Chapter 40

'Hi Nina, I've got some new info for you that might interest you.'

I felt a quickening in my heart with excitement, the last five days had been torturously tedious and any new news would be good. Especially after this most recent revelation and I wait for Jerry to continue.

'So I've been trying to keep to what you're looking for. There was a story I found regarding a small town in Southern France called Eguisheim. There was a news story relating to the disappearance of twenty people in the town in less than a month and how there was talk about a possible serial killer. However, the news story continues that the local police chief didn't think that was the case and after that there was nothing.'

'Alright.'

'Me, being the brillant PA that I am went digging into this, so I called the police station. This is where it gets weird, no one and I mean NO one answered the phone.'

Sighing, I say quietly, 'Jerry, they might have been out of the office or in the restroom.'

'No Nina, you don't get it, I've called over the last three days, at three different times of the day, to try and get someone on the phone and the call is never picked up.'

My eyes slowly roving back to Nick, hearing the rumble of his voice and notice how panicked the librarian archivalists still looked. The voices were low though, and I turn away uninterested in that side of what was happening, saying, 'That is disconcerting, but you said several things. What is the next?'

'Well, actually it is two, one in the US and the other in Japan, but thats besides the point.'

'Jerry,' I say in a warning tone and he snorts before continuing sarcastically, 'You do realize we are halfway around the world from each other, and technically I don't work for you anymore, so a threatening tone ain't going to scare me.'

I let out a sigh with a bit of a chagrined smile as he continues on all business once again, 'But do to my great and esteemed grace, I will tell you. The first is in a small town called Mart in Southern Texas, there were over fifty missing people on a street called seven mile lane in one day. It was strange because after the inital story there was barely anything else about it, but there was a blurp in the local news TV station. I found it on youtube where the local sheriff talked with the newscaster and I got to tell you, he didn't look so good. It just felt too off.'

'Ok and what about Japan?'

'This was actually in Tokyo, I know you said no big cities but I felt this one fit well.'

'Jerry, you know that large cities hold a lot of vampires, and daily disappearances around that impressive. Any crime committed will likely be either the Yakuza or...'

'How about a little more than a thousand people having gone missing in a two week period.'

This stopped my reprimand and I still. Looking over at Nick, one of the three librarians of this library was gone as the two others continue to explain things from what I could gather from their hand movements. Turning away again, I murmur, 'I'm used to a few but that many?'

'Yes and what's even more interesting is it barely got any press.'

'What did the story say?'

Jerry sighs and says, 'That a small task force has been set up to find the missing people from the Kita district.'

I rub my forehead, realizing three was more than I had expected him to find so quickly, as I say, 'Find out as much as you can about these three and I'll be flying to France to investigate the first of the three.'

'Sure thing Boss, but you know I can do more than just sit here in Costa Rica with Beck. I can go to Mart in the US and...'

But I cut him off quickly, feeling fear seize my heart, 'No Jerry, just stay put. This is becoming more dangerous as time goes on and I don't want to have you in harm's way. You are only safe as long as you stay where you are.'

'Alright, alright, though I have to admit Beck is loving the resort we are at. She parties herself into a stupor at dinner and it makes it easy for me to do research during the day while she's comatose from the alcohol. It has proven to be the best of repairing-the-relationship I've don't so far.'

I laugh at this, feeling happy for Jerry. I could only imagine the agony of not seeing your loved one for months on end because of an absentee boss. It made my heart sting a little thinking of my own luck with love, proving to me I wasn't very good at judging character. Sighing, I ask, 'Does she know about any of this?'

'I just today her when I got back, and got the slap of a lifetime, that it was a need to know thing and internal trading, stuff that after a bit her eyes glaze over...'

Just then in the background of the call I hear a pretty voice that sounded groggy from sleep, 'Jerry, what are you doing?'

Jerry went quiet and then says, in a far too perky voice, speaking of how he was trying to keep things a secret, 'Well boss, hope that was enough info for you, I've got to go, have a hotty in the bed.'

With that the end called and I shake my head with a chuckle. Only Jerry could find levity despite such dire news. Putting my phone away, I turn back to Nick who was sitting down now, looking as irritated as ever, his jaw muscles working as I sit down beside him asking, 'So... What happened?'

'They brought the sign out log and it was as they said. It was signed out by a Night Hunter named Helix and that he only looked at it long enough to find info on a certain family.'

'Did they remember him?'

'Yes and they said he literally looked at it in their presence while he wrote down the information he needed and handed it back. I even probbed their minds with nothing to show for it. We have no way of know when this happened.'

'But we do.'

Nick looks a me frustrated and asks with a slight glare, 'How so?'

'Its happened in the last two hundred years.'

Nick just stared at me and murmurs, 'That encompasses a lot of time.'

'Yes, and unfortunately this line of investigation is closed, so we move on to the next.'

'And what pray-tel is that?'