Thirst

by Jacquelyn Frank

  Over the years she had been a cop, she’d gotten pretty good at picking a junkie out of a crowd. But for every one that looked the part there was one who looked as normal as any middle-class person could look. Or upper class. Or any class. Just…normal. Was that the same for phants? If so, how long did they have to be feeding on tainted humans before they started to look the part?

  “All right, what’s up with you?” Jimmy demanded of her. “You’re as jittery as a virgin at the prom. Relax. It’s just lunch.”

  Renee forced herself to pay attention to Jimmy and smile. “Nice analogy. I’m not jittery. Not that much anyway. I’m just anxious to get Grovener.”

  “Yeah, but you’re usually better at hiding your emotions. You can’t go into the interview like this. You need to find your calm or this will blow up in your face.”

  “I will. I am.” Renee exhaled a long, slow breath. “There. See? I’m calm.”

  Jimmy chuckled, but it was clear he was watching her closely. He was right. She needed to find her calm. If a phant did attack her in broad daylight, she needed to be able to act wisely and with deadly accuracy.

  And within the guidelines of human law.

  That was going to be tricky. Especially in daylight with witnesses like Jimmy around. And what about Jimmy? What if he got caught in the crossfire? She and Jimmy had been partners the entire two years she had been at homicide. He was like an annoying younger brother…or older brother. She wouldn’t know as she’d only had sisters growing up.

  Sisters! How was she ever going to explain this to her sisters?

  Wait. She couldn’t explain it to them. Rhea and Sondra had to be kept in the dark just like everyone else. Just like Jimmy. Jimmy was in danger just being around her but at least he could take care of himself to a certain degree. Her sisters, both of whom were teachers, had no training or anything. She could not see them again until this was all cleared up. She simply couldn’t risk their well-being.

  The waitress returned with their drinks and both she and Jimmy ordered their favorite pho. She preferred chicken in her pho along with a ton of vegetables. Mrs. Pho’s was completely organic, one of the reasons why she enjoyed it so much.

  The knot in her belly tightened and she began to wonder if she’d be able to eat once her food came. But she had to. Jimmy was already noticing odd things about her behavior. Lack of appetite from a woman known to eat anyone under the table would certainly stand out.

  “Jimmy, will you go over some hand-to-hand with me later?”

  “Plan on getting into a fight?”

  “No. I just have this feeling like I should get a refresher course under my belt. Get back into top shape.”

  “A feeling, eh? What brought this on? Is someone harassing you? Is that what this is all about?”

  “No one’s harassing me. Geez, Jimmy, will you stop it. The only one harassing me is you! Now will you help me or not? I can just as easily ask one or two of the young bucks fresh off the street to do it.”

  “Those jackasses? They couldn’t wrestle their way out of a paper bag,” Jimmy said with a wolfish grin. “You know I’ll always help you out. We’re partners. I’m here for you. No matter what you need, whenever you need it.”

  Renee smiled at that. Jimmy was so sincere it touched her. He was a good man and she was putting him in danger. True, he was a cop and he knew his life was on the line at any given moment. But they weren’t on the street any longer. Jimmy too would have let his senses dull. Although, Jimmy did keep himself in top condition—better than she did—but working out and working smart were two totally different things.

  Their pho came and they both began to eat, Jimmy slurping his noodles like an enthusiastic child. Renee chuckled at his antics. She relaxed just a little, but she continued to let her eyes drift over the crowd.

  “So are you going after Grovener hard or are you going to be his friend?”

  “I’m going to go at him hard. We played friends last time and he did nothing but lie to me. He thinks he’s getting away with murder. He’s in for a rude awakening.”

  “Last time he wanted to know what we knew,” Jimmy said. “Him coming in…I think he thinks he’s getting another shot at learning what we know. And this time I’m happy to tell him. We have a witness. We have a weapon.”

  “What kind of idiot kills someone in front of his girlfriend and thinks he’s going to get away with it?”

  “He thinks he has her completely under his thumb. And he was right. Until he decided to beat her up two nights ago. We’ll put her in protective custody and she’ll testify against him.”

  “I know we told her that we wouldn’t charge her as an accessory after the fact for cooperating, but we don’t have enough to charge her with accessory anyway. She was only supposed to get rid of the gun. Lucky for us she didn’t. Now we have it. And now we have him. It’s all over for Mr. Grovener. And I for one am going to be delighted to tell him so.”

  Jimmy and Renee finished their pho, continuing to talk about the Grovener case until they were outside in the cold.

  “What about this Cooper murder? What are you thinking?”

  “Still too soon to tell anything. Let’s start calling in his closest family and see if they know of anyone with really sharp teeth who might have had it in for Arnie.”

  “This is going to be one for the mystery books.”

  She laughed. “Jimmy, it’s one for the history books. Not mystery.”

  “No, this is one for the mystery books. ’Cause frankly it makes for a good mystery. The Mystery of the Vampire.”

  She groaned. “Jimmy, let’s not talk about vampires in this case, okay? I don’t want some idiot from the papers overhearing you and suddenly there are headlines about vampire killers.”

  “You’re right. Of course. Sorry. We both know it’s not a vampire—just someone who thinks he is one. Although, he did get it wrong. Isn’t it supposed to be the side of the neck? Why the back? It’s a pretty awkward place to reach if you’re face-to-face. And our murderer probably didn’t expect he was going to scare old Arnie into a heart attack.”

  “Whoever it is, he’s still guilty of murder, no matter how unintentional it may have been.”

  And perhaps it had been unintentional. Maybe it was a lawful vampire who had unexpectedly caused a heart attack in his victim. But then, if that was the case, why would a lawful vampire be attacking someone in the cold light of day? No. Only someone careless and desperate would risk revealing everything about the vampires to the public.

  But maybe that’s part of the sycophants’ plans. Maybe they were trying to out the entire vampire race.

  But what good would that do them? What purpose would it serve? Humans would very likely turn on vampires the moment they found out about them. They often feared what they could not control or understand. That fear would lead to violence.

  “So when we get back I’ll start calling his next of kin. We’ll arrange for the interviews to take place around four. We should be done with Grovener by then.”

  “Great. We’ll catch this guy,” Renee said, even though she was pretty sure they wouldn’t. If anyone was going to catch him, it would be Rafe’s people. And only they would have the capability of bringing that person to justice.

  They made it back to the precinct without incident and Renee breathed a little easier. Rafe probably would have a fit if he found out she had gone out. But she had promised him to stay in a crowd and Mrs. Pho’s had definitely been crowded.

  As the afternoon wore on, she got back into her usual groove. She put Tommy Grovener away and was content when the silver bracelets were finally around his wrists.

  That left the interviews with the Cooper family.

  Services for Arnie Cooper would be held that Saturday, tomorrow. As a matter of ritual, Renee attended the funeral services of her victims. It usually helped her to be surrounded by all of her victims’ loved ones. Sometimes information came her way that she might not have yet come across, other times she was si
mply showing her solidarity with the family and proving to them that she was invested in their loved one’s case.

  Arnie Cooper had left behind a wife and a daughter. Both showed up, the two women practically holding each other up as they walked into the interview room together. The daughter, barely eighteen, was just as distraught as her mother…if not more so. She ought to have done the interviews separately, but she already knew that they would have nothing to offer her in the way of clues to his murderer.

  Then again, maybe they did know this vampire. He could be a friend of the family and the family wouldn’t even know it. After all, they looked just like humans, didn’t they?

  “Mrs. Cooper, Ms. Cooper,” she greeted them as she entered the interview room.

  “Detective Holden, please,” Mrs. Cooper begged her immediately. “Please tell me you know who has done this to my poor Arnie!”

  Andrea Cooper was a rather elegant older woman. That she came from a significant amount of wealth was obvious. The gemstones in her earrings alone had to equal a full year’s salary for Renee. But that didn’t make her pain any less. Money meant nothing when it came to grief. Ms. Cooper was slightly softer, a little rounder in the face and body. Her eyes were red and her cheeks splotchy. Both women were redheads, although it was probable that Mrs. Cooper got her color out of a bottle. Both women carried tissues in their hands and both were obviously distraught at the idea of having to talk about their loved one’s death. All of their reactions were normal. She traded a look with Jimmy. They weren’t looking for a woman, but that didn’t mean one of these women wasn’t responsible in some way. For all she knew, Mrs. Cooper might have hired someone to kill her husband…and that someone just happened to be a vampire.

  The possibilities were endless until they began to narrow down the truth of what had happened.

  “Mrs. Cooper, is there anyone you can think of that had a problem with your husband? Perhaps a business partner or someone he had an argument with?”

  “No. No one. Arnie was a very friendly man with a good, warm heart. Everybody loved him.”

  If she had a dime for every time someone said that to her, she would be a painfully rich woman. It just reminded her that everyone had someone who loved them, who thought the best of them.

  “If you think of anyone or anything, no matter how small it might seem, will you tell us about it?” Renee asked.

  “Of course,” the young Ms. Cooper said. “Do you have any leads? Do you know who killed my father?”

  “Not yet. But it’s still very early in our investigation. Things might turn up as we move along. However, if this was a truly random crime, it will make things far more difficult. Fortunately there were cameras on that corner. We’re hoping one of them caught something. The recordings are due in before the end of the day today. We’ll start to review them and then maybe we’ll have a better idea of who we’re dealing with. And we do have a very good witness. She said she saw his face and could pick him out of a lineup.”

  They reassured the family again that they would do everything in their power to see the killer brought to justice. All the while, Renee couldn’t escape the feeling that she was lying to them. She wasn’t going to be doing everything possible. And the idea of it irked her.

  What if she just investigated a few of these leads and found out where the actual vampire was…and then did not approach him? Leave it up to Rafe and his people from that moment on. She could be very helpful in discovering who the murderer was. It was her job and she was very good at it.

  The trick would be allowing Rafe’s people to bring the man to justice before Jimmy got a warrant and went barging in on a creature that could potentially kill him. That was the dangerous part of all of this.

  But she didn’t like making promises to a family that she would do her best, only to not do her best at all.

  Yes, that was what she would do. She would have to be careful, very careful. But she could be careful and useful at the same time. And she wouldn’t tell Rafe what she was doing until it was necessary. She knew he wouldn’t approve and would try to talk her out of it.

  Renee got to her feet and said goodbye to Arnie’s family, shaking their hands. She met their eyes and saw the pleading in them. They wanted justice. It wouldn’t bring Arnie back, but it would make them feel as if it hadn’t all been for nothing. What she knew, and what they didn’t realize, was that it wouldn’t make them feel all that much better. But she also knew that if she let Rafe take justice into his hands, they would never know the outcome and would never have the satisfaction of seeing their loved one’s murderer behind bars.

  Yes. This was going to be a very, very tricky situation indeed.

  Chapter 14

  Rafe went in front of the committee that afternoon. He had to defend his position and his actions, and he had to face possible retribution in the form of a tribunal. The tribunal wouldn’t be held that weekend since there were far more important things going on in the vampire world, but if he did not convince the committee of his reasons for letting a virtual stranger into their fold, he would definitely be facing that tribunal after all the other vampires had gone back to their respective countries.

  Rafe entered the committee chambers with confidence. If he showed weakness of any kind, it would be pounced upon and he would be batted about like a mouse by a cat. On the other hand, he could not come off too arrogant. That would be equally bad. And he could not be contrite, that would mean he felt he had done something wrong.

  “Rafe DaSilva,” the leader of the committee said once he had entered the brightly lit room. The committee was sitting with their backs to a window, making it so that light glared behind them as the sun sank for the day. It forced Rafe to wince in the harsh light and made the faces of the committee difficult to see.

  Damn it, he should have done this in the morning. He needed to be able to see their expressions. It was important to be able to read them. But he’d had to come within hours of his revelation of his having broken the rules. To wait would have only made things worse.

  “Come forward,” the leader of the committee instructed.

  As he did, he realized the change in position helped a little. Allowed him to see them better.

  “You have something to tell us?” the leader said, even though he likely already knew exactly what Rafe had done.

  “Yes. I have revealed the vampire race to a human woman.”

  “This is a very serious flouting of vampire law. Only a human who has been vetted by this committee can be told of our existence. What makes you think your judgment supersedes ours?”

  “Honestly, I was not thinking about it like that. I wasn’t purposely flying in the face of vampire law.”

  “That was exactly what you were doing,” the leader said. “Couch it however you like, the fact is you broke the law.”

  “I did so to protect the well-being and safety of an innocent woman.”

  “A human woman,” the leader said with disdain.

  “Yes. But she is an extraordinary human woman. And she is worth saving and able to be trusted with our secret.”

  “What makes her so extraordinary?”

  “She has the heart of a vampire. She is strong and clever, trustworthy and keen. She was able to kill a sycophant even before she knew exactly what it was.”

  This sent murmurs up and down the committee table. There were five members of the committee—one of whom was Danton, a longtime friend of Rafe’s. But Rafe knew that his friendship with Danton would not serve him well in this instance. Danton would try to overcorrect his potential bias. His attempts to be fair would only end in difficulty for Rafe.

  “So she knows how to kill a sycophant? That means she knows how to kill us.”

  “Yes, she does. But anyone—any human—could figure out that cutting off our heads will do the trick. It isn’t that much of an intuitive leap.”

  “So it is nothing special then, that she was able to kill the sycophant.”

  Rafe clenched h
is hands into fists. He had walked right into that one.

  “It is special because she was in the middle of being attacked by a creature she did not understand and yet kept her head enough to follow my instruction on how to kill the sycophant.”

  “So you told her how to kill us?”

  Frustration built inside of Rafe. This wasn’t going well at all. It didn’t seem to matter what he said, it was coming out all wrong and making both him and Renee look bad.

  “I had no choice,” he said stiffly. “I was outnumbered three to one. I needed help. She was being attacked too. It was only fair that she be told how to save her own life.”

  “Say that we accept that. How do we accept the fact that you did not use hypno on her and erase her memory afterward?”

  “It wouldn’t have been fair to her. The sycophant that escaped warned me that they would keep coming after her until she was dead. Erasing her memory would have left her out there unprotected. She wouldn’t know she was being targeted and she wouldn’t know what to do to save her own life. I could not, in good conscience, let that happen.”

  The committee exchanged a series of whispers amongst themselves.

  “This woman, if she is so extraordinary, will have no trouble being vetted by us,” Danton said.

  “I have faith in her. I have explained to her the process she will face. She is ready to prove herself worthy. She already knows that if she fails you will wipe her memory and leave her out in the cold. Although, I should warn you that if you do that I will use every resource at my disposal to see she is protected.”