Lost Soul (Harbinger P.I. Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

you come to see me and not a normal private eye? I’m not seeing a preternatural angle here.”
    She looked at me with worried eyes and said, “I’m afraid that James might be … possessed.”
    I sat back again, body language open, giving her the subconscious signal that I was ready to listen to whatever she said next without judgement. “Go on,” I said gently.
    “Well, for one thing, he’s become nocturnal,” Amelia said. “He only seems to come out at night. That’s when he goes walking in the woods. During the daytime, he stays in his room.” She paused and then asked, “Do you think he’s a vampire?”
    “It doesn’t sound like vampirism,” I said. “He’d be doing more than walking around the woods at night, he’d be going into town in search of prey. Does he eat normally?”
    “He raids the fridge, if that’s what you mean. For him, that’s always been normal.”
    “And you’ve seen him eating the food from the fridge?”
    She nodded. “Yes.”
    “Vampires don’t eat,” I told her. “They’re sustained by the blood of their victims.”
    “Then … a demon?” She looked even more worried.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m not even sure this is a preternatural case. Your husband could be right and this might be nothing more than a nineteen-year-old kid going through a phase. But the nocturnal wandering in the woods does give me enough reason to investigate. I might find that there’s no preternatural connection at all, and then I’ll have to drop the case. But for now, I’m willing to take a look.”
    Amelia smiled thinly. “Thank you.”
    “I’ll need to come to your house,” I said. “And I may bring my assistant along. We’ll need to talk to James and take a look at those woods.”
    I saw a slight smile cross Felicity’s face at the prospect of going out into the field. To me, the case sounded mundane. There was barely enough strangeness about it to suggest there was even a slim chance of preternatural activity. But beggars can’t be choosers, and at the moment, Amelia Robinson’s case was all I had. It might be the only case to come through this office for a while, so there was nothing to lose by investigating it.
    “I have to remind you,” Amelia said, “about being discreet. Especially where my husband is concerned. He has no idea I came here today, no idea about who you are or what you do.”
    “We probably won’t need to speak with him,” I said. “The important thing is that we speak with James and investigate the woods.”
    “That’s fine,” Amelia said.
    “Excellent,” I said, standing. “Now, Felicity will take you to her office where she’ll explain our fees and take some more details from you. We’ll need your address, of course, and the names of the people James went to Dark Rock Lake with, if you know any of them. I assume you’d like us to start immediately?”
    She nodded. “Yes, please.”
    “Then we’ll see you at your house later today.” I held out my hand and she shook it. Her grip was a little stronger than it had been when she’s arrived and I wondered if that was because she felt more confident now that she had confided in someone. I doubted she had told her husband that she was afraid James might be a vampire.
    “Thank you, Mr. Harbinger,” she said as Felicity led her out of the office.
    “Glad to help,” I said, and closed the door after they’d left. I sat behind the desk and did an internet search for Dark Rock Lake. It was fifty miles north of Dearmont and seemed to be a typical summer vacation destination with cabins on the lakeshore and wildlife trails winding through the woods.
    “What happened to you while you were there, James?” I whispered as I scrolled through photos of the lake and cabins. The place looked innocent enough. I was probably going to have to go there at some point if I discovered something preternatural in James’s case.
    Twenty minutes later, Felicity came back into the office. She had a