they kill her? Was she targeted?”
“We don’t know that yet. But there has to be some connection there, if they were badgering her for information.” I glanced over at Camille. “We’re going to have to dig deep into that damned club.”
Marion found what she was looking for in her desk and tossed it across the desk. “Trixie left this in the break room last week.”
I picked up the matchbook. The cover had a logo of a green flaming wheel with an X in the center of it, against a black background. Across it, in white lettering, it read, The Energy Exchange. I flipped it over and read the address, but I already knew where it was. We’d seen it before.
“Okay. So we’ve got an ancient necromancer, sorcerers, the Koyanni, and this club. And somehow they’re all linked together. I don’t think the vampires as a whole are involved, Bryan not withstanding.” I tossed the matchbook to Camille, who held it in her hands and closed her eyes.
After a moment she opened her eyes and hastily put it down on the table. “Yeah…we’ll have a talk about this in a while. I don’t like the places it’s taking me.” She glanced at me and mouthed Demonkin. Marion was too preoccupied to notice.
“Did she talk about Bryan much?” I figured Menolly could track him down and—if Roman backed her up—they might be able to question him.
“She didn’t say much. As I said, our parents had a fit when they found out. And I knew he was trouble. It’s not that I don’t like vampires…but this guy…he felt predatory—all vampires are, but he felt on the verge, constantly. I worried about her safety.”
Marion pushed back a stray strand of her hair that had escaped the ponytail and let out a deep sigh. “Truth is, Trixie was the rebel of the family. She didn’t fit in. For one thing, she didn’t want children and that was a big issue. The folks wanted her to get married and have a passel of kids. And they wanted her to settle down, to build a life like I have. But she hopped from job to job. She hitchhiked to California a couple years ago to live with the drummer from Dead End Boys—she was a fang hag all the way. But that didn’t work out, so she came back and went to work for me.”>“I suppose we want to look for something that seems out of the ordinary around that time.” I picked up the book as Chase continued to gently question Claudia. As I flipped through, her voice echoed softly through the room. Camille scooted close to me, peering over my shoulder.
I flipped back to a week and a half ago, starting on Monday. Nothing seemed odd there. Nor on Tuesday. But Wednesday there was a meeting penciled in between two and three p.m. The notation read V & J/The Energy Exchange.
“V & J? Van and Jaycee?” The words burst out of my mouth before I could stop them as I jerked my head up, looking at Camille.
Camille blanched, slowly shaking her head. “The Energy Exchange. Fuck. We should have checked that place out before. I knew it was trouble from the first time we saw the sign. And I’ll bet…we suspected they had something to do with it.” She looked up as Claudia leaned forward.
Claudia started. “Yes, that was the place he mentioned. I remember now, he said it was a convention for a group of…vampires? No…not vampires, but…I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
As we gathered our things to leave, taking the appointment book with us, I wondered just what we were facing. We’d suspected Van and Jaycee were involved with the club—but we’d gotten sidetracked after we shut down the Koyanni the first time. We suspected the Energy Exchange of being a hangout for the magical set—namely sorcerers. It wouldn’t surprise me if it also attracted necromancers as well. The two groups weren’t all that different. Which might just point to a connection between the pair and Telazhar.
Thanking Claudia, we exited back to the prowl car. All I could think of was I wanted this over and soon. But a creeping feeling in the back of my neck left me thinking we had a bumpy ride ahead of us.
Chapter 6
Back in the fresh air, which hung heavy with the scents of rain dripping from cedars, we paused by the children, who were playing on the swing set.
“They have no father now,” Camille said, biting her lip. “But at least they knew he loved them.”
I knew she was thinking about our own father. “True…but not all fathers can show their feelings in the right way. They’ll be okay.” I touched her arm lightly. “They have a strong mother. Claudia will continue to run the hotel. She won’t let Exo’s dream die.”
My cell jangled as I slid into the passenger seat. It was a text message from Tim Winthrop. Tim—aka Cleo Blanco, female impersonator turned computer whiz—ran the website for the Supe Community Council. I scanned his text and sighed.
“People have been overwhelming the site with e-mails—wondering what to do now. And a few of the more shallow have been whining about the dance and asking where it’s going to be held now.”
“Callous idiots, worried about a dance after what happened.” Camille leaned forward between the front seats, as far as the bulletproof glass would allow. “Frostling was right. We need to call an emergency meeting—but we’d better not advertise it. Go through the phone trees. We don’t want these freaks setting off a bomb in the main area when there’s a big gathering.”
“I don’t know why they didn’t wait till the actual dance.” I pondered the thought and the more I poked at it, the more it bothered me. “Why not?”
“Why not what?” Chase asked, pulling into the right-turn lane. We were headed to Marion’s café next.
“Why not wait until the dance? Why set off the bomb with only a handful of victims inside? Wait a few weeks and they could have had a lot more casualties. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe, maybe not. If they were going after volume, you’re right. But maybe they were looking to instill fear instead?” Chase pulled into the parking lot to the side of the Supe-Urban Café. “Let’s run with the thought that they weren’t just looking to kill Supes…what else could they want?”
“To stir up unrest?” Camille said.
“Maybe.” I thought about it for a moment. “What about to throw suspicion on somebody else? To start a hate war between the FBHs and the Supes?”
“But there was clear evidence of who created it—wouldn’t they take the trouble to hide the canya if they were trying to bring it on between the FBHs and us?” Camille shook her head. “There has to be more to it than that.”
