Page 25 of Patrick’s Seduction (Scanguards Vampires #19)

25

“ H e confirmed it?” Patrick asked, looking at Ryder.

They were in the command center at HQ, where several of his colleagues were working on digging up more about Cameron to find evidence that he was responsible for the Presidio murder, and the two supposed animal attacks in Marin County.

Ryder nodded. “I used a little persuasion, but, yes, Hank confirmed that the night they all went out for drinks to celebrate the NIH grant, Cameron came to his place and beat the living daylights out of him.”

“Alright, that establishes that he’s violent.” Not that he really needed that confirmation. But then, he was biased. He believed Fallon and knew that her fear of Cameron was fully justified.

From behind him, Eddie called out, “Hey, I’ve got a positive ID from one of the security cameras on Broadway.”

Patrick turned on his heel and bridged the distance with two large steps. He looked past Eddie’s shoulder to the monitor in front of him.

“That’s clearly Cameron walking past this house. The street leads directly to the Presidio. The time tracks with when we think the jogger was attacked and killed.”

Patrick looked at the grainy image. “Can you zoom in a little?”

Eddie shook his head. “The more I zoom in, the grainier the picture will get. But facial recognition gives me an 87% chance that this is Cameron. Might not stand up in court, but it’s good enough for us. It’s not like that guy is ever gonna see the inside of a court, right?”

“Not if I can help it,” Patrick replied. “Good work, Eddie. That means we can tie him to the Presidio murder.”

He turned around and looked at Sebastian. “Anything on the dental records that supposedly identified the charred body from the car crash as Cameron?”

“Still working on that. I’m close,” Sebastian said. “But as we all know, dental records are easy to manipulate. Somebody only needed to change out some of the X-rays on the dentist’s database, and boom, the dead body is Cameron.”

“Okay, keep working on that.”

He looked around the room, where several others were on the phone: Nicholas, Benjamin, and Anita. Nicholas suddenly lifted his hand, as he finished his call and put down the receiver.

“Got something,” he said.

Eagerly, Patrick approached. “Yes?”

“I went through the reports of the two animal attacks in Marin County. There was a witness in one of them, who supposedly saw something on the day the hiker died, but the witness report is incomplete, and it looks like it was never followed up on after forensics established that the fatal injuries were inflicted by an animal.”

“I need to speak to that witness.”

Nicholas scribbled something on a piece of paper. “That’s Walter Banks, his property borders on that of the Gallagher family.”

Patrick took the piece of paper. “I’ll go and see him.”

“I’ll come with you,” Nicholas offered.

Patrick nodded. “Let’s go.”

Traffic was heavy on the 101 North, with rush hour starting in the mid-afternoon and not letting up until past seven o’clock. But crossing the Golden Gate Bridge was still the shortest way to get to Marin County, even though it took them almost an hour to reach Walter Banks’ residence, a ranch-style home on a lot of about four acres.

The building was old but looked well-maintained.

Patrick stopped the car and turned off the engine. He exited, while Nicholas did the same on the passenger side. He’d barely made two steps away from the car, when he perceived a movement on the front porch of the house. A shadowy figure stepped forward, though the person’s face still lay in the shadow. A human wouldn’t have been able to make out the man’s face, but Patrick’s vampire vision allowed him to see whom he was dealing with.

The man was in his 70s, his skin leathery, his remaining hair gray and scraggly. He wore casual work pants and a flannel shirt.

“Mr. Banks?” Patrick asked.

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m Patrick Woodford. I’m a private investigator, and this is my colleague, Nicholas Eisenberg. We’re here to ask you about what you witnessed a little over two months ago when a jogger was found dead in these woods.”

Faster than he expected, the old man turned and reached for something near the door, before pivoting and aiming a shotgun at him and Nicholas.

“I suggest you leave,” he warned them. “I’m a pretty good shot.”

Patrick showed his hands in surrender and saw from the corner of his eye that Nicholas did the same.

“We don’t mean you any harm. We only want to talk to you about what you saw.”

“You think you can intimidate me?” He spat on the floor. “Tell Gallagher I’m not gonna change my statement. I saw what I saw no matter how many goons he’s sending.”

Patrick exchanged a quick glance with Nicholas. The man’s hostile behavior and statement that he believed the Gallaghers had sent them to intimidate him, could only mean one thing: the Gallaghers didn’t want whatever Banks had seen to come to light.

“I can assure you that we’re not working for the Gallagher family,” Patrick stated calmly. “We’re here because we believe that these so-called animal attacks on the Gallaghers’ property weren’t mountain lion attacks. We suspect that the Gallaghers are involved somehow.”

He noticed the old man relax a little, though he still kept his shotgun pointed at them.

Banks tipped his chin toward him.

“Alright. So what do you want to know?”

“You made a statement to the sheriff’s department, but the file we saw was incomplete, and didn’t tell us what you actually saw.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Banks grunted. “They didn’t like what I had to say, so they just kept it out of the report. Corrupt bastards!”

“You’re talking about the sheriff?”

“Yeah, him and everybody else.” He scoffed. “I told them what I saw, and they didn’t like it.”

“What did you see?”

“Hmm.” Another grunt, then he continued, “The day that hiker was found dead, I was up early, and I saw Cameron Gallagher, the oldest son, run past my fence.” He pointed toward the area where his property bordered on the Gallaghers’. “He was stark-naked, and I swear he had blood all over himself.”

Patrick’s heart beat faster. Finally, they were getting somewhere. They had an eyewitness who had identified Cameron close to the crime scene.

“But when I reported it, Gallagher… you know, the old man… his father, claimed I must have been drunk. Fucking asshole. I wasn’t drunk. I saw what I saw.”

“And what did the sheriff’s department say when you gave your statement?” Patrick asked.

“They believed Gallagher. And a couple of days later, they dismissed the whole inquiry, ‘cause suddenly Cameron had a car accident. It was a huge explosion. But just because he died, doesn’t mean that I didn’t see what I saw.”

“We believe you, Mr. Banks. You’ve been a huge help. May I ask you one more thing?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“I’d like to show you a picture of Cameron Gallagher so we know we’re talking about the same person.”

Banks nodded slowly, but remained on his porch, holding the shotgun in a more relaxed way now.

Patrick pulled his cell phone from his pocket, navigated to Cameron’s picture, and walked closer to Banks to show it to him. A few feet away, he held the phone out to him.

Banks looked at it, then nodded. “That’s Cameron. That’s who I saw.”

“Thank you, Mr. Banks. One more thing: have you seen Cameron since the car accident?”

He furrowed his brow and stared at him, looking perplexed. “‘Course not. He died in the accident.”

“Of course.” Though Patrick now knew with certainty that Cameron had faked his death, because now he knew the reason why: so he wouldn’t be arrested for the murder of a hiker in Marin County. Had his family helped him stage the accident?

Back in the car, Nicholas turned to him. “We’ve got him.”

“Yes and no. We know he’s good for all three murders, the two in Marin, and the one in the Presidio, but we don’t know where he is right now.”

“Guess then we’d better start looking for him,” Nicholas mused.

Before Patrick could answer, his cell phone rang. The caller ID identified Lydia.

“What’s up?”

“Fallon has locked herself in the bathroom. Something is wrong.”

Instantly worried, he replied, “I’m on my way.”