As I pull into my parking space back at my building. I see the construction crew all sitting around eating their lunch and drinking sodas or whatever else they brought with them. I don’t see the supervisor’s truck. Which could meant he went somewhere else for lunch. As I get out of my car one of the construction crew guys give me a wolf whistle. I turn my head over towards the one that gave me the whistle and give him a friendly smile. Most girls like me would be offended by the wolf whistle, but most of these guys have already met my husband and they know what would happen if any of them tried making a move on me.

“Enjoying your lunch Sam?” as I walk by him to head inside.

“Now that you’re here Mrs. Brown, Yep!” I put an extra little wiggle in my walk as I head inside my building and up to my office.

Just as I arrive inside my cell phone starts ring. I pull it out of my pocket “Hello?”

“Vicky, how’s the investigation going?” as my husband’s deep voice comes over the phone.

“It’s getting complicated honey.” I sit down in my chair in my office.

“Oh, how so?”

“There’s more here than a missing child.” I turn around to look out my window towards MacArthur mall and the people coming and going from it.

“How so sweetie?”

I hear something sizzle in the background on his end.

“Well, when I went to investigate the area, the boy was kidnap from. I was picking up the scent of the undead in that area. I mean it was everywhere. It’s like someone is stalking the area looking for people like that.” I reach over and grab a bottle water from the little refrigerator I keep in the office.

“That’s weird. Has anything else weird happen over in that area?”

I sit there and don’t know if I should tell him about the broken pieces of the cross I found or not.

“Vicky?” as my husband’s voice comes back over the phone to break me out of my thoughts.

“I’m sorry, honey. I was just thinking about the question you just asked me. The answer to your question is yes. There were several unexplained deaths over off of Church street near Graves’s funeral home. Plus I found several broken pieces of the style of crosses that would had been around when Mistress Selena came across in one of the mausoleums in the grave yard across the street from the housing projects. I think she had someone locked up in that mausoleum.”

“The question is who and why?”

As my husband response with the same exact thought, I had. “Oh, I had lunch today with Emygdia and she has given us the use of her condo over off of Duke street.”

“That was nice of her. Did she say why?”

“Yeah, when I told her I was going to visit my friend Gerd and make an appointment to see Mistress Selena. She knew I would be driving back to our house late and thought it might be better if I crash at her condo, instead of driving back home.”

“That makes sense., How long did she say we can use it?”

“As long as we need it. I tried giving her back the keys back, but she wouldn’t take them back.” as I take a sip of my water.

“That sounds like her. So does that mean I shouldn’t wait up for you tonight?”

“No, I’m coming home tonight, and I will see Gerd tomorrow when he gets to work. I’ll call Mistress Selena on my way home and make an appointment to see her as well tomorrow after I visit Gerd. Also Emygdia is going to go and talk with some of the ghost still hanging around in the grave yard when she gets a chance. I have a feeling that they might know who was inside that mausoleum.”

“You should have her go with you to the morgue instead. If I remember her gifts right, she can bring the dead back to life for a little while and ask them questions.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Then again, she just told me today what some of her abilities are.”

“What did you girls talk about that got her to reveal things like that to you?”

“You, mostly. Also, how you almost killed her.” I take another sip of my water.

“Ah, you told her about what I told you.”

“Well sort of. She told me a little about what happen.” I prop my feet up on my desk and lean back in my chair.

“So, what time do you think you’re going to be home tonight?”

I hear some sizzling in the background and a few of the painters as they talk.

“Mmmm!! I’m going to spend a few more hours here and do some more research. I should be home by seven tonight.” I sit back up in my chair.

“Okay! I’ll prepare some dinner for us to cook on the grill when you get home dear.”

“Thanks, I love you.” I kiss the phone so he can hear the kiss.”

“I love you too my little wolfe.” He gives me a little howl.

I smile as I hear the cell phone go dead. I close the cell phone and place it on the desk and pull the street map I keep in my desk drawer out and look over the area where the deaths were and look over the area. I take my keys out of my purse and remove the one for my desk and use it to unlock the fourth drawer. Inside is a rolled-up piece of plastic that has all the territories of the supernatural laid out on it. I unroll the plastic out over the map and see who areas these murders took place in. A whistle escapes my lips when I realize that the Church street area is under Mistress Selena’s sphere of influence. “Well that explains that, but why are there so many different murders in this area?” I sit back and think about what Emygdia said about the vampires that lives in that area. She said that he only preys on those that are drug addicts and that he normally doesn’t drain them completely.

I lean forward and stare at the map of the territories again. Most of Granby street and Willow Wood Drive is off limits to being claim including Lafayette Park and Virginia Zoo area. Everything past Willow Wood Drive up to Wards Corner is owned by both the Were-cats and my pack. Not to mention some of the Jews in those areas. Still why is this area so important? As I stare at the location where the bodies were found. There’s nothing of value in that area, except new homes and varies businesses.

Whoever is doing this would be better off taking over the cargo terminal from Mistress Selena over here off of Orapax street. I look at the area where Lambert’s Point docks is located. That area has been under Mistress Selena’s control since it was first built. We’re lucky she has let it be an open area. Cause most of our pack work there, not to mention most of the other Were’s in this area as well.

Some of our pack works next door at MHI Engineering too. Which a lot of people that live in that area believe should had never been built there in the first place. I know most of the employees at the contact manufacturing plant located down there off of Boissevain Avenue would had prefer the place not being built because of how much traffic it generates and slow them down.

I get up and walk around my office trying to figure this out. Why would anyone be interested in a little kid and why the murder of those people? Unless they were food for whoever was locked up in that mausoleum. “I really do need to get a look at those bodies. But why the boy?” I walk back to my chair and sit down.

“God, this would be so much easier if I had magic like my older sister and cousin.” I spin around in my chair and stare out towards the mall.

“There has to be some reason all of these events are connected, but how?” I turn back around and roll the map back up. I also roll the street map and lock them away in my desk again.

“Good thing I had my sister enchant this desk drawer, so it is magically sealed.” I sit back up in my chair.

I take a look at the clock on my wall and see that if I leave now, I won’t have to sit in traffic a long time. I grab my purse and turned the coffee maker off and active the security system and head down towards my car. Most of the construction crew is still working as I walk by. “See you guys tomorrow.” I wave at them as I get into my car and drive off.

Driving over towards St. Paul’s Blvd. is quick. I turn right onto St. Paul’s and drive up to E. City Hall Avenue to get up on Interstate 264 which will take me to Interstate 464 where I get off at Freeman avenue and turn right on to Bainbridge Blvd. and take that to N. Dominion Blvd and turn right onto N. Dominion Blvd and take that all the way to US 17 towards the Great Dismal Swamp area where my father had brought some land out there and had his house built. As I pull up into our driveway, I see Heather and her crew packing up. Heather spots my car and waves towards me. I park next to my husband’s Hummer. His Hummer isn’t one of those cheap knock-off’s people buy. As my husband calls them fake Hummers. He has an actual Military Humvee that he brought from the United States Military.

As I get out of my Honda “Hi, Heather. How did your day go?” I shut the car door.

“Busy, this old house is kicking our butts. There are areas that the wood is damage and needs replacing. Your husband is surveying the damage and making a listing of what he is going to need to be replace.”

“That’s my hubby, always the take charge person. How did he do at painting?”

“Oh, he taught me a thing or two, that I didn’t know.” She looks past me towards one of her crew.

“Hhhhmmm!! Maybe I should have him do the painting then?” A mischievous smile appears on my face.

“What, and cheat me out of the job?” Heather looks back at me.

“Of course, not Heather. I was just teasing you.” I give her a friendly smile. “So what time should I except you tomorrow?”

“About the same time as I was here today. I like to get an early start on jobs and finish them up as soon as possible. Except in your case this house is going to take time to finish.”

“Well, with my husband helping you, it shouldn’t be that hard.” I smile at the unspoken joke.

“Ha! Ha! very funny Vicky. You know I have a girlfriend already and that I’m not into men. If I remember right. Isn’t your cousin a lesbian now?”

“Yep, she has an Oriental lover.” as I remember the last time my cousin Maggie and her lover Tabitha came to visit me.

“Does your cousin’s lover know she’s a witch?”

“Yes, and my cousin’s lover is a were-panther. She an alpha among her kind and so is a perfect match for my cousin.”

“But wasn’t your cousin married to the leader of the Hipamika clan?”

“She was until his death. Remember one of the members from the Hunter organization shot him with silver. My cousin and her coven were visiting here with several other covens from this area at New Quarter park, near Yorktown. They were there for their pagan festival when her husband was killed. Tabitha was here with her acting as her bodyguard so that the were-wolf clan in Yorktown wouldn’t get any idea about attacking her. Because the leader of that clan had a blood feud with her husband and could had taken it out on her. She knew her husband was dead before her husband’s second contacted her. She had seen and felt his death while she was asleep.”

“Wow has to be spooky.” as Heather brush some of her short hair aside from her ear.

“It was. I found out later that day from her. She had ridden up to the campgrounds with a few of her friends from here. She needed me and Tom to come up and get her and Tabitha.”

“Well at least she is happy now. I know she has had a rough time since the death of her older brother.”

“Yeah, those two were close as thieves. I was always jealous at how close those two were.”

“Yeah, my cousin Roger was a character, and he was always close to his little sister. He would always do whatever he could to watch over and protect her.”

“Too bad he never had any children. I bet they would had been just like him.”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” as I look towards Heather with a cheshire grin on my face.

“No, tell me what?” Heather looks at me with a curious look on her face.”

“He had a daughter with a normal human. I don’t know all the details about it, but my cousin just told me the other week that Roger had a little girl about fifteen years ago. Roger didn’t want any one other than his sister to know, because they weren’t sure if she was going to turn out to be just like her father or normal. As it turned out, she has inherited some of our families’ allergies and she might have inherited either her father’s abilities or her grandfather’s abilities. Maggie is already sure she isn’t like her or my older sister. She doesn’t have the pointed ears like most of our family that has magical abilities.”

“Which way do you think she is going to go?”

“I’m not sure. The cat in Roger was strong, but the wolf in our family is just as strong. I think she might follow her father, but you never know.”

“True! It’s like with Jenny’s family. She inherited her mother’s magical abilities, but not her father’s psychic abilities. I have a small number of psychic abilities like my aunt, but nothing compared to what my great grandmother had. Still, it is a pain in the ass some times to feel what someone is thinking.”

“Trust me. I understand. My sister can read my mind like an open book.”

“Well, I better get going Vicky. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” She reaches forward and hugs me. I return the hug and let her go.

I watch as Heather heads towards her Jeep and gets in and drive off. I smile and head for the house. I don’t even stop in the kitchen like I normally do, but head straight upstairs to my bedroom and start stripping out of my clothes and head into the bathroom and run a nice hot bath with some bath crystals my sister sent me. I slip into the water and sigh as the very hot water hits my skin and relax me. I put a towel behind my head and relax my head against it and think about what I know about the case so far.