Chapter 21

Verune, a run down motel where people who don't have proper identification documents stay. If one peeked inside every room their sight would come across runaways, convicts, prostitutes, hipsters. It was located in a rather poor locality with shitty security in Portland. 

In one such room a man could be seen shaving his beard. He had shoulder length hair and his body was filled with tattoos. His muscles were well defined showing that he regularly exercised to take care of himself and his knuckles were hard as steel with many cuts and scars indicating the regular usage of his fists. Since this motel only had a bedroom and a small bathroom, once one saw the room from outside they could see what was going inside and it gave very less sense of security. 

Sandbag hung at the corner of the room and it swayed ever so slightly as if there was a draft coming from the window. After his regular shaving the man looked at himself to identify any blemish on his skin and after finding none he washed the blade in satisfaction. 

Coming into his room the man wore his pants over his shorts and walked near the desk which was at the corner of the room and opened the diary which was on the top. Scribbles which resembled that of doodles could be seen on all pages in the diary and every now & then there were photos stuck on the pages. If one looked closer they would identify that these scribbles were datas of the people and they also contained their photos taken from different angles and from different places.

This showed that the man had been stalking the people in the photo frequently and had diligently collected their information. Finally another page was turned where the information written had been stopped. The photo was of a person with sand brown hair and green eyes and the name scribbled underneath the photo was "August".

Picking up a pen the man scribbled a few more lines on that page before closing the diary and instead of placing it on top of his desk, kept it inside his bag and closed it and slinged it over his shoulders and left the room.

Meanwhile, Monroe drove around the city before parking his car near a bar which had death metal blaring outside. The bar had a security/ bouncer who had a bald head and looked to be over 6'2. He was dressed all black and had a leather band around his wrist giving off an intimidating atmosphere. Monroe got out of his car and tried to walk in a cool & intimidating manner but only looked like a creepy old dude. 

Sticking his hand out the bouncer stopped Monroe, as if he was waiting for the verification means to be completed & Monroe knowing the protocol woged in front of him, showing his identity as blutbad and passed through the door without much difficulty. This was the famous wesen only bar named "Phosphorus". 

The entire place was filled with smoke as wesens of different kinds took a puff from the joints they lit while watching the exotic dance shows in joy and wildness. They woged in front of each other without much care and shouted and screamed in joyful abandon. The exotic dancers were all different kinds of Wesen women and while some were wearing skimpy dresses to entertain the customers, the others were giving a strip tease to a bunch of crazy hooligans who were high as shit. 

This kind of a place was the last place where Monroe wanted to be, being a reformed blutbad and a person who prefers a quiet life over a crazy lifestyle. Without indulging himself in this frivolous scenery Monroe made his way to the bartender and gave him a 50 dollar bill and asked for a drink while also inquiring about the name Conrad with the bartender. While the bartender acted as if he doesn't know the name, he had secretly passed the word that someone was looking for the one who runs that bar while picking the drink that the man before him had ordered. 

Monroe on the other hand knew of this and patiently waited for the word to be passed while acting as if he was taking a few sips of the whiskey before him. Being a person with an healthy dose of paranoia Monroe did not drink and now that he knew that there was someone who was hunting members of the former group he was part of back when he was still in adolescent to early 20's age, he could not help but raise his vigilance by a few notches. 

He frequently looked around to see if he was being followed and while en route to this bar he had even gone around the town a few times to ensure that no one was following him. 

While he was looking around, he heard an annoying voice which he hadn't heard of in a few years.

"Yo! If it isn't the vegan blutbad. It's so nice of you to grace us with your presence. Are you sure you didn't take the wrong turn to the meditation centre that you were frequenting every day". A bald man with sparse hair around the side of his head asked in a sarcastic manner.

This was the guy that Monroe came to visit and despite the serious matter that he came to discuss, Monroe simply wanted to wipe the sarcastic smile off the cynical bastard who stood opposite of him but restrained himself from doing it.

"I had a police officer visiting me. He showed a bunch of photos. All those photos contained dead people with their bodies maimed but the thing that got my attention was that from the property which their families mentioned to have been stolen is a specially designed Rado watch. Now did I get your attention?"

"What? Explain properly" asked Conrad in a hushed voice and sat down next to Monroe. His annoying smile was wiped out of his face and replaced with a wary and flashes of cold look.

"Well, you know me, I don't really get along with other people so I don't know the identity of the people who died but as per the police, there is no doubt, those people were wearing the watch which I had designed back when I was in my hometown,  specially for our club members. From the police's statement it seems like this killing has been going on for almost a year and only now have they connected the dots".

While Monroe was going into the details of the case which he heard from Nick, the waiter served dishes and to Monroe's dismay it was chicken wings.

'Well there goes my plan to have a free meal' thought Monroe as he let Conrad think on the information that he had shared.

"You didn't say anything to the cop right?" asked Conrad while munching on the chicken wings.

"Well what do you take me for Conrad? I might have reformed but I am not stupid. I didn't say anything and the cop left after that. I had even done some anti tracking techniques to make sure no one followed me while I made it here".

While Monroe was talking with Conrad or to be more specific bragging about his anti recon techniques Nick pulled at the parking space of Phosphorus and waited patiently for Monroe to come out. He knew that it was impossible to get inside this bar and all he could do was wait. But Nick believed in efficiency and foresight, knowing that he could not keep Monroe always in track nor could he hear him talk, Nick decided to bug Monroe's car. He had previously taken his time to attach a GPS tracker on Monroe's car before entering Monroe's home for questioning and as soon as Monroe left his house he had bugged the entire place. 

Now all that was left was to bug Monroe's car and just as Nick was about to open his car door his fingers froze and quickly went near his seat adjuster and with a quick nudge his seat fell back flat making him invisible to people who just see the car from outside and combining it with the slightly tinted glass improved the effect of invisibility. 

With just one eye above the car window Nick quietly watched a guy with shoulder length hair hiding by the side of Monroe's car and trying to unlock the door. Nick remained silent and watched the entire act without interrupting the man. He didn't know where this man came from and Nick thought that he was out here to do the good old carjacking.

Monroe's car was an old SUV without a remote controlled lock, so all it needed was a nudge and the door was opened. Just as Nick thought of interrupting the man he saw the man taking out bug and GPS tracker from his pocket before setting them up and quickly moved away from the scene after locking the door.