Night Beats: Ghost in the Vending Machine

Chapter 14: S06E08: Damn it, Dick

The thrum of traffic had slowed to a trickle as they drew closer to an abandoned steel mill on the outskirts of the city. Jane craned her neck to look through the passenger window and up towards the sky. It was a clear night, the stars more pronounced now that they had traveled beyond the glow of civilization. The moon still hovered above the treeline, washing out the nearest stars and illuminating the wisps of haze that lingered from the rain. It was three quarters full, but Jane could no longer feel its tug on her blood.

"Yeah, I know it's late, but can you just swing by there and make sure he's not trying to skip town or destroy evidence?" Jordan spoke on a bluetooth unit, his phone mounted to the dash so its screen cast the cabin a dim blue.

"Take Brent with you, he doesn't need a warrant to walk through walls." Jordan grinned over at Jane, their late nights already showing in the shadows that had formed along his jaw. "Alight, fine. Name your price." The two of them played this game often, Jordan needing Lilith's vampiric expertise, and Lilith using Jordan to get something she wanted.

"Oh, come on, I just got you-" His smile faded, and he turned towards the other window. "I told you I can't."

Jane could hear Lilith's voice become muffled as Jordan put a hand over his ear.

"Because I did it last week, and I'm still tired." He lowered his voice as if it would combat Jane's good hearing. "Fine, I'll think about it, but I'm not making any guarantees, Lil," he hissed. "Can you just do me this one favor without making it a thing?" There was a pause before he relaxed.

"Thank you. I'll get back to you soon." Jordan tapped the phone to end the call. "Sorry. You know how she is. There's always a cost."

"So it seems." The statement came out sharper than intended and by the twitch in his left eye, it cut across a nerve. "Let's go try to find a way in."

"Right." The two of them got out of the car. Over the past hour, the temperature had dropped with the onset of a stiff wind. Jane zipped her jacket further as they skulked along the fenceline. Though she had no need for extra light, Jordan used his phone to avoid the slew of junk on the ground.

"Look." He turned off his flashlight and pointed across the lot. There, parked next to a dumpster, was a sparkling clean, black Mercedes. "Seems we lucked out. But it's a pretty big mill, think you can find his scent?"

Jane lifted her nose to the wind, but the breeze was too strong to pick out anything except the smell of damp vegetation and the river that ran alongside the mill.

"I'll need to get inside. Think you can be quiet this time?" Her fingers traveled the chainlink, searching for an area that had been cut.

"As a mouse." Jordan slipped through the fence as she held it aside.

The ground was overgrown with weeds and scraggly trees, but their path was guided by the old bones of a train track that led toward the mill. To his credit, Jordan had a light foot as they traipsed over broken glass and beer cans towards the front door. Though the area was barred off with steel mesh, someone had already made easy work of the barricade.

The abandoned mill found itself home to quite a number of squatters and parties over the years. A few of them were marked by tragedy when someone would have a little too much of something and fell from a catwalk. Even stone sober, the mill was old and dangerous, its bolts and support structures already rusted and prone to collapse.

"Anything yet?" Jordan's eyes traveled the dusty shafts of light that cut through the broken windows. Now out of the wind, Jane could pick up the fresh scent of someone having passed through.