Here's the next bit, and I appreciate all your reviews—you guys are great! Now, Josef isn't too happy with what he knows about the new DA. Enjoy!
Chapter 4
It was dusk when the Mercedes Benz came through Josef's gates. It was the night after Ben told Mick and Beth about the new LA District Attorney. Logan had worked his computer magic and Mick had a dossier on the human, with complete history and home address. Mick opened the door for Beth, and escorted her into the house. Hale, the butler, directed them to the library.
They saw Josef alone at the elegant bar that graced the end of the room. "Mick, Beth, what a surprise," Josef said in a cool tone.
Mick felt Josef's tension and realized his friend was distressed. Beth was slower to pick up the older vampire's attitude and said, "Hi, Josef."
Mick moved in front of Beth, shielding her and said, "We wanted to tell you about what we found at Fletcher's house."
When Mick put her behind him, Beth finally felt the stress coming from Josef. She frowned and popped out around her husband. "What's going on, Josef?" she demanded.
"It seems the new DA for Los Angeles is interested in the Monahan case."
They both frowned, and Mick responded, "We heard about it last night."
"And you're just telling me about it now?" Josef growled.
"We found out about it from Ben. We asked Logan to look into this guy and we'll be checking out what he knows."
Josef casually poured some more scotch. "There's no need."
"What?" Mick snapped. "Josef, what did you do?"
"I took care of the problem. I figured you wouldn't want to deal with it, so I called a couple of vamps in Vegas."
"You—you mean you're going to have him killed?" Beth sputtered in disbelief.
"Right, Blondie. I have to protect my region," Josef said in a cold voice.
Beth almost vamped out in her anger and advanced on the older vampire. "Don't 'Blondie' me. You know Mick and I can handle Hemmings. There's no need to kill him.
Grabbing Beth before she got too close to Josef, Mick said, "Josef, this guy is a high profile human. His death will cause repercussions. If they find out he was investigating the Monahans, we could be in even more trouble."
"That's why it's going to look like an accident," Josef said, smugly.
Freeing herself of her husband's grip, Beth asked, "Does Simone know about this?"
For the first time, Josef looked uncomfortable. "That's beside the point."
Aha! Beth thought to herself. "Listen, Josef, you think because this guy is human, I don't want him killed—that's not it. We don't know if he'll find anything, or if he's told anyone what he's after. There are too many loose ends if he just dies in a car accident or something."
Mick listened, proud that Beth wasn't afraid of Josef and was willing to stand up to him.
"Josef," Mick said reasonably, "we came here to tell you about Hemmings and what we plan to do to keep this contained."
Josef hated to be wrong, but also knew Simone would prefer Mick's plan. He was used to running the region on his own, but Mick's idea had merit. He moved back over to the bar and poured his friends a liberal amount of his expensive single malt scotch. Handing them the glasses, he said, "What did you have in mind?"
Mick relaxed, seeing that Josef was willing to listen. "He's just started to look into the case. He's researching at home in his off time."
Nodding, Josef took a sip from his glass. "Okay, tell me what you found out and what you plan to do about it."
Mick related what Ben told them, and that Logan was going to monitor anything heard from the bugs.
"All right," Josef said, "I'll call off the Vegas guys for now. You better find out what's going on. If this DA gets too close, you know what I'll do."
"I don't know what he could find by this time. Ben said they investigated and I'm sure the cops were thorough," Mick said, relieved that Josef was willing to back off.
"We'll keep track of what he's doing," Beth added.
"What did you find at Fletcher's place?" Josef asked, changing the subject.
Beth produced the bottle and handed it to Josef.
"This is all?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Maria said Fletcher was spending time out in the sun, that he had some new miracle drug that made him immune. All we could find that was unusual was that bottle," Beth said.
"We used Fletcher's credit card and ordered from the website on the bottle."
"What did the website show?"
"Not much," Beth frowned. "Just the ability to place an order. It's going to be sent to Fletcher's house and after we get it, we'll have the contents analyzed. We'll see if the pills match what was found in Fletcher's blood."
"It's a slim lead," Josef commented.
Mick shrugged. "It's the only thing we have to go on. Except for the pills, Fletcher led a normal vampire life according to Marie."
The group sat silent for a moment. Then Mick asked, "So who owns Fletcher's house now?"
Josef looked surprised. "I'm not sure. We'll have to see if he had a will and left it to anyone. Why, thinking of moving to the hills?"
"Could be," Mick smiled. "We have to talk it over."
"Well, see to this DA problem before you start picking out wallpaper," Josef grumbled.
Beth smirked, "Quit worrying. We're going to check out his house as soon as he leaves tomorrow."
"Let's go, sweetheart, we need some rest if we have to be up in the daylight," Mick said and led Beth out of the room.
After they left, Josef placed a call to his friends in Las Vegas to cancel Hemmings accident. He still thought it was a good idea, but he'd give Mick and Beth a chance first.
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Mick crouched down as he picked the lock with his usual efficiency. He and Beth were at the back door of Robert Hemmings' house, intending to plant some listening devices and check the DA's computer. They watched the human leave earlier, then slipped down the side yard to the back of the house.
Entering, Mick check to see if there were any security cameras around. He didn't see any, and he and Beth proceeded to plant the listening devices in the office and living areas.
After they were done, Beth found the DA's personal laptop and turned it on. Mick searched the desk drawers and pulled out some file folders. He rifled through them and said, "Here's information on the Monahans."
Beth peered over his shoulder as Mick paged through the police evidence sheets.
"Are there any notes?" Beth asked.
"No, I can't find any. There's nothing here," he said in frustration.
"Hmm, let me have a look at the computer." She clicked through the folders and located some files that seemed to be promising until she saw they were encrypted. "Damn," she breathed. Inserting a flash drive, she copied the files hoping they might be able to figure out the passwords later.
Mick continued to go through the folders and found a couple of DVD's, labeled with the date of Emma's escape. He handed them to Beth and she loaded one into the computer. When it opened it looked like a recording of traffic from the street cameras.
Mick frowned. "This looks like the night we rescued Emma. They must be recordings from the cameras on the streets."
Beth watched avidly. Mick had only given her a short version of what happened that night. She saw an ambulance pull up, then disappear out of camera range.
"Save it, then copy it to the flash drive," Mick said. "We don't have time to go over it here."
Beth nodded, made the transfers and pulled out the flash drive, confirming there were no traces of her access. "All set," she said.
"Let's get out of here," Mick responded.
They went out the back door and Mick re-locked it.
When they got back to the loft, Mick called Josef. The older vampire was still awake, waiting for the call.
"Hey, Josef."
"What did you find?"
"Just the police files, and a couple of DVDs of the streets the night we got Emma out."
"Anything else?"
"It doesn't look like he's gotten very far. We pulled some files from his computer but they're encrypted and we'll get them to Logan. We planted audio bugs so we can hear if he contacts anyone about the case. So far, I think we're in the clear. Did you call of your guys from Vegas?"
"Yeah, I told them to stand down for now."
"Good. We'll keep on it." Mick rubbed his hand over his face. We're going to catch some freezer time."
"Fine," Josef said. He was looking forward to joining his wife in their freezer as well. He hoped the situation with the DA could be handled, but he was still worried.
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It had been a long day, and Robert Hemmings entered his house and threw down his briefcase. He was tired and wanted a shower and something to eat. He liked to cook and had some leftover lasagna in the refrigerator. After a shower, he changed into sweats and made a quick dinner, then watched a bit of television. Feeling more relaxed he headed into his office. Pulling files out of his desk, he reviewed some of the documents, then turned on his computer. He had some ideas about the videos from the street cameras the night Emma Monahan disappeared. He'd watched them numerous times and slowed down the speed as much as he could. He was sure he'd seen some odd movement but it was too fast to identify. Thinking a bit, he remembered an old friend in Chicago who was something of a computer specialist. Rob wondered if his friend might be able to do anything with the video. He got on Facebook and made contact, hopeful his friend would be able to help.
Rob made a few notes into his encrypted computer files and determined his next step would be to talk to the guards that were in the transport van with the suspect. He would look for them tomorrow.
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Ewan knocked on the door to Megan and Ben's condo. He'd had a call from Ben, asking him to come to their home. Ben sounded a little tense and Ewan wondered what might be wrong. He had come to admire the former ADA, and was pleased that Megan had found someone after their sire had been killed. Ewan appreciated Ben's good sense, even as young as he was.
Megan opened the door and gave him a big smile. "Hello, dearest."
Ewan came in, giving his sister a kiss on the cheek. "Sorry Sofia couldn't come, she's presenting a motion at the circuit court."
"That's all right. Ben wants your feedback."
"About what?"
Megan led her brother into the elegant living area. Ben came out of his office and shook Ewan's hand. "Thanks for coming. I came across a problem and I hope you can help."
"What's going on?"
Ben explained about Robert Hemmings and how they were trying to avoid killing the human. As he listened, Ewan looked grave. He knew the younger vampire wanted his support. He responded, "I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Josef."
Ben looked at him in astonishment. "I—I thought you'd be against killing."
"I am," Ewan said mildly. "But in certain circumstances it's necessary. I don't mean to be patronizing, but you've never been in a situation where humans are out to destroy you. Megan and I have."
Megan smiled sadly. "It was many years ago in Germany and some of our vampire friends were betrayed by their donors. The townspeople staked them and buried them, thinking they were truly dead. We were able to get them out and we left the country."
"But Mick is going to watch this guy and make sure he's not a danger," Ben said.
"If he can. It will be impossible to monitor the human around the clock. If he finds anything, it could be a danger to us all."
Ewan knew Ben was disappointed, and left after a few more words. As he went down the elevator, he felt slightly alarmed. It had taken him centuries to find someone like Sofia, and now he was happy and settled with work he liked and friends around. If it was necessary, he would protect what he had. Ewan decided he would talk to Josef soon.
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The Fed Ex service from Europe was reliable and when Mick and Beth pulled up to the former Max Fletcher's residence, they could see the package on the front porch. Beth opened it and confirmed the bottle they had ordered was inside. She cracked the seal and found gelatin capsules with a brown substance inside.
Mick broke one open and tasted it. "Yuck," he spluttered, spitting onto the grass. "I can't imagine why any vampire would take this stuff."
Beth rooted around in the package and found some papers. "Here are the directions. In French, English, Spanish and Japanese. It says to take two a day with blood. Or, you can open the capsules and mix the powder into the blood."
"It's obviously for vampires," Mick commented, looking at the papers.
"It says the formula will protect the user from ultraviolet rays from the sun, or tanning beds."
"Tanning beds?" Mick said in disbelief.
"Yup," Beth said. "We need to get these pills to Allison at the lab to look at them and find out any of it matches Fletcher's blood."
Mick looked at the bottle of pills and said, "I wonder what effect they really have?"
"You can't want to try them?" Beth asked, aghast.
He frowned. "I suppose not. But if other vamps are using them and they're dangerous, we'd have heard of more deaths."
"I suppose," Beth said, doubtfully. "But I don't want you to do anything until Allison gives us her analysis."
"All right, sweetheart," Mick said, giving her the little smile she loved. Within a moment, Beth was in his arms kissing him.
"Mmmm," Mick responded, kissing her neck. "There's no one here and that pool is nice and cold…"
"Are you suggesting a swim, Mr. St. John? I don't have a swimsuit."
"Who said anything about needing a suit?" Mick said suggestively.
"I like the way you think," Beth replied, and sped off around the house toward the pool.
I love a woman who knows what she wants, Mick thought as he followed his wife to the shimmering water.
TBC
I know this chapter bounced around a bit, but there's a lot going on. Next, Mick and Beth find out more about the mysterious death, and the DA learns more about Emma Monahan's disappearance. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed!