“Look, Olly, I’m pretty busy, I really can’t chat right now. I promise I will call you later and explain everything. Thanks for the info,” I hung up the phone before he could ask any more questions.

Oliver was a nice guy, but he could sometimes be a bit nosy. I was surprised he had given me the address before asking for details about why I needed it. A mistake I suspected he wouldn’t repeat any time soon. I turned to Simon in the driver’s seat, acknowledging him for the first time since he had arrived at the car, and held up my phone with the screen towards him,

“We are heading to this address; you know where that is?”

He glared back at me,

“Is that all you have to say to me?”

“What else is there to say, Simon?”

“I don’t know, maybe you could explain what the hell happened in there?”

I raised an eyebrow,

“I have no idea what you are talking about, but I will be happy to answer any questions you have, as long as you drive while we talk.”

Simon grunted a grudging assent and pulled out of the parking lot.

“Well, you could start by explaining why you just left me in there, it took me ten minutes to realize you weren’t coming back.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose,

“Really, Simon? And here I thought you were starting to catch on.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s not like I could walk over to your table and tell you that I was leaving. We weren’t supposed to be there together, remember? In fact, I thought you’d waited ten minutes to keep it from being obvious that you were following me out.”

“If you were done, why would it matter if people knew we were together?”

“Because I have no idea who could have been watching us in there, or who might be involved in this. You’ll have noticed that I was very careful not to do anything out in the open, for exactly that reason. And now you are telling me you wanted to spoil my efforts, even more than you already did?”

“What did I do?” he crinkled his nose, offended.

“Seriously? I am going to need a new shirt, what with the hole you were burning in the back of this one. You didn’t think that was a bit obvious?”

“I… I didn’t notice I was doing that,” he blushed faintly. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

I sighed,

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so hard on you. You aren’t trained in any of this, after all. But do you see now why I wanted you to wait out here? This isn’t as easy as I make it look,” I made a stab at breaking the tension, but it wasn’t well received.

Simon continued to drive, looking fixedly out the window with a sour look on his face. We drove in silence for a while, before something seemed to occur to him, and he turned to me.

“Where exactly are we going, anyway?”

“We are going to pay a visit to an incubus named Andrew Cramer. He was caught on camera leaving Synergy with Mia on Wednesday night.”

I felt his foot lift from the accelerator and the car slowed,

“Shouldn’t we be calling Gail, then? Or the police? Why are we going over there?”

“This person isn’t even necessarily involved. There is no need to raise a fuss if it’s nothing. And besides, I promised Jackson I wouldn’t cause trouble for Cramer if I didn’t have to.”

“Jackson?” Simon raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, the club owner. You saw me talking to him.”

“I did. And now you are making him promises, doing him favors?” he hesitated, glancing over to study my face in the dim light. “You two seemed… pretty chummy back there.”

“I was questioning him.”

“Is that what you call it?”

“What?”

“You disappeared into the back with him for quite a while.”

“Right, I asked him about Mia. He knew her. We checked some security footage, and he was able to ID the man she left with.”

“And that’s all?”

“What exactly are you driving at here, Simon?”

“I saw you flirting with him. You seemed, uh, pretty interested in him.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

I laughed,

“Obviously. That was kind of the point. I was trying to get him alone.”

“So, you are saying that was all a ploy? Come on, Ray. I am an incubus; I can tell when a person is attracted to someone.”

“He is also an incubus, in case you forgot. If my interest didn’t seem genuine, he wouldn’t have bought it, either.”

“Impossible. You couldn’t have faked that.”

“Aw, did your old friends in the Domini convince you that a human can’t fool an ubarae?” I smirked slightly. “They thought too highly of themselves. Your kind aren’t mind readers, you just pick up on subtle cues and read emotions better than humans do. That makes you difficult to trick, but it is far from impossible. You just have to be very good at it.”

“And I am to take it that you are?”

I grinned,

“Of course, Simon. I am a professional liar, have been most of my adult life. I am exceptional at it.”

“You’ve never been able to fool me. I can always tell how you’re feeling.”

“I’ve never tried to fool you, why would I?” I chuckled. “Besides, if I had, you’d never know it.”

Simon processed that information for a moment, then frowned at me,

“You could have given me a heads-up, you know; I was worried when you slipped out with that guy. I thought something was wrong.”

“It never really occurred to me that you didn’t know,” I shrugged. “I never kept it a secret. I guess you didn’t know me when I was doing my… former job.”

“Well, you really freaked me out,” he pouted slightly.

“I told you; you should have waited in the car. Maybe you will listen to me next time.”

“Maybe,” he said softly.

He eased the car over to the curb, a few houses down from the 45 Maple Avenue, the address I had given him. It was a quiet residential neighbourhood, and each small house looked out over a dark lawn and a street dimly lit by orange-yellow streetlights. At this time of night there were no lights on in any of windows, everyone was already in bed.

“Now,” Simon turned off the car and turned to me. “All that aside, I still think we should call Gail and wait here until she can send someone.”

“Relax, just because this guy left with her, doesn’t mean he has anything to do with Mia’s disappearance. I am just going to ask him a few questions and find out if he knows where Mia went after she was with him. If he has satisfactory answers, we can continue our investigation.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll call Gail. Ok?”

“Do I really get a vote?”

“No.”

“Well then,” he reached down and unbuckled his seatbelt. “Let’s get this over with.”

“No,” I held up my hand. “I meant what I just said. This time you wait here.”

“Ray…”

“Don’t argue with me, Simon. You are not good at… hiding your feelings. You will only put this guy on edge. Trust me, I can handle this. You stay here, and I will signal you if there are any problems, ok?”

Simon sighed,

“Fine, but I will be watching from right here, and if you aren’t back in 5 minutes, I am going to call someone.”

“That won’t be necessary, Simon. Just hold tight and I will be right back, ok?”

He nodded, but he didn’t look very happy about it. Eh, good enough. I got out of the car and began crossing the darkened street. I wished I felt as confident as I had suggested I was. I wasn’t sure if this guy was involved in what happened to Mia, but I really hoped that he wasn’t. Gail had said one bad incident could set off the powder keg, and a Rogue abducting a woman would certainly not help tensions. I pushed that thought out of my head. There was no point dwelling on it, this would be whatever it was. I focused on my surroundings as I approached the small, brick house. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the place. It was well-kept, with a neatly trimmed lawn and a cobblestone walkway that was bordered by well-manicured shrubs. There was a single-car driveway that ended in a small carport next to the house. It was empty, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything, after all, I didn’t even know if Cramer had a car. The windows were dark, and the blinds were drawn, giving the impression that the occupants might be asleep. It was a bit late to be knocking on doors, but this couldn’t wait until morning. Wherever Mia was, ever hour decreased the odds of finding her safely. The guy was just going to have to forgive me, if I woke him. Reaching the door, I stood off to one side and knocked loudly. A dog started barking somewhere in a neighboring house, but nothing stirred in number 45. I waited a long moment, then knocked again, louder this time. Still, no lights came on and I didn’t hear any noise from inside. Maybe Cramer was out tonight. If so, he would probably return soon enough, we would just have to wait. I was just turning to walk back to the car and settle in with Simon for a stakeout, when, from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a curtain fluttering in one of the small windows in the basement. I froze, watching the window, trying to confirm that I had really seen what I thought I saw. There were still no lights on, but I could swear the curtain was still moving, slightly. It could be a fan, or air conditioning in the house, but it was a little cool out for that, and no other curtains were moving. Something about it felt wrong. It seemed to me that a person had been peering out at me, then let the curtain drop when I turned towards them. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Simon.

“Why are you calling me?” across the street, his face was faintly lit by his phone screen. “Just come back to the car.”

“In a minute. I think there is someone inside that isn’t answering the door. I am just going to pop inside for a quick peek.”

“You are going to break into his house!?”

I could probably have heard that without the phone.

“Shh. Look, it isn’t a big deal, I will just slip in, take a look, and if there is nothing unusual going on, I will come right back. I need you to keep lookout and text me if you see any cars pull into the driveway, or anyone head for the front door, ok?”

“No! I am not letting you do this!”

“How, exactly, are you planning to stop me?” I met his eyes from across the street. “Call the cops on me, if you want, I am still going in.”

I watched through the windshield as Simon stared dropped his eyes to his phone and stared for a long moment, before he finally said,

“Just… be quick about it, ok?”

“It will only take a few minutes, don’t worry.”

I hung up the phone and headed off around the house, in search of an open window. I could pick a lock, if I had to, but it was surprising how often that wasn’t necessary. Sure enough, as I hopped the fence into the backyard, I saw that there was a window open a few inches to let in the cool night air. It was a bit off the ground, which probably gave the guy a false sense of security, but it was easy enough to drag over a lawn chair and in no time, I was able to pop out the screen and raise the sash. I hesitated, peering into the empty kitchen that awaited on the other side. It occurred to me that this was probably a bad idea. I didn’t have any authority to be doing this, and if I got arrested here, there would be nobody coming to bail me out. This guy probably wasn’t even involved in anything nefarious. The problem was, as much as I tried to convince myself of that, I just couldn’t shake a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. And there was something about the way that curtain had fluttered that put my teeth on edge. No, I needed to know what was in the basement of this house. With any luck, I could be in and out, and no one ever needed to know I was even here. That decided, I dropped my shoes onto the lawn below me, swung my legs over the sill and slipped silently into the darkened kitchen.