Chapter 4
"And so my dear listeners another broadcast has come to an end. As always, I, the Nightcrawler am here for you all. I will listen and offer counsel. But alas, not until tomorrow night. All good things must come to an end. So until tomorrow night, I leave you with a song. Good night."
The song started playing as Nick pulled into the parking lot of the Raven. Good. His timing was right. LaCroix had just finished his show. Or maybe his timing wasn't so good. That remained to be seen and Nick wasn't looking forward to it.
He entered the nightclub and headed for the radio booth. Hopefully LaCroix was still there doing whatever a radio deejay did after their show went off the air.
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LaCroix sensed his son approaching. Nicholas was very upset about something. Nothing unusual in that. When wasn't the boy upset about something? If it wasn't one thing, it was another. It probably had to do with mortals. In any case, he was going to find out about it soon enough; all he had to do was wait.
Nick came into the booth. "And what brings you to my humble abode this evening, Nicholas?"
"I have to talk to you."
"I had managed to figure that out for myself, thank you very much."
"It's important."
"I had also gathered that. Isn't it always? So. Shall we get on with it then? If you don't tell me what this is about soon, you will have to spend the day with me. Ooh! Won't that be fun?" LaCroix smirked.
Nick produced the evidence he'd taken from the hospital. "Tracy Vetter was raped tonight."
LaCroix remained inscrutable. "And this concerns me, how exactly?"
"Just take a look at the evidence, LaCroix. Then you tell me what it points to."
"Oh, very well. I grow weary of these games." He picked up the evidence. And his expression changed briefly before the inscrutable expression was back. "A vampire."
"A rogue. Which is why I've come to you. Believe me, you were the last one I wanted to go to for help. But he has to be stopped. "
"Yes. So, tell me, is the good detective still alive?"
"Badly traumatized but, yes, she's still alive."
"Well that should make you happy at least."
"Damn it, LaCroix! I'm not in the least bit happy! I didn't even want to come to you."
"Oh, I'm quite aware of that."
"I only came to you because it was the right thing to do."
"And you are always careful to do the 'right thing', aren't you, Nicholas?"
"Yes! I make no apologies for that. You are the elder and as the leader this does fall under your jurisdiction. This rogue not only endangers everything but he hurt someone I care about. He hurt her badly. And I want him taken care of." Nick's eyes were glowing gold and his fangs were beginning to drop. With difficulty he controlled himself.
LaCroix nodded. "I do agree that something should be done. What about the other mortals? Who else knows?"
"I took care of the hospital staff. No one will remember anything unusual. Only Natalie knows. Schanke was the one who found Tracy but as far as he's concerned it's a human rapist we're looking for."
"Good. Good. And Detective Vetter? Do we need to have another session with her, as when Vachon died?"
Nick was tempted to have LaCroix take the pain and trauma away from Tracy, as had been done before. But, no. To go messing around with an already traumatized mind would be too risky. It had been hard enough that first time. Even LaCroix's advanced age and power that made it possible to whammy a resistor had barely been enough.
"No. I'm afraid another session would do irreparable harm to her. She's already been hurt enough."
"Very well. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will, of course, have to contact the Enforcers."
"I had expected you would. Good night, LaCroix."
"Good night, Nicholas."
As soon as Nick left, LaCroix dropped his indifference altogether. The rogue was back. The one who never could be caught. The one who no one knew but everyone had heard of. This had gone on too long. But there were no clues to his identity. It could have been anyone from any community. That was the hard thing. How could one find such a rogue? Well the first thing to do would be to contact the Enforcers. LaCroix would do just that