Chapter Sixteen
You know that feeling you get when things are going badly and you know they can’t get any worse? How is it that things can always get worse?
I was still muttering to myself over temperamental men with more mood swings than sense when I turned onto my street. All I wanted was to change into my comfy pj’s and curl up on the sofa with a real gentleman like Darcy, Knightly, or even a scoundrel like Rhett.
Too bad Detective Lucas had other plans.
“You don’t call, you don’t write. I’m starting to think you don’t want to see me anymore,” he quipped, his ready smile making me wonder if he somehow knew what I’d been up to that night. He couldn’t possibly know I’d… Oh God, what if Josh had died after leaving the bar and someone pointed me out as the last person to see him alive?
“I’m sorry,” I managed to get out. “I’ve been busy…”
“It’s okay,” he shrugged easily. “I have a crazy work schedule too, but I’m willing to try and make it work if you are.”
“Can I help you with something, Detective?” Unsure what he was up to, I let him follow me into the building and up the stairs.
“I thought you were going to tell me if you remembered something about that night.”
“I was,” I nodded, “and I don’t.” Not exactly a lie, the single dream I’d had about the experience couldn’t be called a true memory.
“You were spotted at the crime scene, how did you know to go there?”
“I was?” Frak... Was he having me watched or the place I was attacked? I was pretty sure we’d be having a different conversation if I was the one being shadowed. “I got the address from the ambulance company. I have a friend at the hospital.” I was becoming a much better liar, only I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Oh right, your roommate, Miss Russo.”
“That’s her. And I already told you everything I remember, so…”
“Okay, let’s say for a minute I buy that,” he shrugged noncommittally. “What about the murder last night?”
“What? Who died last night? Did he kidnap someone else?” Could I have a new vampire sibling even now at the morgue, waiting to wake up for the night?
“No, I’m talking about Trent Stenger, who I believe was your ex-boyfriend.”
“Trent is dead?” I stared at him in shocked silence.
“They don’t get any deader.”
“But, I just saw him…”
“I’ll say you did. Want to tell me what the two of you were fighting about?”
Oh no… “We weren’t fighting, not exactly.”
“I’d hate to see you with the gloves off then, by all accounts you cracked him a good one. What were you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I didn’t mean to hit him, it just sort of… happened.”
“Uh huh. And did you have a history of hitting him… accidentally before?”
“No! I’d never done anything like that before in my life!” I replied with absolute conviction. It was only after I’d died that I turned into this violent creature with a hair trigger temper. What would happen if the cops found out I’d belted Serena the same night? Would they decide I was a prime suspect due to my violent outbursts? Would they find out about my attack on Josh?
I was saved from making an inappropriate outburst by Bridget’s appearance from the bedroom. “Hey, who’s this?”
“Bridget, this is Detective Lucas.” I wasn’t sure if I should say why he was there or not, but he seemed glad to see her.
“Great, you’re home.” He rose and gestured for her to join us. “That’s two I can cross off my list at once. You were a friend of Trent Stenger’s too, weren’t you?”
Bridget’s lips curved into an unpleasant smile. “If that means wanting to flambé his balls and serve them up to him with toast points, then yeah, we were friends. Why?”
She was shooting herself in the foot! “Bridge, Trent’s dead,” I interjected, wanting to save her from saying anything else incriminating.
“No shit? How’d he die? Wait, let me guess, autoerotic asphyxiation?” She looked only moderately surprised by the news, but I knew her well enough to tell it was quite a shock. Beneath the tough exterior, I knew she’d been deeply hurt by Trent’s betrayal. Not so hurt she’d go after him with a machete and a torch, but more hurt than she let on.
“Before we get to that, do you mind if I ask you where you were last night?”
“Not at all. I was out with Anja all night. We went to a bar called the Bloody Hart or something like that.”
“The Bleeding Hart?” he asked. I was surprised to hear the detective was familiar with a vampire bar, but then again, he might not know it was a hangout for the undead.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Huh. That doesn’t seem like the usual crowd for girls like you.”
“Girls like us, what?” Her chin came up pugnaciously and I couldn’t help but wince, hoping the man wasn’t about to get an earful.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.” His hands came up to ward off any outburst. “I just meant, it’s not a big hit with the college set.”
“Yeah well, I’m not in college, I’m a working stiff. And I’ll drink wherever I goddamn well want to.”
“Bridget, I’m sure he didn’t mean…” I started to soothe her, but Lucas beat me to it.
“As is your God given right,” he nodded sympathetically. “Is there anyone who can attest to your whereabouts between the hours of ten p.m. and two a.m.?”
“I don’t know, probably,” Bridget shrugged and he leaned forward.
“Care to be a little more specific?”
“Shit, I don’t know, I had a few boilermakers that night. Anja, who was there? The bartender…”
“Scotty,” I nodded, leery of giving out too much in the way of details of who we’d seen at the bar. “And we also spent some time with the owners, Jarrod and Leander. I’m afraid I don’t know their last name.” They seemed safe enough to mention, it being their own place.
“I’m sure I can find them. Anyone else?”
Bridget snapped her fingers. “Oh, what about that fancypants guy? The Russian?”
Instinctively I knew Aleksandr wouldn’t want to be drawn into a police inquiry. “I… can’t remember his name. But um… didn’t you have a business card for the guy that gave us a ride home? That was around one a.m. I think.” While Rob might not appreciate us naming him either, he struck me as a guy who could handle a police interrogation without breaking a sweat.
“Oh right! Rob… Hold on a sec, I’ll go get it.”
Once Bridget was gone, I felt the need to fill the silence, not wanting to give him too much time for idle speculation. “How did he die?”
“Maybe you should tell me. Did you kill him?”
“What? No! How… what would make you possibly think that?” He wasn’t serious, was he? I was about to try and focus on catching his eyes to try and compel him into thinking something else when Lucas burst into laughter.
“I was just kidding. I didn’t really figure you killed the guy, but you have to admit, violence does seem to be following you around. Has anything else strange happened to you since we last talked?”
What had happened lately that wasn’t strange? “That’s a very subjective question.”
“That’s me, the subjective detective,” he quipped. “So has it?”
“Has what?” I blinked, still reeling from the sudden shift. Now I wasn’t a suspect? Then what the heck was up with the third degree?
“Has anything strange happened to you since we last talked?”
“Detective, I’m a college student in San Francisco, strange things happen to me every day,” I snorted, feeling more confident now that I knew I was off his list of suspects. “How come you didn’t ask me about an alibi?”
“Instinct. I couldn’t see y
ou ever hurting a fly,” he grinned.
An image of myself lunging for Josh’s throat came back to me, and I gave him an uneasy smile. “That’s a good instinct, you should definitely go with it.” For once I was happy to have that book nerd vibe about me if it made me less of a predator to the local law enforcement.
“Have you made any progress on my case?” I changed the subject and Detective Lucas had the good grace to look embarrassed for not mentioning it.
“We’re still following up on a few leads.”
“What kind of leads?”
“I’m ah, not at liberty to say.”
“At least tell me if you’re saying that because you’re trying to protect the integrity of the investigation or if you’ve got nothing,” I demanded and he stared at me a long, hard moment.
“We’re at a dead end,” he admitted. “Unfortunately I don’t have the same resources I’d have if he’d actually killed you, and the bulk of the evidence is still in the hopper with forensics.”
“You sound almost sorry I survived,” I murmured and his grin reappeared.
“As much as I love a good homicide to sink my teeth into, I’d rather have you here alive and kicking. It’s much harder getting answers out of the dead.”
“How did Trent die?” I asked softly.
“I don’t have the final report from the M.E.’s office back yet, but it looks like he was beaten to death, and then cut with something serrated at the neck, or possibly in the reverse order.” His glib smile gone, a somber look more befitting to the topic finally asserted itself. “Do you have any idea who might have wanted him dead? Besides the two of you, I mean?”
“I never wanted him dead.” That needed saying right off the bat. “And neither did Bridget. We both dumped him and moved on. As for who might actually want him dead?” I let out a long breath. “I honestly don’t know. Other than running into him at school I really didn’t have much contact with him after we broke up.”
“Why did you slug him?”
“He wouldn’t let go of me.”
“Literally or figuratively?”
“Both I guess,” I shrugged.
“So he wanted to patch things up between the two of you?”
“I’m not sure. At one time I would have believed him, but now… It could have been a line of bull on a lonely night, you know?”
“Maybe a jealous new girlfriend saw the two of you together and decided to teach him a lesson?” He was probably only joking, but my forehead puckered with worry. Was I somehow involved in the reason for his death?
“Here you go. You can keep the card, I’ve already got his number in my phone.” Bridget reappeared, Rob’s card in hand.
“Thanks,” Detective Lucas glanced at it and slipped the card into his pocket. “Alright then, unless either of you has anything you’d like to add…?” He paused for a moment. “No? Then I should be running along. If you think of anything else, please give me a call. You still have my number?”
“I do,” I nodded, holding the door open for him.
“Don’t look so worried, Miss Evans. We’ll catch whoever did this. We always do.”
I gave him a tight smile, leaning against the closed door after he left, deep in thought. I’d almost forgotten Bridget was there, until she cleared her throat, an expectant look on her face.
“What? Oh, I’m sorry, I borrowed your boots. I didn’t think you’d mind. Where did you get these anyway? They’re really comfortable.”
“I don’t care about the stupid boots, An. I want to know what the hell is going on.”
“What do you mean? I know as much as you do. I had no idea anything had happened to Trent.”
“You know something’s up. You’ve been acting really weird the past few days. He said you decked Trent, when did that happen?”
Would I never live that down? “You heard that? What, were you listening in the hall?”
“Nevermind that, answer the question.”
It was worse than the interrogation I’d gotten from the police. “Last night, before we went out to the bar.”
“Holy shit… first Trent then the chick at the bar…? Seriously, what’s going on with you?”
My teeth worried at the inside of my bottom lip, not quite sure how to respond to that. “Maybe it’s the near death experience, you know? That’s bound to make anybody a little… tumultuous.”
“Bullshit. There’s something going on with you Anja, and I want to know what it is,” she demanded, hand on hip.
Now I’ve seen a few vampire movies in my lifetime, and I can tell you, the big reveal almost never goes down smoothly. Invariably, the best friend or girlfriend or whoever, doesn’t trust that it’s still their best friend looking back at them, they freak out and expect you to tear out their throats. Nevermind that a vampire almost never announces their identity to a victim first, they just lunge. The last thing I needed was for Bridget to freak out and start screaming, or even worse channel Buffy and come after me with a chair leg.
I wanted to tell her my deep, dark secret in the worst way, it would make my life so much easier not to have to hide it from her. Only I wasn’t interested in chasing her around the room for the next half hour trying to get her to calm down. Plus, there was the law about not letting a human know your true nature unless you compelled them not to tell anyone. Either way I was going to have to compel her. I decided to do it ahead of time and save a step.
“Sit down and I’ll tell you exactly what’s going on,” I offered, taking a seat on the couch and patting the spot beside me.
“This had better be good,” she muttered, flouncing down on the sofa.
“You have no idea,” I murmured, taking a deep, calming breath. It was easy to catch hold of her will, she was already looking at me expectantly, and I could tell by the way the annoyance melted from her expression that I had her under my sway.
“I want you to listen to me, and I want you to accept everything I have to say as the absolute truth, do you understand?”
“Absolute truth,” she nodded, her face vacant.
“I want you to stay calm while we talk. You’re in no danger, there’s no need to be upset or afraid of me in any way. I’d never hurt you.”
“No danger…”
“Most importantly, you can never tell anyone else what I tell you, is that clear?”
“Never tell,” she agreed instantly and I held her in my thrall for long seconds after that to be sure the suggestion took.
“So…I’m a vampire.” I waited for that to sink in, half afraid my compulsion wouldn’t work and I’d have to go with plan B, which would probably involve sitting on her until I could figure out how to get her to cooperate.
“A vampire?” Bridget blinked. “Cool.”
So far so good… “You’re not afraid of me, are you? Now that you know I’m a vampire?”
“Why would I be afraid of you? You’d never hurt me.” She looked puzzled and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.
“You’re right, I’d never hurt you, Bridge,” I nodded, a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth as I realized it might just work. “Remember that night I woke up in the hospital morgue?” I spent the next half hour catching her up on everything that happened since that night. Thanks to the compulsion, she took it fairly well, not a hint of histrionics.
“Did you kill Trent then?” she asked finally and I had to shake my head. Did she really think I was capable of something like that? Okay, so maybe I was, but only in the heat of the moment when feeding, I wasn’t a cold blooded killer.
“No! Weren’t you listening to a thing I said? I had no idea he was even dead before Detective Lucas showed up here tonight.”
“Who do you think did it then?”
“I don’t know, but something Lucas said got me to thinking. What if… what if I am involved in why he was killed?”
“Oh c
ome on, An, he was an asshat. I’m sure there were plenty of people lined up to off him.”
“Maybe he was an… asshat,” I tried the word on for size. “But beating him to death and a jagged wound at the neck? That’s some serious violence for a human, or… maybe a beating that got out of hand for a vampire.”
“Yeah, but what vampires even knew about Trent? He wasn’t exactly running with that crowd.”
I hated to say it out loud, but I had to give voice to my suspicions, even if it was just so she could tell me how crazy it was. “Bishop might know about him. He seemed to know everything about me.”
“You think your cop boyfriend did this?”
“He’s not my boyfriend…”
“Whatever. Why would Bishop kill Trent?”
“I have no idea. Maybe he thought Trent knew about what I am after I hit him? He was hanging out at the college tonight, what if it wasn’t the first night he’s done that?”
“So ask him,” she suggested as if it was the simplest thing in the universe. I knew better.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
“Hey, you have a right to know one way or the other. Just try to stay out of his bed this time,” she teased.
I couldn’t help but smile over that. So far I did have a tendency to end up there, despite his best efforts to cut me out of his life. But after what had happened in the alley, I was doubly sure he didn’t want to see me again so soon. “Maybe I’ll give him a call.”
“I’ve gotta get ready for my date with Rob, catch you later.”
“You’re going out with Rob?” That was news to me. They must have hit it off better than I’d thought.
“Yeah, we’re meeting for a drink before I start the late shift. I don’t have to pretend with him since he knows, right?”
“That’s true…” I allowed, “but it might be better if you don’t bring it up. He doesn’t know that you know, and that might make things simpler.” Especially since we didn’t know him very well.
“Sure, whatever. I wasn’t planning on spending the whole time talking about you anyway,” she grinned. “Hey, if you’re blowing off this school thing, tomorrow night we should take you shopping. If you keep borrowing my stuff I’m gonna start charging you rent.”
Was I blowing off school? That was an inner debate for another time, at the moment I had to focus on the bigger problem at hand. I wasn’t supposed to call Bishop unless it was an emergency. As far as I was concerned, it was plenty enough of an emergency to warrant calling him on his special number. Still, I was nervous as I waited for him to pick up. What if he wouldn’t take my call?
“Yes?” Bishop’s voice sounded tightly controlled, as though he was concentrating on something else, so I decided to get right to the point.
“Did you do something stupid?”
“Yes, but I told you, it’s not a big deal.”
Funny. “No, not that. I meant something else that happened last night. Do you know what I’m talking about? About a certain guy who ended up d-e-a-d?”
“Why are you spelling things out?”
“You never know who could be listening.” For all I knew the cops had my cell phone tapped. Of course then Lucas would be knocking at my door, demanding to know who I’d called and why.
“Anja, I’m pretty sure they can spell, whoever they are,” he said drily, and I realized of course I was being an idiot.
“We should meet to talk about this.”
“I’m a little busy right now. I have a job, remember?”
“How could I forget?” He never ceased to bring it up whenever we got too close. “Alright, well… find me later, alright? We need to talk.”
“There’s nothing left to say.”
A surge of annoyance swept over me. Could he have a bigger ego? “Get over yourself. This isn’t about you and me, this is serious.”
“What’s going on?”
Oh sure, now I had his interest. A knock sounded at the door and I saw through the peephole it was Rob waiting on the other side. “I can’t talk right now, just find me later, okay? It’s important.” I hung up before he could come up with another excuse to avoid me. Greeting Rob with a tight smile, I stepped back to let him into the house.
“Something amiss?” His brows came up as he crossed the threshold. Was I really that transparent?
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I replied with more confidence than I felt.
“You look much more in the pink, glad to see you heeded my advice.”
There it was again… the hint that he knew more about me than he should have. What made him think I needed his advice? Then there was the fact that he smelled a little different. Not inhuman exactly, but something a little more. “Don’t take this the wrong way but… what are you?” I asked, arms crossing as I studied him carefully.
“Catholic.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Rob gave a careless shrug. “I’m just making my way in the world in interesting company, same as you.”
I guess I couldn’t blame him for not spilling his secrets to me, I barely knew him. Letting it go, I changed the subject. “So, you and Bridget, huh?”
“What of it?”
“Nothing, I think it’s great. You seem like a nice guy.”
“Now you’re just being nasty,” he smirked. “What makes you think I’m a nice guy?”
“You gave us a ride home last night and you seemed…” Was he saying it was all an act? “Aren’t you?”
“I haven’t been called such a thing in a long time. But no worries, Anja, you’ve nothing to fear from me.”
Bridget emerged from the bedroom then, interrupting the flow of conversation. It might have been an act, but I believed him.