Once in my car, I zoomed into the main road traffic, then clicked the comlink in my ear and said, "Hello, hello, anyone there ?"
"Unlike some who shall not be named, I do not slack off." Benson's deep tones were dry. He'd obviously been taking lessons from Sal. "What can I do for you, Riley?"
"Did Jack pass on a request for an information search on a Luke Johnson?"
"Yes, and I've done it. He's human."
"He's also a possible source of information. I need his details."
"Patching them through now. Anything else?"
The onboard beeped as the information came through. I glanced at it briefly, then said, "Did you get any hits on the other man?"
"Nothing yet. We're currently going through license information."
"Thanks, Benson."
"My pleasure," he said, and signed off.
I transferred Johnson's address to the nav computer and drove across town to his place.
Luke Johnson, it turned out, was a dead end in more ways than one. He opened the door naked, and his scrawny body stank of booze, cigarettes and sex. His neck was littered with the scars of old vampire bites and there was an unhealthy, sallow look to his skin—suggesting he was indulging in his drug of choice a little too often.
"Yeah," he said, squinting blue eyes and leaning forward slightly, as if he was having trouble seeing me.
"Luke Johnson?" I flashed my badge. "Did you visit Dante's club two nights ago?"
He frowned and gripped the doorframe a little tighter, though it didn't seem to help stop his swaying. "I think so. Why?"
"Do you remember talking to this woman?"
I took out a photo of Mandy and held it up. He leaned forward, squinting harder. "Yeah. She's not a vamp."
"No, she isn't. What did you talk to her about?"
"Thought she was a vamp, didn't I?" He teetered backwards, his vice like grip on the door and the frame the only things holding him upright. "She wasn't."
"Did you talk to her about anything else."
"No. Found me a vamp, didn't I?"
Which left me with Kye, and he'd already denied talking to the woman about the vampire found dead outside the club.
So why would he lie? Because he obviously was. I'd seen the cash in Mandy Jones' wallet and had found no lie—or psychic interference—in her thoughts or memories.
"Thanks for your help, Mr. Johnson."
He nodded and closed the door. His footsteps meandered away, going back to whoever was sharing his bed. I could only feel sorry for them.
I went back to my car and headed over to Vinny's.
She still lived in one of those high-rise brick and glass buildings that the government had insisted on building some fifty years ago. The intention had been to relieve the low-income housing crisis, but the resulting buildings were neither pretty nor truly functional. Add tenants who hadn't really given a damn about the place, and you were basically left with a large hovel. One with many smashed windows and doors, and decorated by multi-colored graffiti.
Vinny's building had been vacated by both the government and the real tenants years ago, and according to recent Directorate records, she'd bought the building outright. It was interesting to note that the broken glass and graffiti that had once decorated this place were now gone.
I walked up to the front door. As before, the stink of vampire grew stronger with every step, until the cloying, unhealthy smell all but surrounded me.
Obviously, she still hadn't got the water running properly in the downstairs area.
I opened the glass front doors and stepped inside. Footsteps whispered through the shadows—the sounds so soft regular hearing wouldn't have caught it.
"Riley Jenson from the Directorate," I said, raising my voice just a little. "I'm here to see Vinny."
A young woman in her late teens emerged from the shadows to the right. Her plump face was smeared with dirt, but otherwise she was extremely pretty—and very healthy-looking. Which was a vast change from the scrawny, half starved figures I'd seen on these lower levels when I first visited. Vinny was obviously feeding well if the lower levels were looking this good.
"She is expecting you," the vamp said, her voice a low hum of excitement.
Which was worrying. Rising excitement amongst a nest of emo vampires might not be good for my health. Just as well I was still carrying a laser. And that I could fly, and they couldn't.
"You can use the elevators," the girl continued. "They're working now."
"Thanks, but I prefer to walk." If only because I didn't trust Vinny not to trap me inside one of the damn things. She and I had something of a volatile relationship—although calling it a relationship was also something of a misnomer. It was little more than a wary connection—one formed when I'd uncovered her lair while working a case.
She was useful and so far had seemed reasonably happy to help the Directorate when asked, but I had no doubt she would double-cross us if it suited her purpose. The only thing Vinny worried about was Vinny.
I grabbed the hand rail and began climbing. The unwashed scent of vampire faded the further I went up, so that by the time I reached the eighth floor, it had all but disappeared. In its place was the rich freshness of springtime—a scent provided by the series of red candles that sat in the stylized, rose-shaped sconces that lined the hall.
Down at the far end, a woman waited. Like most of the vampires on the floors below, she was young and gangly. But unlike them, her blonde hair had been recently washed and shone like pale gold in the flickering candle light.
She wasn't a stranger. She'd been the door guard on several of the occasions I'd had to come here for the Directorate. She didn't talk much, but I'd gleaned a name—Rose.
She was one of the ones we couldn't identify.
"Morning, Rose," I said, as I strolled towards her.
She nodded, her dark gaze sweeping the length of me. "You armed?"
"Yes, and this time I will remain so."
She opened her mouth but didn't get a chance to protest as I added, "Vinny, if I wanted to fucking shoot you, I could do so quite easily from here."
Something flickered through the girl's eyes, and a moment later she opened the door. Unlike the squalor in which the majority of her nest lived, Vinny enjoyed her comforts. The room beyond could only be described as lush. The walls covered by thick velvet drapes that were a dark, dramatic red and the carpet was the color of rich sand, thick enough to lose your toes in. Two big chandeliers hung from the ceiling, sending rainbow-colored sprays of light though the shadows.
I stepped inside and looked beyond the thickly-stuffed black leather chairs and sensuous-looking chaise sofas to the small circle of people at the far end of the room.
Half a dozen toga-clad boys and girls—I always refused to think of them as anything else, because not one of them looked to be older than seventeen—stood around a mahogany and leather chaise lounge. In it sat Vinny.
Power and sensuality oozed from her and, as ever, the force of it caused me to hesitate, however briefly.
Then her lush lips twitched and annoyance swept through me. She'd been warned often enough not to try her tricks on Directorate personnel but she liked to push. And given she was currently more of a help than a hindrance, there was nothing I could do about it.
I strode forward. Vinny watched me. She was an ordinary looking brown haired, brown eyed woman of medium height and build, but there was nothing ordinary about what she could do. As an emo vampire in charge of a huge nest—which was the only one we knew of in Melbourne—she was more dangerous than she looked. She had an aura similar to a werewolf's, and was totally capable of seducing anyone she chose, willing or unwilling. She'd come damn close to seducing me, and had even won a kiss from me—although that was more from a desperate need to get information than any emo geis.