Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10)

Thomas Brown-Martens, Chief of IT and Eddie Brown-Martens, Deputy Chief of IT, it said in bold black lettering. The two had combined their last names after their wedding and blood-bond. Not only did they now share an office and in effect the management of Scanguards’ IT department, they spent practically twenty-four hours a day in each other’s company. How they could stand that much togetherness was beyond him.

Blake shook his head and knocked quickly, not waiting for an answer before he opened the door and entered.

Two heads spun in his direction. Eddie, pointing at something on the monitor, stood behind Thomas, who was sitting at his desk.

“Hey,” Thomas greeted him.

“We were about to call you. I think we found something,” Eddie said, staring back at the screen. “Run it again,” he told Thomas.

Whatever Eddie and Thomas had found could wait a moment. “I had a call from Katie. I need to look at the video of Isabelle and the kidnapper again,” Blake requested.

Thomas motioned him to step closer. “We’re looking at it right now.”

Blake walked around the desk so he could look at the monitor, and watched the kidnapping unfold once more. This was his worst nightmare come true: one of his charges had been abducted under his watch. Something like this was never supposed to happen. He and his team had been protecting all of Scanguards’ children for almost two decades now, and nothing had ever happened. They’d been safe. Heck, nobody had as much as fallen off a bike under his watch. And now this. A kidnapping.

“See, there.” Eddie pointed to Isabelle’s mouth. “I’m not an expert in lip reading, but I think she’s saying I’m not Kimberly.”

“Fuck! Katie was right.” Blake raked a hand through his short hair. Why hadn’t he seen this immediately when he’d watched the video for the first time? Maybe because he’d been too focused on trying to get a better visual on the kidnapper’s face.

Thomas looked over his shoulder. “That’s Katie’s stage name. This guy wasn’t after Samson’s daughter. He wanted Katie. What did she say?”

“She mentioned letters from an obsessed fan. But it doesn’t make sense! If it was an obsessed fan, he would recognize that he wasn’t abducting Katie.”

Eddie nodded. “True. Particularly since the kidnapper had to be a vampire or a hybrid. He would have recognized that Isabelle is a hybrid.”

Thomas swiveled his chair around. “Yeah, but did he know that Katie isn’t a hybrid? If he’s an obsessed fan and never met her face-to-face, how would he know that she isn’t a hybrid? If he’s seen her on TV or in the movies, he wouldn’t be able to tell. The cameras can’t catch a vampire’s aura, nor a vampire’s scent.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, why or how. He got the wrong woman. We’ve gotta find him and get Isabelle back, before he realizes she isn’t Katie and hurts her.” Blake pulled out his cell. “We’ll start with the letters.” He dialed Katie’s number. “Let’s pull prints off them, run them through the databases, and see whether we can narrow our search area with the help of the postmarks. I doubt he’ll have written his address on the envelopes.” The phone continued to ring in his ear. “Come on, Katie, pick up!”

Thomas nodded in encouragement. “We’ll analyze the letters. Maybe he left some clues in his writing. Stalkers like to show their superiority. They think they’ll never be caught, so they play with their prey. If there’s something in there, we’ll find it.”

“You’ve reached Katie, please leave a message.” Beep.

“Crap!” Blake cursed. “Katie, I got your message. Call me immediately. We need those letters.” He disconnected the call and looked back at his two colleagues. “Do you know where Wesley is? Wasn’t he supposed to take Katie home?”

“He’s probably still at the university with John, interrogating the audience and the student actors. The forensics team sent the first batch of fingerprints back and we’re running them through the system. We’re still waiting for the students and stagehands and anybody else who’s been backstage to be fingerprinted so we can eliminate their prints and isolate the perpetrator’s. Isabelle’s we have on file.”

Blake nodded, drawing in a few breaths. Just like they had DNA samples of every member of Scanguards and their families in a vault in the basement. “Good. I know you guys are on top of it, but I need everybody to give more than their best in this case. Isabelle is in danger. And I know she’s scared. We have to bring her home. That’s our first priority. I don’t care what we have to do, on whose toes we need to step, or what laws we need to break to make that happen.”

“We all feel the same,” Eddie said, exchanging a look with Thomas. “Isabelle is just as much our family as the rest of Scanguards.”

“Katie needs protection,” Thomas added, rising from his chair. “You want me to assign a security detail to her? Once the kidnapper realizes he’s got the wrong girl, he’ll be making another attempt.”

Blake could only agree with Thomas’s thought process. “Yes, find out from Wesley where she is. Let’s get those letters from her. And then Jake will guard Katie at her house.”

“Consider it done,” Thomas said.

A knock at the door made them all turn.