"Something I can do for you?" It was difficult to remain composed in front of her; he assumed that Mick had not spoken fully to her about everything that had been going on between them. Not that there had been time or ample opportunity. He wasn't about to fill her in. With a swift look behind himself to check that Mick had reset the room, and tentatively opened to door to let her in.
Beth baulked at the sight of Mick, who was now slumped in the chair with his head in his hands. Josef thought it was a nice touch. She looked like she was about to walk away but changed her mind, her face set and her jaw squared.
"I just wanted to speak to you for a minute. Outside?" She gestured into the corridor behind her. Josef glanced back at Mick once more, and spotted the almost imperceptible nod.
"Sure." He answered, and stepped out of the office. They headed down in the elevator in complete silence. When Beth had said outside, she'd meant that literally. Mick could see their silhouettes as they headed out into the night.
"There's something that you need to take a look at." She said, rounding on him as soon as they were out of earshot. Her tone was complete business. "You can deal with it however you see fit." She pulled an envelope out from her bag, and handed it to him.
"What is this? A present?" His tone was that of a mildly bemused teenager, but she had his full attention. He turned the envelope over in his hands and sniffed. "This is a vampire scent." He continued sharply.
"It was delivered to me at BuzzWire this afternoon. I was going to give it to Mick but, well, I'm assuming he's told you already." A small shrug of the shoulders attempted nonchalance, but failed. Josef noticed, though his eyes remained on the envelope. Slowly, he opened it.
Inside there were nine 5x7 photographs, in black and white. The first was a picture of Coraline Duvall as she crossed a street. From the way it had been taken, it was clear that she did not know she was being followed or watched. Two more showed her meeting friends in a restaurant, and buying clothes in a store. They were professionally shot. On the third print, her face had been crudely scratched out, and a red cross scribbled across it.
The next set of three were of Josh. Once at the courthouse, once outside his apartment, and once sitting in the park on the same bench he would wait for Beth before they went to lunch together. In the final picture again, his face had been scratched out and replaced with a red cross.
"What the…" Josef frowned. Both Coraline and Josh were dead now, he knew. But he had never thought that the deaths were connected. The circumstances surrounding their demises did not once echo the other. However, that did not necessarily mean it wasn't being ordered by the same person. Tentatively, he turned to the third and final set of pictures.
They were of Sarah. Somehow, deep within him, he had known that her face would appear in the pictures, but now that they were here in his hands, he could barely stand. Beth caught him as his legs buckled, and lowered him awkwardly to the ground. He scanned the pictures again. The first showed the outside of the apartment she currently resided within, the second featured the corridor in which her room was situated, and the third was close-up of her face, peaceful and porcelain as she continued her suspended slumber. She was not yet scratched out, but the red cross was already in place.
"You need to call someone, find out if she's OK." Beth's tone held the sympathy of someone who understood another's pain. She patted Josef lightly on the back, both to reassure him somewhat and to bring him back to the matter at hand. Risking a quick look up at the offices in front of them, she wondered if Mick could see what was going on. If he had, he would arrive at any moment.
Josef now had his phone out of his pocket, and hastily dialled, his feet tapping nervously on the concrete of the sidewalk.
"Harriet, Harriet, listen to me. I need you to go into her room, and check on her. Now." He waited impatiently as she did as she was told, silently willing her to return. He breathed a sigh of relief when she did, and tried his best to sound calm. "Look, has there been anyone unusual hanging around lately, anyone asking too many questions?"
Mick finally arrived from out of the darkness, and he threw a questioning look toward Beth. She quickly handed him the photographs, and watched as he paled in the face of what they were dealing with. His eyes flitted to Josef, who was still deep in conversation with Harriet on the other end of the phone. She watched as something passed over his features, but couldn't quite identify it's origin. He seemed to be more wary of Josef's feelings than shocked at the pictures of Coraline. They turned as Josef began to shout orders into the phone.
"Lock the place down. Tell everyone to leave, and do not open the door to anyone until I arrive. And don't even think about leaving her alone for one second." He hung up without waiting for a reply, a newfound purpose in his eyes. Both Beth and Mick watched him warily, half-expecting orders of their own that he wanted them to carry out. Josef bent his head and rubbed small circles into his temples as he thought about his next move.
"What do you need?" Beth finally asked him. Mick peered at her from the corner of his eyes, and watched her wipe a single tear from her cheek. His heart went out to her as much as it did Josef; and for a second he was stood at the roadside once more, helpless as Josh bled slowly to death. He could hear her begging for him to be turned, and the sounds echoed around the inside of his mind. She was reliving those final moments again, in a way, painfully reminded of what she had lost by the pictures that displayed the last few days of his life.
"I need…" Josef shuddered heavily as he tried to find the words. "I need you to go home, Beth, and see if there are any packages or more envelopes waiting for you. Mick and I will do the same. After that, I'm packing a few things and heading straight to LA on the next flight. Mick, I want you to come with me. There are some people I'd like you to meet and matters that we have to attend to. Beth, if you could wait at BuzzWire in the morning, someone will get hold of you there."
"Of course." She nodded in assent, gave him a quick hug, and left, hailing a cab as she walked. Mick and Josef stood in silence until Beth's fading silhouette receded into the distance, shocked at the complete sense of trust she placed in the two of them. Josef coughed, dragging Mick back to reality.
"Did you hear me? We're heading to your place, then to mine, then we're leaving. Isn't it weird that I suggested we do that earlier?" He mused, wandering back toward his office building, intending to grab his jacket and a few essentials before driving to their respective apartments. Mick shook his head slowly as he followed a couple of steps behind.
"I'm not sure I understand what's going on here. Did Coraline and Josh have a price placed on their heads? I had no idea their deaths might have been connected."
"Neither did I." Josef muttered, stabbing a finger against the button of the elevator. "And we don't know that they are yet."
"This could be someone's idea of a sick joke." Mick suggested, somewhat hopefully.
"Someone's idea of a stupid joke."
"Definitely. I suppose we're going to find them anyway?" The elevator dinged as they reached their floor, and Mick held Josef back for a second, frowning as he sniffed the air suspiciously. "Smell that?"
"That," Josef replied, "Is the same scent as what's on these photographs. Stay here." He started off down the corridor toward his office, hunched low, hunting stance.
"Like hell." Mick whispered, closing the gap between himself and his friend. "There might be more than one of them."
"Yeah, sorry. I know you can look after yourself." They both chuckled humourlessly.
The pair took up their positions either side of Josef's hardwood door, like police officers preparing to storm a building. Mick tentatively made a grab for the handle, almost expecting it to be blindingly hot. With a quick twist of his wrist the door was open, and the two vampires flashed about the room, fangs bared, prepared for a fight. But the room was empty. Everything was exactly as it had been left; Josef's jacket hung over the back of his chair, blue striped tie hanging slack out of the left side pocket. The screen of his computer remained switched off, and the files continued to lie neatly piled in the corner of the desk.
Still, the entire room reeked of an unfamiliar vampire. This was the most unsettling thing about the whole situation. Whilst Josef, Mick and Beth had been standing outside, a stranger had been hanging around in his office. The motive was not clear; there was nothing stolen, no messages sent, no photographs left. Whoever it was, they were trying to spook Josef in particular, by breaking and entering whilst he was standing just outside the building. And he would not have it. When he turned to Mick, his face was twisted into a mask of fury. He snatched up his jacket.
"Come on. We need to check your apartment, call in on Beth just in case, and get on the next flight out of here."