"Can all of you hear me?" he whispered.

'Yes,' answered Craig, 'can you hear us?'

"I can," Jeremiah sucked in a lungful of air. "I'm heading in."

Blaine's voice came through the unit, 'Be careful.'

"I'll do my best."

Jeremiah crossed the street and opened the door of Club Blood of All. The place smelled heavily of blood and sex and he had to concentrate hard on the vampire behind the podium at the entrance of the door.

"May I help you,sir? she asked.

"Um, yes, thank you. Do you happen to have any spa rooms available tonight?"

She scanned her clipboard and after a few minutes she nodded.

"Do you want it right now?"

"Yes, I'm not expecting anyone."

She nodded and clicked her fingers at a scrawny human who had been lurking in the shadows.

The girl shuffled forwards and Jeremiah had to supress a stirring of anger as he saw that the girl had a bruise over her right eye and a metal collar around her neck.

"Take this gentleman to Spa 33," the female vampire snapped at the girl.

The girl bobbed her head and led Jeremiah past the vampires who were all but fucking their slaves right there in the middle of the dance floor. Jeremiah remained tense until they reached the spa.

He thanked the girl and she stared at him in shock. Seeing such an expression on her face made his heart clench and, before he could reconsider, he gently palced a hand on her shoulder.

She gave a small gasp and her body went rigid like she had just been electrocuted.

"Don't worry, girl, you're going to be all right."

The girl blinked at him and he let his hand drop to his side again. She opened the door for him and scampered off.

'Way to keep your head low, Jeremiah,' Craig's condesending tone came down the line.

"I don't need your opinion on what I should do, Craig. Besides, if you had seen her you would know we have nothing to fear from her."

'Until she goes and tells some vampire about it.'

Jeremiah entered the spa and shut the door behind him. He disrobed and sat down on the massage table.

"Just be prepared to write down everything you hear."

'You don't have to worry about that.'

Jeremiah heard footsteps outside the door and he lay down on the table, tucking his arms under his head as the door opened.

A vampire and a human both entered. Both were female and Jeremiah was happy that the club had assumed he would want a female since it would be easier for him to ignore any seductive prowress either of them might have.

The masseuse instructed the blood whore to sit down on the stool that was set up on the right side of the massage table. The whore extenended her arm over Jeremiah's back and the masseuse produced a knife. Placing the blade at the crook of the whore's elbow, the vamprie sliced into the skin and Jeremiah felt hot blood drip onto his back.

His cells tingled pleasantly at the revitalizing feeling and he shut his eyes in contentment as the masseuse began to massage the blood into his skin. A feeling of power rippled through him with each stroke of her hands.

"So who long have you worked here, m'dear?"

The masseuse knew Jeremiah was addressing her, after all, why would any of the cliental speak to a human unless it was one they were feeding from.

"About fifty years now, sir."

"Do your employers treat you well?"

"Yes, sir," the reply was a little stiff and Jeremiah wondered if that was true. "Why do you ask, sir?"

"I was only curious. I heard that some of these clubs don't treat their employees very well and I know people who could investigate and make sure you're treated with the respect you deserve."

The massuse applied a little too much pressure on his back before her clever fingers returned to their more gentle state.

"Really?" She couldn't hide the intrest that crept into her voice. "Are you with the police?"

Jeremiah allowed a grin to creep across his features. "Not exactly. I'm more of freelancer. My company helps those who need it and we accept payment that isn't neccessarily money."

"Such as...if you don't mind me asking, that is."

"Course not, m'dear. I'm referring to trades. You know, like items, information, sex even. Whatever the customer is willing to give." He paused, then: "Oh but why am I telling you any of this? You have a good job here, right?"

When the masseuse did not answer right away, Jeremiah opened an eye and looked up at her. She had a grim look on her face, a faraway look in her eyes.

"M'dear?"

She looked down at him and their eyes locked. It was very tricky to hypontize another vampire, but one could do so as long as they had information about the individual that could paly off their emotions. And Jeremiah had been fortunate enough to have a vampire in his unit that used to work for a child club of this one. He knew for a fact that the employees here were treated like crap.

"You are treated right here, aren't you?"

The massuese swallowed thickly and reached a hand out to squeeze of the whore's blood from the cut and onto Jeremiah's back.

"I...don't think..."

Jeremiah propped himself up on his elbows and stilled the masseuse's hands. He sat up, placing a hand on either side of her face so that she couldn't look away from him.

"I can help you, m'dear. I can find you a better job. One where you will be appreciated and all I want in return is some information about the happenings at Club Blood of All the last few days. You think you can give it to me?"

There was a few seconds pause and then the masseuse whispered 'yes'.

"Good, good. Now, all I want you to tell me is the name of the man who rented the most expensive priavite room in this club two nights ago. Do you know him?"

Another quiet yes was his answer.

"What did he call himself?"

The masseuse's eyes began to shift away from him and he desperately held her head still so they would not break eye contact.

"Tell me. What did he call himself?"

"I-I...he called himself...I never heard a name..."

"Did you see him? Can you remember what he looked like?"

"...I...yes. He was...short, with dark brown hair and black eyes. He alomst reminded me of that...Pearl--"

"Pearlman?" prompted Jeremiah.

The masseuse blinked suddenly and Jeremiah groaned internally as he lost the connection with her. He looked over his shoudler at the whore who had been standing in her position this entire time, a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Um, sir?" asked the masseuse, "are you okay?"

"Yes," Jeremiah answere a bit testily. "I've just remembered that I've somewhere else to be so our session's been cut short."

Jeremih slipped off the table and quickly dressed. He extracted his wallet and handed both the masseuse and whore a hefty tip.

They both looked at him in surprise and he smiled grimly at them.

"Thank you ladies for your services."

He slipped out the door and headed down the corridor.

'Well that was a complete waste of time,' Puck's voice sounded in his ear.

Jeremiah hissed softly, "It was worth a shot."

The sound of hurried footsteps came from behind him and Jeremiah spun around to see both masseuse and whore coming towards him.

"Sir," said the masseuse, "who are you?"

"Who wants to know?"

"We do," answered the whore, "no one's ever paid me before and Tammy here is nothing special as far as masseuses go so why give us so much money? Seems a bit suspcious."

"It also seems rather suspicious that you openly insult a vampire," Jeremiah pointed out.

The whore blushed, but the vampire, Tammy, put an arm around her waist and drew her close.

"Sabrina and I are lovers. And when I say lovers, I mean it. I care deeply for her and she for me. We are looked down on here because of this. We won't tell anyone about you, I swear."

"And it's true that neither of us know the name of the man who rented out that room. Do you know him?"

Jeremiah hesitated, and Craig interrupted his thoughts.

"Don't you dare tell them anything about us, Jeremiah! It's too risky."

Jeremiah's jaw clenched. He wasn't about to do anything as stupid as that.

"No, I don't know him. I was telling the truth when I said I was a cop for hire, though. He's a suspect in a murder case I'm working on and I was trying to find information on him. I thought that if any knew the most it would be the employees at this club."

Sabrina and Tammy exchanged apprehensive looks and then turned back to Jeremiah.

"We know where you could find information on him," said Tammy. "I could give you my employee key so that you can access files on all our usual clients."

"We could both get into a lot of trouble if they find out we helped you," added Sabrina. "So if you get caught, you have to swear you don't tell anyone we helped you. Say that you found the key on the floor. Tammy's always loosing her key, so they'll probably buy it."

Jeremiah thought about this for only a moment before agreeing to their demands.

He heard Craig swear, but he ingorned the werewolf's outburst.

Tammy extracted a silver item from her pocket and handed it over. The key was cylindrical in shape and ended in an X pattern.

"Go all the way down to the bottom floor and turn right at the end of the stairs. Go all the way to the end of the corridor and you'll find a door marked employees only. It won't be locked so just go in. There's a computer in there that holds all the records for our regular clients. Insert the key into the usb port and files should come right up."

"Is there a password?"

"The key is all the password you'll need."

Jeremiah nodded and pocketed the key.

"Thank you. Both of you," he paused. "If all goes well with this case...I might be able to grant you both a better life."

'Jeremiah,' Craig's warning tone went unheeded as the vampire smiled at women's amazed expressions.

Tammy said, "When you're done, just hide the key in the potted plant at the end of the hallway. I'll get it when I'm done with work."

Wasting no more time, Jeremiah followed Tammy's directions. There were a few cases where he had to hide from anther employee, but he reached his destination without much of a fuss.

He put the key in the usb port and the monitor flickered before several files popped up on the screen.

He ran his eyes down the list until he came to one titled 'clients' and he clicked on it.

A search engine came up which allowed him to type in the date he was looking for. A list of twelve individuals flickered up and he scrolled down until he came to the very name he was hoping to find: Pearlman, Mitchell.

Jeremiah swore he could fell his heart stutter as the cumputer's monitor presented him with indisputable proof that Pearlman had fooled the authorites and still alive and well.

He glanced over his shoulder to check for any signs of movement before clicking on the name.

A list of dates starting back in May of last year appeared along with what Pearlman had done that day. Each time he had rented out the same room and each time, he had had twenty 'guests' with him.

Jeremiah bit his lip as he ran the curser over the first date, but of course, there was no further information. Chances were, the owners of the club had no idea what Pearlman was up to and they preferred to keep it that way.

Presently, he heard the sound of footsteps and he quickly clicked out of everything before snatching the key out of the usb. He stood up and tried to figure out what to do as he heard the footsteps drawing nearer.

It didn't take long for him to realize they were heading a different direction entirely. He waited until he could no longer hear them and then slipped back out into the hall.

He headed up the stairs, moving at a pace that wouldn't attact attention.

"It's Pearlman," he whispered and heard a multitue of voices on the line.

'You mean he's in there?' asked Blaine.

"No, but he's the one who's been renting out that room. He's been coming here sense May 18th of last year. I'll tell you more when I get back to base."

When Jeremiah reached the top level of the building, he hid the key in the plant before heading out of the club.