Page 9 of The Psychic and the Vampire: A Bad Case of Vampire Curiosity

“Why the hell are we suddenly having anything to do with that sleazeball Carmine Doukas?” Bridget burst into Ant’s sunny kitchen just as Ant and Viktor were finishing breakfast.

Viktor, who was over by the kitchen counter pouring himself and Ant more coffee, quietly hid his grin.

He’d already determined that there was a good chance Bridget wouldn’t be happy with Ant’s sudden desire to find the killer of a woman who’d been dead ten years – especially if the request came from Carmine.

He quietly added an extra sugar to Ant’s coffee. He was probably going to need it.

“My office is absolutely filled with bunches of wretched flowers. You know how much I hate cut flowers.” Bridget slapped a large folder on the dining table.

“And then this – let’s not forget this folder accompanied by a handwritten note from Carmine Doukas himself, addressed to me.

A simple little note letting me know how thrilled he was to be working with the Channon family.

What are you doing, Ant? What the hell are you bringing down on us now?

Wasn’t one crime family enough for you?”

Ant straightened in his chair, pushed his empty plate aside, and reached for the coffee Viktor had carried over to him.

“Carmine has a dead sister. She was apparently murdered ten years ago. He wanted me to help him find the killer. I said if he sent me the case file, I would read it over and consider doing a scene reading where her body was found, after he’d paid the account.

I knew you wouldn’t want me working without being paid. ”

“Damn right, I wouldn’t want you working for nothing. Your time is valuable, but this” - Bridget stabbed the folder with her fingernail - “why on earth did you agree to work on this particular case?”

Viktor could see Ant was confused, and there was a twinge of hurt that flickered on the edge of the bond they shared. “I’m sorry about the flowers,” Ant said at last. “Carmine wasn’t meant to do that.”

“That’s just Carmine being Carmine,” Bridget said as she slumped into a chair. “You can get me a coffee while you’re up, Viktor. Lord knows I need a pot of it this morning.”

Viktor went back to the coffee pot. He didn’t take offense at Bridget’s bossy tones.

He quite liked a feisty Bridget. Not in the same way as he enjoyed a feisty Ant, of course, but Bridget, when she was all fired up and excited, could be fun to watch, particularly in the way she spoke to her brother.

“I read about this case when it happened,” Bridget said. “It was in every newspaper. You couldn’t turn on a television without seeing Carol Doukas’s face on the screen. What I’m failing to understand is why you agreed to find a killer who was found a year after Carol’s body was found.”

Viktor knew Carmine had been lying during their meeting, but he hadn’t realized the lies were that extensive. Ant looked shocked as well. “Why would Carmine tell me that he wanted me to find the killer if the killer’s already in jail?”

“The man’s not in jail.” Bridget poked Ant’s arm with her fingernail for emphasis. “The man deemed responsible by the police and the courts for the death of Carol Doukas was sent to jail for twenty years. He served all of one week before he was found hanging in his cell and couldn’t be revived.”

Viktor pushed Bridget’s coffee across the table at her, before taking his seat.

“I did try to tell you, Ant,” he said quietly.

He didn’t want to sound accusatory when Bridget was doing that enough for both of them.

“Carmine’s a dedicated liar. He can’t lie straight in bed.

I warned you he is simply trying to pull you into his web of lies until you’re bound up so tight, you’re not even sure what the truth is anymore. I’ve seen it happen.”

“I’m not sure,” Ant said slowly. “Is it possible that Carmine thinks the man who confessed didn’t do it?

” He looked up and Viktor caught his eye.

“If you think about it logically, the first time you saw me was when I was in court, testifying that a certain Mr. Duncan was not responsible for the death of Mr. Fallows in Gully Park. A crime Mr. Duncan had already confessed to, probably because he was being paid by Tony Manzano to do so.”

Leaning back in his chair, Viktor rubbed the scruff on his chin as he nodded. “That’s true. Tony actually paid off Duncan’s mother just before the court case – giving her a hefty chunk of money to keep her family solvent while Duncan served his time.”

“Mr. Duncan didn’t go to jail for murder because I testified that he didn’t do it,” Ant said. “I didn’t investigate the original case of Carol Doukas, so I have no idea if the man who confessed murdered her or not. Isn’t that possible – that he didn’t do it?”

“Yes, brother dear,” Bridget said, with a touch of snark.

“Of course, it’s possible the man who confessed to murdering her didn’t actually do it.

But whether he did or not, that doesn’t answer the question as to why Carmine would be asking you to look for the killer when, for all intents and purposes, he was probably the one who arranged the death of the confessed killer in jail. ”

“That’s going to make things difficult.” Ant looked pained.

The moment he opened his mouth, Viktor realized why.

“I doubt very much I can read a crime scene in a prison,” he said.

“There are just far too many energies there, far too many bad things have gone on within those walls. It would be extremely difficult...”

“You’re not going into the prison to try and read a scene on a man who’s been dead for years!

” Viktor slapped his hand on the table, causing Able, who’d been snoozing by the door, to bark.

“Sorry, Able, but half the people in prison right now are probably there because of you, Ant. I know you’re an independent adult.

I know you can make decisions for yourself, and normally, I would support you absolutely in doing anything you want to do.

“But can’t you take this for the warning that it is? Carmine is playing you, testing you out, seeing how far he can push you. He sent flowers to your sister, for fuck’s sake. The same sister you warned him from going near just yesterday.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Ant said, his chin stuck out at such an angle Viktor knew he was about to be stubborn.

“Seeing as you and Bridget are so keen to espouse rash theories, none of which have any basis in fact, perhaps I should do the same thing. Isn’t it possible that Carmine had the man in prison killed because he wasn’t his sister’s murderer?

Perhaps Carmine was annoyed that the man confessed to the crime for whatever reason, thereby stopping the police investigation that had already dragged on for too long? ”

“That’s possible. Unlikely, but possible,” Viktor said slowly.

He wouldn’t put it past Carmine to kill someone because the man had gotten in his way.

“But for Carmine to know definitively the man wasn’t the killer, he would have to know who did kill his sister, again negating the need for you to work for him at all. ”

“It’s no more of a wild theory than the ones you and Bridget are coming up with,” Ant said hotly. “You are both angry at me when I’m just trying to find justice for a dead woman. It’s what I do. I thought of all the people in the world, you two would know that about me.”

Viktor glanced at Bridget, and she gave him a look that could only be described as commiserating.

“Ant, dear,” Bridget said in a voice similar to one Viktor had heard used by a mother speaking to an errant toddler.

“I understand that sometimes human psychology and the way people think is confusing to you, but I don’t understand why we’re having anything to do with Carmine Doukas.

“His sister was killed. That was very tragic. But the police did their job, and the killer was found. There had to be evidence. A confession isn’t enough to put someone away, so there had to be something concrete tying the man to the murder.

He then died in prison – at Carmine’s hand, on Carmine’s orders, or through sheer bad luck, but that man is now dead, too.

There is nothing more to learn about this case. ”

“There is if the man who died in jail wasn’t the actual killer,” Ant insisted. “I can do a scene reading, not in the prison, but where Carol’s body was found. Is that acceptable?”

Oops. Viktor got the distinct impression he was in the shit, seeing as the question was directed at him. “You don’t need my permission,” he said slowly. “I’d just urge you to be cautious, that’s all…”

“Good, then. I clearly have your permission.” Ant glared at his sister. “Did you send Carmine my invoice, charging him for a scene reading?”

Tapping her long fingernails on the table, Bridget nodded.

“Against my better judgment, yes, I did. But he’s paying double your usual fee,” she said.

“And before you ask why, it’s going to cost me a fortune in Ubers to get rid of the flowers he sent me.

I’m donating them to the hospital. He had no right to send them to me, especially when the delivery person refused to take them back.

He wouldn’t even tell me who paid for the damn flowers. ”

“If you don’t know who sent the flowers, how do you know they were from Carmine?”

Ant asked the question, Viktor wanted to know the answer to as well, although flowers turning up at the same time as the case file was far too close in timeline to be a coincidence.

“Carmine sent me the same flowers the day after our disastrous dinner date.” Bridget sighed.

“The man has no imagination. Each bouquet is made up of four pale pink roses, four bright yellow roses, and four white rose buds, with exactly four stems of greenery keeping the colors separate. There has to be at least ten vases of that flower combination waiting for me back at the office.”

Folding her arms across her chest, Bridget added, “Carmine is well known for not giving up.” Her glare was directed at him, Viktor realized.

“We don’t need his drama or his lies. So, tell me, vampire, how did we go from me sending Ant off to lunch with you, with a bunch of normal everyday cases to be solved, and you two now working for Carmine?

I know darn well there was no application for services from him in the pile of papers I gave Ant yesterday. ”

Viktor shrugged. “I might have played a small part in what happened yesterday. I had a run-in with one of Tony’s henchmen while Ant was still at the office.

At least, I believed the man was working with the Manzanos still, but it turned out he’d changed his allegiance and was looking for me and Ant because Carmine had a proposition for us.

My first instinct was that I didn’t want your brother anywhere near Carmine, especially when I learned he had met him before, but…

” Viktor winced. “I was also curious and wanted to know why Carmine was looking for us in the first place.”

“I should’ve bloody known.” Bridget took a long swig of her coffee.

“Hey, this isn’t all about me,” Viktor protested.

“Yes, I wanted to know what Carmine was up to, and what sort of proposition he had for my mate. I know him, too, remember, and I know if Carmine wants something badly enough, he’ll find a way to make it happen.

I fully intended to tell him to take his proposition, whatever it was, and shove it up his ass, politely of course because we were in a restaurant and I have Ant’s reputation to consider, and I did tell Carmine no.

It was Ant who turned around and said we’d do the job anyway. What was I supposed to do about that?”

“You can all stop treating me as though I’m a child for a start,” Ant said, swiping the file Bridget had delivered and standing up.

“I’ll be in my office, reading the information provided, making my own decisions.

Before I go, though, I would suggest both of you consider one more thing that no one has mentioned.

“What if Carmine’s sole purpose in all of this was to separate me from the two people who love me most?

Causing them to doubt my abilities. Perhaps even driving a wedge between me and those same two people who claim to care about me, yet who can’t respect the decisions I make.

The educated, instinctual decisions I make, for reasons that make perfect sense to me.

Could that be possible?” Striding out of the room, Able beside him, Ant disappeared down the hallway.

Bridget whistled softly. “I’ve known Ant to be stubborn before, but this is unusual even for him. I think you and I are in big trouble, brother-in-law.”

“You know what’s even worse.” Viktor tapped the side of his coffee mug, hating the unease that was festering in his gut.

“There’s a damn good chance Ant’s hypothesis is right.

As soon as he said it, it made sense to me.

Carmine knows both of us, and he knew before he even set the meeting up that you and I would be against Ant working with him. ”

“For good reason,” Bridget shot back. “The man’s a professional liar – a viper in an expensive suit.”

“If Carmine manages to isolate Ant from the two of us, there’s no telling what plans he might have for our extremely talented and socially awkward loved one.

It means we’ve got to be a bit more careful.

” Viktor shook his head at his sister-in-law.

“I haven’t heard anything about the death of Carol Doukas at all. What can you tell me?”