Past Due Read Online Free PDF Page B

her barriers were back in place, although they weren’t as strong as they were before. “That’s rather final. I thought we were working together.”
    “ Thank you for the offer but I work best alone.”
    He had a feeling persuasion would only push her further away and so he simply handed her his card. “If you change your mind, call me.”
    Frankie looked down at the card. It was a business card but his mobile phone number was written on the back. “Thank-” he was already gone. She hadn't even heard him leave. Feeling a sudden chill, she jogged the short distance to her car.
     

Chapter Three
    By the time she was home the experience had taken on an unreal air. She couldn’t believe she’d not only had a civilised conversation with a vampire, she had actually liked him. Not only was he helpful and courteous he was very charming.
    She mentally shook herself. Warm fuzzy thoughts about undead monsters was a sure way to end up dead.
    As she made notes on their conversation she wished she knew more about vampires but the files MI5 kept on their habits and behaviours were mainly conjecture since vampires really didn’t like drawing attention to themselves. Of course she had seen for herself tonight that their powers of hypnotism weren’t a myth. She also realised that had an agent ever run across a vampire, they likely would have been stripped of that memory before they could report the encounter.
    There were a thousand and one myths about the undead. Everything from their ability to turn into smoke and bats to warding them off by sprinkling mustard seed on the roof.
    What were the important questions? She wondered.
    Were they killers? Almost certainly.
    Cold blooded killers? Undecided. Until tonight she would have said ‘yes’ or ‘probably’ but now…
    She moved on before that thought could complete itself.
    Why didn’t his mental powers work on her? Most likely her gift saved her. It was the biggest difference between her and other people, after all.
    However, the most important question was, did she trust him and his information?
    And the answer was yes and yes. “I am such an idiot,” she muttered to herself as she made herself a bowl of cereal. She sat down at her computer to read over the day’s police reports. There was nothing useful; she’d call Will in the morning and see if he would meet her. There was probably a lot of information that hadn't been put onto the system - some of it might even be helpful.
    Finally she emailed her observations and photos through to a psychologist on MI5’s payroll with a request for a preliminary profile as soon as possible.
    With that decided, she turned the TV on and settled down in front of an old movie but she wasn’t really watching it, she was playing the evening's events over and over in her mind. She pulled out his business card and looked over it properly. It had been too dark to see properly earlier. Printed across the centre in gold writing on a black background was his name, Alexander McNabb. She couldn’t believe she hadn't thought to ask him his name.
     
    Getting into the first apartment had been easy since the police presence there was long gone. Here it was only slightly more difficult. There was still a police presence, but only a small one. He gained access to the block by scaling the building and entering through the roof hatch which led to the stairwell. There was one policeman at the door to the flat but he was soon vamped into granting him access and then forgetting that Alex had ever been there.
    Once inside, Alex took a deep breath. At the first crime scene he’d noticed a faint scent of decay still clung to the apartment. Here it was stronger, more recent.
    Alex knelt down by the bloodstains and inhaled. He didn’t expect them to be the source of the decay just as they hadn't been in the first apartment, which begged the question - what was?
    A spell perhaps, one that required rotting meat? The scent was definitely animal, not vegetable