Marshall’s office windows were dark when we got there. We stood on the sidewalk. I peeked around a post office box while Dudley followed me and frowned at the black building.

“Do you have a key?” 

He frowned. “No, but I half expected him to be here.”

“What are you two doing?” a voice rang behind us.

It was Marshall. He stood in the middle of the sidewalk, dressed in his gray suit with his gut hanging over his belt.

I didn’t know what to say. My tongue was tied in more knots than a ball of yarn the cat had been playing with.

Dudley salvaged the situation by doing the talking. “We want to discuss a case you’ve been working on,” he said smoothly.

Inwardly, I chuckled.  I thought Dudley didn’t talk. 

Luckily, Marshall looked interested. “Oh?”

***

In Marshall’s office, I found the file on London and got a closer look at it. Dudley explained the situation while I read furiously. It was just as I remembered, except that the file had been updated since I last saw it.

I stared in disbelief at the messy scrawl in front of me. “So, you already contacted this vampire—Roan—with London’s whereabouts three days before my job interview here?”

Marshall nodded and rubbed his chin. “It’s too bad. Sweeper, you should have come to me about your sister when you saw the file. I don’t know what I could have done, but—”

“Do you think he’ll go after her?” Dudley asked, cutting him off.

“Probably,” Marshall said unhelpfully. “It’s hard to imagine why he would have made the request if that wasn’t his plan.”

“And you didn’t get any information on any of the humans who made contact with London?” I asked impatiently.

“No. That didn’t matter to me. I was just doing my job—limited as it was.”

Dudley shook his head disapprovingly and muttered something crossly under his breath.

“I understand,” I said sympathetically. I couldn’t say that I would have done more work than I was paid to do in his place, either. I put it out of my mind, pulled out a pen, and copied the contact information for the vampire, Roan. There was only one thing to do. I’d have to hunt him down and see what he knew about London.

“Sorry, I can’t be more helpful,” Marshall said, speaking more to the disgruntled Dudley than to me.

 Dudley scratched the back of his head as I finished writing the address.

“Thanks, Marshall,” I said as I got up. “Just to let you know, I might not come to work tomorrow.”

I didn’t stay to watch Marshall’s eyebrows or the rest of his reaction. I left the office. I needed to get to Roan’s house on the edge of the city. The address was part of a village the growing city had swallowed up.

As I marched out, I thought about the things I needed to take if I was going to confront a vampire. I didn’t have a car, so I needed to arrange for transportation. Maybe a taxi was the best I could do. My vampire slaying license was in my pocket. Weapons? I didn’t have anything with me other than the standard pepper spray. The only gun I had was at home and I only had four bullets. So it was probably a waste of time to go home. I would have to go shopping.

Dudley followed me out of the building and grabbed my arm. “You’re not thinking of going to talk to that vampire, are you?”

“It’s the only lead.”

“Try calling London again.”

I steadied my hands and tried her number, but it just rang and rang. No one answered.

“See?” I said, tossing my mobile at him. “What else am I supposed to do?”

He caught it in one hand. “I’ll go with you.”

“Got a gun?” I fumed, marching away from him.

“I got fifty.”

I did a double-take. “What?”

Dudley smiled while I stared.

Vampire hunters masquerading as private detectives; why didn’t I have them in my life before?

***

As it turned out, Dudley and I stood outside Roan’s mansion by two o’clock in the morning. I was exhausted and my nerves were strung as tight as bowstrings. The cab pulled away from the curb. Now there was no way out.

I looked over at Dudley. He looked just the same as he did when I met him in Marshall’s office the first time—silent and serious. That must be what his mask looked like. His thoughts weren’t the only things he was hiding. Of course, you couldn’t tell by looking at him, but he had three guns and two retractable knives that extended as long as katanas.

Me? I was carrying less. His swords were too heavy for me, so I wore a knife and two guns; one in the back of my pants and one in my boot.

Lights cast inverted shadows on the front yard grass as we headed up the steps toward the house. Maybe we would be able to see something through one of the windows—especially the basement ones.

After we’d gone around the house twice, Dudley whispered, “It looks clean and it is very quiet. The house is probably empty. Unless Roan is on the second or third floor.”

“Should we just ring the doorbell then?” I said, trying to be funny.

“No,” Dudley smirked. “We should check the garden shed.”

“Why?”

“There’s a light on. It’s dim, but there. Can you see it?”

I nodded.

The shed he was referring to looked like a former garage, abandoned when the owner built a four-car garage onto the main structure of the house. 

Dudley and I crept up to the shed and looked in the window. It was dusty, but through the grime, I could see the white outline of a square on the floor. Light shone around the edges of a trap door.

I tugged at Dudley’s sleeve. “Do you see that?”

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he tried opening the window.

“Do you think we need to break in?” I whispered. “Maybe we should go to the house and ask for the vamp himself?”

Dudley’s face finally showed some emotion and he looked pained. “I’m sorry, Sweeper. I think this situation is much more serious than you realize. I’m worried about London. Do you think vampires who are made the natural way care about each other? They don’t. Vampires only care about each other when they are vampires made with the same blood.” He breathed deeply and then looked me gravely in the eye before he continued, “Roan and Schroder probably had a pact and slew their vampire host together and now Schroder is dead, his partner in crime is looking to repeat the crime with London as the victim. It wouldn’t surprise me if London went prowling for a mate, didn’t find one (she has got to be the most backward vampire in the world), Marshall told Roan her whereabouts, he found her looking for a mate and supplied her with a human he prepared. Actually, it’s quite possible he has more than one human he wants to transform into a vampire. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t know for certain, but London might be here, so we need to be careful and snoop before we barge into the house.”

After giving me one last look—I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be encouraging or comforting—Dudley started to pry the window open.

Now he had my attention, he wasn’t moving nearly fast enough. I almost pushed him aside to jam the thing open myself. My panic was turning into frenzy.

Finally, Dudley got the window open and I held it up with one hand while he helped me through. Once I was inside, I turned to pull him in. Within seconds we were both standing on unholy ground beside shelves of seeds and fertilizer.

I felt impatient as long as we were still outside. Now I felt like an intruder.

We crept along the old garage wall until we came to the trap door. There was a carpet rolled up beside the entrance. It looked like it was normally used to keep the trap door hidden. Someone must be down there.

Dudley seemed to think this was another bad sign and drew his gun, cocked it, and slid it back up his sleeve. “Everyone is down there,” he whispered. “That’s why there’s no one to cover the door after them. You should stay up here.”

“No. I’ll cover you,” I said, getting the gun out of my boot.

Dudley carefully lifted the trap door and, after peering through the gap, threw it open.