Part Thirteen

"So what you both are telling me is that you don't have squat?"

Stein felt like he was in the fifth grade again, being interrogated by Mrs. Leiss for having the exact same social studies report as his pal Sam. Beside him, Detective Marcum began to try find a bright spot as Lieutenant Colbert glared daggers.

"This Giles is no longer your suspect?"

Marcum shrugged. "It's looking more and more like he's being set up, but..."

Lieutenant Colbert snapped a pencil in half. "That was a 'yes or no' question, Detective."

"Both of them are suspects, but the Pryce guy is more of one." Stein butted in.

"And he not only lawyered up on you, but he also asked to be put in contact with the Consulate down in L.A." Colbert muttered. "So now you can't touch him without ten suits in the room." The Lieutenant mouthed a profanity or two and leaned back in his chair. "Okay Marcum, how come your hot-shot voodoo isn't so hot? You could have done that magic crap last night instead of giving the ball to the suspects."

"I wanted to see how good they are." Marcum grumbled. "And that Pryce is pretty good, but he still couldn't pull the stiff back out of hell. I'm starting to believe this bad-ass vampire as being the one behind it."

"Yeah, he's in it but I know he's got backup." Stein shot in. "One of those Watchers is in with him, I'd bet my left nut on it. Either Pryce has marching orders to get Giles out of the equation, or this Giles is out to screw over his old handlers." The Detective raised his voice. "Both of these ass-wipes have air tights for the day of the homicide and nothing is shaking loose!"

Colbert arched an eyebrow. "Get you shit together girls, because you're not going to get this solved working two different theories." His mood darkened another notch. "Just like you're not going to get anywhere doing a half-assed surveillance on these two."

"Yes Sir." Stein mumbled while giving his partner the evil eye.

"Get out and solve this case." Colbert ordered with a point of his finger toward the door. The two Detectives left the office, closing the door behind them. They had not gotten three steps into the squadroom before Stein tapped his partner on the shoulder and with a jerk of his thumb toward the empty interrogation room snapped. "Let's take a walk Marcum."

Marcum let out a hiss as Stein walked past him and entered the small bare room. "Now what?" He asked as he entered and closed the door.

Stein launched into a tirade. "You tell me! Goddamnit Marcum I thought we were square with that Pryce being the perp?! And there you go changing your tune in front of Colbert... making us both look like assholes! Is that why you handled him with kid gloves last night?! Is this why you called off the surveillance an hour into it?!"

"I called it because I wanted to give him breathing room, so just relax before you have a stroke."

"Relax? Re-fucking-lax? Is that what you just said?!" Stein's face flushed hot red as he stepped up in Marcum's space.

Marcum resisted the urge to push Stein back. "Listen, we gotta give them some breathing room."

Stein's jaw tightened. "All right... why?"

"Let 'em loosen up a bit. If they are in it they'll let their guard down and screw up. If they aren't in it they will be out beating the bushes trying to find this Smith." Marcum cocked his head to one side. "And in the meantime we'll hit the bricks and see what we can dig up on the other side."

"The 'other side'?" Stein asked with trepidation. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's time we started questioning the vamps and demons. We won't get anything we can use in court, but we don't have to read them their rights either."

"I don't like the way you're flip-flopping on me. First your hot-to-trot on Giles being the perp, then you bounce over to Pryce and Giles, now it's only Smith." Stein groused. "And I don't know about going out and trying to find these things."

"Afraid?" Marcum asked with a grin.

Stein bristled. "No, I'm' not 'afraid'! I just don't like it!"

"Partner... neither do I." Marcum answered with a frown. "But like you said 'nothing is shaking loose'." He puffed his cheeks and blew out a breath. "Look, I'll go tell the Lieutenant that we need to take the afternoon off because we're going to be up all night vampire hunting."

"Vampire hunting." Stein shook his head at the thought. "You ever done this?"

"I went lookin' once, down in L.A., but vamps make it a point to steer clear of cops, they don't like the risk involved." Marcum's eyes narrowed as he regarded Stein. "You know, one thing really bothers me; you're pretty smart so why didn't you figure this out years ago? Eighteen years on the job here without a clue as to what was coming down, that just doesn't make any sense."

"Don't go there pal." Stein warned. "You have no idea how many cases were yanked out from under me. You don't have the first fucking clue as to how I tried to get answers but was stonewalled from the top down. I beat my head against the wall for years before I found out the truth and then I still couldn't do a damned thing about it!"

Marcum smiled a gallows grin at the rising anger evident in Stein's eyes. "I know partner." He said as he stepped up to give him a slap on the shoulder. "So let's do something about it. If we are going to go after these things we got to go out after them, not just sit here on our dusties. Come on partner... take that first step, let's do it, let's bust some undead ass 'cause it is now officially 'payback time'!"."

"Yeah right, payback. What the hell... let's do it." Stein growled. Marcum gave him a 'thumbs up' sign and left him to go talk to Colbert. Alone with his thoughts the detective suddenly flinched as a Nietzche quote arose in his brain:

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

******

"I will say that did not take long. Not much to this village." Douglas snorted as he slid out of Wesley's van.

"We only toured the more disagreeable sections of Sunnydale." Wesley pointed out. "Places where vampire activity is the highest."

"Hurrummp!"

Wesley turned off the ignition and sat back in the driver's seat. He took a sidelong glance at his Uncle who stood fiddling with his rental car keys. "Uncle Douglas, you may stay with me for the interim."

"No thank you Wesley. There isn't room in your flat to swing a cat." Douglas curled his lip. "Anyway I have already reserved lodging at the Holiday Inn."

"Suit yourself." Wesley sighed with a faint wave of the hand. "You are coming back here at sunset, correct?"

Conrad-Chaney shot his nephew a look of exasperation. "Yeeessss, Wesley! How else am I going to get one of the damned walkie-talkies so we can stay in touch? In the meantime I am going to get some rest, for it's going to be a long night." He shifted his weight and stretched. "Good-bye Wesley. I will see you at eighteen-hundred."

"Good-bye Uncle Douglas. I hope you are able to get... some... rest." Wesley's voice faded out as the older man abruptly walked to his vehicle and wedged himself through the driver's door. "Well that was worthless, to say the least." Wyndam-Pryce muttered under his breath as he exited his van.

Rupert did not even glance up as Wesley came through the door. "Did you have a pleasant excursion?"

"Oh I'm sure he did." Ethan piped in. "So can we leave now Ripper? This place is such a bore that it makes hanging around with you seem positively exhilarating."

" 'Pleasant' is not the proper choice of word." Wesley snipped as he dropped into a chair and took off his glasses to rub his face. "Did you get hold of either John or Michael?"

"Yes, I was able to contact Michael and he agreed to look into their records. He will search the electronic Alliance Book and send anything he can find to my e-mail." Giles halfway sneered as he went back to his book. "In the meantime I will continue on with tried and true research techniques."

Despite himself Wesley chuckled. "You do realize that you should 'attempt' to accept the fact that it is 1999 not 1399?" He replaced his glasses and motioned toward the volume in Rupert's hand. "So what did you find?"

"Absolutely nothing." Rupert confessed.

Wesley got up, went over to his desk and booted up his computer. "Well let's see if Michael did any better."

"It's only been an hour and a half since we spoke." Giles commented.

"Please get over here and access your Hotmail." Wesley said. "It cannot hurt to give it a look."

With a sigh Giles came over and seated himself at the desk. He pecked away at the keyboard, brought up his account and began to click down to the end of the inbox listings.

"Why are you keeping all of that nonsense?" Wesley asked while pointing at the stream of junk mail.

"I have not got around to deleting it." Giles muttered dryly. "Anyway, I might 'want' to make thousands of dollars in the comfort of my own home just by taking advantage of their splendid offer."

"Mr. Giles, you are an consummate Luddite." Wesley laughed with a shake of his head. "But at least you are pretending to try and.. there! The last two messages are from Mr. Blanchard.. open them!"

Giles pursed his lips. "Yes... I see it. Don't bust a seam."

He clicked on the first message:

---------------------------------
Rupert - Searched the book for all vampires sighted since 1962, then took those and searched for "Aaron" and "UK nationality". Got nothing that looks like it's what you want. But, something rang a bell with what you told me so I called Rafael over in group 1 and talked to him. We have something in the job records from 1974 that might help. I copied it and sent it on as a second message. Your eyes only, delete when you are done. You own me a couple of beers. Good Luck, M.B.
--------------------------------------

Wesley's brow furrowed. "What exactly did you tell him? I hope you were discreet."

"I told him everything."

"And you are going to have one hell of a phone bill! He was on there forever." Ethan added.

"Everything?" Wesley's voice went up an octave as her repeated himself. "Everything! That was not necessary."

Rupert gave the younger man a look of cool annoyance. "I believe it was. Someone should be completely honest."

Wesley stiffened. "What do you mean by that, Mr. Giles?"

"Why did you doubt my involvement in Ethan's murder?" Rupert bluntly responded.

"I had my reasons. Your temper... your checkered past and the fact that the authorities were investigating you." Wesley sighed heavily. "I was wrong, I apologize. But remember one thing, we are cut the same cloth in one respect, that is Buffy comes first. I know that if you found out that Mr. Rayne was in Sunnydale to harm her you would have.. have committed this crime." He went silent and shut his eyes for a moment as the next words formed. "And I also know that I would have done the same thing."

"Apology accepted." Rupert said softly while clicking on the next message.

As Giles spoke, the phantom at his elbow bowed its head and moaned. "And that is that. I'm expendable by all. Just an afterthought in the great scheme of things." A strange whirl of emotion went through Ethan consisting of anger, sorrow, hurt and in an odd way - understanding. "What should I expect? I spent my life being a compete fuck-up, using everyone like a wad of arsewipe." He began to chuckle as his own thoughts began to mock him. "Now is this not just funny as hell? This is certainly a fine time to start feeling remorse."

"This does seem prophetic, but I'm not sure how." Rupert mumbled as he peered at the screen.

"This was from 1974?" Wesley questioned.

Ethan wiped away a tear from his shattered face and stood. "Carry on mates, do the best you can while I find someone who can see me." The spirit set his jaw and began to move toward the front door. "This is Sunnydale... someone in this God-forsaken town has to be a medium."

"Mmmmm.. yes." Giles responded halfway to Wyndam-Pryce as he continued to read. "This entire incident seems to be a replay of the tragedy of 1972, except the Alliance operatives avoided the ambush."

Wesley frowned at the similarities. "A possibly human agent in league with a vampire pack kidnapped and terrorized a rare book dealer out of an eighteenth century reference and consequently an Alliance team was lured into a snare."

"Thankfully forewarned of the danger by the catahoulas." Rupert added as his own brow furrowed. "The Alliance was contacted by this dealer, who informed them of his troubles, relaying the nature and location of this nest of undead in an abandoned mining complex."

Wesley read a few lines further down. "At least they admit in hindsight, that it seemed curious that these creatures would make their lair so far from a populated area. But it was the same scenario, petrol and phosphorus in a narrow chamber."

Rupert took off his glasses and began to chew on the earpiece. "Interesting, but still not any help in regard to our situation. Except... except this final notation added eighteen months later where this stolen reference reappeared in Zurich as part of a Sotheby’s auction where it sold for 8,122 Swiss Francs. At that time that was quite a fine sum of money." He tapped at the screen. "The seller was an anonymous collector from London and the Alliance could not uncover his or her identity." Giles began to consider the possibilities. "The undead are always short of ready cash and it is possible that Aaron uses his expertise in rarities to ferret out specific items for his own monetary increase or as a service to paying customers."

"A vampire for hire." Wesley snorted then rubbed his chin as the idea took hold. "It could be. Aaron was trained as well as we are to recognize the significance of obscure artifacts and references. And there is a market for this material on both sides of the fight."

"And from his appearance, I would say he has access to cash." Rupert added. "Most vampires look rather shabby, but the vision showed him dressed very much in current fashion."

"Wonderful." Wesley deadpanned. "How can this get any better?"

"Please don't tempt the fates with questions like that." Rupert sighed.

******

"POLICE! OPEN UP!"

Arthur hit the floor and rolled under the bed, Douglas on the other hand merely grumbled and crossed the room as the second barrage of pounding shook the door.

"WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE SCUMBAGS!"

"Must you be an total ass?" Conrad-Chaney snapped as he jerked open the door to the dingy motel room. "Get in here before you attract attention."

Marcum grinned as he strolled on in. "This place gets busted twice a week, so if I wasn't here banging on the door... 'that' would be noticed."

"A cop? Your contact is a cop?" The vampire asked incredulously as he pulled himself back up to his feet.

Douglas closed the door and nodded. "Yes, he is an officer of the law and a warlock."

"Like my daddy before me." Marcum crowed. "Runs in the family."

"How is your father?" Douglas asked just to be polite.

Marcum shrugged "Still dead, last I heard." The detective caught Douglas's shocked look and laughed. "You didn't know? He called up what he thought was a minor demon but it took him."

"You do not seem too upset." Douglas muttered.

Again Marcum dismissed the events with a shrug. "Shit happens. Anyway you know as well as I do what a bastard he was."

Arthur settled into a chair. "Along with 'cop' and 'warlock', I'd say that being a bastard runs in your family also."

"Who is this?" Marcum asked suspiciously.

Conrad-Chaney motioned toward the undead member of the party. "This is Arthur and he will be the horrible vampire you find tonight for the benefit of your partner. Now, did you bring the wallet?"

"Yeah, and I'm happy to hand it back to you." Marcum said as he pulled a plastic bag containing Ethan's wallet out of his jacket pocket. "Guess it worked out good that I didn't get a chance to plant this at the suspect's place."

"Odd how things work out in our favor." Douglas mused. "I was sure that Ethan's cry for help would have given you people an air tight case."

The cop curled his lip. "The prosecutor didn't think so. And another thing pal, you could have told me that was on there."

"Sorry about that. It was an afterthought by our friend McKinley and he did not feel it necessary to enlighten me about it until we were well on our way to San Francisco."

"How is old McKinley?" Marcum snotted.

"Same as your father - still dead. But he is much better now." Douglas answered with an evil smile. "We have fixed the problem with his... 'attitude'."

"Good for you, just make sure that you transfer his money to me." Marcum gave the wallet a toss to Arthur. "Now where is act one going to be?"

Douglas pulled out a rough map of Sunnydale and began to point out the agreed on assignments. "I am patrolling the area around the main city park. That Giles will be looking here along the waterfront. The Slayer is assigned this adjoining series of cemeteries and my idiot nephew will be scouting the strip that runs from downtown to the lower class neighborhoods." He twirled the end of his mustache and snorted. "Let's say we perform this little charade toward the back of the park, near the tennis courts at twenty-two hundred."

"So how's it gonna play?" Arthur asked as he picked through Ethan's wallet.

"We'll chase you down and have a mini-fight. Drop the wallet before we get there so it looks like you lost it in the shuffle." Marcum scratched his chin. "I'll see it and tell Stein, when he goes for it you bolt."

Arthur glanced toward Douglas and upon seeing a small nod of approval agreed with Marcum. "Gotcha."

Marcum laughed out loud. "And the suspects are cleared, and your boss gets to take this show on the road and I get a new speedboat in my slip down in San Diego. Sounds like a plan."

"Don't get cocky." Douglas warned. "Just be there and do what you have to do." He jerked his thumb toward the door. "Now, leave. I have to make a few phone calls and get back to the better side of town before my nitwit nephew calls to check on me."

"Yeah, right." Marcum said through his continuing laugh. "I have to get moving too. Told Stein I would pick up anti-vampire supplies."

Douglas ushered the detective out the door and watched as Marcum walked to his car. Turning back to Arthur he gave his head a small jerk toward the departing warlock. "He's a loose end, kill him."

******

For the hundredth time, Stein nervously checked for the stake and cross in his pocket. He looked around and unconsciously pressed a little harder against the side of the undercover van. It seemed like all he could hear was the sound of his own heart beating in his ears as the quiet night blanketed the park. "Okay Marcum... where are you? Doesn't take that long to take a leak." He muttered under his breath, just for the sound of his own voice as he scanned the deserted grounds.

"Boo!"

"Damn you! Don't do that." Stein snapped as Marcum came around the van.

Marcum snickered at his partner's overt nervousness. "Oh relax..... if we were here staking out a drug deal you would be the one sneaking up on me."

"Give me a pile of lowlife dealers any day." Stein groused. "At least they are breathing. So where are these things? We've been out here for two hours and we haven't seen anything but a couple of cheap dates."

"Remember, they got pretty hammered at the graduation so there might not be many around anymore." Marcum said as he started to get into the van. "Let's go around one more time then head over to the warehouse district." He stopped and gave his head a toss toward the back of the park. "On second thought, let's split up and hoof it. We would make better bait that way."

As Stein gave him a look as if he had completely lost his mind, Marcum puffed out an exasperated exhale. "Don't look at me like that. We'll stay within shouting distance of each other and.."

"Let's do it." Stein interrupted as his ego tweaked him. "We sure ain't having any luck paired up."

"Whoa." Marcum said softly. "You see that? Over there by the trail back to the tennis courts."

"See what?"

"Living or dead, we got a scumsucker on the prowl."

Stein nodded and took the lead toward the path, moving quietly in pursuit of the unseen quarry. The unmistakable rattle of someone climbing a chain link fence came from their right and both veered off the path toward the sound. Breaking through the brush they came upon a tall blonde man who was two thirds the way up the fence that marked the boundary between the park and the city waterworks.

In unison both men shouted "POLICE FREEZE!" and made a leap for the stranger's legs. Arthur kicked back and gripped the top of the fence as he shouted obscenities at the pair. Stein tightened his grip around the escapee's leg and dropped, sending both of them down into the dirt. As they grappled, Stein found himself face to game face for one terrifying moment before Marcum yanked the vampire off of him.

Marcum spun Arthur around and tossed him into the fence and both humans drew the crosses to hold the creature at bay. "Okay asshole, let's talk!" Stein spit as he regained his cop attitude. "Who are you and where are your pals?"

Arthur hissed and feigned toward them before attempting a sidestepping motion. Marcum blocked his escape and shouted. "Talk! Or I'll brand you with this thing!"

Arthur bared his fangs and stepped back. "Fuck off! I ain't got no friends!"

"Was you boss's name Aaron?" Stein growled as he extended his cross toward the vampire.

The vampire let a look of shocked amazement cross his face. Stein caught it, took a step closer and began a rapid fire series of questions. "Where is he holed up at? Where is that creature he made? Where's the witch that's helping him?"

"He's gone! It all went to hell and he blew this shit-hole town!" Arthur snapped. "The fucker left me here and that's all I'm telling you."

Marcum jammed the cross into Arthur's face leaving a burn across the undead flesh. "TALK!"

Arthur screeched and knocked the icon out of the human's grasp, while with a hellish roar he grabbed Marcum and drew him in for the kill. Stein froze for a split second at the speed and violence of the attack. The sound of the fangs sinking into his partner's throat caused a surge of adrenaline to course through him. He raised his stake and plunged it into Arthur's back missing the heart but causing the creature to fling Marcum away and turn on Stein. The vampire launched himself against the man, bowling him over and sending the detective sprawling onto the ground. As Stein tried to scramble to his feet the enraged vampire landed on him a second time, wrapped his cold hands around the man's head and twisted.

In the same instant that Stein's neck snapped, Marcum plunged the stake through Arthur's dead heart.

Holding his hand to his bleeding neck, Marcum dropped the stake and stood there panting as his partner twitched out his last moments. "Shit." He muttered under his breath. "Shit, shit... shit!" Lightheadedness began to overtake him and he went down on his knees. He dug out his radio and worked up a choke in his voice before calling to dispatch. "Code 30... officer down. Oh God... help me!"