get them too worked up. Paige seemed happy with his choice of words. Mick, on the other hand, was happier.
“I’ve heard some stuff about what’s been going on in Valparaiso,” the lead investigator said. “When I called some of the people out there, they say they still hear various noises. Knocking, some disembodied voices, rattling, the usual stuff.”
“Wait. You contacted someone?” Paige asked. “Someone other than one of us or another MEG office?”
“Well, yeah.”
Rosetta jumped in and said, “When I spoke to you on the phone a few hours ago, you said you wanted to check out the locations where that Rico friend of yours was doing his tracking. Those places are mostly private homes.
“We didn’t tell them much of anything, though,” Mick added.
Rosetta nodded eagerly. “Right. Of course. I made the calls myself and didn’t mention anything about you guys or anything that might scare them.”
“All right, then,” Cole said. “What did you tell them?”
Rosetta shrugged and replied, “That their houses may be haunted.”
“And that’s not supposed to scare them?” Paige asked.
Mick smiled reassuringly and waved his hands as if smoothing off a pile of shaved ice. “We didn’t use the word ‘haunted.’ We never use that term unless we’ve been there and gotten sufficient proof. We told them there were reports of suspected supernatural activity in their area and that we’d like to investigate. Remember the knocking and voices I was telling you about?”
Both Cole and Paige nodded.
Although Mick had been the one to ask the question, Rosetta picked it up and ran with it. “Turns out we’ve been getting reports from there since your other friend was tracking whatever he was tracking. We haven’t followed up on it yet because of a string of disturbances here in town. We never got around to those Valparaiso calls and they stopped coming. Also, we’ve been busy with other stuff.”
“Like what other stuff?” Cole asked.
Rosetta held up her hand and ticked her fingers down one at a time. “Kids, family, real jobs, school, you name it. MEG’s a great time, but she doesn’t pay the bills.”
“So when can we get to Valparaiso?” Paige asked. “It’s about an hour from here, right?”
“Yes, but we need to set up an investigation,” Rosetta said. “The lady I talked to earlier sounded pretty nice, so I should be able to set something up within the next week or so.”
Rosetta and Mick seemed enthusiastic, but Paige and Cole weren’t smiling. Since he could feel Paige getting a little too impatient, Cole told the other two, “This is kind of an emergency. Well, not kind of. It
Both of them looked at him without blinking. “We’ve heard some of it. Like there’s some way for people to really be turned into werewolves and that you guys hunt them.”
“And the vampires,” Mick said. “We know about them. Nymar, right?”
Paige pressed her hands against her eyes and turned toward the door. “This was a really bad idea,” she moaned.
But Cole wasn’t about to give up so easily. “You’ve seen what’s going on in KC with the murders and everything.”
Nodding, Mick said, “Those aren’t rottweilers, are they?”
“Not even close. We took out a bunch of them the other night—”
“At that nature preserve outside of Kansas City!” Rosetta said as she snapped her fingers and hopped excitedly.
“You know about that too?” Cole asked.
“There was stuff on the news about a bunch of animals that escaped from a private collection or wandered in from the woods. Apparently some security and stoplight cameras caught some things running by, but they were just a bunch of blurs. You should see some of the wild stuff being posted onto our website about that. It’s just… wow.”
“That about sums it up,” Cole said. “More people will get hurt, and we want to put an end to it as soon as we can. So if you need to cut a few corners or bend a few rules to get us into those homes, it’d be for a good cause.”
“We know you guys do good work,” Mick said earnestly. “That’s why MEG agreed to help you in the first place. But in this field, reputation means everything. If we lose ours by harassing clients, we won’t be able to help you guys at all.”
“But don’t worry about all of that,” Rosetta said. “I just need to call that lady back, set something up, and get the team together so we can all get on the same page. Should only take like two hours or so. Okay?”
“We are overdue for lunch,” Paige said. “How about we come back after we get something to eat?”
Rosetta smiled and clasped her hands together. “Perfect. That’ll give us some time to make the arrangements.”
“And no matter what the home owners say,” Mick added, “we’ll be glad to take you out there and show you where your other friend was hunting.”
“Sounds great,” Cole said. “Now, what’s the word on that hot dog place next door?”
The Chicago Dawg House was one long room, half of which was filled with an order counter and kitchen. At the other half, a row of stools was lined up beneath another counter that was just wide enough for people to share some table space with napkin dispensers and plastic condiment bottles.
Paige squawked the entire way into the restaurant, but quieted down when she saw the Vienna Beef sign. Her mood improved even more when she saw that the menu describing the ingredients in a classic Chicago dog was practically a transcript from when she’d described it in Kansas City. She was about to order that when her eye caught something a little farther down the menu.
“Oh my God,” she sighed. “Look at that. Right beneath the ‘Butkus.’”
Cole had been eyeing the Butkus anyway, which was a sausage covered with what seemed to be anything the cook could find that would singe the hairs on the back of his arm. “You mean the Fridge?”
“Yesssss.”
“Looks like it may even take up some space in that bottomless pit you call a stomach. Go for it.”
Their order was taken by a balding guy who stood a few inches shorter than Cole. The subtle squawk in his voice and the thick mustache on his face made it seem equally plausible that he was either a Chicago native or an off-duty cop. “You want that Fridge hot and wet?” he asked.
Cole reflexively flinched, but Paige wore a smile that lit up her entire face. “Real hot and a little wet,” she said.
The guy behind the counter winked at her and nodded once. “Lady after my own heart. It’ll be right up.”
They moved down to sit at the counter on the opposite wall and waited for their food.
“Do you really think it was a mistake coming here?” Cole asked.
Paige craned her neck to look around at the autographed pictures of Cubs players that were hanging around the occasional framed jersey. “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens with those phone calls. To be honest, though, sometimes you’ve just got to gamble. If we were in KC, we’d just be checking in on more empty Half Breed dens or guessing where to find new ones. Not that that matters anyway because any Full Blood can just replace the Half Breeds we killed.”
“That means we’ve only got another few days before the new Half Breeds become a real problem.”
“Maybe not even that long,” Paige said. “The Full Blood looked like he was whipping the surviving Half Breeds in line somehow. If it wasn’t for that bait you threw at him, he might have steered those things right back at us.”
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
Reluctantly, she cast her eyes down and shook her head. “Never. I only hope the Mongrels we find are willing to fight, because we may need their kind of backup more than a few extra sets of noses.”
“What if they don’t agree to come back with us at all?” Cole asked.
Paige pulled in a deep breath and let it out with an unconvincing smile. “Then we’ll throw everything we’ve got at them one more time. It’s not like we have much choice. Every new Half Breed means someone else was killed, and it’s not like when a Nymar attaches its spore to someone’s heart. That whole process is an easy morning of
