Authors: Regina Morris
Raymond didn’t like to compel people. He often would compel a waitress or a store clerk to look the other way and not notice him, but he usually didn’t interfere with humans in general unless they attacked the US government. But deep within him, he wanted to help Alex, and he knew he could by simply compelling her. “Look at me Alex.” As she turned her head and their eyes met, he added, “I won’t hurt you. You will be safe while you are with me. Do you understand?”
Alex’s face went pale and her eyes dim. “I understand I will be safe with you Raymond.” He hated to compel her, but he wasn’t going to hurt her. He would take the compelling off her once she got to know him better. “How are you feeling?” he asked her.
“What? Oh, I’m fine. What were we talking about?”
“You were going to ask me another question.”
She looked at him and said, “Can I touch your hand?”
What was he just saying about fear? “I’d rather you didn’t” Raymond cursed himself for his lack of courage, because a part of him very much did want to hold her hand.
“Why can’t I touch your hand?”
“I will allow it if you will tell me why you want to.”
“Your hand felt warm when we first met. At the Starbucks counter the other day, it felt cold. I want to feel your skin temperature. Some websites say that vampires give off no body warmth.”
He knew he should have mentioned the mental connection he would have with her, but for some reason he wanted to hold back on that little detail. He reached out his hand so she could hold it. She took his hand and held it gently in her hands. Sure, he shook hands all the time with women for business purposes, but this felt more intimate. This was almost like holding hands and a part of him wasn’t ready for that, but he liked the way her fingers massaged his hand as she held him.
Once the touch was made, the mental connection grew stronger. Not just thought patterns but actual thoughts came across. The images of her thoughts flooded his mind. He fascinated her. She wanted to know more about him and his people. She was attracted to him and curious what he looked like with his shirt off. She was ashamed with herself for even thinking of a vampire in such a way. She thought of him as a monster. Vampires were monsters. … Too much information obtained way too quickly. He dropped the connection and put his hand back in his lap.
Well that was an eyeful for Raymond. Shame. She felt shame for being attracted to him. She thought of him as a monster. “Alex, there’s something I need to attend to. Could we maybe meet for lunch tomorrow instead?
Raymond and Ben sat in the Colony’s operation’s room. Raymond had taken his usual spot at the head of the conference room table. They watched as William walked in. The door closed behind him and immediately locked into place. The room resembled a tomb, which fit considering it was in the basement of Fang Manor. Each team member of the Colony had their own special seats at the table, but nothing had ever been officially assigned.
Raymond glanced up from his computer screen, and greeted William with a slight nod of his head. “Did the forger’s real information get uploaded?”
“Natch! I took care of everything. In fact …” William took a seat next to Ben, and then typed on his computer to pull up a request order, “Looks like some dude hit the new data last night while you were out with the new director.”
“Really? That was fast. What was the forger into?” Ben asked.
William typed on the keyboard and the smart wall directly across from the conference room table came to life. An image of the forger appeared with his physical stats. The info displayed next to the name of a Pennsylvania detective who made the request. “Look it — our man had a big–ass rap sheet. His prints were a match to an art heist last November, to some petty thefts earlier the year before, to a museum break–in a few years back, and a whole lot more.” William pulled up the information for each of the cases as he read them aloud. “One case was still active, so this Pennsylvania detective could match his case’s unknown fingerprints to him. Our man is listed as deceased, so the trail will end and the detective will be shit out of luck.”
Raymond gave a wry smile. “At least we helped Rodriguez with his case, and possibly helped with the closed ones.” Raymond cleared his throat. “I received information from the Vampire Council,” Raymond said, which gained him the full attention of the other two vamps in the room. “The forger’s DNA matched a rogue vampire from a coven up north. He has been independent for over 80 years now, with no ties to his coven. His bloodline has been verified and his family told of his death.”
“Well, Goddamn! What was his family line?” William asked excitedly.
Owning a seat on the Council extended Raymond private information to many social covens, but his oath of secrecy prevented him from divulging all information to his own team. “His family wishes that information not be made public. The forger was older than I am and they want to protect their family name.”
“If he’s been independent for that long he probably didn’t have strong ties to his bloodline, but it’s understandable they wouldn’t want this made public,” Ben agreed.
William shook his head. “He did have an amazing talent. Shame he wasted his gift.”
Ben held up one of the fake security passes. “Here is something odd I wanted to share with you, Raymond. The woman on this security pass is already an employee at the White House. She’s an intern.”
Raymond took the card from Ben. “What security clearance is on the pass?”
“All access. She was supposed to work yesterday but never showed up. Sterling was investigating the names on these passes. He just called from her apartment. It looks like she hasn’t been home in weeks.”
Raymond read the name from the pass. “Is Verna Foiles even her real name?”
“She checked out,” Ben said as he posted his findings onto the smart board. “I reviewed her White House application forms, her college transcripts, birth records, everything. If Verna Foiles isn’t her real name, she has been that alias for the last thirty years.”
“Keep an eye out for her then. She’s the only lead we have in the case.” A text came in on his phone and Raymond quickly read the message. He gritted his teeth. “Something went wrong with the forger’s evidence. What happened to it before you uploaded the fake info?”
“Did our human team find something that ain’t right?” William asked.
Ben looked over to Raymond. “Our human team won’t find anything. I scrubbed everything, including the bag itself. Not a single fingerprint or DNA remain on the forger’s backpack or its contents. I made sure of that.”
William added, “With no DNA to help ID that forger, they’ll be pullin’ up short on their end. As long as they don’t ask for a body, we should be rockin’ our way to easy street on this one. It’ll just be an unknown forger who disappeared into the wind.”
Raymond looked back down at the text. “Should be, but they’re having issues with the evidence. What about the memory cards? Were those clean?” Raymond asked as he texted back a reply.
Ben furrowed his brow with concern. “I transferred the designs of the passes on to new memory cards. The original cards had other files on them. There was nothing specific to vampires on it, no bloodlines and no names. But there were some files that read like journal entries. The forger sure hated humans and was verbose and explicit in his writings.”
William shot a concerned look over to Raymond. “Dude, it’s all good. What’s crawlin’ up their asses about the evidence this time?”
Raymond read Dixon’s email, “Cleanup needed – Tweetle Dee and Tweetle Dumb.”
William looked over to Ben, “Who?”
Ben rolled his eyes. “You know, Brandon and his tall sidekick.”
*******
Raymond arrived nearly an hour later to Dixon’s office for the cleaning. He felt sorry for Dixon the minute he entered the office – judging by the coffee mugs and the exhausted expression on Dixon’s face, Matt and Brandon had been there for a while.
“Thanks Agent Smith for coming by,” Dixon said. “Please continue fellows, and tell Agent Smith everything you’ve told me.”
Brandon inspected ‘Agent Smith’ like he had ordered a ham on rye, but was handed a snail sandwich instead. Raymond watched as Brandon made some cryptic hand gestures over to Matt, but, because of the expression Brandon had on his face when Matt began talking, the gestures missed their mark.
“It doesn’t add up,” Matt began. Matt checked a database, once again, of all known federal counterfeit artists who had the skill needed to create such beautiful forged federal documents. “Every single one of them is either in jail or out of the country,” he reported to Dixon and Agent Smith.
“We must have stumbled onto someone new,” Dixon calmly explained.
“Agent Smith, you look familiar,” Brandon said, slightly rubbing his temples. “I’ve seen you around quite a bit, but I thought your name was Agent Reese.”
Raymond waved his hands to dismiss Brandon. “I’m confused for many people.”
“I’ve seen you a lot, Mr. Teal Eyes,” Brandon said, with emphasis on the code name. He looked over at Matt, who immediately had a new interest in who this Agent really was.
“Please continue telling the agent your findings, Brandon,” Dixon urged.
Brandon held up the evidence documentation reported by the evidence team for the backpack, memory card and security passes. Looking defiantly at Mr. Teal Eyes, he waved the documentation in the air like a prized flag. “You know what doesn’t add up?”
The only reaction in the room was Matt’s widened eyes. Raymond caught it, and knew that Matt’s memories were flooding back to him as well.
“It's odd that no file encryption was performed on the memory cards. They weren’t even password protected. For as brilliant as the forger was, you’d think he, or she, would have protected their work,” Brandon stated.
“You’re assuming the forger owned the bag and cards. Maybe he, or she, was only a courier. Couriers sometimes don’t know what they’re transporting and mistakes can happen,” Dixon said, trying to calm the two.
“Maybe. But files like these you would expect to be protected in some fashion.” Brandon eyed Mr. Teal Eyes as if he were the enemy.
“You know what else is odd?” Brandon said accusatively at Dixon. “You gave us the evidence to ship to the computer analysis team. We were wearing gloves, so of course we left no fingerprints on the bag nor the passes or memory cards.”
“And?” Dixon asked.
“Your hands weren’t gloved,” Brandon accused.
Dixon remained quiet and shot a concerned look over to Raymond.
Brandon held out the evidence report. “There were no fingerprints found on the bag. Not even your fingerprints came back.”
Matt stood up, and with a shaky voice said, “The report can’t be correct. Brandon and I both saw Dixon touch the leather strap.”
As Matt read the paperwork, Brandon continued. “It is weird. I’m sending in a request to view the evidence again, if that’s okay with you, Dixon. I’m betting the filament tape on the inner container has been broken, or replaced. It’s the only explanation as to why your fingerprints were wiped.”
“No one else had access to the evidence but the teams who were supposed to,” Raymond said. It was the truth, even if the two humans didn’t know the vampire team had permission to view it as well.
“Well, when we get our hands on the evidence we’ll see if there is a statement inside the packaging about anyone else who may have viewed the items,” Brandon sealed the box.
“I doubt there will be any statement, Brandon,” Matt said looking from Dixon to Raymond. He held up the evidence sheet. “I think this paperwork is forged as well.”
Raymond had heard enough, he looked deep into their eyes. “Men, give me your full attention, and I’ll explain this all to you.”
Raymond decided an early lunch with Alex would be best for their next meeting. He suggested meeting at a restaurant. One benefit of an early lunch was to avoid the crowds and talk privately. Another benefit was to see her that much sooner. Thoughts of her consumed his night, and he felt like a child eager to see Santa on Christmas morning.
Oddly enough, watching her eat did not bother him. The sandwich in the park had reeked like garbage, but he had enjoyed watching her as she had eaten her lunch. It seemed nearly sinful how she had taken small bites, almost timid nibbles. She had dabbed at her mouth with her napkin, which had taken her lipstick off in the process as well as any food. Dainty. Very girly.
He assumed Alex had many questions remaining for him. It tantalized him that her questions were not all business related. You can tell so much about a person by what they ask of you and he wondered what questions she’d fire off at him during lunch today.
She chose a pizzeria since she would be eating alone and only her opinion mattered. He suspected the repulsion of garlic myth would be tested, but he didn’t mind.
The quiet pizzeria felt quaint. Too early for the lunch crowd to arrive, so they had plenty of privacy for their conversation. Red tablecloths lay on the tables, with candles lit on each one. Italian wines lined the bar and the place also boasted a nice beer selection. Artwork hung from the walls featuring images of Italy and soft music played in the background.