The Halloween Haunting

Prologue

Prologue

The Sleuthing Ninja Apprentice and the Hacker Grandma

A little history…

My buddy and supposed sleuthing apprentice Bradley had a way with computers. I don’t mean he could get rid of the blue screen of death, though he’d done that for me once and then promptly told me to enter this decade and buy a new computer.

Bradley’s skills far surpassed screen-of-death recovery. If there was a piece of information that existed in cyberspace, Bradley could find it. If it was a computer, he could fix it. If you wanted software, he could create it. At least, that was how it seemed to me. In my mind, Bradley had computer magic. In his mind, I was a sleuthing ninja. We might both have somewhat skewed perspectives of each other, but it worked for us.

While I didn’t actually understand what Bradley did on a day-to-day basis, I did know that he worked hard, had a fine eye for detail, and made many of his clients very happy. He also made some of his clients very rich. Bradley was practical and very good at keeping secrets, and his clients adored him.

Okay, that last part was a fib. But they really, really liked his work and paid him large sums of money to do…whatever it was he did.

When a client gave him a journal filled with descriptions of fantastic creatures—no vegan vampires, but basically everything else—Bradley tucked it away and used it just as he was instructed: as source material for his client’s application.

So, being the industrious soul that he is, Bradley started to work on the project. But then something odd happened. The client disappeared. Gone. In the wind. Being respectful of his client’s privacy and the bills being paid up to date, Bradley didn’t look for him.

With his client in the wind and no more payments coming in, practical Bradley stopped worked on the app (though it was almost complete) and secured the book in case his client requested its return at some future date. It was a unique item, with some parts appearing old and others very new, and scribbled in a variety of inks by a number of authors. He wasn’t sure of the value, which meant that it might possibly be worth a large sum.

Then Bradley met me (Mallory, a.k.a. the vegan vampire) and discovered that vampires were real. And if vampires, then why not wizards, assassins, thieves, witches, and all of the other magical creatures listed in his client’s book?

As Bradley’s circle of acquaintances grew, he began to make connections. The lovable and slightly squishy Wembley looked like the journal sketch of Einar, former Berserker Viking, current vampire, and my roommate. And then there was Alex, that handsome if grumpy partner of mine, who also made an appearance in the client’s book.

And Bradley quickly sussed out his problem: that book wasn’t fiction. It was a guide to the who’s who of the Austin enhanced community…Austin’s very secretive, very dangerous enhanced community.

The book was turned over to the Society, a confidentiality contract of the magical variety signed, and life continued uninterrupted for Bradley. Briefly.

Life interruptions happen—that’s how life works—but add magic to the mix and life becomes nothing but a series of interruptions. The calm and even flow of a regular schedule that was Bradley’s norm pre-me all but disappeared. And that calm was never more interrupted than the moment a burglar broke into Bradley’s condo.

Bradley and his mad computer skills would have been prodigiously applied to cracking the burglar’s identity but for his rather busy work schedule. And since clients pay him to meet insane deadlines, he decided to outsource this little piece of hackerish sleuthing. To Dot, the bingo-playing, dark-web-cruising hacker grandma.