Disclaimer: Moonlight and characters don't belong to me; I'm simply a fan having fun with the characters.
Mick ducked into the cool sanctuary of Buzzwire and dropped the hand that had been shielding his face, glad to be out of the morning sun. He pulled his sunglasses off and set off to find Beth. The building teemed with activity but Mick navigated the hubbub easily; the way to Beth's cubicle was so familiar to him that he barely thought about where he was going.
He wasn't surprised to find Beth working intently, so concentrated on what she was doing that she hadn't detected his presence. Probably researching, he mused as he watched her, smiling.
"Beth," he called out finally.
She started, but by the time she had turned to face him, she had composed herself. "Mick! There you are. I was beginning to wonder."
He looked at her, amused. "You thought I wouldn't show?"
"I—ah… well, you're late and—"
"Sorry!" Mick was laughing now.
"And you're not a morning person!" Beth finished triumphantly.
"True," Mick acknowledged, pulling a chair up for himself. He gestured to the paper piles on her desk. "But it looks like you didn't miss me anyway. What did you find?"
"A lot of things—mostly logs and surveillance stuff—but I'm not sure if any of it makes much sense." She pushed a thick file folder toward him. "See for yourself."
Mick flipped the folder open and sorted through the photos stacked on top. "Surveillance photos?" he guessed.
"Yes. But they don't show us anything we don't know. And the videos didn't shed much light either. He's either the luckiest criminal or the most well-planned."
"Do you still have the videos?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Maybe I should take a look at them later, see if you missed anything."
Beth nodded. "I should warn you though—I think we may be looking for more than one culprit."
Mick set the photos back on the table. "What do you mean?"
"Well look at the timestamps on those." Beth reached over and sifted through the stack of photos. When she found the ones she had been looking for, she fanned them across the desk.
"These were all taken the night the thefts began," Beth explained as Mick studied the photos. "They're from five different locations but the timestamps are within an hour of each other. An hour! Mick, these stores were all over the city and it's not like they were hit in any particular order either! Nobody can move that fast."
"Really?" Mick glanced at her, eyes raised.
"No human," Beth amended, lips twitching as she suppressed the urge to smile.
Mick's eyes danced with mischief. "Sure you want rule us out already?"
Beth gathered the photos and dropped them back in the folder. "Do vampires generally shop for babies?" she queried sweetly.
Mick's lips twitched but the laughter in his eyes gave him away. "Was much missing?"
"From each store? No. But add it all up and the loot is pretty substantial."
"Hmm. Any patterns, tendencies?"
"Not in the stores targeted but after the first night, only one store was hit per outing. And the first night, anything in the baby aisle was fair game but after that, mostly formula and diapers went missing."
"You're sure that baby supplies were the only things stolen?"
"If he—or they—took anything else, he didn't take enough to make it obvious," Beth replied. "But most of the stores did an inventory check and everything else was accounted for."
Mick skimmed through the logs. "Nothing looks out of place," he murmured.
"You know, what I don't get is, why kidnap a child to rear if you don't have the means to support it?"
"Maybe he was lonely," Mick suggested. "Children make loyal companions."
"This is someone else's child we're talking about! If he was so lonely, he could have gotten a dog! Why kidnap an infant? How could he raise her knowing she was never his to begin with, that she was a light in someone else's world?" Beth's tone was casual. Too casual.
Mick's eyes stilled, mid-skim. He could feel Beth's eyes on him. Damn it! She backed him into a corner—again! "Beth…" His voiced trailed off.
"Don't 'Beth' me. I just want answers, that's all."
Mick tugged at his collar. The room felt uncomfortably warm all of a sudden. What was he supposed to say to that? What did she want him to say? That what Coraline did had been wrong, inexcusable? It was already something they both knew, even if they didn't voice it.
"Mick!" Her voice was impatient, pleading.
The air between them seemed to thicken until, to Mick's relief, his phone rang, jarring the silence. Deftly, he rose and pulled the phone out of his pocket, answering it while trying to ignore the displeasure on Beth's face. It was Anna.
"Hello?" Even as Mick spoke, he could tell that something was wrong. She was breathing much too fast. His throat tightened. Had the kidnapper tried to contact her?
Her voice was high-pitched and frantic. She spoke so fast that her words slurred together, making it nearly impossible for Mick to pick out what she was saying.
"Anna, Anna. You have to slow down. I can't understand you when you're talking this fast; slow down and tell me what happened." He could hear her breathing, trying to do as he asked. Finally, after several attempts, she was able to slow down enough to explain what had happened. "We'll be right over," Mick reassured. "Try to stay calm."
He slipped the phone back in his pocket and turned to Beth. "That was Anna; someone broke in. She already called the police—it would be best if we get there before they do."
"Well then come on! What are we waiting for?" Beth exclaimed. As she spoke, her displeasure vanished and the air rushed back into the room.
"Let's go," Mick agreed. He slipped on his sunglasses and hurried toward the door with Beth close behind. Think about Anna, think about Anna, he coached himself. But his mind kept wandering back to what had just happened between him and Beth.