“Can I quote you on that?”
She laughed. “Like to see you try. Speaking of tips, I’ve got a few you can have. The crackpots are really coming out of the woodwork on this one. Just this morning we had a guy report seeing a walking corpse downtown.”
“The core is pretty dead these days.”
Rita snorted a laugh. “Unbelievable. Take a heat wave, add a health scare and people’s common sense takes a holiday. Zombies, killer rats, signs of the apocalypse…I’m just waiting for someone to say they’ve spotted sasquatches on Spadina. Or vampires in the Don Valley.”
I glanced over at the table, where Zoe was sipping a mimosa. “I’d believe vampires.”
“I’m sure you would. Listen, someone’s waving me into a meeting. Give me a call later. I want to get together before you leave town.” Her hand went over the mouthpiece as she yelled a muffled “hold on,” then came back to me. “Gotta run. You take care. And watch out for those vampires.”
“I will.”
As I hung up, I sensed something, and turned to see Clay coming up the steps.
“Back up to bed,” I said. “You heard the doctor.”
“Yeah, and he also said to eat. At this rate, I’d have starved before you brought breakfast.”
“Clay, please…”
He stepped beside me, hand dipping to mine. “I’ll go nuts in bed, darling. You know that. I’ll just take it easy.”
I hesitated, then nodded, and we headed over to the table, where everyone was laughing as Jaime regaled them with a story.
“-and I’ve seen fake tears before, but these were so bad the entire crew was snorting, trying not to laugh. So the woman’s wailing her heart out, practically rolling on the stage, and the ghost says-” She saw us and stopped.
“Is everything okay?” she asked Clay. “You look okay.”
“I am,” he said, pulling out a chair for me. “Just an infection. Fever’s gone; doc dosed me up. I’m fine. But we need to get this woman food.” His grin broke through. “Seems she’s eating for three.”
Congratulations ensued, infused with shock from all but one person at the table, though he tried to feign it.
I turned to Antonio. “You knew, didn’t you? Jeremy told you.”
A small smile. “He said he suspected-”
I waved off the rest. “Payback for the conspiracy later. First, food.”
I looked at Nick’s plate.
He moved it out of my reach. “It’s a buffet. All you can eat, no waiting. I’ll even get it for you.” He pushed his chair back. “Just don’t touch mine while I’m gone.”
I reached for Nick’s plate, but Clay beat me to it, snagging two pieces of bacon and handing me one as he sat down.
“Jaime was just telling us about a show she did last month.” Zoe poked the back of my hand. “You were keeping her hidden from me, weren’t you?” She caught my look. “No, I don’t mean that way. I meant-Jaime Vegas, spiritualist extraordinaire.”
“Zoe’s a fan,” Nick said as he set a heaping plate in front of me.
“Big fan,” Zoe said. “I was telling her that I know someone who’s an even bigger fan. Producer friend of mine. I used to do some work for him when he was starting out in Toronto-needed equipment but couldn’t quite afford to pay retail. He’s in L.A. now, and he just got the go-ahead to do a TV special next year. They’re going to try to contact Marilyn Monroe, find out how she died. Huge, splashy production.” She looked at Jaime. “It’d be a blast. You know it would.”
Jaime laughed. “Cheesy as hell. Right up my alley.”
“So is that a yes?”
“It’s a maybe.”
We brought Zoe up to date on the killing the night before.
Zoe tapped her nails against her champagne flute. “You know, I might be able to round up a witness for you. Not sure how much good it would do, but if you’re waiting around for Randy to call back anyway…”
“A witness? Working girl?”
“No, a supernatural who haunts-and hunts-in that neighborhood.”
Nick leaned forward. “I thought you were the only vampire in Toronto.”
“This isn’t a vamp. Or a were. She’s…well, we’re not quite sure what she is, but-”
A cell phone rang. At the first note, Jaime, Zoe, Nick, Antonio and I all jumped, ready to grab ours. Clay rolled his eyes and muttered something about electronic leashes. As the tone began, I said, “That’s mine.”
“Never even got the damned thing back in your pocket.”
“It’s…oh, it’s Anita Barrington.”
Clay growled and went to pluck the phone from me, but I pulled it out of his reach.
“Don’t answer-” he began.
Too late. A minute later, I hung up.
“Let me guess,” Jaime said. “She has urgent information and wants to come over right away.”
“Nah,” Clay said. “She’s back to wanting us to go there.”
“But it is urgent, as always,” Nick said, sneaking a wedge of cantaloupe from Clay’s plate. “She did sound pretty freaked out, though.”
“How did you guys-?” Jaime began. “Oh, enhanced hearing, right? Nice trick.”
“Just be sure you never whisper anything in front of them,” Zoe said. “So what’s up with Anita?”
“She won’t say. Just that it’s extremely urgent this time, and she has critical information we absolutely must have right away, because we’re making a very big mistake.”
“Uh-huh. So, when you said you’ll be there, you were just blowing her off, right?”
“That’s up to Jeremy. And here he comes now, with Matthew Hull in tow.”
Zoe sipped her mimosa. “If you want, we can pop by Anita’s place on the way to visit that friend of mine. She lives near there.”
“Thought you wanted to steer clear of Anita Barrington,” Clay said.
“Steering clear of a curious old woman is one thing. But an immortality-questing witch who’s obsessed enough to tackle werewolves? Time to put a face to a name before I end up on the wrong end of a binding spell.”
Jeremy sent us to see Anita, but with Antonio and Nick in tow for backup. When we arrived, the beaded curtain was still drawn over the front display, the sign proclaiming the shop closed. We knocked there, rang the bell for the apartment and even found-and banged on-the rear door. No answer.
Antonio broke open the back door.
“Do you want me to wait out here with Elena?” Zoe whispered.
Clay shook his head. “Nick?”
“I’ll stay with the ladies.”
Ten minutes later, Clay and Antonio came out.
“She’s gone,” Antonio said. “We found traces of blood-”
I pushed past Clay and went inside. Clay waved Nick around to cover the front, while Antonio stayed and watched the back door. Zoe came in with us.
The shop was dark and quiet. I flipped on a light.
“Tiny place,” Zoe said, checking behind the counter. “Where’s the-?”
She inhaled and turned, following the blood beacon over to a display table. Beside it was not “traces” of blood, but a pool of it, covering several tiles. To the left was a sneaker print-large and wide, probably male.
As I crouched beside the blood, I bumped heads with Zoe.
“Sorry,” she said. “Just getting a better look.”
I sniffed, then looked up at Clay. “It’s hers.” I turned to Zoe. “Would that much blood loss be…?”
“Fatal?” She studied the pool. “It’s probably only a pint. Not fatal, but…well, you don’t lose that much with a paper cut.”
As I pushed to my feet, I saw another bloody print a couple of feet away. A small handprint, almost certainly not belonging to the same person who’d left the footprint. To the left of the print was what I thought was a smear. Then I got closer and saw it was a line, drawn by a bloody finger. On one side of the top was a diagonal, as if someone had started drawing an arrow, then been interrupted.