A gnawing suspicion blossomed in his gut. “There are more than one?”
“A pair,” Lethe confirmed. “Male and female.”
“There’s overlap within them too,” Hood added. “I’m guessing a mated couple.”
Another thought occurred to him. “Any traces of accelerant?”
“See those red metal cans? Gasoline.” Lethe pointed to an ancient lawnmower parked under a weather-beaten awning extending off the rear of the house. “There’s a splash of diesel too, but that might be from a vehicle.”
“Why do you ask?” Hood poked around, but he circled back with a shrug. “What am I missing?”
The weight of Lethe’s stare fell on Linus, and he grasped too late that Grier hadn’t told her everything.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he told them about the trip to the library and the visit from the arsonist.
“Ha.” Lethe stabbed Hood in the chest. “I told you Grier needed us.”
Once Lethe finished being smug, which took a while, they returned to the front of the cottage.
“The vampires walked right onto the porch.” Hood flared his nostrils. “They didn’t touch the knob or the door, but they used the railing. They must have been let in before they could knock.”
“The Oliphants have been innkeepers for generations. It’s likely they would have welcomed prospective guests into their home.” Linus thought back on his phone conversation with Mr. Oliphant, which gave an approximate time of death. “The Rogoffs must have called to book a room, learned the inn was full, then came here for information on who was occupying the house.”
“Pros,” Hood murmured. “They wanted to tailor their cover story to fit whoever they encountered.”
And they had settled on the lovey-dovey couple act to con a pair of honeymooners since they were a mated pair.
“Are we going in?” Lethe squared her shoulders. “You can pop the lock, right?”
“Yes.” He did so with a sigil drawn using his pen. “Disturb as little as possible.” He hesitated with a hand on the knob and met their eyes. “I’ll have to call the cleaners, but not yet. I would prefer to avoid a reprimand for contaminating evidence, so let’s make this quick.”
Activity on that scale at the cottage would draw the vampires’ attention, and Linus didn’t want them to bolt until he divined their true purpose in coming here. Justice for the Oliphants was beyond the reach of human law now, but the murderers were still within his grasp.
Once Linus confirmed these were vampire kills, the cleaners would take over, coordinating with local law enforcement after they had collected their evidence. Then they would dispose of the bodies and all signs of supernatural involvement.
The lock twisted with a grating metallic shift, and Linus opened the door. As he did so, a black cat prowled out and stropped his leg with a purr. Upon noticing Lethe and Hood, it hissed, fur bristling, and vanished into the night.
“I hope that wasn’t the family pet,” Lethe murmured then added on a hopeful note. “Maybe it’s allowed outside?”
Concerns for the cat vanished when the scent hit Linus, and he started breathing through his mouth.
Entering the house, he located the bodies, coughing when the sour, meaty tang hit the back of his throat. The wife had died first, by her own hand. A knitting needle protruded from the side of her neck, and her fingers were soaked with blood that had poured down her shoulder to ruin her clothes and the chair where she sat. Her expression was oddly peaceful. Her husband, on the other hand, died with his face contorted, the fingers of one hand broken, the digits twisted out of shape.
“The wife committed suicide.” Hood knelt beside her. “The vampires didn’t lay a finger on her.”
“They tortured the husband,” Lethe growled. “What could two little old people have known that was worth this?”
The average person would break long before their second finger, but they had worked over Mr. Oliphant. He had held on until they got what they wanted and they killed him, or else they ran out of time to extract the information because he died from his injuries. What had been worth their lives to protect?
“Look how they ripped out his throat.” Hood kept his tone level. “That speaks of temper.”
“He was out here, alone with the body of his wife, while I was talking to him on the phone.” Linus’s temper crackled, and the noise in his head, the darkness, howled. “The vampires must have circled back to finish this after I carried Grier up to our room.”
“If he was out here alone, then they were certain he would play his part. They must have glamoured him out of his mind.” Hood eyed the man with pity. “He couldn’t have asked for help even if he realized he needed it. The glamour wouldn’t allow it.”
“This isn’t your fault.” Lethe jutted out her chin. “Fight me.”
“What she means,” Hood said, clasping him on the shoulder, “is that what happened to the Oliphants is part of what’s been happening here for generations. You didn’t set these events in motion.”
“That’s what I said,” Lethe protested. “It’s not his fault.”
Hood rubbed his face then let his hands fall to his sides before sighing, “Yes, dear.”
The gwyllgi bantering only worked so long before Linus could no longer ignore the gruesome scene.
As regret burned in his gut, he turned away from the Oliphants.
The vampires hadn’t fed on them. They had let their blood waste.
There was an insult in that, not only in the taking of a life but the squandering of a life once taken.
“Mr. Oliphant didn’t give it up, whatever it was,” Lethe said, drawing Linus from his grim thoughts. “Otherwise, I don’t see the vampires inviting themselves to the inn knowing you and Grier were there.” Lethe prowled around the space. “They must still be searching for whatever brought them here.”
Linus drifted through each room, searching without making it obvious so the cleaners could do their jobs with minimal interference later. The house was neat, everything in its place, and the decor dated back to the sixties. Even the crucifixes on the walls, and there were dozens, came in the popular turquoise shade of the appliances from that era. So did the frames for all the paintings of saints.
He located the source of the Rogoffs’ elaborate costumes in the master closet. Apparently square dancing was a hobby the Oliphants had enjoyed together. The Rogoffs must have stolen the clothes to fit their story about traveling for a competition. With the couple dead, there was no one to expose them for the theft. Except for Kylie.
On the kitchen table, he spied three sagging boxes with their yellowed lids tossed aside. He dug through their contents and exhaled with self-directed annoyance at the damning evidence they contained.
One sat empty. Another held tapes from previous years, the full twenty-four-hour cycle, clearly marked with the date. The final held photos ranging from digital crispness to fading Polaroid to black-and-white stills. The handwriting on the back matched the photos Linus had flipped through with the Rogoffs earlier. The vampires must have emptied a box of its contents before concocting their cover story.
“There’s a fifth scent here that doesn’t belong to the couple or to the vampires.” Hood brought a report card pinned on the fridge to his nose. “It’s heavy on male hormones.”
“They have a grandson who self-identifies as a granddaughter. Her name is Kylie.” Linus raked his fingers through his hair. “She’s been staying in the subbasement, a level above the maze.”
“Are you kidding me?” Lethe slid into mothering mode. “Who in their right mind would let her do that?”
“She claimed things weren’t great at home.” Linus led them to her room. “This doesn’t support that.”
The walls had been painted lavender, and a fuzzy pink area rug covered the hardwood floor. Her sheets were soft blue, and her comforter was white eyelet lace with extra frills along the edges. Trophies for JV soccer and football blended with more recent ones for varsity cheerleading. A peek in the closet revealed a rainbow of coordinating outfits with shoes to match, all name brand.
“Competition at this level costs.” Linus indicated the gold all-state medal from this year hung over a lamp near the bed. “Both time and money.”
“The grandparents were definitely funding the dream.” Lethe had located a baby-pink photo album with It’s a Girl embossed on the cover. “Look at this.”
Page after page illustrated how much they loved her. Hugging after a football game, grinning from ear to ear at dinner, tearing up when she placed in competitions. These people had supported her choices. Including her recent change of pronoun. So why had Kylie lied about her homelife? From what he could tell, her mother and father weren’t in the picture. They certainly weren’t in any photos. Only her grandparents had been present.
“She just happened to spend the night at the inn when vamps showed up and slaughtered her family?” Hood scratched his cheek. “It doesn’t vibe for me.”
“There’s more to this,” Lethe agreed. “The grandparents must have expected trouble and sent her away.”
“Grier and I discovered Kylie prior to the vampires’ arrival.” Linus returned to the kitchen. “She laughed off a fall down the stairs.” His gaze snagged on the empty box and lingered. “She gave us no indication she was afraid for herself or her grandparents.”
But she hadn’t exactly been upfront with them either. He wasn’t certain how much of what she had told them was the truth and how much was what she thought they wanted to hear.
“They might have relocated her as a preventative measure,” Hood said. “But why send her to the inn?”
“You’d think it would be a last resort,” Lethe agreed. “What with the haunting and all.”
“Unless they had reason to know she would be safe there,” Hood offered. “The family hasn’t been targeted, right?”