The Moonlight Monsters Detective Agency Volume One (12 page)

‘Alright Tina love,’ he said, ‘you busy?’

‘Sam,’ Tina answered, ‘no of course not. Come in.’
She
was a little surprised to see him here, since Sam Parker and the SDA shared a checkered personal relationship – although admittedly it had improved somewhat in recent weeks. ‘How did you know where to find me?’ she asked.

Parker smiled and Tina couldn’t help but note how cute he was, and not for the first time either. ‘Ernie the Egghead told me, didn’t he?’ Parker shrugged, ‘I called the station looking for you first.’

Tina rolled her eyes. Ernie could have just given him her cellphone number instead of handing out her address. She had a sneaking suspicion he’d wanted to mix things up a bit for her on her night off.

‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘well even Monster Detectives have to take a night off once in a blue moon…’ She trailed off as she looked at the drenched man before her. Something in his face told her that this mightn’t end up being a night off after all. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘I’ve got something for you,’ Parker said, ‘something big. So, are you free tonight?’

Tina glanced back into the living room. Gabriel had curled up in a ball on the light blanket she’d laid on the couch. She looked back at Parker. ‘Give me a minute to get dressed.’

‘Do you want anything?’ she called as she hurriedly pulled on a blouse and a pair of tweed pants, ‘there’s coffee and herbal tea in the presses, help yourself. Sorry I can’t offer you anything stronger.’

She bit her lip. She’d meant whiskey – Parker, like most European guys, was more than partial to a glass of liquor – but it had come out wrong, considering the man’s extra needs as a vampire. ‘I meant alcohol…’ she called.

There was silence. When he spoke she could hear the amused smirk in his voice. ‘Nah, you’re alright love,’ he answered from the hallway. ‘Besides, I’ve got a full pouch of pigs’ blood here to keep me tiptop for the night.’

She flicked her hair over the back of her blouse and gave herself a once over in the mirror. She picked up a roll of lipstick and quickly ran it against her lips. Ok, that would have to do.

‘Pigs’ blood?’ she said as she opened the door, ‘sounds delicious.’

Parker shrugged. ‘It’s the nutritional value more than anything else I’m interested in.’ He smiled. ‘You should try it some time. You’d be surprised what it can do for your constitution.’

‘Yeah, I bet,’ Tina answered, picking up her trench-coat from the rack, ‘so where are we going?’

‘To the Southland Docks,’ Parker answered, ‘I’m about to throw you the catch of the century…’

They descended the stairwell of Tina’s apartment block and down to the basement parking lot. ‘Bloody rotten night out there, eh?’ Parker asked as they crossed the car park.
‘Makes me nostalgic for merry old England.’

Tina unlocked the car and they climbed inside. She started it up and pulled out, driving across the concrete plaza towards the exit ramp. When they emerged onto the street she had to put the windscreen wipers on at full velocity.

‘You get weather like this a lot back home then?’ Tina asked.

‘All the time,’ Parker said.

‘No wonder you’re so pale then.’

‘Hey!’
Parker laughed, ‘watch
it, cheeky.’

Tina smiled. ‘So what is it we’re dealing with here?’ she asked, ‘catch of the century better mean something more than fish and chips.’

‘Oh believe me,’ Parker said, ‘it means a whole lot more. I just so happened to have hit upon the biggest drugs smuggling operation this side of the Panama Canal. Not only that, but it’s paranormal too.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s a gang or something,
innit
?’ Parker said, ‘down in the southland docks, a bunch of demon half-breeds and warlocks and what have you. They’ve got a whole compound to themselves, warehouses, boathouses,
the
works.’

‘But how?’
Tina asked, ‘how the hell did you find them?’

Parker grinned. ‘Elementary love,’ he said, ‘you and
ol
’ Papa bear aren’t the only supernatural detectives in Moonlight city anymore, remember? Where do you think I’ve been these past few weeks? I’ve been busy love.’

Tina said nothing. She was impressed, definitely impressed, but she knew that if she let him know then it would only further inflate Parker’s already bloated ego. ‘Nice find,’ she muttered begrudgingly and Parker snorted with laughter.

She took the freeway out to the industrial estates and factories at the south west of the city. At night the area was mostly deserted, the huge buildings were black and ominous against the smoggy orange-tinted sky. Occasionally they passed a freight truck heading to or from some all-night destination, but by and large the roads were empty.

‘Keep going towards the water,’ Parker said, ‘I’ll let you know when you’re getting close.’

Tina took a turn towards the docks and cruised on beneath the torrents of rain pouring down from the sky.

They passed by high wire-mesh fences with dark warehouses and boat-loading equipment on the other side. Up ahead there was a compound lit up by bright spotlights with cars and trucks still cruising around inside. It wasn’t necessarily unusual for the longshoremen to work into the night – sometimes shipments arrived late after all and they couldn’t just leave the crew onboard until the foreman had had his beauty sleep – but nonetheless there
was
definitely something that seemed suspect to Tina about this one. Maybe it was the grim expressions on the faces of the workers who moved purposefully to and fro across the plaza, or perhaps it was the group of
men
 
hanging
around outside the main warehouse who looked more like the cast of The Sopranos than stevedores.

‘You see it, yeah?’ Parker asked.

‘Yeah,’ Tina said. ‘That’s the one?’

‘One and the same.
You see that guy smoking a cigarette by the fence? He might look like he’s just a bozo on a break but he’s actually a watchman looking out for any suspicious activity on the outside. So whatever you do, don’t slow down or look out the window or anything as we pass.’

‘Ok,’ Tina said and pressed down on the accelerator.

As the car filled with glaring light from the huge spotlights around the base she ignored the instinct to look until after they’d passed the docking compound.

‘Take a right down here and park up,’ Sam said, ‘I know a shortcut inside.’

Tina parked the car along a quiet, dark little road and they quickly backtracked towards the docks. Crouched low they darted across the road and over to the compound that stood adjacent to the one with the gang in it.

‘Come on,’ Parker whispered, ‘we can get through the fence over here…’

Tina took a quick glance towards the guard up the street to make sure they’d made their excursion unnoticed. The grim, mean-faced guard continued to breathe smoke into the night and stare out into the darkness. She followed Parker over to an opening in the wire mesh of the fence and crouched down to follow him through.

‘I hope you didn’t make that hole yourself,’ she said as she stood up again on the other side.

‘Course not,’ Parker said, avoiding her eye as she watched him closely.

‘Hah, well forgive me for thinking otherwise,’ Tina said.

She looked around. They were in the yard of a large courier company, she could tell because the company name was written on the fleet of trucks parked nearby.

‘Are you sure we’re safe in here?’ she asked, ‘I mean won’t there be night security or something around?’

‘You tell me,’ Parker said, ‘you’re the one with the psychic abilities after all.’

Ok, he had her there alright, maybe she should have checked first and spoken later. She placed her finger on her temple and closed her eyes as she concentrated. The bigger hum of voices was coming from the gang’s compound up ahead but it wouldn’t be safe for her to try to invade the minds there. If Parker was right when he said the
gang were
supernatural then they’d probably have some kind of defense set up against psychic intruders. Further south she picked up the lazy mutterings of a human mind. It was the security guard from the courier company. He was laid out in the office reading a dirty magazine.

‘All clear,’ Tina said, ‘lead the way, Sherlock.’

Parker headed towards the dock and Tina quickly followed.

They came up towards the fence to the next compound over. Right near the water’s edge, where the concrete veered down into the dark soup of Moonlight City’s small slice of the Atlantic
ocean
. Parker crouched down and, as Tina approached, she saw that there was another opening in the fence.

‘Let me guess, you just happened to find this one here too, right?’

‘Elementary my dear Tina,’ Parker smirked and then hurried on through.

‘That’s breaking some serious laws there Parker,’ Tina said as she slipped after him, ‘if you got caught out here, you know there’s nothing I could have done to help you.’

‘I’m pleading the fifth,’ Parker said.

‘Whatever,’ Tina shrugged, ‘so where to from here?’

They’d emerged right beside a huge boathouse and by the noise and the strong light spilling onto the water around the corner, it sounded like the dockworkers were unloading a ship inside.

‘There’s another one of these on the other side,’ Parker answered, ‘but the real mother lode is in the warehouse between the two of them back towards the road. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen so many drugs in all my life. And bear in mind that I was a teenager while the sixties were going on…’

‘Ok,’ Tina nodded, ‘and what about the
perps
? How many of these guys are we dealing with here?’

Parker thought about it for a second. ‘More than I can count,’ he said. ‘You’re locked and loaded, right?’

Tina opened her coat and flashed him her holstered weapon.

‘Good,’ Parker said, ‘me too. And this time I’ve got a license and all, so hands off.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Tina said. She didn’t necessarily believe that he actually was licensed to pack heat, but she wasn’t about to give up on the cover now. ‘Oh shit,’ she whispered, ‘I can feel someone coming…’

A side door to the rusty boat house slid open and the sound of foreign accents emerged. They sounded Eastern European, Tina observed, as Parker quickly sidled up beside the door.

An average looking heavy stepped outside and produced a battered packet of cigarettes. In one swift movement Parker drove his elbow into the man’s throat and dropped him to the concrete floor. He was out cold.

‘Good thing he was just a human,’ Parker said, ‘or we could have been in trouble there.’

They dragged the thug over to the fence and flipped him over.

‘Hold on,’ Parker said and reached down to untie the man’s boot. He pulled the shoe of his foot and turned it upside down a little behind him.

‘What are you doing?’ Tina asked.

‘This way it’ll look like he tripped over his laces and hit his head if anyone finds him.’

‘Hah!’ Tina snorted, ‘you really are unscrupulous, Parker.’

‘Better safe than sorry,’ Sam shrugged and turned back to face the compound.

 
Keeping low, they waited at the corner of the boathouse until the coast was clear and then darted across the loading bay towards the main warehouse.

‘Over here,’ Parker hissed, sliding in behind a row of garbage skips around the side of the building.

Tina skidded in beside him and tried to regain her breath. From the sound of the voices around the base, she guessed there was veritable army of goons in there. All in all, it was turning out to be pretty far from the boring night she’d envisioned for herself earlier that evening.

‘Ok,’ Parker said, ‘there’s a side-door down here we should be able to get through. Then you’ll see for yourself what we’re really dealing with.’

‘Are you sure it’s safe?’ Tina asked.

Parker ignored the question and slipped out around the skip and towards the entrance to the warehouse. Tina pulled out her pistol and loaded it before following after him.

The door was open and Parker quickly leaned around the edge to make sure it was all clear before slipping inside. When Tina stepped through after him she had to bite her tongue to keep from speaking out in surprise. The whole warehouse was filled almost to the ceiling with bales of cocaine.

‘
Holy shit Parker
,’ she whispered.

Parker glanced back and nodded with a tight-lipped grin. He motioned towards a piece of loading equipment and they darted forward to take cover.

‘What now?’ Tina asked.

‘Wait a second,’ Parker replied, ‘I think I hear someone coming…’

Up ahead, the sound of men approached. A deep, thick European accent spoke as the group crossed the room.

‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
All that marvelous powder.
All that chaos, all that money…’