“Are there any MEG offices close to that town in Nebraska?”
No tapping this time. “Sure. Branch 18 is in Omaha. It’s only about an hour away from Valparaiso. Here’s the number.”
“So you’ve been there?” Cole asked after Abby recited the contact information. “Is it less than an hour away from Branch 40?”
“Not unless you can fly.”
“Too bad. I was hoping we could get together.”
“Maybe next time.”
Making sure to keep his confident smile in place, Cole said, “Definitely. We’ve got plenty of work to do anyway. Take it easy.”
“You too, Cole. Be safe and tell Branch 18 I said hi.”
He hung up and tucked the phone away.
“Shot you down, huh?” Paige asked.
“So I’m a little off my game. Living in a freezer for a few weeks will do that. There’s a MEG branch in Omaha that’s about an hour’s drive from those Mongrels.”
“Maybe there’s a sweet little thing answering those phones too. Try not to talk through that freaky smile you were using and you might just get somewhere this time.”
Cole handed over his phone. “Why don’t you make the call?”
Chapter 23
It was about a three-hour drive into Omaha from Kansas City, so Cole and Paige arrived somewhere between lunch and rush hour. This city was much smaller, but felt like a breath of fresh air. One definite bonus, apart from the lack of festering Half Breed dens, was Omaha’s user-friendly layout. Even Cole could have found his way around without having to rely on the navigational widgets in his phone, if his phone’s battery hadn’t died while skirting the Iowa border.
The MEG branch office was located in a strip mall on the corner of 108th and Maple streets that was built around a grocery store and a few restaurants. Branching out on either side of the grocery store was a Laundromat, a bar, a few specialty shops, an insurance office, and a modest place marked by a simple unlit sign that read: MEG BRANCH 18.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
Paige tapped her stomach but kept her eyes on the prize. “We came all this way to conduct our business and get back. If Daniels knows how far away we drove, he might just try to sneak back to Chicago.”
“There’s a pizza place,” Cole said in a tempting, melodic tone.
“Go to the MEG office.”
“There’s also a Mexican restaurant!”
“No.”
“Oh, would you look at that!” Cole said as he parked the Cav in a spot a few doors away from MEG. “I tell ya, it’s fate.”
Paige only needed to look straight ahead to see a little place wedged in between the insurance office and a cellular dealer. CHICAGO DAWG HOUSE was spelled out in red neon hanging in the front window.
“Give it up,” Paige grunted. “If we struck out so hard in KC, there’s no way we’ll find a good hot dog in freakin’ Nebraska.”
“We’ve got to eat.”
“Business first.”
Cole was hungry enough to feel a magnetic pull toward the door of the Dawg House. The only thing strong enough to override that attraction was his first glimpse through the window of MEG’s local office. After all of the calls he’d made and all the times he’d visited the MEG website, he’d become more and more curious about what one of those places actually looked like. At times it seemed just as likely that MEG was run out of basements scattered across the country. Now was his chance to see for himself.
When Paige stepped into the office, her arrival was announced by a chirping beep triggered by a sensor on the door. There was a sitting area to the right that looked like it had been plucked from a dentist’s waiting room, complete with two chairs and a stack of old magazines. On the left was a wall covered with a mural of grainy orb photos and blurry figures surrounded by newspaper clippings detailing local haunts and past hunts. A single, unoccupied desk was adjacent to the waiting area. Behind that was a short hallway that led to more rooms.
“Hello?” Paige said. “Anyone here?”
A skinny face covered in dark whiskers poked out from one of the first rooms down the hall. Judging by how high up against the door frame that face was, the man connected to it had to have been just over six feet tall. “Hi there. What can I do for you?”
“We called earlier today. I’m Paige and—”
The guy stepped out and raced forward so fast that Paige’s hand twitched toward the baton holstered in her boot. He wore khaki shorts and a gray T-shirt stenciled with the MEG logo. “Paige and Cole! Am I right?”
Recognizing the eager expression of a fan, Cole stepped up and held out his hand. “You’re right. I’m Cole Warnecki.”
“ID number?”
Somehow, that question drained the fun out of being treated like a celebrity. Cole rattled off his number and Paige did the same. By the time she was finished, the guy in shorts looked about ready to jump out of them.
“You’re Skinners. You’re really Skinners,” he said. “Should I not have said that?”
“Only if you think someone has bugged your office and knows what you’re talking about,” Paige replied.
The guy in shorts laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We were told not to talk about you guys in the open. To be honest, I’ve never personally taken any Skinner calls.”
“Skinners?” someone in one of the back offices asked. “Are the Skinners here?”
Now Paige glanced around nervously. “All right,” she said. “Maybe you should stop using the S word. We’re just Paige and Cole.”
“Sorry about that,” the guy in the shorts said. “I’m Mick. Lead investigator for Branch 18, and that,” he added, pointing toward the woman who’d emerged from the other office, “is Stone.”
The woman who walked down the hall and stepped into the front room was nearly a foot shorter than Mick. She had long black hair pulled into a single braid, which she swatted over her shoulder. Her smooth, dark face was accentuated by high cheekbones and full lips. When she smiled at Paige and Cole, she shook their hands in a grip that was both strong and friendly. “Stone’s not my real name,” she said. “It’s Rosetta.”
“Ah,” Cole chuckled. “Rosetta Stone. I get it.”
She nodded and shrugged. Although she did seem to be impressed with him, she was just as impressed with Paige. “You’re not what I expected for…you know…people who go after those…?”
“We get that a lot,” Paige said. “Right now we’re working on what’s happening in Kansas City. Do you know about that?”
Now, Rosetta seemed more impressed with Paige than Cole. “Do we know about that? We’ve all been working late nights sifting through the pics and videos that are being posted to the site. I’ve never seen anything like it! So are those things the same as what you’re looking for in Valparaiso?”
“Not exactly.”
“Thank God,” Rosetta sighed. “I mean, we want to help, but not with…I mean…”
“I know just what you mean,” Cole said. “Those things in Valparaiso aren’t the same as what’s in KC, but they might be able to help us deal with that situation.” As he spoke, he felt Paige getting ready to silence him with a quick backhand. They’d spent a good deal of the ride to Omaha discussing just how much the MEG guys needed to be told, and the consensus was to let them know what they were getting into without saying anything that might
