The Moonlight Monsters Detective Agency Volume One (14 page)

‘Come on,’ he said, ‘follow me.’

They walked across the lot to the warehouse. An armed SWAT man waited at the doorway. ‘Commander,’ he nodded as Daniels approached.

The commander turned back to face the others. ‘This warehouse was supposed to be filled with cocaine, right?’ he said. He stepped back to allow them through.

Inside the warehouse was empty, save for a few reels of copper wire.

‘But I saw it with my own eyes,’ Tina said.

‘I believe you,’ Daniels answered, ‘not that it matters now either way.’

‘The ships,’ Tina said, ‘did you search the ships?’

‘Nothing,’ Daniels said, ‘nothing that is, except copper wires.’

‘What about Aiolfo?’ Tina asked.

‘Yeah, he’s inside,’ the commander answered. ‘Let’s go up and see him, shall we?’

They stepped into the warehouse and walked up a set of metal stairs. At the end of a boardwalk was a door to an office. It was already open.

As they approached, Draco rose from his desk inside the room and smiled widely. ‘Ah Miss Peterson,’ he said, ‘we meet again.’

‘Where’s the gear, Draco?’ Tina asked.

‘What gear?’ the demon replied, ‘the only gear is wires – that is my business.’

Before Tina had a chance to respond, Sam arrived at the office door behind her. Draco’ face dropped when he saw the vampire.

‘Draco?’ Parker said, ‘remember me?’

Slowly, Draco smiled again. ‘No,’ he said, ‘no, I’m afraid not. Have we had some business perhaps? I do so much business, I can’t remember everybody I deal with you see.’

Tina could feel the rage building inside Sam before he acted on it; that was how angry the vampire was.

‘You son of a bitch!’ he shouted, ‘you killed the only person in the world I really cared about!’ Parker darted forward and tried to get into the office, his fangs spiking out and his eyes turning blood red. Boris grabbed him before he tried to tear the demon to pieces.

Draco backed away slightly but the cool smile on his face never faltered. ‘Commander,’ he said, ‘are you really going to let this reprobate threaten me like that?’

‘Shut your damn mouth Aiolfo,’ Daniels barked. He turned to Tina and in a quieter voice said: ‘get him the hell out of here, will you?’

‘Sam!’ Tina shouted, ‘cool down, for Christ sake. You’re only making things worse here.’

Parker shook himself loose from Boris’s grip. He was still enraged, but at least his fangs had disappeared now. ‘Oh really?’ he said, ‘and just what the hell is there left to solve around here anyway Peterson?’

Tina said nothing, she could feel the pain radiating off the man.

‘You screwed it up Tina,’ Sam continued, ‘I told you we should have moved when we had the chance and now it’s too God damned late!’

Daniels stepped forward. ‘Just who the hell is this guy anyway?’ he demanded.

Tina ignored him. ‘Sam,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah?
Well me too,’ Parker said and stormed off down the staircase.

Commander Daniels was still worked up beside her on the boardwalk. ‘Dammit I asked you a question?’ he said, ‘who the hell is that guy?’

Tina stared at him. ‘Oh shut the fuck up,’ she said, ‘Sam was right. There’s a leak in your department somewhere Daniels and now a whole warehouse full of cocaine has slipped through the cracks and out into the city we’re supposed to be protecting. Come on Boris, we’re out of here.’

Before leaving she turned back to Draco. The demon prince nodded slightly as he smiled.

‘Miss Peterson,’ he said, ‘
will
there be anything else?’

‘Not this time,’ Tina snorted, ‘but soon. Watch your back asshole.’

As she walked down the steps with Boris behind her, Draco Aiolfo called out after them. ‘Oh I always do!’ he laughed, ‘a pleasure as always, Miss Peterson…’

When they got back to the car Parker was nowhere to be seen. Tina guessed he’d decided to make his own way back to the city.

‘Ah Christ, what a screw up,’ she sighed as she pulled out of the alleyway.

‘These
normals
,’ Boris shrugged, ‘what can be done? If they are not corrupted, then they are completely incompetent.’

‘I’ll say,’ Tina nodded.

She was upset about letting parker down sure, but it was impossible to ignore the bigger issue at hand. If all those narcotics were intended for sale in Moonlight City then an epidemic of massive proportions was on the horizon. And they’d missed the tiny window of opportunity to kill it before it grew into the monster it was likely to become. Trouble was coming, for the
paranormals
and
normals
of Moonlight City alike.

It all made sense now, she observed. That freak incident over Christmas with the
Krampi
– and the massive bank heist that had gone beside it – that was Draco Aiolfo’s doing. Hell, he’d probably used that money to fund his burgeoning drug enterprise. He’d been setting himself up in the shadows this whole time, right under her nose, and now it was too late to stop him.

And Parker, when he’d told her about the
Krampi
, he must have known the full score. She’d known there had been something he wasn’t telling her. All this time, he’d been trying to stop Draco.

Dammit, she thought, if only he’d been straight with her from the beginning. It was
his own
fault. It was
his own
damn fault.

###

About the author:

Maggie Harper is a writer and musician from Massachusetts. When she’s not penning fantastical tales or bowing her fiddle, she enjoys cycling and cookery. (They say she makes a five bean chili that’d knock your socks off…)

Check out these other great titles from Thompson, Joyce,
MacGowan
Publishing:

Godsmacked
!

by

Andrew Green

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. And then, roughly thirteen billion years later a loser was born.
The most important loser in the history of boring losers.

Steve Finkle thinks he's just a regular guy, but he's about to find out that he's a direct descendent of the messiah himself, Jesus Christ, and the boss is finally coming back -- in the form of Steve's grandson, decades in the future. (
and
no, that's not "kind of like incest". Not even a little bit.)

Now the heroes of the Old Testament are returning to the earth to protect Steve from the forces of darkness. King David, in the guise of a world-famous rock star, will be his personal bodyguard.
Which is good news for Steve, since the bumbling members of an ancient cult are currently vying for his blood, not to mention the seductive
demoness
, determined to lure him over to the dark side by any means necessary.

The only thing certain for Steve now is that his future will be anything but boring.

The Lonesome Death of Willy Casey

By

Emmet Bacon

Small town police sergeant Willy Casey is having a bad day. So maybe it’s a good thing it’s going to be his last one alive.

Willy Casey is the sole guardian of Newport-upon-Tyne, a quiet village in the Irish countryside. But when he wakes up one morning with an intense feeling of dread, he soon comes to learn that his fellow townspeople don’t have as much respect for the sergeant as he thinks he deserves. In fact the people of Newport are just about sick of Willy Casey.

Now Willy is beginning to sense that something very unpleasant indeed lies in store for him, but the fate that awaits Willy Casey is far more gruesome than he could ever possibly imagine.

The Lonesome Death of Willy Casey is a wickedly humorous tale from Irish author Emmet Bacon that blends horror elements with a quintessentially Irish sense of comedy.