“It’s fine,” Mav replied, calm as he ever was. “I’m sure. I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.” He paused. “Take care of yourself, Eli.”
“I…yeah. Thank you.”
“Of course. I’ll call you.”
After I hung up,I leaned against the window, staring out at the Austin skyline. I felt relieved. I wasn’t entirely sure how Mav would be able to help me, if he would even be able to find anything.
I had no idea how long I was there before there was a knock on the door. “Eli?”
Remus was back. “I have food. And Seff called.”
I straightened up immediately, taking a moment to wipe at my face before opening the door. Remus offered me an iced green tea and held out his phone, flipping it to speaker. “We can all hear you now, Seff,” he said. I didn’t know Seff personally, but I knew he was close with Remus, who seemed to rely on him for tech-related issues.
“Can you? Good,” said the other alpha on the phone. “I’ve been able to hack into Iris’s cellphone and get some information before it got turned off.”
My entire body went tense. “What did you find out?”
“She got a text around 11 pm the night she left your apartment from Demi. Apparently, Demi’s friend sold a house, and Demi recognized the buyer as someone she and Iris had discussed previously, and it sounded weird to Demi. A blood donation van?”
I snorted, mouth tugging down into a frown. “That does sound weird. Why would a donation van need a house?”
Remus rumbled beside me. “Isn’t that one of the targets you and Iris were looking into?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “It doesn’t seem every single missing person filtered through it, but a lot of them had. Iris said it was the closest thing she had to a nexus at the moment.”
Remus frowned. “So why bother with all those fake businesses we’ve been looking into?”
Seff cleared this throat. “Well, I’m no investigator, but it would look pretty weird if a donation van was linked with a rash of missing people, yeah?”
I paused before nodding again. “Good point,” I said. “And that’s probably how they’d be able to draw wolves from other packs, too. I doubt anyone would travel from one territory to another just to donate blood. But for a potential job, or a doctor with cheap services?”
Thatmade sense.
Remus hummed for a moment. “Seff, do you have the resources to keep looking into this?”
“Of course,” the other alpha agreed. “It concerns all of us.”
“Good. Can you look and see if there are any other donation vans in neighboring territories associated with missing wolves?”
“Certainly,” Seff said.
“Did the texts have any addresses?” I prompted, not wanting to get too distracted.
“They did,” Seff replied. “I’ll forward Remus the information as soon as we hang up.”
“Good,” I said, remembering my manners a few moments later. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime,” the man said. “I understand perfectly.” I’d have asked what he meant, but I wanted to get going, not listen to more talk. “Remus, call me if you need anything else.”
“Of course,” Remus rumbled. “Take care, Seff. Tell Tala hello for me.”
They exchanged a few more pleasantries, but I’d already tuned them out. I didn’t care. All I could think of was Iris, and the fact that we knew where she went that fateful night.
I’m coming, Iris. Hang on.
IRIS
Project Night Moon Facility