11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The hospital had a security team and good CCTV coverage, so the hope that we could quickly identify Daniella's kidnapper was still there.

I knocked on the door and a stern-faced man opened it. ‘Can I help you?' His head was shaved and he had a tattoo peeking out from the collar of his black shirt. You could have cut glass with his square jaw, and his muscles had muscles; his size might even have rivalled Debbie's. Okay, not Debbie but maybe Wakado.

His name badge identified him as Dwayne Brown and the triangle on his forehead identified him as Other. Now that could be really useful.

‘Hi, Dwayne,' I said with my friendliest smile. ‘I'm Lucy. One of my friends works here but she didn't come home last night. Her car is still in the car park and she's not answering the phone. I wondered if we could take a look at the CCTV footage for the road near car park D?' I touched his arm and looked at him with entreating eyes.

He studied the symbol of the Other on my forehead and his expression softened. ‘Sorry, Lucy, but I'm not allowed to provide access to the cameras unless I see a warrant.'

Fuck.

I had a few options: I could pipe him and force him to let me in; I could call Steve Marley to get the warrant, or I could try good old-fashioned bribery. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

I reached into my bra to pull out the roll of emergency cash that lived there. ‘Here's five hundred quid.' I offered him the money. ‘Just give us an hour.'

He licked his lips as he looked at the bundle of red fifties in my hand. ‘Without knowing the time she went missing, it'll take more than an hour,' he said. ‘Even if you watch the footage at double time.'

‘Daniella came off shift at 1am,' Seren said. ‘Her supervisor confirmed that she stayed and helped out someone else – she thinks Daniella was maybe an hour late leaving. Let's start the footage at 1.30am and go from there.'

Dwayne hesitated another beat, his eyes flicking to the cash. ‘Okay,' he finally said gruffly. ‘Come on in.' He stood back from the door and the three of us slid into the security room. It was far bigger than our small security console.

‘Jack,' Dwayne said, ‘take a break.'

A gawky young ginger guy stood and promptly left without asking questions. I guessed Dwayne didn't want to share the roll of cash and I didn't blame him, or maybe it was the lack of the Other symbol on Jack's head that sent the poor boy marching out.

It was easier this way because there would be fewer questions if Daniella had shifted to protect herself. The Other realm would disguise itself, merely showing young Jack a dog, but he would still be confused as to where the girl had gone and why the dog had showed up.

We slid onto some swivel chairs and Dwayne helped us find the right camera view. When we were ready, he hit replay for the previous night's footage. The camera weren't top of the line like mine so the footage was grainy; even so, it didn't take long for us to find Daniella.

We watched her walk from the hospital towards the car park. It was late and there wasn't much traffic, so it was all the more obvious when a white transit van trundled along the road deliberately slowly, timing its approach so that its path would intersect with her exhausted steps. Scummy sons of bitches .

It was hard to watch as the van slowed, the rear doors opened and a man leapt out. The sudden motion caught Daniella's attention and alarm bells clearly rang in her head, but it was way too late. Even as she started to shift some sort of net was thrown over her.

Bastards! Esme snarled. We'll kill them all!

The man misjudged throwing the net a little, enough for one of her paws to slash out, firstly at him and then, when she had successfully made him bleed, at the net that was weighing her down. The man tightened it then dragged the now fully shifted Daniella into the van. He followed her into the back of the vehicle, slammed the doors closed and the van motored off.

‘Jesus!' Dwayne said, truly shocked. ‘She was kidnapped! You need to call the Connection.'

He was right: the CCTV quality was bad, and I couldn't even start to make an educated guess at the plates. Hopefully the authorities could clean up the footage and get more information, or they could use other CCTV footage along the route to identify the van. Regardless, I needed to involve the police – or, more accurately, the Connection.

‘I do,' I said. ‘I know an inspector – I'll give him a call. In the meantime, do me a favour and make sure this footage doesn't get written over.'

Dwayne nodded vigorously.

‘Great. Thank you. I'll get someone from the Connection here soon. Thanks for your help, Dwayne.' I gave him a friendly smile.

He waited until Marissa and Seren stepped out before gently touching my arm to get my attention. ‘I know this is a bad time and all, but when your friend is found is there any chance we could grab a drink?'

I smiled, a little flattered. Pre-Manners, I might have even said yes; I had a thing about muscles. ‘Thanks for asking but I'm taken.'

He sighed. ‘The good ones always are. It's hard to tell without a ring,' he said a shade huffily.

I couldn't stop the grimace. There was no ring and I kept telling myself that was okay; Greg and I had agreed to mate and to all intents and purposes we were engaged. But my ring finger was kind of missing the bling. I know it's not about the pretty jewellery but it also is, in a way.

I didn't need a rock the size of Gibraltar, but some sort of territorial claim by Greg in the form of a ring wouldn't have gone amiss. Didn't he care that other men might hit on me? Then again, maybe he knew that a ring wasn't enough to deter some men; men like Rain and Larsden didn't give a fuck if you had a ring, or even if you didn't give consent .

I shelved the ring thing; I had far more important matters to focus on like stealing magical orbs and finding my kidnapped packmate. Really, having an engagement ring was way down my list of priorities – though I couldn't deny that it was there. All this talk of picking a mate had made me warm to the idea. Still, heists and rescue attempts took priority. I just needed to work out which to do first.

Choices, choices.