Emma
I never did get around to eating the rest of Henry’s toast, so the smell of the cafe hit me right in the rumbly stomach. First thing, I went to the counter and ordered more coffee and a huge scone. “And let me have one of the special ones,” I said.
The new girl behind the counter, Rachel, just thought the special scones had extra chocolate chips or whatever in them, but those of us in the know enjoyed the benefits of Deva’s special cooking. These particular scones were full of a bit of extra focus, helping not only to wake me up but would make sure I didn’t miss anything important today.
Plus, they were freaking delicious. So delicious in fact that I couldn't wait to get to a table before I started eating. “Mmmm.” I moaned as I bit into the scone. "So good," I added, or tried to, earning me an amused look from Rachel before turning to find my girls at our usual table in the corner.
Poor Carol looked like she hadn’t slept in days, and her eyes were still puffy. I turned to the hostess and slapped a five-dollar bill on the counter. “Give me another of these special scones. My friend over there is gonna need it.”
She already had a huge cup of coffee in front of her. Deva's mugs came in regular and bucket sizes, and Carol definitely had one of the buckets in front of her. It was big enough that it might be considered weight lifting to drink from it.
“Sure thing,” the girl said brightly, and soon I had two chocolate chip scones on a plate and headed for the table. Rachel had tried to fight me on just using one plate, but when I'd started stuffing my face with my scone she'd relented and squished them both together.
“Here.” I plopped the plate in front of Carol and grabbed my half-eaten tasty treat off of it. “Eat that. It’s one of Deva’s good ones.”
She sighed and nodded toward an empty plate on the edge of the table. “I already had one.” The fact that the plate was still on the table was strange. Usually, Deva's busboys were around and would pick up the plate before I was even done chewing the last bite. Maybe they were focusing on customers that weren't friends with the owner though.
Deva walked up with a cell phone pressed to her ear. “A second one won’t hurt, not after you’ve been up all night.”
Carol shrugged and bit into the pastry while Deva went back to her conversation. “Steve, if you don’t get your butt in this kitchen in the next twenty minutes, you’re going to be looking for another job.” She tapped the phone screen, hung up the call, and sighed. “There’s something dissatisfying about hanging up a cell phone. I miss slamming a handset down. It was satisfying. The way the plastic creaked and the bell rang a little, it felt more impactful than tapping a screen." She was right about that much.
"How hard were you slamming the phones down?" I laughed.
"Let's just say my mother had some money set aside for an emergency new phone purchase," Deva replied with a wink.
I turned toward Carol. “Why didn’t you sleep? I mean, besides the obvious. I know you’re worried about Bryan, but we called Vance. He’s out looking for him now.”
Carol glared at me, which was unsettling. She almost never got angry and never glared at us, or me, rather. Carol was one of the most good-natured people I knew.
Deva gave me an exasperated look. “We’ve been here all night,” Deva said. “Beth only just ran to her office to get a couple of things done.”
I gaped at them. When they left, they hadn't mentioned anything about staying up or looking for Bryan any further than calling Vance. “I’m so sorry. I would’ve come with you. I thought we’d get Vance on it and let him find Bryan.”
Carol let out a tiny sob as Deva’s phone rang again. “If these employees don’t start showing up for work, I’m going to lose my mind,” she muttered. “They were so awesome when we opened, but it’s like they’ve stopped caring. Hello?”
I focused on Carol while Deva walked away laying into someone, which was unusual for her. Her employee problems must’ve been getting worse than I thought. Silent tears were streaming down Carol's face, and I leaned closer to her so I could rub soothing circles on her back. “I’m sorry. I’m here now. And I have a possible lead.” I grinned at her, and my words seemed to have the desired effect.
Her face brightened up. “Oh?” She sniffled and reached into the sleeve of her cardigan, pulling out a tissue that she used to wipe her eyes and blow her nose before tossing it on the dirty plate that was still waiting to be picked up. Weird.
I lowered my voice so that no one else could hear us as I said, “I’m meeting Trista here in about an hour. She needs help with a rogue shifter. We can both go and maybe we’ll come across something that will help us find Bryan.”
She blinked at me a few times and turned away from me. At first, I thought she was truly angry with me but then she shifted back around and had her laptop in front of her. After lifting the screen, she tapped her laptop, using the fingerprint button to log in.
As she navigated to the notes she'd been taking, she chewed on her lower lip, aggravating a patch that already looked raw, probably from her doing the same thing all night. “She’s one of the vampires I’ve been researching. I’ve been looking online for any mentions of any of the ones you told us about last night.”
“Did you find anything?” I asked, scooting the chair I was in closer to her. I pushed the scone toward her again. “Eat.”
She sighed and nibbled the edge of the pastry. “No. Nothing. It's like she doesn't exist, same for all the vamps you mentioned. It's like they've systematically wiped themselves from history.”
“Well, chin up. Let’s see if we might catch a break today.” I gave her an encouraging smile, but she didn't return it. Instead, she just frowned at her laptop screen as she went over her notes again. Not that there was much to read to begin with.
Deva walked back over and slid her phone back in her pocket just as a large group of construction workers walked into the front door. “Geez,” Deva muttered. “I better go help Rachel. She won’t be able to keep up with that crew. Especially if they're just getting off shift.”
“She’s struggling to keep employees?” I asked after Deva had walked away. “That’s new.”
Carol shrugged. “I didn’t know until today, or last night, or this morning, whenever it was that people started to not show up.”
I kept pushing the food on Carol. A few minutes later Deva came back with Beth in tow. My blonde friend looked just as tired as Deva and Carol, though she didn't have the redness and puffiness that Carol had from crying.
“I postponed our jobs for the next few days,” Beth said. “So we can focus on Bryan and Vance’s stuff.” Beth sounded relieved, which I could understand, I didn't exactly want to be working on cases while all this was going on either.
“That’s good,” I said. “Why don’t you see what you can do from your end while Carol and I go on this case that Vance called me about?” I took a moment to explain it to Beth, but Deva jumped to her feet in the middle of my explanation. “What?” I asked. We all swiveled in our seats to watch Deva as she made it through the crowd in record time, anger fueling her strides.
She hurried over to the kitchen door right beside our table, where an exhausted young man stood in the doorway. I could just hear them speaking over the crowd. “Where have you been?”
“I’m sorry,” he said and rubbed his eyes. “I had a thing.” The kid looked like crap, and that was being nice. The bags under his eyes were nothing that a kid his age should have, let alone how pale he looked.
“A thing?” her voice rose an octave. “A thing? Do you know how difficult it makes it on the rest of us when you just don’t show up?”
They disappeared into the kitchen. Carol, Beth, and I exchanged glances. “He’s gonna regret being late.” If we'd been in a cartoon, she would have grabbed him by the ear and dragged him after her, the double swing doors hitting him on the butt as they went.
I was kind of glad it happened with the kid. It made Carol laugh, which was something she really needed to do right now.
As much as I was glad for the temporary reprieve I was also worried about this meeting with Trista. What was a shifter doing bothering vampires? And why couldn't they handle it themselves?