Raphael pressed his hand flat against the bar's surface and activated the Profiler. Thought-lines sketched themselves outward, reached for each other, tried to connect.
And tangled instead of resolving.
"Not enough."
He felt the gaps in the reasoning chain clearly. Two blank spaces, and without them the truth stayed out of reach.
The first: how exactly did the enslaved women arrive here, and why had their disappearances passed without a trace?
Zexi City continued its normal life. No news coverage. No public outcry. As if none of them had ever existed.
The second: what was the vampire's relationship with this club, and why had he chosen it for their meeting point?
Both questions required closer investigation. And sitting right in front of him was an opportunity, a trafficked beast-kin woman, alone in a private booth, reachable.
He stood immediately. He flagged the bartender, left a ten-Colin tip, and asked for the woman to be sent to a first-floor booth to wait for him.
