Skye's Trail by Jory Strong

posed and made up to look all-American. She had short black hair and was slightly overweight. Pretty in a normal way. She wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. Skye doubted that Amy looked like this at Fangs. “Is this a current picture?”
     
    “It was taken a year ago,” Skip answered. He grimaced in distaste. “The last time I encountered my sister she was dressed in black and looked like a corpse.”
     
    Martin said, “Skye, what the senator is having a hard time telling you is that before his sister’s supposed death, she became very interested in the occult. Through private investigators we were able to determine that she’d attended several black magic ceremonies and over the last couple of years has become obsessed with the notion of becoming a vampire. Obviously the family’s first concern is to get their daughter into a facility where she can be treated and hopefully cured—again, if she is in fact alive. In addition, getting help for Amy needs to be done with haste and complete secrecy. And I can’t stress this need for secrecy strongly enough. The senator’s father is a devout man and his followers are very conservative values-oriented people.”
     
    “Why do you think Amy might be alive?”
     
    The senator answered, “Several friends of mine have contacted me in the last month swearing that they saw a girl resembling Amy in Las Vegas. One of them said Amy responded when he called her name, but he couldn’t find her when he followed her into a club.”
     
    “What club was it?”
     
    “A place called Bangers.”
     
    “I’ve never heard of it.”
     
    “It’s a strip club.”
     
    Skye had been in her share of them. In one form or another, runaway kids usually ended up in the sex trade.
     
    “Where else was she seen?”
     
    “The other times were both here on the main drag. Nowhere in particular.”
     
    “Now tell me why you think she’s dead.”
     
    Martin answered, “Six weeks ago Amy flew to Las Vegas. She arrived on a Thursday night. The following Sunday she supposedly died in a car fire. There was one eyewitness, the driver of the truck she ran into. His description of the person driving her car matched Amy, but the fire burned so intensely that police weren’t able to retrieve any identifiable body parts. Everyone assumed she had died in the fire.”
     
    “What happened to her money?”
     
    Both the senator and his aide stiffened. Martin opened his mouth to say something, a slight movement of Skip’s hand halted him.
     
    “I assume you mean Amy’s inheritance.”
     
    Skye was watching them as closely as they were watching her. She weighed her options, decided to give them something. “I contacted you because a friend of Amy’s has been missing for about two months. While they were together in Vegas, Amy was paying for everything and making it known that she didn’t care if she wiped out her checking account. If she’s alive then she’s probably going to need money soon.”
     
    The senator’s jaw twitched. “A good point. Unfortunately, Amy turned nineteen the Wednesday before she came to Vegas. She appeared at the bank near closing time on Thursday and had them wire the funds to a casino here. The casino has cashed out the account.”
     
    “How much money?”
     
    “Five hundred thousand dollars.”
     
    “And there’s no trace of it.”
     
    “None.”
     
    “How often did Amy come to Vegas?”
     
    Skip shook his head. “I don’t have any idea. Her mother maintains a separate house in Los Angeles and only travels to Washington or New York when politics make it necessary. My stepmother and I aren’t close. In my opinion, she has always been overprotective of Amy and bears some responsibility for Amy’s interest in the occult.
     
    “My father hired a private investigator to try and reconstruct Amy’s movements from the time she took the money until the time of her death. Unfortunately the detective came up with absolutely nothing and did not get any