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Sam…
“Runaway, Runaway, gone.” Balor lifted a glass of whiskey. A nervous blond in a too short skirt sat on the floor at his feet. Her big doe eyes shone glassy with whatever current chemical candy Cary had brought to the party.
A few months ago, Balor had given up paying for whores. Instead, he’d married a girl who was compliant enough not to give him too much trouble. Balor toyed with a strand of her hair as they waited for Orp to give his report. He thought his new wife was convenient, and she thought he was a God. She’d been one of the first to join their merry band of hopefuls.
Sam wasn’t drinking. He wanted to be sharp as they discussed their next choices. At the next full moon, he might be leaving these fuckers behind. He couldn’t wait. Blood hadn’t worked when they’d consumed it from their first kill, but this monster had been alive. How lovely it would be to be both a monster on the inside and the outside, too. He was a little disappointed that the gift they had left Kennedy hadn’t made the news. Cops just didn’t appreciate their kind of wit. No sense of humor.
The light from Orp’s laptop turned his face green. Orp the Ogre. He’d save that nickname for another time.
Orp said, “I’ve been searching for the old women. It’s harder to get into bank records than it used to be. I don’t think they are using the Grandmother, or the Mother’s accounts to pay for anything. The last credit card record led to a hotel about five miles from the grandmother’s house. They paid for snacks at the little shop there. Stupid.” Orp smiled at his friends. “Most people would have given up at that point. Cold trail and all.”
Sam lifted his glass of water. “Not our Orpy.”
“What did you find, boy genius?” Cary asked. The liquid in his glass swirled, a beautiful amber. The man talked with his hands. He had long delicate expressive fingers. A gift for a surgeon.
Orp shook his head. “You will not believe it.”
“Try me.” Balor rested the back of his head against the high-backed couch. The man’s apartment was tasteful. A pretty penny had been paid to some up-and-coming designer. He tipped up his glass and finished it. Their leader lightly tapped the empty glass on the girl’s head and the ice rattled. She reached up for it. Perfectly polished nails, baby pink, sharp as daggers claimed the glass. Obedient as ever, she crawled her way toward the bottles arrayed on a side table. She had a nice figure, Sam had to admit that. Her dress pulled tightly across her curving hips.
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“The old bats are on a boat.” Orp grinned.
“Why?” Sam asked.
“I suppose, to get them away from us.” Carl grinned. “Maybe we give them the shivers.”
“Awww, we didn’t even burn down grandma’s house.” Balor spread his hands wide. “Just rearranged it a bit.” He accepted his glass when his wife toy returned, giving her a half hearted pat on the head. “We should send Kennedy a bill.”
Orp giggled, “How much should we charge for the decorative shit Sam took in the hall?”
Sam regretted that a little. He wasn’t sure how much DNA was available in human excrement. Probably should have thought that through more. He rolled his shoulders. “What kind of boat?”
“One of those ridiculous monstrosities. A floating casino and buffet, a Festival ship.”
“Ooh, a low end option.” Balor mocked.
“I went by the hotel and they had checked out. There was no sign of them taking a flight, or grabbing a greyhound.” He scratched his scruffy chin. Orp needed a shave. “On a whim, I checked the bigger cruise companies. They used their real names. It wasn’t that hard.”
“I call bullshit. It can’t be that easy to find information on so many diverse places.” Cary pointed toward him. “Try the truth this time.”
Orp laughed, “All right, you got me.” He closed his computer, eyes sparkling with mischief. “In the drawer under the old lady’s computer, she had all of her passwords printed out and taped to the inside of the drawer so she could see them easily.” He shrugged. “I just took the paper.” He chuckled. “I’ve been checking her bank and email accounts every day. Getting into her information was cake. She let one of her bridge buddies know she was going on a cruise through an email. She asked her to water her flowers in the front yard while she was gone. About an hour ago, she asked her to water them for two weeks, instead of three days.”
Sam asked, “Did she have information about the trip in her emails?”
“Not a bit, but maybe her daughter set things up.”
“Even on Festival, that is out of her price range,” Cary added.
“Transatlantic maybe, hrm. Unexpected. I wonder where they are going?” Balor swirled his glass.
“I might have an idea,” Orp said.
“Smart boy. Share with the class.”
“I looked at what ports they could get to driving in the window of time they had from when they checked out to this afternoon. There weren’t a lot of options. Then I crossed those with the two-week time range. Looks like our ladies will arrive in Spain.”
“All three of them?” Cary asked.
“No.” Orp’s grin was wry. “I used my charm once I had the cruise line and cruise narrowed down. You see, my poor dear Nana left without her medication. I begged them to check and see about her room. Only the mother and grandmother are on the ship. My poor distraught wife did not make it before the ship left. I do, however, have the days and times for the stops they will make in Europe.”
Balor waved his hand. “Kennedy is the one I would like to talk to. Let the ladies have their adventure. Keep tracking them. As long as we know where they are, we can be patient. There is still so much to do, like find the body of the wolf that died trying to take you down, Lucky.” He narrowed his gaze. “You weren’t by any chance bitten, were you, Sam?”
“I wish.”
The girl at Balor’s feet tapped a bit of tawny powder onto the back of her knuckle from a slim glass vial. Delicately, she sniffed it into her upturned nose. Her small body slumped back against their leader’s legs.