In this third book in the Vampire Files series, Fleming and Escott use their latest leads to track down the fate of Jack's old lover, who turned him, Maureen. They find that she left a phone number where she could be reached in an emergency, belonging to an old neighbor, and that neighbor, in turn, leads them to the household of Emily Francher, wealthy spinster socialite, and her gentleman friend, Jonathan Barrett. Barrett is wary of the duo when they arrive and begin asking questions, but he claims that he only saw Maureen briefly when she was escaping her sister, and that she spent the night at the Francher mansion, then left by cab the next morning without saying a word to him or anyone else. She has not been heard from since.
This story doesn't completely satisfy Jack and Charles, so they hang around town continue to make inquiries from the townsfolk, and Jack takes a sneaky reconnoiter around the place the following evening, eavesdropping on Barrett, Emily, and her ward, Laura, who seems to have a young woman's crush on Barrett, even though he and Emily are obviously lovers, and the couple have taken steps to bring Emily "life" after death.
When the pair take a ride with the cab driver who drove Maureen away from the mansion that day, they put him in serious danger, and shortly afterwards Jack stumbles upon the scene of a brutal attack on the poor, innocent fellow. Jack, himself, is blindsided when the attacker returns while he is trying to help the cabbie, and beaten so badly that the locals mistake him for truly dead, and he has to be rescued from the morgue by Charles before an autopsy is performed.
It becomes fairly obvious where this is all leading early on in the story, but our friends have to play the whole game to its bitter end.
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