Finally, they were done with all the questions.
It felt like they'd been in that dusty study forever. A procession of boring couple after boring couple. She might have grudgingly admitted her interest in rescuing the missing kids, but that interest didn't extend to hearing their parents talk about probably the dullest subject they could broach, themselves.
Hardly any of what the parents had told them appeared useful to her. Laura's soft and gentle approach to her questions resulting a mountain of meaningless chaff to sort through. She could summarise what few important parts there were in no time at all.
The Meyers kid had been bullied because they were poor. The kid got himself kidnapped because he'd rather bike home than be picked up by a car, because they were poor. The parents then couldn't get any help to find their kid, because they were poor. There, done.
The irritatingly loud Turner's were weirdo extroverts who liked to spend time in swamps. Their kid turned out to be the same. The last family trip to a literal garbage dump of nature they took turned bad. Either they didn't see anything and were useless, or they were too scared to say what they saw and were useless.
Lastly, the Bishops and Carmilla conceded they had been the most useful. Abigail Bishop's home would be a good place to check out. Maybe she'd hidden what she and Lexi had learned about their future kidnappers somewhere in there. With that in mind, a key and an invitation were probably the most fruitful thing they'd gotten out of this whole ordeal.
The last thing Mrs Bishop had said, about the school being already back up and running was also interesting. Usually, even Silas would have a brief stoppage if half a dozen people got decapitated on its grounds. How had they managed to cover it up so easily?
And that was that, a long boring session of listening to dullards to gain so very little.
To think, if soccer mum hadn't invited them to this trap of a meeting she would still be in that hotel room with Laura. Probably in bed or back in the spa. It didn't really matter. She'd take being alone with Laura in one of those swamps the Turners liked so much over being here.
Her mood was sour one then by the time the Bishops filed out of the room. But she knew a pretty easy way to fix that. When Laura got up from her chair to follow them, she held her back by reaching out and lightly touching her arm. As Laura turned to her, she slid off the desk and brought them into a close embrace. She guided Laura back against the wall, using a spare hand to shut the study door on the way.
She took a moment to savour breathing the same air Laura was and then spoke.
"Kinda needed to do this. Was a getting a little jealous, I have to admit, with you paying all your attention to those people as I sat ignored in the dark corner."
Laura giggled. Quietly, so that it wouldn't carry out of the room.
"You love dark corners. You actively seek them out. If you could, you'd make our home out nothing but dark corners," she cupped her hands around Carmilla's face and kissed her sweetly. "I really appreciate you being here and helping. So much. I know this is probably boring as hell for you."
Boring? No, never. On second thought, she was perfectly okay with listening to those parents drone on for hours. That this sudden realisation occurred to her as Laura kissed her and looked at her with eyes brimming with affection must have just been a coincidence, she was sure.
"It was fine," she lied. "I'd say we've gotten everything we can now though. I can't imagine these people have anything useful left to say. We have all this new information now. We absolutely should spend some time going over it."
Laura raised her eyebrows. "Mm-hmm?"
"Yeah, I think that would be an important thing to do. Work out what we've really learned today. Obviously, it would be best to do this somewhere quiet, somewhere private, somewhere we can be alone."
"Oh, of course," Laura broke into a grin. "That makes sense. Somewhere we can focus you mean."
"Exactly, we wouldn't want any distractions."
"Distractions would be bad," Laura breathed her agreement.
The door knocked twice and then opened without any further warning. Kellan bustled in, holding up an apologetic hand.
"I'm sorry. I know, I know I was told to leave you alone, but I can't wait any longer, I have to explain to you how sorry I am about-"
She stopped in mid-sentence, noticing how close they both were
"Oh, wow. I can't do anything right today, can I?"
They broke apart, the moment over. Desperate mother searching for her child or not, it was becoming really hard for her not to dislike this woman.
"It's fine," Laura said. "We were on our way back anyway."
Kellan nodded politely, before launching back into the apologising she'd begun while bursting into the room.
"I am so sorry to both of you," she said, her eyes entirely on Laura. "I didn't think it through, and I should have known they would swamp you like they did. I cannot apologise more. It wasn't my intention to ambush you. You must believe that."
Carmilla held back a snort. Must we?
Kellan continued on. "You have to understand, before you took the case I was in such a bad way. I was losing my mind I think. But once you decided to help I've felt so much better, it's been something to hold on to. Knowing that people were trying to find my daughter. I wanted that for the other parents, I thought they deserved to know someone is fighting for their kids as well."
It made sense. Carmilla still didn't like it, but it made sense. Strangely, that rankled, as if she was disappointed at having one less solid reason to dislike her.
"It's okay. I get it," Laura said. "Maybe tell us what we're walking into next time though, yeah?"
"Of course," Kellan nodded. "It's dumb, but I honestly thought it would be a nice surprise. Motivating even."
The idea that Laura needed motivation to save children was ludicrous, and the idea of being trapped in a room with strangers would motivate herself, similarly so.
"Now that you're here," Laura said. "I did actually have a question for you as well. I don't know if it's relevant, but it is something that's been nagging me."
"Sure, ask away."
Laura hesitated, biting her lip as her eyes darted side to side. Carmilla recognised the action as Laura trying to broach a potentially difficult subject.
"Well," she started. "It's just, while we were at the school. Both times that is. We saw a fair bit of it and, a lot of it was… well-"
"The school you work at and send your daughter to is a shithole, and she's wondering why someone rich enough to live in this expensive house wouldn't go to a better one," Carmilla said, getting to the point. She had no desire to waste time trying to be polite. If Kellan chose to be offended, fine.
Both Laura and Kellan winced at her words. The grimace that appeared on Kellan's face seemed light hearted though, and an accepting nod said to Carmilla that she'd expected this question.
"I suppose it's not winning school of the year anytime soon. It's not as bad as it looks on the surface though."
"It was one of the most starkly uncomfortable places I've ever been to. And I've been to a parallel universe where I died, and everyone was miserable," Laura said, her tone gentle but insistent. "I can understand the other family's reasons. But why you? Why not go to a nicer school?"
"First of all, the house is deceptive. I struggle to keep up with the payments now that… I'm alone with them," she swallowed hard, and a flash of pain flicked across her face before she continued. "But, regardless I did talk to Lexi about moving schools once, but she begged me not to."
"Why?" Laura asked.
"She didn't want to leave her friends. Abigail in particular. They really bonded those two. Lexi was always going over to the Bishop's house. She spent almost as much time there as she did here. I suppose I should have known she'd go after Abigail herself. She wouldn't abandon her to go to a nicer school, and she'd never abandon her to these monsters that have taken them both."
Laura reached a comforting hand to Kellan's shoulder.
"Thank you. I get it. And just like your daughter couldn't abandon her friends. We're not abandoning her. This has all been really helpful, I wish you'd given us a heads up, but I think this ended up being a good thing in the end."
The smile Laura gave Kellan communicated nothing but kindness. Not for the first time, Carmilla marvelled at Laura's willingness to help those who had wronged her. Now it was Kellan, in the past people like Bolade Okoye, who had betrayed her or Inanna, who had tried to bring about a literal apocalypse.
Or Carmilla herself, the vampire who had planned to hand her over to Mother gift wrapped for sacrifice. Probably shouldn't forget that one either.
They followed Kellan back to the living room and said their goodbyes. The demeanour of the group had changed dramatically from when they'd arrived. She wouldn't call it jovial but at least calmer. She even saw a few tired smiles on a few of the faces. Perhaps Laura had been right in saying they had done some good coming here.
After going through a gauntlet of hugs and handshakes, they made it outside. But before they could reach the motorbike, a car came to a stop in front of the house, fitting neatly between the larger sedans.
The car's black door opened to reveal Detective Beattie, wearing the same loose yet professional outfit and cowboy hat. She fixed them with smile Carmilla couldn't quite read when she saw them.
"How about that, the very people I was looking to find."
"Detective Beattie," Laura said, a greeting and a question at the same time.
"Interesting morning I've had," Beattie said as she walked towards them, a yellow folder in hand. They met around the middle of the front garden. "Let me tell you about it. It's an engaging story."
Carmilla didn't like the tone or the detective's demeanour. Not quite hostile but far from friendly. Laura spoke up next to her.
"Well, actually detective, we're sorry, but we really are quite bu-"
"So first thing that happens," Beattie said, ignoring Laura. "Real early in the morning. Before I could have my coffee, so I'm already in a bad mood, some guys from IDSS, this security company Salvations is employing show up with some teenagers. They tell me they were throwing firecrackers on school property," she shrugged. "That's not surprising. Kids do stupid shit like that all the time. And the extra security doesn't deter these kinds of kids at all, just makes it more exciting."
Carmilla hadn't noticed it before back in the police station, but Beattie gesticulated with her hands a lot as she talked. Big expressive movements. Or maybe she only did them in situations like this.
"So like a few times before, they bring 'em in, and I read them the riot act, no big deal. Except this time, boy do I get a story outta these kids. According to them, as IDSS escorted them out they heard shouting and screams and gunfire! 'Not firecrackers ma'am gunshots', they were adamant about that."
She tensed up at Beattie's words, feeling pretty confident in the general direction her story was going.
"I dunno how kids would know exactly what gunfire sounds like, too many video games probably, but I decided it was worth following up on. So I come to the school and ask around. Everything seems fine, 'no problems at all, never felt safer' they say. When I want to look around more closely though, they get hyper defensive, and I get the warrant question."
"That must have been really frustrating," Laura ventured. Probably trying to regain the rapport they seemed to have by the time they'd left Beattie's office.
"Yeah, yeah it was," Beattie said with bobbing nod. "Now, because we're all detectives here," she lingered on that for a moment, letting the statement become a question. "I don't have to tell you how important hunches and little gut feelings are for us. So put yourself in my shoes. Four kids go missing from the same school. Then a mother grabs a couple of people claiming to be PI's to help. The night after they arrive, kids are telling me about hearing gunfire and screams at the school."
So you decided to check us out.
"So I thought I'd check up on you, see how you're doing at that nice hotel that according to the receptionist you staggered into for the first time, oh this is one of the interesting parts of this story, very late last night."
Laura swallowed next to her, deception not really her forte. She on the other hand.
"First time in Savannah, thought we'd find all the best bars as soon as we could. Took a while."
Beattie met her sarcastic smile with one of her own. She didn't comment on Carmilla's lie. She didn't need to.
"You were already gone by the time I got to your suite. So, I had a little think about where you might be," she gestured around her. "Whole party we got here it seems. Hey, isn't that the Turner's car over there? And I was so sure that was the new one the Bishops bought recently."
Beattie waited to see if they had anything to respond to that. When they didn't, she pulled a piece of paper from the folder.
"Decided to do a little digging. You both seemed strangely familiar. Florence right? The Uffizi thing," she flipped the paper over, revealing a photo of Carmilla carrying Laura to an ambulance in front of the burning Uffizi Gallery. "You two get around, don't you? Starting to wonder whether I should have let out of that prison cell after all."
This was turning into quite the show for anyone looking out of Kellan's front window. Hopefully, the sound of the conversation couldn't travel far enough for all the parents to hear.
"That has nothing to do this," Laura said. "Look, I can get that this all looks kinda bad. But I promise you, we are trying to help."
Beattie rubbed her hand over her mouth in thought. "Maybe I still believe you. Maybe you are trying to help. Okay, let's go with that. Then you have to work with me here, tell me what you know. What happened last night at the school? What are all the parents of the missing kids doing here today?"
"Are you back on the case now?" Carmilla asked.
"Are you actually private detectives?" Beattie shot back. She looked to Laura and took a step forwards, her eyes imploring. "Listen, if you want to find these kids, then we're on the same side here. Tell me what's going on, and I can help."
"I'm sorry," Laura said, shaking her head. "We can't. You wouldn't believe us anyway."
"We're leaving," Carmilla said. "Unless you're arresting us?"
Beattie's face darkened. She said nothing for a long moment, as if weighing her options up. Carmilla watched her closely. Vaguely worried Beattie would escalate things from just words. But then she spoke.
"Fine, leave. But this isn't over."
As they drove away, Carmilla looked back to see Beattie leaning against her car. Arms folded pensively.
Whether it turned out to be helpful or not, Carmilla was sure they hadn't seen the last of her.
Conversing while riding a bike could be rather difficult, so Carmilla didn't take them far. She found a quiet spot a few turns away from Kellan's house. A small block of local shops with a few parking spots in the middle. Hopefully, Detective Beattie didn't travel this way once she left Kellan's house as well, or things might get a little awkward.
"If someone told me a year or two ago I'd have this much trouble with the police, I'd never have believed them," Laura said as she took off her helmet. "I thought I was going to be arrested again for a minute there."
"Nah, she's got nothing. What would she arrest us for? According to the school there hasn't even been a crime."
They leaned back against the bike together as they talked. Watching cars go by across the road before them.
"I don't think we have any time to waste. I've got what the parents said to us typed down, we can go through it later. The Bishops gave us a key. I say we use it and go take a look at their home. Lexi didn't have anything hidden in her house, but maybe Abigail left something in hers. Let's see how much we can find out before things get worse."
"Worse as in attacked by more monsters or accosted by more parents and police detectives?" Carmilla asked, her words full of wry humour.
"Oh, both, probably."
"We know where the Bishop's house is?"
"Yeah, the address is on the police reports in the compartment thingy, I'll go grab," she trailed off, not finishing her sentence.
"Hey," Carmilla reached out a hand. "You okay?"
Laura looked around her before responding. "I just realised I have no idea where I am."
"It's fine, I know the way back. We're not lost. Plus we have your phone and your tablet," Carmilla said, thinking to reassure her.
But she'd misunderstood what Laura meant by her words.
"I mean, I don't know where we are," Laura said. "I don't know this place, and neither do you. In Florence, things went so fast it didn't have time to sink in and besides, you'd been there before, so I could follow your lead. Here though," she shook her head. "At least at Silas, at the end of every night I had my own bed and as crazy as it sounds, despite how apocalyptically evil it was, it was still a school. And schools I knew," she sighed. "I think it's hitting me that we're all alone here. There is no one here to help us if things go bad."
She dropped her head down and rubbed her eyes for a moment. When she brought her head back up, she looked tired.
Brave hero that had stood up to monsters. Determined fighter who had never given up no matter the odds. Woman who had saved the world.
Young girl, missing her home.
Carmilla put an arm around her and pulled her close.
"I'll be honest. I'm missing our cottage too. Hell, your dad's house even. But mostly the cottage."
Laura snorted next to her.
"I miss that nice hill we go to watch the stars on," Carmilla continued. "That little lake that's so peaceful at night."
"Our couch, I love our couch. How many movies have we watched together now on it?"
"How many dumb movies you mean."
"If by dumb, you mean masterpieces of cinema, then sure."
Carmilla laughed, conceding the old argument temporarily.
"The kitchen we've almost burned down at least four times."
"The shower we always seem to need at exactly the same moment."
"Our bed," Carmilla nodded at the word. "Most of all I miss our bed."
"Agreed," Laura then hummed in further agreement. "Nothing but very good times in that."
They sat quietly for a time after that. Relaxing together in their own memories. Then Carmilla spoke again.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting anxious about how dangerous this is all becoming. But I've been alone before. I know how it feels," she kissed the top of Laura's head. "This isn't it."
The drive to Bishop's house was a long one. They'd been telling the truth when they said it was a ways away. The Meyer kid must have really enjoyed the company if he'd bicycled there and back frequently. Carmilla would have baulked at the distance even back when she could become a panther.
The majority of the travel took place on a long straight highway. Bright green trees stood tall on either side of it. Reminding Carmilla of the old roads she'd take on carriage or horseback in Austria as a girl. Back then, almost every road would be encroached by forests to the sides. Of course, also back then, they'd be every chance of wolves hiding in those forests.
The highway was double laned and not busy, giving Carmilla plenty of room to manoeuvre the bike as she pleased. She didn't push the bike though, preferring an easy canter. She could feel Laura relaxing into her as the drive went on and she wanted that to last as long as she could.
The tiredness Laura had been displaying concerned her. Yes, the goop covered clothes and adrenaline from last night's horror show probably weren't conducive to a restful sleep, but Laura had gotten rest after worse at Silas and in Florence. Yet since coming to Georgia, she hadn't slept well at all. So much so, she'd almost dozed off in the spa right after waking up, and if Kellan hadn't so annoyingly shown up, Carmilla would have gotten her back to bed one way or another.
It was these nightmares, Carmilla was certain. They'd started after Laura had been startled at Kellan appearing in her mother's shirt. As small as it was, something about that had gotten to her. Pushed something out into the open. She felt torn between honouring what she'd said to Laura about waiting until they were ready to talk and pushing harder to try and help.
She still hadn't worked out which option was best yet, so instead, she focused on what she could help with. The investigation at hand.
On further reflection, the parent's stories had made at least one thing clear. Whoever was taking these kids were choosing them well. Kids with poor parents, kids that were isolated and disliked, kids that wouldn't be missed if they stopped turning up at a dump of a school nobody cared about one day.
The tactic was familiar. Mother had never thrown anyone of too much notability her way to seduce and lead to their doom. Noone that the world would notice going missing down the gullet of giant angler fish.
She'd learned an important lesson from that horror though. While the people she'd been tasked with seducing weren't of note to Mother or the wider world, the more she got to know them the more she'd realised that hadn't meant they didn't have value. Some were kind, some were smart, some sang or wrote. They all offered something to the world by being in it. Over time, the pain of watching them die one by one had forced her to push down that lesson. Lest the pain of it turn her insane. Until a certain annoying new year had taught her the lesson all over again and had given her the courage to finally fight back.
These kids were exactly like those people Mother had deemed expendable and sentenced to death. And whatever these kids were being used for, they were worth more than just being forgotten.
Carmilla smiled in her helmet. Imagining the beaming grin Laura would have given her had she said all that out loud.
Once off the highway it took a few twists and turns to make it to the house. The roads up to it lacked the polish of the highway. Brown dirt instead of grey concrete. Their bumpiness stirred Laura behind her. Like the highway, trees were on both sides, though these ones were more densely packed and had a wilder look to them. A bird overhead would probably see the winding roads the same way a human would see the paths of a maze on a piece of paper. The brown lines twisting a path through a green labyrinth.
Aside from its somewhat remote location, the house itself appeared to be nothing special. Long and rectangular, it sat in a small circular clearing. An island of civilisation in the middle of a forest. The trees and other vegetation formed a natural boundary around the property as good as any man made fence or wall.
Carmilla took the bike to the front of the house and parked it lazily. There didn't appear to be a proper driveway, nor anything resembling a garage.
"Well, we both said we missed our cottage," Carmilla said as her feet hit the ground, big messy tuffs of grass covered in fallen leaves. "Not exactly the same but," she gestured airily.
"Yeah, similar feel," Laura said, taking the house key from her pocket and heading for the front door.
An easel stood near the front of the house, a half completed painting on its canvas. Paint cans and brushes scattered around it. Carmilla accidentally kicked one of the cans over as she followed Laura under the house's veranda towards the door. Red paint rolled out of it, dry and rubbery from its time under the sun.
Wind chimes, hung from the veranda, jangled softly above them. When Laura opened the door, it was to a bead curtain and further chimes. Once through them, they found themselves in a house filled with artistry. Paintings were everywhere. Some hung on the walls, others scattered around the place. Many were stacked next to an old piano in the living room.
"Well, at least one of them is an artist," Carmilla said, enjoying the view. The art wasn't of the highest standard, but it wasn't bad either.
"The mother I'd guess," Laura said. She moved over to a wooden shelf full of old photographs. She picked one up. "Or the mother and the daughter. According to some of these."
"The kid's an artist, of course she's in the group that gets bullied," Carmilla said. It had been true for her as well.
"Let's hope she's not also good at hiding things. With all this stuff lying around it would take forever to search it all for something useful."
"What's this? Laura Hollis afraid of a little hard work?"
Laura chuckled. "You're so going to regret that when I have us searching every inch of this house until we find something."
They found the girl's room first, judging it the best place to start. But their search came to nothing but more art pieces. Not only paintings but also a few small clay models and what looked like a comic book superhero made from lego.
"What's the bet she made this with Lexi? Her bedroom was full of this kind of stuff," Laura said, taking a second to admire it before moving on.
Eventually, they had to admit defeat and try somewhere else. Carmilla lagged behind. She'd found a notebook full of poetry the girl had written down in a drawer next to the bed. It's writing quite impressive for a high school student. She was starting to like this girl. She flicked through a few pages and only put the notebook down when Laura's impatient calls came to her.
Then the real search began, room by room. It was dull work, despite the artistry around them. Particularly considering they didn't know what they could even hope to find. After a short while, Carmilla found her mind start to wander.
"Still thinking we might have done better to just waltz up to Stevenson and beat the answers out of him. Take our chances with whatever he might have up his sleeve," she said.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. But let's say we do beat him up and he doesn't talk? What do we do then?" Laura said the words as she went through a drawer in what appeared to be some kind of study or workroom.
"I think I remember this one time, when you decided to strap someone to a chair for nine days when you wanted information out of them. Why can't we do that?"
"Yeah, that was at the remote and isolated evil school of doom. There weren't any detectives bearing down on us at Silas. I'd rather not be arrested again, and that be for a real crime this time. When we make a move on Principal douche face, I'd like to have something legal backing us up."
Carmilla stopped her own fruitless searching and turned to Laura. "Wait, I get trying to find out what these kids knew. But are you hoping to find evidence against these people? Laura, come on, you have to know by now that that's not going to work out against," she struggled to find the word, "this kind of stuff. You can't rely on police to help us here."
"I know they can't help us with banshees or whatever. But however many people are involved at the school, as far as we know they're human and so how else are we going to stop them and ultimately," she shrugged, "bring them to justice, other than by handing them over to the police to be arrested? It's not like we have a prison cell at the cottage to throw them in. What were you planning on doing with them?"
The question stumped her.
"Okay, I'll admit it, I haven't really thought about that. I've never had to think about that. Whenever I've plotted against enemies, I've always just planned on, you know."
"Yeah, but that can't be plan A. Never for us. It's messy, I get that, but I have to believe that there is some way we can bring these people down without murder. And having something to give to the police is better than nothing. Even without the whole supernatural aspect, kidnapping kids is a super huge crime. I think we can find a way to make this work."
She was smiling and shaking her head again. She needed to come up with a term for it. "Rescue the kidnapped children, defeat the monsters, arrest the evil people and all without sacrificing our moral high ground by following the rules. Anything else on Hero Hollis' upcoming itinerary?"
Laura didn't respond, but Carmilla saw her brighten up at the words.
After searching for a couple of hours with no luck, they headed outside for a break. The house's back yard didn't look much different from the front. A small, dirty shed that she really hoped Laura wouldn't demand they search, stood in the corner. On the other side, a clothesline spun slowly in the wind, Carmilla noticed a few paintings clipped to its frames instead of clothing.
"Looks like Kellan is doing a good job entertaining her guests," Laura said, stretching out next to the clothesline, probably some yoga approved pose. Carmilla hadn't learned their names, but she'd become very familiar with how Laura looked when she performed them. "Surprised the Bishops aren't home yet."
"I'm surprised they gave us the keys at all. They don't," Laura arched backwards in a new position and her thoughts scattered for a moment. "They don't know us at all. Why would they trust us to search their home without them?"
"Their child is missing, and no one else was helping. I don't think they had a choice. Sometimes you just have to trust people, especially when you're desperate."
As Carmilla thought on that, Laura brought her arms high above her head. Carmilla's eyes followed them, and she caught a flash of orange amidst the trees ahead. Intrigued, she crossed the yard to the treeline.
On first glance, the vegetation seemed impassable. Tall grass, overgrown plants and tightly packed trees. But when she pushed into it she discovered a path through, clearly man-made.
"Hey, Laura," she called behind her, beckoning her to follow.
Carmilla didn't have to go far on the path to find what she'd seen from the backyard. A small orange structure sat squashed between the fat branches of a tree. Wooden rungs had been hammered into the tree's trunk up to it.
"Oh wow, a treehouse," Laura said, her eyes on the treehouse above.
"Maybe a little old for a final year high school student," Carmilla said. "But if you wanted to hide something important, this seems like a decent place."
"Okay, first thing, you are never too old for something as cool as a treehouse. Second thing, yeah let's see what's up there."
Laura stepped forward and started climbing. As ludicrous as it was, Carmilla couldn't help but feel a twinge of unease. Even when going up a school kids treehouse she still wanted to go first. Then again, with their luck, there would probably be a monster hiding inside for all they knew.
There were no panicked cries when Laura clambered inside, so Carmilla assumed it monsterless. By the time Carmilla got herself through the small door, Laura had already started searching.
The treehouse's interior was cosier than she expected. A thick rug on the ground and a tiny bed in the corner.
"This is pretty nice. Maybe we should get a treehouse."
"Yeah, no."
"C'mon," Laura said. "This one is great. Warm and comfy and… possibly super important information having!"
She'd found something under the bed's pillow. With a triumphant "aha!" she grabbed it and held it out for Carmilla to see.
It was a data stick.
"These guys don't have a computer. So why would Abigail need a USB?" Laura asked.
"To back up whatever she was doing on the school computers," Carmilla said, understanding Laura's enthusiasm.
Laura nodded, a big grin on her face. "My tablet is in the bike. We can plug this into that to see what's on it."
They hurried back down the tree. Excitement quickening their steps. They went back into the house, but before they got to the front door, there was the sound of a car coming up the road.
"That would be the Bishops. Damn, I kinda hoped we'd be gone before they got back," Laura said.
Carmilla walked to the front window and pulled the curtain to take a look.
And then immediately jerked it back and ducked away from the window.
"Shit!" she said, before covering her mouth at the noise.
Laura was at her side in an instant. "What? Who is it?"
The upcoming car didn't belong to the Bishops. It didn't match any of the sedans parked at Kellan's house. Instead, it was a black SUV, massive in size and its engine rumbling powerfully. Before she'd ducked away, she'd gotten a look at the letters emblazoned on its side.
IDSS.