"Good. " His tone wasn't convincing. "But I'm not seeing the connection to Mike. "
"When we were driving back, we saw West coming in the opposite direction. He was almost at the old whaling station, and the only way he could have gotten there so fast would be by leaving soon after I did. "
"Which means someone told him what was happening. "
"Or he was watching my place, saw me leave, and maybe even saw one of Denny's friends go in to try to retrieve the ransom note. "
He digested this for a moment, then simply said, "No. "
"Someone else - someone other than Evin - has been reporting back to the people behind all this. I can think of no better person than a cop who is dissatisfied with where he is and what he is doing. "
"Mike is a good cop. " It was stubbornly said.
"I'm not saying he isn't. I'm just saying he's a cop who may have taken on a little outside work. "
"I can't believe he'd do something like that - "
"You worked your way up
through the ranks in Sydney. You know that being a cop isn't always black and white, but mostly shades of gray. I'm not saying Mike's gone bad, I'm just saying he might be providing information in return for something he wants - a transfer out of here. "
Hell, he'd all but said that the first time I'd met him. I took a sip of coffee and watched Harris's expression. Or, rather, the lack of it. He was a hard man to read, and I had no idea whether he believed me or not. Even his body language was giving nothing away.
I tried another angle. "Who sent the request for information about me to the Directorate?"
He hesitated fractionally, then said, "Mike. "
"And do you know for certain that he sent it?"
"Why the hell wouldn't he send it?"
"Because I'm Directorate. I don't just work there. I'm a guardian. "
"What?" His expression was incredulous. "You can't be. You're a werewolf. "
"Exactly what I said," Evin murmured.
"I'm a dhampire - werewolf and vampire. I work in the daytime division in Melbourne. "
"But how - "
"Long story," I cut in. "And it's really not important right now. The point is, if Directorate staff suddenly disappear, an alert goes out to all divisions. "
"And if some cop in a godforsaken town suddenly starts asking for information about someone who matches the description of that missing personnel," Harris said heavily, "all hell should break loose. "
"And it hasn't. Which to my way of thinking means the request never went through. "
"Unless they're just a slack outfit over in Perth. I sent the information to them about the murders, and I haven't had a response back from those, either. " He took a sip of coffee then added, "And according to you, these types of murders would have been red-flagged as a priority. "
"They should have been. " So why had no one contacted Harris? That's what I couldn't understand. I took another drink of coffee, then added, "It might be a good idea to actually phone them again. "
"You mean, right now?"
"Why not? We have a dangerous vamp who's connected to an organization that's hiring out killers for revenge purposes. The Perth staff don't know I'm here or that I'm Directorate, so they should be getting their butts out here ASAP. "
"True. "
He reached sideways, pressing the speaker button on the phone before punching in a series of numbers. The phone began to ring, the sound echoing across the brief silence.