Finally another chapter! I apologize for the delay; the holidays and other things have kept me from writing. Now, the new DA is about to find out too much and Coraline is still trying to cause trouble. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 6

"Send me the copies as soon as you have them," Cynthia almost growled. She hung up her mobile phone in disgust.

"Can't they have them ready tomorrow?" Coraline asked.

"They said they would try," Cynthia shrugged. As soon as Coralline called her, she had rushed to see her friend in Paris. Cynthia had been shocked to hear of a possible death due to their anti-sun formula. After much discussion, they decided to change the labeling on the formula to contain a warning not to take more than the recommended dose and requested copies of the changes.

"Perhaps we didn't take it long enough for a good test," Coraline said.

"I'm still taking it, and I haven't had any issues. It's wonderful to go out in the daylight and shop," Cynthia said. "The only problem is I'm not getting enough time in the freezer. I'm sure it's safe, but we need to make sure there is a warning on the bottles."

"Oui," Coraline said, glumly. "If any other vampires die we might be held responsible."

"If they are too stupid to read the instructions, it is not our fault, cheri."

"I'm just thinking about what Henri said. If vampires die and they think it is from our formula, they may come after us," Coraline said.

"Do not worry, we are protected. Maître Pierre is the best lawyer in Paris. Our involvement in the project is hidden and all inquiries go to him. Besides, if we change the labels and put a disclaimer on the website, we should be fine."

"Bon," Coraline said, sitting down. "Because I want to keep our income flowing."

"Why? We have several millions now. Surely that is enough to free you from your brothers."

"That's not all I want it for," Coraline responded.

"Cora, what are you thinking?" Cynthia asked, frowning. They had been friends for centuries, but Coraline always had a knack for trouble.

"With great wealth there is great power," Coraline said, slyly. "And I want to be as powerful as Josef Kostan."

xxxxxxxxxx

The assistant dropped the Fed Ex envelope on Robert Hemmings' desk on her way to coffee. Hemmings was in court for most of the day, but the package had just been delivered and she knew he would want to see it as soon as he returned.

Rob was back in his office a little after five pm. The case had gone well and another drug dealer was off the streets. He immediately saw the package was from his friend. Rob had sent off a copy of the DVDs that showed the traffic cams on the night Emma Monahan had escaped. His friend was an expert at cleaning up and enhancing videos and Rob was excited to see the results.

Rob didn't want to wait to view the DVD. Most of the office had left and he slid the disk into his computer and a picture appeared. He scrolled through it, and saw that his friend had slowed down the video to almost a crawl. While the traffic moved at a snail's pace, he saw figures moving quickly in and out of camera range. Rob was astonished and ran it back several times.

At the end of the video, his friend had taken the images of the fast-moving figures and put their faces in close up. Rob knew that was done so he could run the facial recognition software. The video showed a half a dozen people but only three whose faces showed well enough to trace. He logged into the police program and started running the faces. He knew it could take hours, so he packed up and went home. He hoped he'd have some answers in the morning.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Mick was waved into Josef's office by the assistant and saw a few vampires on computers or talking on mobile phones. Josef led Mick to a conference room, closing the door. Josef didn't feel any anxiety from his friend, so he was curious as to what he wanted.

"Mick, what's up?"

"I wanted to find out about Fletcher's house. Do you know who owns it now?"

"You're serious about buying it?" Josef asked.

"Yeah, I want to get it for Beth. It'd be nice to have a place that's ours together. She loves the loft, but I want her to be able to fix it up however she likes."

"Oh no," Josef exclaimed in mock horror. "I'd better make sure your portfolio can stand the strain of a woman redecorating!"

Mick snorted, "Just because I don't talk about it, doesn't mean I ignore the financial stuff you send over. I'm sure I can afford the house and anything Beth wants to do with it."

"Yes, you can. The house is in probate with the bank, but I can pull some strings and get them to close on a quick sale."

"Good. I'll pay whatever the appraisal is," Mick said.

"I take it you want it to be a surprise."

"Right," Mick nodded.

"Then I won't mention it to Simone. That would be like putting it out on Twitter."

Mick grinned. It was going to be hard enough to hide the house purchase from Beth; he didn't need Simone in on the secret. "I'm hoping Sofia's mother will help with the decorating, and I want to change the landscaping around the pool."

"Getting very domesticated, aren't you," Josef smirked.

"Hey, I didn't give you grief when you bought your house."

"That's because you always come over and hang around."

"So now you and Simone can come over to our house," Mick said.

"Deal." Josef checked his watch. "Nothing much doing on the markets, let's get over to the club and have a drink."

"Sounds good," Mick responded and the two left the office.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Robert Hemmings arrived at work early the next morning. He was excited to see if the database had identified anyone from the Monahan van accident. He quickly logged in and brought up the program. Sure enough, there were three confirmed hits on the pictures. He scrolled through them, noting the names:

Mick St. John

Guillermo Gasol

Josef Kostan

Rob sat back, thinking. The only name that was remotely familiar was Josef Kostan. He printed out the pictures and examined them again. He needed to look into these people and get background checks as well as take pictures to the van guard to see if he recognized any of them.

He sighed and checked his watch. He had a court appearance in a half hour and wouldn't be able to look into the three suspects until tonight. With the discipline that marked his career, Rob shut out any speculation and focused on the court case at hand. He feared it would be a long day.

It was twilight by the time Rob returned to his office. The case had gone well, and the defendant had changed his plea to guilty that afternoon. Rob had blocked out the next couple of days for the trial, so he felt he could take some time away from the office. He was anxious to get back to the Monahan mystery (as he called it to himself). He made arrangements to be available by phone for the next two days.

When he got home, Rob sat down and planned out his investigation. First, he wanted to find out as much as possible about the three people identified. If it had been a current case he'd have his investigators and paralegals do the work, but this was personal. He started to look for information on the three men. There was a reasonable amount on Josef Kostan, mostly about his business and charities. He printed out what he had to review later.

Surprisingly, he found out that until recently Guillermo Gasol worked for LA County at the morgue. He emailed Human Resources for a copy of Gasol's file.

The most interesting find was Mick St. John. He had been involved in a number of high-profile cases and seemed to be in the news regularly. Rob was intrigued to find he was with the former Assistant District Attorney, Josh Lindsay when he died. It seemed that St. John was involved with an internet reporter and later married her. Rob made some notes for further investigation for later.

In the meantime, he printed off some photos of criminal suspects as well as pictures of Kostan, Gasol and St. John and put them together in a line up booklet. He planned to take it to the van guard tomorrow.

Rob was up early the next day, and headed out to talk to Warren Tyler, the guard who had been in Emma's transport van.

"I didn't expect to see you so soon. Let's go to the conference room," Warren said, and limped to the same room they used before.

Rob sat down and opened his briefcase. "Sorry to bother you at work, but this shouldn't take long. I'm wondering if you can take a look at some lineup photos for me."

"Sure."

Rob laid out the pages with the pictures and Warren looked at each one carefully. He paused over a dark haired man, but moved on. Turning the page, he spotted Mick St. John's picture immediately, and pointed to it. "That's him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I only got a quick look at him in the van but now that I see the picture, I'm sure that's him."

Gotcha! Rob thought. He kept his excitement to himself as he gathered up the papers. "Thanks for your help."

"Do you know who this guy is?" Warren asked.

"Yes, but your identification doesn't mean I can arrest him. You know how the system works," Rob said.

"I know," Warren shrugged. "So what are you going to do?"

"I need to investigate more and try to get something solid before I do anything."

Warren looked sharply at Rob. "I don't want to be dragged into this unless you can guarantee a conviction. I promised my wife I'd stay out of trouble."

"I understand. I won't involve you unless I absolutely have to."

After he left Warren's office he headed home, his mind spinning. He now had a witness that Mick St. John was on the scene when Emma Monahan escaped. At home, he went over the background information on St. John and watched the traffic videos over and over.

Exhausted, Rob went to bed and fell asleep quickly, only to wake a few hours later his memory niggling at him. It was something that happened in Atlanta when he was assistant district attorney.

He had been working with the police on a serial killer case. Several college students had gone missing. The most recent was a young man who didn't seem to fit the pattern established by the killer. The man's picture was put out over the media and the usual number of sightings were called in. A witness showed up at the station, saying he'd seen the missing man. The witness was nervous and Rob sat down with him. The story he told was so bizarre that it was discounted by the police and Rob himself.

Rob sat up in bed and groaned. His knew that sleep was impossible. He got up and put on some coffee while he went to the spare room to rummage through some storage boxes for his old notebooks. He pulled out several and went back to the living room after pouring a large cup of coffee.

Settling down, he opened the notebooks, scanning through his notes from old cases until he came to the one he was looking for. Reading through the pages, he cast himself back six years:

Rob told the man to have a seat in the interview room, noting he seemed nervous. He was a tall African-American, well-dressed, and about twenty-five.

"What's your name?" Rob asked.

"Norm—Norman Wilson," the man replied, his eyes shifting.

Rob tried to convey calm to the man, and smiled. "I understand you have some information that might help with our missing student."

"Y-yes, I saw his picture on the news and I'm sure that's who I saw the other night."

Patiently, Rob said, "Go on."

"Um, it was Saturday night and I was at a club out on the east end, on Lawrence Street. I went out the back door to have a smoke but it started to rain so I ducked around the corner into a doorway. I finished the cigarette, but it was still raining when I heard a scuffle. I thought maybe someone was getting mugged. I looked out and saw—" Norman shuddered.

"What did you see?"

"There was the guy—"

"You mean Brian, the victim?"

"Yeah, Brian was being attacked by some woman. She threw him around then held him above her head. I couldn't believe anyone could do that, but it was worse then I saw her face." Norman paused again. "It was horrible, her eyes were silver and her teeth were so white…. I saw her bite the man on the neck. He didn't make a sound and it looked like she was sucking on him. When she let him go, he slid down the wall and she stood over him."

Norman took a breath, obviously upset by his narrative. Usually Rob would have dismissed him as a wacko, just wanting attention from the police. But he felt the man's agitation and sincerity. "What did you do?"

"I stayed as quiet as I could. I didn't want her coming after me. She took out her phone and made a call, then she disappeared. So fast I didn't see her leave."

"Could you have closed your eyes and missed it?" Rob asked.

"No, I was watching the whole thing. One second she was there, then she was gone."

"What did you do next? Did you call the police?"

"No, I was afraid the woman was still around. I saw a ladder on the side of the building. The rain had stopped by then, so I climbed up to the roof. I just wanted to get away from there," Norman said.

"You climbed to the roof in your nice clothes?"

"At that point, I wasn't worried about my clothes. I kept looking over the edge of the building to see if that woman was around. I could see the body of the man and wondered no one else had come out of the club and found him. After about ten minutes it looked clear and I thought I would climb down. I checked the alley, but then a black van pulled up near the man, and three people got out."

"Yes? What did they look like?" Rob asked, interested.

"It was two women and a man. They were all dressed in black, leather I think and one of the women had a long red ponytail. I couldn't hear them, but they picked up the man, Brian, and put him in the back of the van. Then they brought out some equipment and it looked like they were steam cleaning the alley."

"What did they do then?"

"They put everything away in the back of the van and drove off. If it hadn't been for the killer woman with her fangs biting the man, I would have thought it was the mob, cleaning up." Norman looked a little shamefaced. "Well, maybe I watch too much Sopranos."

Rob sat back, trying to process what he'd heard. It sounded outrageous and yet he was positive the witness sitting before him absolutely believed what he saw.

Now Norman looked at the Assistant District Attorney and said, "I felt bad I didn't call anyone at the time, but I didn't think anyone would believe me. If you don't, that's all right. I know what I saw and I came to tell you."

"Are you saying you saw a—a vampire?" Rob asked.

"Either that, or something else. All I know is that it wasn't human."

Alternating between excitement and disbelief, Rob said, "Thanks for coming in Mr. Wilson. We'll be in touch if we need anything further."

Norman Wilson smiled ruefully, "I'll leave my address. I don't expect you believe me, but I had to try. I work for an oil company and I'm going to take a transfer to Kuwait for the next few years. I just want to get out of Atlanta," he shrugged and left the room.

Back in LA, Rob closed his notebook. He remembered the case but they never found any trace of the victim, and it gradually faded into one of the many cold cases in Atlanta. Now he wondered if what the hapless witness had said was true. He recalled from the Monahan files that the witness said that Emma had thrown Dominic Michaels around like a ragdoll. Also, the witness in Atlanta talked about the unusual speed of the woman he saw. Could it be the same thing here?

Rob got up and poured some more coffee. The dawn was creeping in around the curtains and the DA opened them to the growing light. He always thought there was more than evidenced by the usual beliefs and traditions of the modern world. Rob had read extensively the esoteric works about Atlantis, Lemuria and the books of Blavatsky and Sitchin. He kept that side of himself out of his professional life, but now he had to admit the possibility.

There were real vampires in the world.

TBC

Oh no, it looks like the DA has figured it out. But what will he do with the information and will it get him a quick trip to the tarpits? And now that Coraline is mega-rich, what will she do with it? Thanks for sticking with the story; I appreciate all who continue to read!