Sandra
says she is happy to help them track down whoever is hunting
vampires. She plans to assemble a team to watch them at the modeling
agency.
"And
the stake?"
"Not
telling all our secrets," Kirk replied judiciously.
Although
the stake wasn't fatal, it was painful and slowed their bodies to a
near death-like sleep. After that, they were vulnerable and could be
killed. He'd rather not tell her that.
"We'll
get started on this right away," Sandra said, suddenly
businesslike. "I'll call you as soon as the team is assembled."
"How
will you explain this?"
"I'll
think of something," she replied. "Fanatic group targeting
Wiccans or something. You don't mind that, I hope?"
"Drea
and I have been many things over the years. Wiccan, among them. No,
we don't mind. That's actually a good cover. Thank you, Sandra."
Kirk kissed her hand.
"You're
welcome."
"We
owe you much," Drea said. "If you can help us solve this,
we'll cater your wedding for free."
"I'll
do my best, even without that," she said, smiling. "It's my
job to help good people."
They
went back to their hotel with a young man who was a civilian worker
in the department. He was very talkative when he found out they were
caterers. He loved to cook, and was working as with the police until
he could afford to open his own place.
"You
hiring?" he asked as he opened the car door for them.
"We
might be at that," Drea said with a smile. "We'll let you
know."
"Thanks."
He grinned, saluting as he drove away.
"We
don't need him," Kirk said with finality.
"If
he's any good, we do. Need I remind you when you and Margo are
playing detective, Tommy and I are still fulfilling our contracts.
The work is split among four. It will be hard with two, easier with
three."
"You
have a point."
"I'll
be careful, love. I promise. And Tommy can be relied upon to be
discrete."
"Also
true. All right. Call him and set an audition.... or interview,
whatever you want to call it."
"I'll
conduct it. You'll be too picky."
He
chuckled, conceding her point.
The
next morning, Kirk and Margo reported to the photo shoot extra early.
They wanted a chance to look around before the business of the day
began. They didn't find anything out of the ordinary. There was the
usual hustle and bustle of the hurry up and wait nature of the
business. Fortunately, the people in charge were more on the ball
than some. There was more hurry and less waiting than they'd
anticipated.
When
they weren't in front of the camera, thus negating yet another
vampire myth, they did more poking around. About two hours into the
day, Margo hit pay dirt. It might not have seemed like it to some,
but she'd been associated with the fashion business far longer than
many. A history of nearly seven decades of both modeling and design
(under pseudonyms, of course), she knew how things worked. It struck
her as odd that there was so idle chitchat among the models and crew.
In fact, it was so quiet, she found it mildly disturbing.
The
crew went about their jobs efficiently. The models came and went as
told. None of them seemed to feel things were out of the ordinary,
but they didn't have Margo's senses. Even before becoming a vampire,
she had extraordinary perception. Some might call it clairvoyance or
ESP. Margo called it her cat sense.
"Were
I to sprout whiskers, they'd be vibrating now," she whispered to
Kirk. "Something isn't right."
"I
have a feeling like there's a musician in the orchestra playing
slightly off key and a beat behind. Though the piece sounds superb,
something's off."
"All
you needed to do was agree with me," Margo said with a pout.
"I
agree completely. But what? What aren't we seeing?"
The
waitress came over with a tray of delicious, low calorie appetizers.
She handed some to Kirk and Margo, who ate happily. Both were very
hungry.
"I
can't give away the canapes," she complained. "No one eats.
Even if the models don't, crew always does! I'll have to throw it all
away."
"What
did we do wrong?" Kirk asked, sniffing it.
"Nothing.
Delicious as always," Margo replied as she smoothed her skirt.
"And no one's talking but us."
"We'd
better stop," Kirk replied, putting the hors d'oeuvre back. "Oh,
we're being called." He rose, smiling. "Be right there!"
Margo
wiped crumbs from his face, kissing his cheek. Kirk and Margo were a
playing pair of super models recently hired by Andres. They had to
act the part.
After
seeing Kirk and Margo eat, it was obvious her food had no ill side
effects for the lead model, more people drifted over to eat. One of
the gaffers stayed to chat with Tommy, who was manning the beverages.
He was tall, with long black hair, glasses and a big belly.
"Thank
God," he said softly. "Didn't think we were gonna get to
eat!"
©
2019 Dellani Oakes
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