Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

"What?" Rhoan said.

"Wait." I went into the system and did a photo search through the motor registration and licensing departments. Once I had my photos, I split the screen and put them both up.

"This," I said, turning the laptop around and pointing to the passport photos, "is the Jorn and Yohan who came into Australia fifteen months ago. And this" - I pointed to the license photos - "is the Jorn and Yohan who own the club. And he," I added, pointing at the license photo of Jorn, the paler of the twins. "Is the man who smelled like Jared."

"Jorn Duerr, Jared Donovan, and what was the other guy's name? Jim Denton? Same initials, same man?"

"Good possibility. So does that mean it was Jorn who chatted up all the women on the island?"

"The only way you're going to know that is by asking the women themselves."

"Sorry, I've had my quota of speaking to the dead for this week. But we could try talking to the parents."

He glanced at his watch. "It's not too late now to make some calls."

"You'll help?"

He nodded. I placed the laptop on the coffee table, took a quick sip of my coffee, then rose to get my cell phone. He took two numbers, I took one. But it took longer than I thought it would to get information, simply because talking to anyone who has suffered a loss was hard - especially when the mere act of talking to them again raised their hopes of possible leads. A possible ending.

"Okay," Rhoan said, when he hung up from the last of them. "According to the parents of my two ladies, neither of their daughters slept with anyone up there. They did, however, mention meeting a human who was trying to chat them up. One lot can't remember a name, the other thought it was something like Yuri."

I leaned back in the sofa with the remains of my cold coffee. My leg was aching and I couldn't be bothered getting up to refill my cup. I sipped it, and tried to bluff my taste buds into thinking it was iced coffee. "Mine think it was John. Which means both twins are working the island. What I don't get is, why would they wait until the women are back home before they abduct them? Why not do it while they're away from normal surroundings?"

"I think you need to ask our two suspects that. But," he added hastily, as I made motions to get up. Never an easy thing to do when you had a sore leg, I might add. "Not tonight. Tonight you need to sleep and rest. Tomorrow we'll head over to the club together and suss out the place."

"Jack might not be happy about that. They are, after all, human."

"I said suss the place out, not beat them up. We can do that after we get some evidence. Right now, we have nothing but theories."

"And a background that points to a long history of kidnapping crimes."

"They weren't convicted of anything in either England or Germany. If we move too soon, we'll lose them here, too." He paused. "Do you think they could be behind the truck and the shooting attempts on your life?"

I frowned. "Why would they even suspect I was onto them?"

"We share the same surname as Adrienne. She disappears, you appear. A suspicious mind wouldn't think that was an accident."

"But how would they track me? I mean, no one but you and Kellen knew where I was going from the airport."

"They put trackers on your car. It wouldn't be hard to slip one into your purse." He rose. "Where is it?"

"Over near the door."

He walked over, picked up the purse, and started fishing through it. After about five minutes, he dropped the purse and walked back. "There you go."

The thing in his hand was about the size of a dime. Which was rather large for trackers, these days. Hell, I'd had ones the size of a pinhead embedded into my foot. And then there was the ones in my ear. "Jared helped carry my bags the day I left the island. I wonder if he slipped it in then?"

"Could be." He dropped it on the ground and stomped on it. "Might be worth you going in disguise tomorrow."

"Good idea. I still have those wigs Liander gave me."

He nodded. "Then go get some rest. You look beat."

"If I tried telling you to go rest, you'd have a tantrum."

He gave me a grin. "Too right. I'm a boy. Boys can look after themselves. You're a girl. You need to be loved and protected."

I tossed my empty cup at him. "And you said you hadn't been listening in on my conversation with Kellen."