The Moonlight Monsters Detective Agency Volume One by Maggie Harper Page A

hair over the back of her blouse and gave herself a once over in the mirror. She picked up a roll of lipstick and quickly ran it against her lips. Ok, that would have to do.
    ‘Pigs’ blood?’ she said as she opened the door, ‘sounds delicious.’
    Parker shrugged. ‘It’s the nutritional value more than anything else I’m interested in.’ He smiled. ‘You should try it some time. You’d be surprised what it can do for your constitution.’
    ‘Yeah, I bet,’ Tina answered, picking up her trench-coat from the rack, ‘so where are we going?’
    ‘To the Southland Docks,’ Parker answered, ‘I’m about to throw you the catch of the century…’
     
    They descended the stairwell of Tina’s apartment block and down to the basement parking lot. ‘Bloody rotten night out there, eh?’ Parker asked as they crossed the car park. ‘Makes me nostalgic for merry old England.’
    Tina unlocked the car and they climbed inside. She started it up and pulled out, driving across the concrete plaza towards the exit ramp. When they emerged onto the street she had to put the windscreen wipers on at full velocity.
    ‘You get weather like this a lot back home then?’ Tina asked.
    ‘All the time,’ Parker said.
    ‘No wonder you’re so pale then.’
    ‘Hey!’ Parker laughed, ‘watch it, cheeky.’
    Tina smiled. ‘So what is it we’re dealing with here?’ she asked, ‘catch of the century better mean something more than fish and chips.’
    ‘Oh believe me,’ Parker said, ‘it means a whole lot more. I just so happened to have hit upon the biggest drugs smuggling operation this side of the Panama Canal. Not only that, but it’s paranormal too.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘It’s a gang or something, innit ?’ Parker said, ‘down in the southland docks, a bunch of demon half-breeds and warlocks and what have you. They’ve got a whole compound to themselves, warehouses, boathouses, the works.’
    ‘But how?’ Tina asked, ‘how the hell did you find them?’
    Parker grinned. ‘Elementary love,’ he said, ‘you and ol ’ Papa bear aren’t the only supernatural detectives in Moonlight city anymore, remember? Where do you think I’ve been these past few weeks? I’ve been busy love.’
    Tina said nothing. She was impressed, definitely impressed, but she knew that if she let him know then it would only further inflate Parker’s already bloated ego. ‘Nice find,’ she muttered begrudgingly and Parker snorted with laughter.
     
    She took the freeway out to the industrial estates and factories at the south west of the city. At night the area was mostly deserted, the huge buildings were black and ominous against the smoggy orange-tinted sky. Occasionally they passed a freight truck heading to or from some all-night destination, but by and large the roads were empty.
    ‘Keep going towards the water,’ Parker said, ‘I’ll let you know when you’re getting close.’
    Tina took a turn towards the docks and cruised on beneath the torrents of rain pouring down from the sky.
    They passed by high wire-mesh fences with dark warehouses and boat-loading equipment on the other side. Up ahead there was a compound lit up by bright spotlights with cars and trucks still cruising around inside. It wasn’t necessarily unusual for the longshoremen to work into the night – sometimes shipments arrived late after all and they couldn’t just leave the crew onboard until the foreman had had his beauty sleep – but nonetheless there was definitely something that seemed suspect to Tina about this one. Maybe it was the grim expressions on the faces of the workers who moved purposefully to and fro across the plaza, or perhaps it was the group of men   hanging around outside the main warehouse who looked more like the cast of The Sopranos than stevedores.
    ‘You see it, yeah?’ Parker asked.
    ‘Yeah,’ Tina said. ‘That’s the one?’
    ‘One and the same. You see that guy smoking a cigarette by the fence? He might