Laura was nowhere near as proficient with research as Derek. She excelled in other areas, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out where Natalie Martin lived. People could be very stupid with social media. She parked the van down the street from the residence.
It was only 7am; she hoped the reporter hadn't already gone to work. Laura did a double check of her supplies in case she ran into trouble. She had two pistols, both loaded with aconite shells. She applied a wolfsbane oil extract over the skin of her hands and neck. If one of them tried to grab or bite her at least they'd suffer for it. Laura prided herself on having found so many ways to weaponize the plant.
For good measure she bound her long hair up, piling it atop her head and securing it with pins, no reason to provide an extra target for someone to grab onto. She tucked one of the flowers into her hair behind her ear, because blue was her favorite color, and because she liked to broadcast how much she knew.
Derek thought the idea was silly, he asked her if she planned on trying to trick one into going on a date. She laughed at the time but now she was starting to wonder about that comment. He was getting awfully friendly with a creature he'd just met.
Laura grabbed the fake detective identification out of her glove compartment. She wasn't dressed to be a cop or agent; private investigator would have to do. She glanced at it to remind herself of the name it had been created using.
She got out and went around the back of the van to grab a couple of the aerosol bombs from her duffel. They were her crowning achievement. She hadn't gotten to use one in combat yet, but she'd planted one at the hotel. She tucked them into her jacket, made sure all her clothing was tight and nothing made an easy handhold.
Laura did not like to take risks. Werewolves were dangerous if they got close. She specialized in keeping them away. She'd considered carrying mountain ash with her to use as a barrier, however that would just delay the inevitable. It's not like a circle would prevent one from throwing a brick into her face.
She walked quickly up the street, went up the driveway to the house and rang the doorbell. A few moments later a pretty young woman opened the door. The girl looked like a librarian, the kind of librarian men had fantasies about. She had strawberry blonde hair in a tight braid coiled against the back of her head and thin framed glasses. She wasn't wearing any makeup that Laura could see. She was dressed in a simple charcoal dress with a short black jacket.
"May I help you?" the girl asked.
Laura smiled; the young woman was utterly polite. "Good morning, is your mother home? I've got a couple of questions I'd like to ask her." She pulled her identification out and flashed it towards the teenager in the doorway. "I'm an investigator, my name is Janis Franklin."
The girl's eyes darted for a moment to the blue flower in Laura's hair and then locked back onto her eyes. "My mother's not here," the girl said, "you don't look like an investigator."
"Have you met many investigators?"
"My mother is a reporter. Yes. I've met many investigators." The girl's tone was completely polite, but her eyes were calculating and bold. Laura liked her already.
"Do the boys at your school like the whole sexy librarian thing?" Laura asked. She hoped to throw the girl off balance.
"I don't know but it drives my girlfriend wild." A mischievous smile played across the girl's face for half a moment. "Have you seen Jurassic Park?"
The combination of statements left Laura a little off balance. That wasn't how it was supposed to work. She wasn't sure what the question had to do with anything. She shook her head to see where the little librarian was going with it.
"The scariest part of that movie to me is when the hunter realizes that the other velociraptors were a distraction, just a ruse for the older female one to catch the hunter in a trap." The girl's eyes flicked past Laura for a moment, swept from side to side. "It was terrifying that the hunter, someone who'd been trained to deal with them, wasn't sure how many there were and where they were." The girl looked Laura dead in the eyes, her outer shell cracked for a moment. Laura could see real fear down in the depths.
"I don't remember that part, I just remember that the people outsmarted the dinosaurs," Laura said. She was shaken by the hidden meaning of the girl's words. How did she know so much? Was she really implying that Laura was in danger?
"They didn't outsmart the dinosaurs, Janis. They fled. I have to get ready for school. My mother's a very busy woman and unless you have something… official, she probably wouldn't speak with you anyway." The girl closed the door in Laura's face.
A chill ran down Laura's spine. She calmly walked back to the van. Was the girl's banter a warning? She wondered how much the young woman knew about what was going on in the town. The hunter didn't know how many dinosaurs there were? Was that the key?
She started the van and began to drive. Laura checked all the mirrors and it wasn't long before she realized she was being followed by a white Prius. She laughed to herself. At least her stalkers were going green. The great thing about most werewolves was that they relied so much on their natural abilities, their overconfidence left them vulnerable. She wondered if the people in the car were werewolves or flunkies.
Laura couldn't take any chances. She didn't want to hurt any regular people. She also didn't want to jump to the wrong conclusions because of mini-librarian's warning. She took a winding path away from the house. It wasn't long before a pickup truck and a Ford Focus started following her as well.
That was one of the things that sucked about werewolves. They traveled in packs. If she was lucky there would only be three, one in each car. She pulled out her cell phone and resent a saved text message. A minute later she read Derek's reply. She clicked on the address in the message. She smiled as the female artificial voice issued from the speakers telling her to take a right in half a mile.
Realistically, based on the vehicles pursing her, there were at least three werewolves. That was very likely to be a huge chunk of the pack. If there were more than that in the three vehicles, they might end this conflict before it even started. She sang to herself, "C'mon baby, let the good times roll. C'mon baby, let me thrill your soul." She loved Janis Joplin, she loved hunting werewolves with her brother, the day was starting to look up.