Mystery Noir

Mawaska Part 6

The pain was worse in the morning, though I did remember to set my alarm this time. So, I rolled out of bed and managed to make my way down to the gym to work off the sleep, stiffness and frustration from the last couple days.

A long run and a weight session cleared my mind enough that when I made it back to my room, I remembered to email my mysterious employer. I needed to know how and why this town had become the suspected epicenter for the missing people before I started really digging around without just cause. I wanted all the information they had, in order to do a complete and independent investigation. When people started stealing my stuff, I was through playing games.

By the time I was out of the shower, I had a reply.

The email was massive, containing screenshots of bank statements, traffic camera footage and even some security footage. The last rest stop before the turn off toward this town, confirmed through statements, video or still pictures, had been the last place the missing people and their vehicles had been seen. They had all been alone as far as I could tell, and I found myself staring at the image of one of the missing girls, who was worriedly looking behind her, wearing her best attempt at a disguise, with a baggy sweater, ball cap and sunglasses.

If I didn't know better, it looked like she was trying to run from something. Had it caught up to her? Did the monsters chase her into their lair? Or was it something else?

I was so distracted by my thoughts that when there was a knock at the door and the cheerful call of "room service", I opened the door still only wearing a towel. It was only the girl's look of surprise that made me realize what I was wearing, though she flushed with more embarrassment than I felt.

I reached out for the tray, feeling bad for how uncomfortable I was making her. "Here. I'll just take it. Sorry."

"Ah... no... Oh, you're still so bruised up..." Her eyes were on my arms and hands, which were covered in scrapes and bruises from my fight the night before. "Do you want to see a doctor?"

"Nah. I'm ok." I gently pulled the tray out of her hands feeling the towel finally start to loosen and threaten to fall. I offered her a smile, though I winced at the pain it caused my bruised face.

Her eyes started welling up with tears when they raised to my face, her mouth falling open. "Are you sure you're ok? I heard about what happened, why'd they attack you?"

I shook my head slowly, hoping that the slipping towel wouldn't drop while I was standing there trying to reassure the poor girl. "Cause they're bad people, and I stood up for someone who needed help a while ago, and they didn't like that. But don't worry, they got the worst of it. I won."

She gave me a worried look, then nodded and finally stepped back, allowing me to close the door, just in the nick of time. As I turned to set the tray on the table, my towel slid off onto the ground.

With a sigh, I got dressed, ate and then packed up my computer. I had learned from last night. I wasn't going anywhere without my things from now on. I drove out of town to the highway, finding the rest stop before tracing my way back toward the town, looking for side roads, weird buildings, anything.

I travelled past the turn off for the town, which was not exceptionally well marked. There was one sign that advertised that the turn off was for Mawaska, but there was no indication what that meant or what could be found down the road. At the next rest stop, I found it surprisingly easy to sneak into the back room and skim through the videos, pulling up the dates and times that coincided with the missing people.

The angle of one of the cameras watched the highway with enough detail that I could tell the makes of the cars. There was only enough data to cover the previous several months, meaning I could only search for the last two who were missing, but still, I found no evidence that they had driven past on the highway.

So, my contact knew enough to narrow down to Mawaska. But if they had done that much searching, why hire me? That question ran through my mind as I turned around and started back toward town. Circling through the back roads to look for anything else and half debating checking out one or two large farmhouses I had passed, I watched a flatbed hauling a bright orange mustang down the road.

I skidded my bike to a stop, frowning in surprise as I spun my bike around to tail after the truck. Older mustangs were usually painted in factory colours after being lovingly restored by collectors and enthusiasts. I had only ever seen a Mustang painted that exact colour once, and it wouldn't have been exceptionally odd if it had not been the colour of the vehicle that belonged to the poor kids that Luke and Todd were trying to kill.

Newly turned into vampires, scared of themselves and lost in the big, scary world, Mika and Samantha had been doing their best to survive, while staying good people. Boyfriend and Girlfriend who had stumbled into the wrong party and paid the price with their mortal existence. They had to hide who they were, leave their families and fight the ever-growing hunger that they were not prepared to deal with, after being abandoned by the jackass vampires who had turned them. I had run into them and knew more than they did, enough that I could find them a safe way to feed.

Thinking all humans who delved into the non-human world were trustworthy like me, they had gotten themselves into trouble trusting Todd and Luke.

I pulled my bike around a corner and watched from a distance as the flatbed truck pulled into an auto body shop at the back of a used car dealership. I watched as the car was wheeled into a garage that was then closed, frowning in thought.

It could be a coincidence. Or it could explain why Todd and Luke were here. But where were Mika and Samantha? I pulled my bike out slowly and drove into the dealer lot, parking and getting off my bike as I looked around. None of the cars were the same models of the vehicles of the missing people. That would have been too easy, to hide them in plain sight, though I found myself wondering how such a small town could support a business like this.

Surely, they didn't have a lot of people coming through to buy vehicles.

"Anything you're looking for in particular? Looking to trade your two wheels for four?" A very human, middle aged man walked up to me, grinning in a friendly manner.

"I saw a mustang trucked in here and was wondering if it was for sale. I've never seen one that colour though." I looked around curiously, avoiding glancing to the shop where I knew the thing was.

"Oh! Yeah, we're returning it to stock candy apple red. Kids. You know? But it's headed for auction up in Canada. We make more money that way with our trade-ins." The man grinned to me, offering a shrug. "No salt on our roads, metal lasts longer here, so they eat up our vehicles up north."

I frowned. "Oh damn. It's already spoken for?"

"Well, it's on the truck in the morning. So, if you want to make a deal, you'd have to do it today." He grinned and waved me with him, leading me into the building and to the windows that looked onto the service floor. There, I saw the workers professionally taping up the car, getting ready to paint it.

"67, right?" I asked, cool realization settling in.

Whatever was happening to the kids, their vehicles would get fixed up and painted, and then sold a thousand miles away. I would assume they had a way to change the serial numbers. I paused, frowning as I watched a couple workers inspecting the rear fender.

"There was a minor dent in that. They popped it right out, inspected it, no damage to the integrity of the metal. Wasn't an accident. Probably a ball. "

I didn't correct him to say that it would have been Todd's head that caused that dent. I seemed to have a habit of putting his head into metal things. I just nodded and glanced at him. "Ah, if it was a convertible, I would have been seriously tempted. Never was a fan of the fast backs."

I turned and walked out of the building, glancing around the car lot once more before climbing onto my bike. I frowned as I saw the Sheriff's truck cruise by, pulling on my helmet and driving in the opposite direction before they could turn around and start asking me questions. I was never good at cloak and dagger and was incredibly tempted to just lay out what I was looking for, just to know who my adversaries were.

I had enough for a strong suspicion, but nothing solid.

Maybe I should try to find my two young friends, see what they were doing messing around with whatever was going on in this town.