Art Theft 101

Chapter 1-6

“Took you long enough,” Duff said as soon as I arrived back at the building. He and the others were gathered in our office.

Liddy grinned. “Do you two have a date set up?”

I shook my head. “Not the way you mean it. I’m calling him in the morning to let him know we’re going to take the job. Then we’ll set up a meeting with him. He’s been inside the lodge so he knows the layout.”

“I thought you were going to check out the divorce decree,” Duff said.

“I am,” I replied, going to the desk to boot up the computer. “From what Ian said, Steve was an abuser. Not physically apparently, but in every other way.”

“Can we kill him while we’re at it?” Libby snarled.

“Easy, Tiger,” Duff said, hugging her. “That’s not our thing and you know it.”

“Castrate him?” she asked hopefully.

Duff muttered, “Perhaps?”

As they talked, I got online and made my way to the site I needed. Typing in Ogden vs. Ogden, I soon found information on the divorce. “Ian wasn’t lying,” I said after reading through it. “The reason Karen filed was emotional cruelty. Steve fought it tooth-and-nail but in the end the judge granted the divorce, giving Karen sole custody of Nicky. Steve was ordered to pay child support and was given visitation rights, but only at a neutral venue with a third party present.”

“Rights he definitely breached,” Rob said angrily. “We are going to rescue that poor child.”

“Yes, we are. I’ll let Ian know before I go to bed. Oh, a heads-up. He asked if he could come with us when we go out there. I told him definitely not. Unfortunately, I’m not certain that will stop him from being there anyway.”

“You’d better persuade him he could mess up the operation if he tries to follow us,” Duff said.

“I did my best to. I’m not sure it took.”

“Okay. We’ll tackle that when we meet with him tomorrow night.”

“We will.” I shut down the computer. “Unless we have anything else we need to discuss, I suggest the two of you go get some sleep.”

“What about me?” Rob asked, a small grin curling his lips up.

“Since when do you need sleep?”

“Not since 1814, unfortunately. So I’ll go entertain myself by scaring the s**t out of the tourists.” Rob laughed. “Not really, although it’s tempting sometimes.”

“You ought to visit some of the places on those haunted house tours,” Liddy suggested. “Give the tourists something to write home about.”

“Who says I haven’t?” Rob replied as he faded from view.

“Do you think he really does?” Liddy asked.

Rob’s disembodied voice told her, “You bet your sweet bippy.”

Liddy c****d her head. “My what?”

“He was a fan of Laugh-In, way back when,” I told her. “Check it out on YouTube. I’m pretty sure they have reruns of it there.”

“I think I’ll pass,” Liddy mumbled as she and Duff took off to their, or one of their, apartments.

Now what can I do to keep myself entertained, I wondered as I set the security alarm for the office area and misted out. The problem every vampire faces when the midnight hour approaches and there’s no one around to keep them company. At least no one they really want to spend time with. Sure, I could probably track down Rob but he has his own life. Doing what? Hell if I know but for a ghost he seems contented. I could venture out. Go to one of the all-night movie theaters. Take a walk along the river.

Actually that last idea appealed to me. I strolled down Saint Philip, passing Lafitte’s, and for a moment I considered heading down Bourbon to one of the clubs. I could find someone to talk to, to dance with, and maybe more, if I did. But I realized I wasn’t in the mood for that. So I continued to the river. It was a cool night, for New Orleans in the summer. I found a vacant bench and sat, staring out at the slowly moving water.

“Did I misread Ian’s interest, if that’s what it was?” I murmured. “Has it been so long since I’ve had anyone in my life on a very personal level that I’m grasping at straws?”

It has been a long time—at least in human terms. Four years in fact. And I’m not certain I’d call the relationship with Claude personal. It was more a case of two lonely vampires looking for someone who understood them. As it turned out, what we really understood was that the s*x was good—the rest of it, not so much so. By mutual agreement, we broke up six months after we met.

It would explain why I’m drawn to Ian—if I really am. Hell, I don’t even know if he’s gay. Sure, the look on his face said maybe. But that’s a far cry from yes he is and he finds me interesting on very personal level.

Even if we did click, it wouldn’t be my smartest move to let anything happen. After all, he’s human, and by his own admission he doesn’t believe in ghosts and ghouls and what have you. I laughed to myself. I can just see explaining to him what each of us are—a vampire, a shifter, and a ghost. Sounds like a bad joke. One he wouldn’t find funny even if he did believe I wasn’t pulling his leg.

Enough of this, I told myself sternly, getting up. We have a job to do. One which is very different from the norm. I needed to start researching the area around Moose Mountain to see what we’re in for as far as getting to Steve’s lodge.

With that thought in mind I returned home.