There was a long, drawn-out silence from the other end of the line. It was so long and deep that I wondered if Rom hadn’t slammed down the phone on me.

“A Lycanthrope?” he suddenly breathed down the line. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“She’s just a friend,” I told him again.

“Nothing like that has gone on. I’ve known her since we were just kids. It’s her who’s in trouble.”

“She’s a Lycanthrope, Murphy,” Rom hissed. “She ain’t your problem.”

“She’s my friend and I think she has been murdered,” I said.

There was another long pause. Then suddenly, “Murdered by who?”

“A couple of Lycanthrope,” I explained.

“Then that’s not my problem or yours,”

Rom said. “Now get your arse back to work and I’ll speak to you then.”

“I can’t come back – not yet,” I told him.

“Not until I’ve found out what has happened to my friend.”

“You don’t make friends with wolves,” he reminded me. “We’re like cats and dogs. We don’t mix. Now grow up and get your sorry arse back...”

“I’m not coming back,” I said, drawing another deep breath and feeling sick inside. “Not until I’ve found out what has happened to her.”

Another long silence.

“What makes you think she has been murdered?” he finally said.

“Pen...that’s her name...has been living with this guy, you see…” I began to tell him. I explained about the ‘Ooze Bar’, Marc, and his brother. Rom asked for their surname and I got the feeling that he was writing down what I was telling him. Did this mean he was going to help? I couldn’t be sure. I explained how Marc had been beating Pen and stealing money from her business.

When I’d finished, Rom spoke again.

“Listen, Murphy, these people… wolves, they don’t live like us,” he warned me in an almost fatherly tone. “Nothing good will come of this. As far as you know, they haven’t killed no human, so if I were you, I’d leave them to get on with it.”

“I can’t,” I whispered. “Pen is my friend.

I can’t just walk away.”

Realising he wasn’t going to change my mind, he sighed deeply and said, “You’re a good cop, Murphy. I had high hopes for you. Why you’ve gone and got yourself mixed up with a Lycanthrope beats the shit out of me.”

“She’s my friend,” was all I could say.

“I know I’m going to regret this,” he sighed. “I’ll do some digging on this Marc Johnson and his brother on my end and see what I come up with. Give me some information on this friend of yours.”

I gave Rom Pen’s description, car registration number, address, and anything else I could think of. I then thanked him.

“Don’t thank me,” he said. “When you get back, me and you are going to have a serious talk about your future on the Force. Now, for Christ’s sake, sit tight and don’t get involved.”

I gave Rom the number of the hotel I was staying at and thanked him again.

“If it wasn’t the fact that you were a Vampyrus and a cop, I’d come down there and kill this freaking wolf, Pen, myself!” He hung up the phone.

Chapter Seventeen

Murphy

Despite Rom’s warning not to get involved, I drove back across town, which was now mostly quiet and deserted. It was just short of midnight and I guessed that ‘The Ooze bar’ would be closing soon. I parked just up the street and slid down into my seat and waited for Annie to leave the bar for the night. It was just a waiting game now. It was a game that I had played countless times before, back home while at work.

By 1:30 a.m. there had still been no sign of Annie. I twisted in my seat and stretched.

Maybe I had missed her already? Maybe she finished earlier, before I had even arrived? I had decided to give her another half an hour, when I saw her step out of ‘The Ooze Bar’ and into the night.

I started the engine and crawled slowly up the road some distance behind her. I waited until she had walked a couple of streets and was a safe distance from the bar, when I drew up alongside her and wound down my window.

“Hey, Annie!”

She quickened her pace and didn’t turn to look at me or the car.

“Hey, Annie, it’s me, Jim!”

On realising who it was, she slowed slightly and looked through the open window at me.

“Go away!” she whispered and flashed a quick glance behind her.

“Get in,” I said.

“No! Go away,” she pleaded.

“I just wanted to say thanks for the note.”

“What note? I never sent any note,” she said, looking straight ahead.

“Okay, okay…I never got any note,” I played along. I continued to crawl along beside her as she began to quicken her step.

“How long has Pen been missing?”

“About four days. Now please, just leave me alone!” she said without even turning to look at me.

“You don’t have to be scared, Annie, I can protect you. Just tell me what you know,” I said.

“I won’t need protecting if you just go away!” she whispered.

“Why are you so scared, Annie?”

“Because I feel that something very bad has happened…I think something bad has happened to Pen.” This time she did glance sideways at me and I could see the fear in her eyes.

“Like what?” I persisted.

“I don’t know!”

“What’s in the basement?” I pressed.

“Nothing, I think…please, Jim, please leave me alone,” she said.

I could sense her fear and didn’t want to alienate her completely. I hoped that she could maybe be a future source of information – so I let her be.

“Okay, Annie, I’m sorry. Look I’m staying at the local hotel. I’m in room 219 for the next two days. If you need anything or hear anything, just let me know.”

Annie took a sharp right turn and hastily disappeared down another street. I wound up my window and drove straight on – losing Annie from my sight.

Chapter Eighteen

Murphy

I was woken to the sound of the telephone ringing. I reached for the phone with my eyes still closed, and knocked it onto the floor of my hotel room. I wriggled from beneath my blankets, dangled over the side of the bed, and picked up the receiver.

“Hello,” I said, stifling a yawn.

“Rise and shine, Murphy,” Rom snapped down the line at me. Even half asleep, I could picture his pinched-looking face and sharp, keen probing eyes. Not the thing I wanted to see first thing in the morning.

“Hello, sir,” I said, sitting up in bed.

“I’ve got some news for you,” he said. “I ran the Johnson boys’ names through the system.

They’re nothing but scum by the looks of it. The whole family is rotten through and through. There ain’t a decent wolf amongst ‘erm.”

“You ever had dealings with them before?” I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes with my free hand. My mouth tasted like I’d been eating road kill.

“All their lives they’ve been in and out of jail…and you say your friend…this Pen, has been living with one of ‘erm?” he said.

“Yes, the one called Marc,” I reminded him.

“Well, I got someone who owed me a few favours to do some checking on her, too,” Rom told me. “Her father is doing time down in The Hollows for human child abduction. You really know how to pick your friends.”

“Pen hasn’t had contact with her father for years,” I told him. “He abandoned her. Pen is not like the others.”

“Well, I got one of the wardens to visit him down in the cells,” Rom started to explain.

“Her father didn’t want to talk at first, but after my friend yanked on his bollocks for a minute or two, he couldn’t wait to start talking. Apparently, your friend Pen has been promised to this Marc Johnson.”

“What does that mean exactly?” I asked Rom, now feeling fully awake.

“Her father lost her in a card game some years ago...” Rom started.

“A card game!” I spat.

“He was playing cards and losing bad,”

Rom said. “He had nothing left in the pot to gamble with so he offered up his young daughter.

He lost and your friend Pen was then promised to Johnson’s eldest son, Marc, when she came of age.”

“Those fucking animals,” I breathed angrily down the phone.

“Tell me something I don’t already know,”

Rom said. “Don’t you see now? These wolves don’t live like us. They’re scum. Don’t get involved in this, Murphy. It’s not your problem.

However much it disgusts us, these wolves made a deal years ago for Pen and they are keeping to it. Just come home.”

“I can’t, not until I know Pen is safe,” I breathed down the phone.

“She is alive,” he suddenly said.

“How do you know?” I asked, jumping from the bed, and reaching for my clothes with my free hand.

“Her car registration popped up at a local ANPR system just a few days ago,” Rom said.

“Where?” I snapped.

“On Bleachers Road,” he said.

“I know it,” I breathed. “It’s the main road which heads out of town.”

“Then that’s your answer,” Rom sighed.

“Your friend has hit the road. Decided to do a runner from this guy she’s been promised to. Just come home, son. You never know; she might show up here.”

To hear that Pen’s car had been pinged by the local Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras raised my hopes that she was safe and well.

“Are you still there, Murphy?” Rom asked, cutting into the silence.