Chapter 3 - Investigations and Questions

Spike and Ann appeared on one of the catwalks above the stage. Looking down, he saw the body. The rest of the stage was empty. Some customers were sitting around the edges of the Bronze, with a couple of uniformed police standing between them and the stage.

Ann whispered softly, then moved them down to the floor. No one noticed them. Spike glanced around, but he and Ann seemed totally invisible to everyone else. Silently, Ann knelt beside the body and started to search its pockets. She stopped, opened the jacket, then the shirt. The body wore a vest. Ann started again on the pockets.

Spike saw a number of chains around the body's neck. He fished them out from under the vest, revealing several saints' medals and a variety of other religious symbols. He looked at the head. He didn't know where the hole in the forehead had come from. He moved the head, carefully. The back was a mess, as was the floor beneath it. There was a hole in the floor. He lowered the head.

Ann looked up long enough to hand him a cloth. As he wiped his hands, she showed him a glass jar, filled with a clear fluid. He nodded, but didn't touch it. Ann put the jar back in the breast pocket of the jacket. Spike saw, before Ann put the jacket to rights, that the body had an automatic pistol under its left arm. He slipped a hand under the body, going for the back pocket. No wallet, just a clove of garlic. He put it back. In loops on the belt there were three wooden stakes. He moved down the body. There was an ankle gun on the right leg, and a white knife on the left.

There was a stir near the people at the door. He touched Ann's arm. She nodded and produced a very small crystal. Taking the body's left arm, she brushed back the sleeves. She pushed the crystal into the forearm. It disappeared, leaving no trace. Ann smoothed the clothing, rose, took Spike's hand, and moved them to the Viper.

"Drive," Ann said.

"I have never seen such an amateur vampire hunter," Spike exploded. "Garlic? Garlic, for god's sake!" He started the car and drove away from the Bronze.

"What was in the jar?"

"Probably holy water. That was sensible, not like that useless pawn shop around his neck. Where am I going?"

"Alvarado Boulevard. An amateur vampire hunter, but a slightly more professional assassin. I hate thugs."

"Why slightly more professional?"

"His gear. Did you see the crossbow? Ceramic knife. No ID. That's professional. Shooting up civilians, that's not."

"He was shot where he lay. I didn't see that part. Why are we going to Alvarado Boulevard?"

Ann displayed a motel keycard. "Creekside Motel."

"This is safe?"

"Probably. If I were doing this, I wouldn't go back anywhere after I got noticed. I'm betting they're professional enough to move to a fallback."

"So why are we going?"

"They might have un-professional enough to leave something behind."

"The crystal? The one you put in the body? Why?"

"If the body's claimed, I can track it. I don't think it will be."

"Professional doesn't begin to describe you."

"Is that a compliment, Spike, or a complaint?"

"Compliment, I guess."

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"Which one is it?" Spike asked.

Ann was holding the keycard, running her eyes over the row of doors. "Third from the left."

"It's dark," Spike said. He slowed the Viper down as they drove past the motel.

"OK, drive on and park somewhere out of sight," Ann said

"Like here?"

"Fine. I'll bring you in a minute." Ann disappeared.

Spike waited, then the Viper vanished and he was standing in a motel room.

"Nobody here," Ann said.

"Anything left?"

"Start looking."

Ann was neat and quick. She inspected places he didn't know were places. He finally had to ask: "Is this something you were born with or did you take lessons?"

"Lessons," she said. "There was a charming ex-burglar, a Mr. Fitzgerald, who worked for "F" section back in the nineteen forties. Before we went to France, he showed us were he had found items that their owners had tried to hide from him or any other burglar that might have come along. He always said, given enough time and enough searchers, there was nothing that could not be found, eventually."

"I sort of thought you could just witch the place and locate what we want."

"What do we want?"

"OK. I take your point."

"It's easy for me to find anything you or Tara lost, an unknown item is something else again. I think the place is clean. Put the drawers back while I filch the registration card for this room."

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"Set," Spike said, straightening up. A white card disappeared from Ann's hand as she nodded, then moved them back to the Viper.

Spike glanced over at Ann. "What were you doing in a purely human mess like that war, anyway?"

"I was assigned to look after a student of war, so where he went, I went."

"Who assigns you ?"

"I can't say," Ann said.

"Why not?"

"I stop breathing if I try."

"Sounds a little harsh," Spike said, heading for Los Robles Road, and Ann's house.

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(Chapter 4)

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