Chapter 4

The best place to start seemed to be any of Jackson and Emma's staff human or otherwise. Emma had threatened to expose us all when she had been arrested. She hadn't had the time to do so, but Jackson had. Even if it had just been to hand the task off to someone else. Jackson loved Emma. He would have done anything to try and save her. Hell, he had given his life for her even though she had cheated on him.

On the Monaghan's staff there were three humans who appeared to be aware they had been working for Vampires. Over all their staff were equal numbers of humans and vampires. It was just that all but three of the humans were blissfully unaware of who they had been working for. It seemed that Jackson and Emma had put contingencies in place to look after their staff in the event that anything happened to them. The vampires on staff all seemed to work the night shift so they wouldn't need to be out during the daylight.

Somehow I doubted that either Jackson or Emma had factored in being flame grilled. They had probably thought it would be more along the lines of leaving town before anyone noticed they weren't getting any older. Since I was partially responsible for their demise there was a good chance that nobody who had worked for them would talk to me. Some of them would have been at the funeral on Friday so they would have seen Beth with me. If Beth started asking questions they would assumed that she was doing it for me.

If we were to have any chance of finding who was behind this, we needed someone who wasn't easily recognised to ask the questions. Or maybe someone who stood out so would be the last person anyone would suspect because it was too obvious.

Before I could even dial her number my phone rang. "Hi. I was just going to call you. Feel like putting some seventy five percent factor sunscreen on and meeting some new people?"

"It's been a while. My small talk skills may be rusty." Her dry wit had always showed through despite her shy demeanour. It's one of the things I had always like about her.

"I'm sure it will come back to you. Just don't start with "Hey are you trying to out the Vampires in LA?" and you should be fine." Katelynn had an aura about her. Even if you didn't know who she was, her general appearance commanded respect without her needing to ask for it.

"So small talk has changed since I last needed to use it." She sounds unsure of her ability to do what I was asking her to. "By the way, that photographer was tipped off by the guy charged with Tierney Taylor's murder. I paid him a visit this morning. It appears Beth had been asking too many of the right questions. He thought he could kill two birds with one stone. The photographer could pin Beth's hit and run on you and get both of you off his scent. But you pushed Beth out of the way and survived a hit and run."

"That doesn't make sense. Any photos would have proven me innocent." So Beth had been the target.

"Not if the photo is taken from the right angle." She had a point. "Dean Foster may have been slime but he knew how to take a photograph to make a headline. Even one that didn't exist."

"You're good at this. I think you missed your true calling." Well, that was one lead to cross off the list. There was no doubt in my mind that Foster was dead, so it clearly wasn't him either.

"Thank you. So, who am I making friends with?" Hopefully this will work, and we can all move on with our lives, but I doubt it will be that simple.

"I'm texting names and photos to you. I'd speak to them myself, but I have a sneaking suspicion they won't speak to me and probably not Beth either." In the meantime, I could check any other possibilities.

"I'll let you if anyone feels talkative." One look in Katelynn's big blue eyes and these guys will be selling their mother's souls to her.

As much faith as I have in Katelynn, I don't like sending her into this alone. This is re-enforced when Josef phones me to ask why Her Royal Highness had been visiting Abbott this morning. "Josef she's a smart woman, capable of making her own decisions. She's not going to just sit in her big flashy house while someone keeps sending Talbot breadcrumbs."

"Well where is she now? Cause she's still not sitting in her big flashy house." I can't blame Josef for being concerned, but I doubt Katelynn will be too thrilled with Josef being overprotective though. Even Ryan made sure to give her plenty of space.

"She is fine. I just spoke to Katelynn. She's meeting up with some new friends. What are you doing up at this hour anyway?" Josef rarely was up during the day if there was no benefit to him.

"This is not about me. And I was just checking on a friend." He's being very defensive. Interesting.

"I have no doubt that she will respond to one of the hundreds of messages you've probably left on her cell phone. I have to go." I have work to do and Josef is starting to be too clingy. If he were a teenage boy, I'd say he had a crush on one of the popular girls in school.

My phone rings the moment I hang up on Josef so any thoughts on getting in some freezer time are dashed. It's Beth though so I'm not bothered. "How's work?"

"Fine, in fact I was wondering if you could help with a missing person case. Something doesn't quite seem right about it." Beth's all business so I'm guessing Talbot's within earshot.

"Sure. Talbot ok with me helping out?" I don't care if he is or not. It means I can spend more time with Beth, but I don't want to make her work life difficult either.

"It was Ben who suggested I call you." Beth seems surprised but I'm pretty sure that Talbot just wants to keep an eye on me. "You've made quite the reputation for finding missing children."

"Are you sure it's not just a case of the kid walking off in a huff because they didn't want to do their homework?" It's not as though I hadn't come across a few cases like that before.

"That's what her Parents thought until they started getting calls from her school friends asking why she wasn't returning their calls, tweets or online messages." Ok that does sound suspicious. Most teens would still stay in touch with their friends even if they cut off contact with their Parents.

"What's the address?" At least I'll have something to do until Katelynn gets back to me with anything she discovered.

As soon as I get to the address that Beth has sent me, I see an open upstairs window with a large tree perfect for climbing in and out of the house nearby. I pick up two scents by the tree before walking inside to find Beth.

Once inside I find Beth in the upstairs room. There are traces of one of the scents I had picked up outside throughout the house. Probably the missing girl. "Did the missing girl have a boyfriend?" There was nothing inside the room to show that the girl had been taken against her will. No signs of a struggle, no blood or obviously out of place items.

"If she did, her Parents don't seem to know about him." Beth glances down the hallway to where Talbot is talking to the Parents, making sure they're out of earshot. "Why? What are you picking up?"

That's my Beth. Smart and beautiful. "A second scent outside that isn't inside the house. Who do the Parents know to get the ADA into looking for their daughter?" I haven't missed the absence of the Police. Also this family was comfortable but not uber rich.

"The governor. They went to school with him. The Police won't consider Lacey missing until she's been gone for 24 hours. Whoever the boyfriend is, he can't be any good. Her friends don't even seem to know about him." Beth has a point. Lacey's friends wouldn't have alerted her Parents if she was with a Boyfriend they knew about.

"Do you have a compact on you?" From past experience I knew women carried all manner of items in their purse. Half of which made no sense to me.

"Sure, but you don't need to powder your nose." Very funny Beth.

I carefully dust some powder onto the windowsill. There's one set of prints facing outside the house and another facing into the house. "Somebody came to get her. There's no smeared prints so she left of her own free will. If it's not a boyfriend, it's someone she trusts." I hand the compact back. "Does she have her cell phone on her?"

"I think so. I didn't see one in her room, Besides, what teenage girl goes anywhere without her phone?" I'll have to take Beth's word on that. My knowledge of teenage girls revolved mainly around Beth when she was a teenager.

"Find anything?" Talbot's arrival interrupts any trips down memory lane I was intending to take.

"Two sets of prints on the window sill and a missing cell phone." If nothing else Talbot can get the cell phone traced.

"I'll find out the number from her Parents and get the Crime Scene Unit in to look into the prints." Talbot pauses on his way out the door. "By the way, Dean Foster's body was found this morning. Looks as though he was mauled by a wild animal."

Not surprising. Humans usually thought a vampire attack was a wild animal attack. "I doubt he would still be interested in either Beth or myself once Tierney's murderer was caught. Any idea how long he's been dead?"

"Didn't ask." Talbot heads back to the Parents.

"Do you think the cryptic deliveries to Ben will stop now his body has been found?" That's my Beth, always hopeful.

"Depends on who sent the list through. I doubt it was Foster. Katelynn paid a visit to Abbott. Turns out he was driving the car that almost hit you and he was working with Foster. Neither of them seemed likely to have gotten hold of that list." That reminds me, I wonder how Katelynn is going talking to Emma and Jackson's staff.

"Abbott just admitted that to Katelynn?" Beth hasn't seen Katelynn when she wants something. She can be very convincing.

"Katelynn has a way about her that people warm to." It was a sort of see it to believe it thing.

"So you think it might be Emma or Jackson thinking ahead or tasking an employee with making sure that Ben got the list." Beth has hit the nail on the head, but we can't pass this information onto Talbot without explaining that he has a list of vampires.

"I have someone looking into that." I don't want to risk Talbot over hearing Katelynn's involvement in this.

"Someone who can be trusted?" Beth glances towards the door to make sure Talbot is still out of earshot.

"Definitely." Talbot's coming back. "So there's no sign of struggle. At this stage it looks as though she climbed out of the window to meet someone."

"The Parents definitely don't know anything about a boyfriend, but they said she never goes anywhere without her phone. We're trying to trace it now." Talbot's giving me the strangest look. "So I received another envelope this morning." Great, what now?

"Any idea who keeps sending you these envelopes and what it all means?" So far as we knew, Talbot knew nothing and was just asking a lot of questions to try and figure out why he was receiving these envelopes and what it all meant.

"No and no. How's your friend doing? The one who thinks she's Mary, Queen of Scots." Talbot's frustrated. He's getting all these clues but doesn't know what puzzle they were for.

"She's a tough lady but losing someone you love would hit anyone hard. What was in the envelope this time?" And why is he so curious about Katelynn?

"Photos that seem to date back about fifty years." What isn't he saying?

"Of who?" I have a bad feeling about this.

"Well three of them look like you, Josef and Her Royal Highness." Talbot shook his head. "I'm guessing that the photos of your Grandparents. What I don't know is why they are being sent to me."

"Let's find this missing girl, then we can figure out who your pen pal is." Hopefully Katelynn has found something out, cause I'm over this mystery postman.

"Fine with me. Whoever keeps sending these envelopes seems to have some weird fascination with you and your friends though." Tell me about it.