Read When A Gargoyle Flies (Gargoyles Book 3) for Free Online Page A

white-collar crimes.  Now, she was the only agent in the Portland FBI assigned to weird cases – UFOs, Bigfoot, aliens, werewolves and so on and so forth.  She had a tiny office in the basement, and her section didn’t even have a name.  Technically it didn’t exist.  But that wasn’t part of some conspiracy; it was just that no one took her investigations seriously enough to push the paperwork through.  Chris was surprised that the young, ambitious agent had agreed to work those cases.  Although, Melissa was at heart a decent and kind person, and perhaps not ruthless enough when it came to her career.
    They exchanged pleasantries while he proudly told her about Brenda’s straight As and she told him about a cute thing her cat had done the other day.  Bob growled at the word cat, but Chris grabbed his squeaky ball and threw it across the room.  Bob watched it, gave Chris a look and then settled onto the floor.
    “What can I do for you?”  Chris asked as Melissa finished the story about Lion-O climbing her curtains.
    “Actually, it’s work related.  A got a report from a couple who just spent the weekend up in your neck of the woods that they saw a giant bat flying around during the two nights they were there.  Said they reported it to one of your deputies who told them other people in town had seen it, too.”
    Chris stilled.  He remembered when he’d heard reports like this a month ago, putting them down to bored kids making stuff up.  Now he knew the truth.  Damnit.  Either Craig or Tim had shot their mouths off and it had made it to the FBI.
    “Giant bat?” he repeated.
    “Yeah, I know.  The couple wasn't exactly clear.  The husband said a bat; the wife thought it might have been a griffin.  When I interviewed them, they got into this huge argument over it.”
    “Sure, a griffin, that seems much more likely.”
    “Yeah well, investigating unlikely things is my life.”  Melissa let out a long breath, not unhappily just resignedly.  “This is one I’d usually pass on given that they both admitted they’d been drinking when they saw it.  Apparently, they were there on some fancy pants wine tasting weekend.”
    “Yeah, we get a lot of those.”  Some of the B&Bs had them.  Wine, witchcraft, and antiques were their main attractions.  And now gargoyles he thought uneasily.
    “But, they are friends of my boss’ boss - so I couldn’t say no, and given what they were told…  Any thought on the bat?”
    Chris told her the same thing he told the town council when they last brought it up.  “You know the town has a history to do with witchcraft.  It was probably just someone trying to drum up tourists.  I don’t know, probably just some radio control helicopter with a blanket over it.”  Something Maggie had done before on one of her midnight tours of the town to scare tourists.  Given that the blanket caught fire and the whole thing got stuck in a tree, it worked.
    “Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised.  I thought I might come up next weekend to take a look around – at least I can say I tried to investigate.  What do you think?  Will you be around?”
    She held her breath as she waited for his answer.  The last time he’d been in Portland, he took her out for dinner – payback for a favor.  He made sure it was just a pizza and wings restaurant – definitely nothing romantic.  Chris made himself clear he wasn’t on the market for anything romantic, but maybe she didn’t want to take the hint.
    “Sure, we could get together.  I can introduce you to the locals, and you could have dinner with my niece and me.”
    “That sounds great; I’ll call you nearer the time.”
    Melissa rang off and Chris stared at the phone.  She sounded far too excited.  He’d let her down gently of course.
    Why he was so against anything with Melissa, he wasn’t sure.  She was great – funny, charming and shared his interests.  He could easily take it slow and date her, getting