To Catch a Vampire by Jennifer Harlow Page A

meets Tully’s eyes again, but this time the agent’s expression changes. A familiar vacant face with dull eyes and slack jaw surfaces. “Leave now,” Oliver says in a soft voice. Like a good mind slave, Tully walks out, shutting the door behind himself.
    “Was that really necessary?” I ask.
    “I did not like him.”
    “You just met him.”
    “He was … crude.”
    “Says the man who dressed me in bondage gear,” I say, taking the first file.
    Victimology time.
    Let’s begin at the beginning with Suzie Harriet Thal, age thirty-one. Occupation: bartender at Club Pain which caters to the S&M crowd. I can just imagine what her uniform looked like; we could probably be twins. She’d only been working there two weeks, hadn’t made any friends, nobody knew much about her. According to the file, she was originally from New York. A child of the foster system who left when she was seventeen and got married. Divorced a year later. She alternated between waitress, stripper, and bartender all over the country. Married and divorced a second time and had a child. No contact with either for over a year. Ex is remarried and has an alibi as well as full custody.
    Suzie often went home with a man from the bar, and the night she disappeared was no different. One waitress saw a twenty-
something man, tall with brown hair, helping Suzie into her car. It was dark, so the waitress didn’t get a good look at the man. No sign of life since. She was skinny, tall, with long dark-brown hair. She reminds me a lot of my mom.
    Next, Kathryn “Kate” Michelle Bending, age eighteen, student at Grapevine High School in Grapevine, victim number two. Good student, long-distance runner on the varsity track team, well liked. Both parents are doctors, no signs of abuse, and no priors on either. Kate didn’t have a boyfriend, ex or otherwise, so no viable suspects. Kate and her friends Amanda and Petra used their fake IDs to get into the Glass Cactus, a local nightspot. They danced and drank, but that’s all the girls remembered. Amanda and Petra woke up the next day covered in bruises with no idea what happened or how they got home. Kate wasn’t as lucky.
    The working theory is the girls were drugged, and then horrible, despicable things were done to them, but they managed to get away. The girls were interviewed three times by the police, who got nowhere. The only evidence of foul play were the multiple bruises on their thighs and necks. No sign of Kate since. A waitress and bartender saw the girls bumping and grinding with a couple they had never seen before. They couldn’t give a description except for good-looking and the girl had bright blonde hair. Why they let the other two go, I don’t know. We’ll have to ask the creeps before we take them in.
    Victim number three is Officer Antoine Baker, age forty-one. He lived and worked in Forth Worth as a police officer. Fifteen years on the force, a few commendations, one citation for excessive force two years ago. Married ten years, two children, avid motorcycle enthusiast. Also avid horn dog. Per his partner, Shane Nashaw, Antoine had a new girlfriend every month. The wife, Lashandra, should be the prime suspect, but she had an airtight alibi. She was away in Houston singing with her church choir. Doesn’t get much better than that.
    The night he disappeared, Antoine and flavor-of-the-month Rochelle went to the Red Goose Saloon for drinks. Rochelle left when Antoine started flirting with a woman Rochelle can’t remember a thing about. The police think she’s lying, but the bartender remembers Rochelle leaving with her roommate. They were together for the rest of the night. Two bar patrons remember Antoine making out with a “Naomi Campbell lookalike,” and leaving with her and some friends. The sketch is close to the one provided by a witness of the couple’s later disappearance. No sign of the victim since. The entire force was out looking for “Naomi” and her posse to no avail. The