“Us? Is Cesca there?” Candy laughed. “Well, a course she is. Okay, here’s the skinny.
“From what we got out of three different vamps, Marco is down your way. He put his tracker in some poor homeless guy who was probably more dead than alive to begin with. Vlad stuck him in a hole of a room where he died.”
I glanced at Saber and grimaced.
“So you’ve got Vlad on felony murder. Did the vamps tell you why Marco is in Florida?”
“Oh, yeah. Most of ’em couldn’t tell us enough, but Jemina is apparently a woman scorned, and she spilled that Marco’s workin’
with Laurel. She told us Vlad wanted Ike removed, and Marco went to do the job.”
“That fits our theory. You find any payment records to Vlad from Ike?”
“We found reams of records, and it’s fascinatin’ stuff. We also found at least a partial list of vamps who are rakin’ in tributes across the country, but this next part is weird.”
“Hit me.”
“The vamps in major nests are in turn makin’ payments to someone else. Someone higher, I have to assume. The amount varies, but it goes to an offshore account.”
“Shit.”
“By the truckloads. I’ve already got the forensic accounting team on this, but I don’t know how far they’ll get before the owner of the account finds out we’re tracing it.
“It’ll be closed and another one opened.”
“Yeah. The big question is, who or what could possibly have that much control over vampires?”
The madness, Ray’s voice whispered in my head.
“The what?” Candy asked.
I blinked at Saber. “Did I say that out loud?”
Saber gave me a questioning look. “Yeah, you did. Are you getting something psychically?”
“I’m not sure how I got it,” I said, rubbing the goose bumps that erupted on my skin, “but I think it ties to what Ray told us on Monday.”
“Wait, people. Catch me up. Who is Ray?”
“Ray,” I began, “is a vamp who was Ike’s friend and attorney. Ike willed his worldly goods to Ray, so Ray takes over Ike’s nest.”
“Gotcha. Go on.”
“We interviewed him and the rest of Ike’s vamps on Monday night, and Ray told us privately that there was a madness affecting the major nest vampires. He didn’t elaborate, but you could tell he’s seriously alarmed.”
“I don’t suppose Laurel’s tracker is workin’,” Candy said.
“Negative, it appears to have been removed entirely. As of Monday, Ray had temporarily shut down the club, and he’s keeping his vamps nestbound.”
“No reports of activity that would point to Marco and Laurel bein’ on a rampage?”
“Been as quiet as a tomb.”
Candy was quiet a long minute.
“All right, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll hurry the forensic accounting team along, and you two see if you can get more information out of Ray. Crusher and I will work on Vlad, maybe even give him a chance to cut a deal if he’ll tell us what’s goin’ on. Meantime, I’m puttin’ out an alert to headquarters and every VPA office in the country.”
“You getting Homeland Security involved?” Saber asked.
“And the FBI and freakin’ CIA if I have to. We’ve got to bring these suckers down. Every last one of them.”
“Won’t Mr. Big with the offshore account just come after the next heads of nests?” I asked.
“Not if we can get one of the honchos to roll on this guy.” Candy sighed. “I’ll admit the chances of that are slim and none, but Slim ain’t left town yet. And, Saber, you need any backup, you call us. Crusher can be down there double time with half an army of his freelancers.”
“Good to know. We’ll talk to Ray tonight and check in if we learn anything new.”
Saber snapped the phone shut and tapped it on his knee. I didn’t like his speculative expression.
“Are we going to Daytona now?” I asked.
“No, I don’t want to disturb the perimeter Ray has set up.”
“What perimeter?”
“Except for last night during our date, I’ve been checking in with him.” His lips twitched. “Remember how vampires like to have psychics or witches in their camps?”
“I was one, and what’s funny about it?”
“It seems that Suzy is also a fairly powerful witch, and has set wards on the property.”
“Her witchy powers didn’t go haywire when she was turned?”
“Apparently not. That’s why I don’t want to go out in person, but if we call Ray to question him, you think you might be able to get in his head enough to read him?”
“I can try.”
Saber jerked his chin toward the computer. “Turn that off so the mail alert doesn’t ding.”
I did, and also grabbed a pad and pen as he dialed Ray. I didn’t know Saber had the number, but then I didn’t know the residence had a phone line.
“Nest residence,” Miranda said in her crisp British accent.
“Hello, Miranda, this is Saber. Is Ray available?”
“He has Tower engaged in a rousing game of chess, but let me call him, Mr. Saber.”
Tower played chess? Suzy the vampire cheerleader was a witch? I was starting to feel like an underachiever.