"Find anything?" Catcher asked.
"What looks like safety glass and Eve's cell phone," I said. "We talked to the doorman across the street, and he saw Oliver and Eve go into the reg center, then come out again and approach a car in the alley. No info about the car's make or model; he only saw the headlights. Oliver and Eve didn't come out again. The glass and cell phone were all we found."
"I'm not sure that bodes well," Catcher said.
"I'm not sure, either," I agreed. "But at least they're clues. The sun, of course, is rising, and we're on our way back to the House. Is there any way you can get your CPD contacts to look at it during business hours? We're afraid to wait until tonight."
"Chuck might have to call in a favor, but we'll get it done. Maybe leave the goods with the fairies?"
I glanced at Ethan, checking for approval, and he nodded. "We'll arrange it," he said.
"Noted. Do we know anything else about these kids?"
"They were generally quiet, hailed from Kansas City," Ethan said. "They seem to have strong connections among Rogues and are well liked."
"No enemies?" Catcher wondered. "Even though they decided to register?"
"We wondered the same thing," Ethan said. "But if there's trouble in that corner, we don't know about it."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear they're missing. I didn't know them, but if they were friends of Noah's, I'm sure they were good people."
Were, he'd said, as if their fate was a foregone conclusion. But I refused to give up.
"We'll call you as soon as the sun goes down," I said. "If you learn anything that explains where they might be, you win the bonus prize for the evening."
"What's the bonus prize?"
And that was the problem with spur-of-the-moment offers. "Um, I'll order pizza for the office?"
"Make it double meat and you've got a deal," Catcher said.
"Done," I said.
The perky sound of a country song - the lyrics about partying hard after a long day of work on the graveyard shift - suddenly filled the car, emanating from the speakerphone.
Catcher muttered a curse and the sound went silent. But the silence didn't eliminate the questions.
"Was that - was that your ringtone?" I asked, simultaneously comforted and amused by the weird contradiction that was Catcher Bell. He was built, gruff, and an expatriate of the Order, the sorcerers' governing body, which had kicked him out. He was also a protector of Mallory - at least until her magical misanthropy - a lover of Lifetime movies, and, so it seemed, a lover of country music.
I had no objections to country music. It just wasn't the type of thing Catcher would ever admit to. Except that it was on his ringtone, for God's sake, and I had two independent witnesses.
Some nights there was justice in the world, even if it was meted out only in a dribble of Billboard country/pop crossover.
"Enjoy the country music, do you?" I wondered.
"Don't push your luck," Catcher grumbled. "This is the South Branch nymph calling, and I need to go deal with her. We'll talk to you tonight."
The line went dead before we could respond - or I could harass Catcher any more about his ringtone.
"You're going to use that against him, aren't you?" Ethan asked.
"As much as possible," I agreed.
The Ombud arrangements made, I texted Jonah - my RG partner - to let him know Noah had pulled us into the investigation. Jonah was also Noah's friend and RG colleague, so there seemed little doubt Noah had already told him about the missing vampires. But he needed to know we'd undertaken the assignment, so to speak.
ADVISE IF NEED ASSIST, he messaged back.
I promised I would, but that wasn't the end of the conversation.