by Gina LaManna
This morning, clouds hung heavy in the air, clinging to the gray-blue sky behind them. There was a general damp, mistiness that fit my mood and suffocated the entire borough. Not enough to warrant an umbrella, but just enough precipitation to soak me through to the bone by the time I arrived at Matthew’s room.
“Detective?” An unfamiliar face looked up as I barreled through the door. “Can I help you with something?”
I scanned Matthew’s room, blinking as I took everything in and struggled to digest the information. “Um, yeah. Where is Matthew?”
The captain’s bed was decidedly empty. A vase of flowers, probably from Willa’s mother, was well on its way to wilting near the bed. The nurse cleaning up the room stalled before answering, glancing around as if looking for someone to rescue her before she spilled secrets.
“Isn’t this Captain King’s room?” I prompted. “And wasn’t he just on the verge of death last night?”
“He, er, recovers quite quickly,” the nurse said. “It was really amazing. And, anyway, I think he had incentive to get out of here.”
At my stony silence, the nurse blushed.
“You, I mean. He kept saying he wanted to check on you, that you were in trouble. It was romantic, actually. I just didn’t think...” She cleared her throat. “You know, that he’d actually up and leave the hospital. He was supposed to stay here for another three nights.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know Matthew very well.”
“Um, no, Detective. I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t someone Comm me?” I threw my hands in the air. “I wanted to be here when he woke! I told Anita this time and time again. Where’s Anita?”
“It’s not her fault,” the nurse said. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. Anita has been working for the last—I don’t know, seventy-two hours straight? I made her go home for a few hours very early this morning. She should be back any moment. She needed her rest.”
I thought of myself, my own exhaustion, and how selfish it was for me to assume Anita would be on her feet all day, every day. She’d been up for more hours than me, and nobody wanted a sleep-deprived nurse treating patients.
“No, that’s good,” I said. “Sorry—it was just startling to come in here and find an empty bed. I thought that maybe...”
“He didn’t leave all that long ago,” the nurse said. “An hour, maybe two. I tried to Comm Anita, but she must have been sleeping. Really, Detective, she was dead on her feet. This is my fault.”
“It’s nobody’s fault except King’s,” I said. “He’s a grown man and knew exactly what he was doing.”
The nurse just bowed her head slightly. I felt even worse.
“Don’t worry Anita with this,” I said. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll find Matthew.”
While I was annoyed at Matthew for dodging the people supposed to care for him, I was more frightened than anything. I was so sure Matthew had been on the verge of having his name cleared. If he’d just stayed at the hospital for another hour or two, he’d have had a rock-solid alibi.
Chief Newton would have appealed to Arthur Lemont to get me and Matthew back on the case—officially. But no, my stubborn vampire just had to get up and walk his stubborn behind right out of the hospital.
“I’d like to see—”
“I got your Comm!” A flurry of red-hair skidded around the corner. “My God, that asshole! If Dani finds out...”
Nurse Anita came to an abrupt stop, face to face with me and her underling.
“Dani found out,” I said with a slow grin, “about the asshole.”
Nurse Anita wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“It’s nothing you wouldn’t have said to my face. Or,” I corrected, “did say to my face. But I’ve already talked with—”
“Nancy,” the young nurse filled in.
“Nurse Nancy,” I said, “and she informed me of what happened. It’s nobody’s fault. I’m not mad at anyone except Matthew.”
“Well, I’m mad at him, too,” Anita said. “I pumped all the best painkillers into him, and he waltzes out without so much as a thank you! I have to wonder if he wasn’t faking those last few hours of the coma just so I felt comfortable enough to get some shut-eye. I was so tired, DeMarco. I didn’t even hear the Comm go off. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.” I held up a hand. “I’ll find him soon enough. But while I’m here, could I check on—”
“This way.”
Nurse Anita took a moment to adjust her clothes, tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and gather her bearings. She had a pencil sticking out of her red locks and lipstick that dragged halfway up her cheek. Pillow marks were still on her face. The poor woman had obviously been dead asleep when she’d realized something had gone wrong at the hospital. When I get my hands on Matthew...
“I’m afraid that when I left there wasn’t much improvement,” Anita said. “But Kady was stable. I wouldn’t have left otherwise.”
I glanced over, heard her defensive tone, and saw the worry lines on her face. Poor Anita was personally struggling with this one too. It physically hurt her, stressed her out that there wasn’t more she could do.
I empathized, merely rested a hand on her arm and gave her a quiet nod. “I know.”
We made it to Kady’s room, her name tossed on the whiteboard inside with a few squiggly hearts next to it. Probably Willa’s doing. Anita held my arm at the doorway, nodded for me to look through first.
I was glad she stopped me because the moment was too gentle to interrupt. Willa sat in a chair next to the bed with Jack scooted up right alongside her. She clutched a tissue in one hand, but in her other hand, she held Jack’s as if her life depended on it. Their heads were tilted together, just resting on one another, and neither spoke as they watched the rise and fall of her mother’s chest.
I began to back out slowly, not willing to interrupt the tender, private moment. But my movements startled Willa into looking up, her eyes widening as she sucked in a breath and shoved to her feet.
“Dani!” she called out. “Oh, thank you for coming. I’m sorry Jack and I aren’t at the pizzeria this morning. It’s just—”
“Willa.” My mouth hung open as I interrupted her with a wave of my hand. “Don’t be ridiculous! The shop is the least of your worries. I forbid you to come back until your mother is back on her feet and healthy as a horse. Understand?”
Willa’s eyes filled with tears. Jack’s hand came up to stroke her back.
They were just as worn down and exhausted as the rest of us, and emotionally spent to boot. I shouldn’t have come here, I thought. I was an intruder in their private time.
“I’m so glad you came,” Willa said again, foregoing Jack’s hand to cross the room and throw her arms around me. “I know you have bigger things to do out there, fighting crime and all that, but...”
I hugged Willa back. As uncomfortable as I was voicing anything to do with emotions, I found myself staring at Willa’s mother, the pale gauntness to her face, and feeling like I owed everything I had left to Willa.
“You’re my best friend,” I whispered in her ear. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
After a long moment in which Willa completely drenched my shirt with quiet tears, she pulled back. “Thank you. But really, we need you out there—finding who did this to her. Tell me you’ll find whoever it was, Dani, and you’ll put them away.”
I found myself making the most intense promise of my lifetime as I met Willa’s gaze. “I promise.”
Willa returned to her seat, leaned next to Jack. As I watched Willa raise a hand and rest it on her mother’s skinny arm, I suddenly hated The Hex Files and all they stood for.
Another seeks bright in the deepest dark, I reiterated in my mind. Who in their right mind would be capable of putting together such a dreadful prophecy? Willa, the kindest soul in the entire borough, shouldn’t have to go through hell and back to realize her powers. If only there w
as another way...
“Go,” Willa said, giving me a flicker of a smile. “Find Matthew. I heard you guys talking next door. We’ll be fine.”
I stood still for a long moment, watching the scene before me. Finally, Anita moved first, bustling forward and making a show of normal small talk as she went through Kady’s vitals and checked the tubes attached to her. I managed to slip out quietly before the sadness in the room broke me, too.
Chapter 24
Once outside, I glanced toward the precinct and wondered if that would be where I found Matthew. No, I decided after a brief debate. After getting pulled off the case, he’d be hesitant to return to a precinct where tensions ran high.
Knowing Matthew, he’d likely already heard about the new case this morning—the second vampire attack. Any pack members in the department who weren’t already on edge would certainly be chomping at the bit for a lead. And without an alibi, Matthew wasn’t exactly safe there.
No, he’d be elsewhere. Looking for me, probably. Ironic, considering I was right under his nose. Unless there was something else, another task, he needed to complete. Something he hadn’t shared with me, or likely anyone else. The plain truth of the matter was that if Matthew King didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be. There was no sense wasting time looking for him. When he wanted to, he’d find me.
“There you are, Detective.” The voice wasn’t the one I wanted to hear. I swiveled around to find Lieutenant Watters quickly pacing toward me from the precinct. “I had to hurry to find you.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the crime scene?” I stepped underneath a nearby tree in an effort to take solace from the steady downpour of mist. Of course, Watters had an umbrella. The woman was annoyingly prepared.
“I don’t dilly dally,” she said. “I have it wrapped, and the techs will be finishing up shortly. It was urgent, however, that I come see you.”
“Oh?”
“How’s Matthew doing?”
I masked any surprise and gave a nonchalant shrug. “He’s great. Just dandy, why?”
“I take it he has an alibi for this morning?”
Heat rose on the back of my neck. “I imagine so, seeing as he was checked in at the hospital.”
“And you saw him just now?”
“What are you trying to do?” I asked, hopeful she missed my dodge of her question. “You’re wasting your time if you’re looking at Matthew as a suspect.”
“I’m not so sure about that. After all, he’s the only known vampire in the borough. I follow the logical answers, Detective, and all logic in this case is pointing toward Matthew.”
I rolled my eyes. “I can see we disagree on everything.”
“Did you or did you not just see Matthew?”
“I’m done answering your questions,” I said. “If you want to formally question me, take me in. This is ridiculous.”
“Very well.” Watters was unfazed by my lack of cooperation. “I can see you’re very distressed, Detective. I hope you’re not lying for Matthew. If you know something, I can help you.”
“Matthew has an alibi,” I snarled. “What more do you want?”
She leaned forward, her eyes narrowed. “A real alibi.”
I couldn’t bear to be around Watters for another second. A wave of pure adrenaline washed through me, and for a moment, I debated storming into the precinct and demanding Chief Newton stand up to the NYPD and allow us back on the case. To kick Watters out of the borough, or else I’d hand in my badge.
But I couldn’t do that because frankly, I’d handed in my badge quite a lot over the last few months, and it was getting old. I liked my job. I just didn’t like having the love of my life accused of a crime I knew he didn’t commit. If only that stubborn vampire had stayed put, Watters would be gone, and we’d be back on the hunt for the real murderer.
Steamed, I put my head down and strode right past Watters and her stupid clear umbrella that was doing a fabulous job keeping her dry. My hair was stringy and wet, and my leather jacket was very cool-looking, but it did absolute squat in terms of keeping me dry. At least my pants stayed buttoned, probably because I’d forgotten to ask Anita for that breakfast Jell-O.
I huffed it to the morgue because I was already soaked, and I needed to calm down. I forced my lungs to take heaping breaths of fresh air as I moved, letting the humid mist settle over me as I neared the lab.
I pushed through the front door and swiped a hand over my forehead. A sudden silence filled the room. Several obvious mourners in the waiting room stopped at once, and a pasty-faced man with an anxious tic—probably called down to ID a body—stopped dead and stared.
“What happened to you?” Ursula called from the front desk. “You look awful.”
Coming from a monster, that was bad. Really bad. Ursula wasn’t exactly known to be pretty with her purplish-toned skin and weird, blobby figure. If she was saying I looked rough, I must look like a drowned swamp rat.
“I’m here to see Sienna,” I said. “She should be expecting me.”
“She’s expecting Detective DeMarco,” Ursula said. “Not the Loch Ness monster.”
“Funny, but Nessie has been locked up since ‘86.”
“Well, it sure looks like she got un-loched because you hardly look human.”
“Good,” I retorted. “I’m a witch, here to see a necromancer. Is Sienna ready for me?”
Ursula sighed, then reached behind the desk and pulled a roll of paper towels from her drawer. She tossed it to me. “Mop yourself up. We can’t have people slipping and ending up dead. Sienna’s got enough on her plate without the extra casualties.”
I ripped a slew of paper towels from the roll and began patting myself down. I started with my hair, then moved to my neck and outer layers, and then finally, my boots. My leather pants were all but super-glued to my legs, so they’d be perma-pants from here on out. I’d have to go back to The Isle and lay on the beach for a week to get these suckers peeled off my body.
Lastly, I threw some paper towels on the ground and stomped all over them, getting the crud off. I managed to mop the floor and scowl at Ursula the entire time, and only once she blinked and nodded with satisfaction that the floor was clean could I squelch my way back to the lab.
When I reached the lab and found the door closed, I was confused. Usually when Ursula alerted Sienna to a visitor, she came to pick us up from the front desk. She hated people walking around her facility without an escort. Something about not wanting us to mess with the bodies.
While I personally had no interest in messing with the bodies, as she put it, I couldn’t fault her cautiousness. Just a few weeks back, three corpses had been stolen from the morgue. Strange things happened in Wicked.
I raised a hand and knocked once. When there was no answer, I tried the door, then knocked again.
“Sienna,” I called through. “You busy in there? It’s me, Dani.”
The introduction was useless since she knew I’d be swinging by. Plus, I was sure Ursula and Sienna had a way of communicating when she had a visitor.
After a few more minutes and some incessant knocking, I squelched back to the front desk. “Did you tell Sienna I was here?”
“No.” She frowned. “She told me to send you right back when you got here. Isn’t she there?”
“She’s not answering,” I said. “Can you Comm her or something?”
“She doesn’t wear her Comm in the lab. She leaves it out here.” Ursula patted a black bracelet on the desk. “I bring it to her if there’s something urgent. She doesn’t like to be disturbed.”
“Maybe I didn’t knock loud enough,” I mused, but I was already forming a Lock Lifter spell on my tongue as I headed back to the lab. “Let me give it one more go.”
“I’m sure she’s just busy. You know Sienna, how engrossed she gets in her work.”
“Sure do,” I said. “Thanks.”
I also knew that Sienna always kept her promises and never forgot a thing. If she’d expected
me, she’d be waiting. With grim determination, I returned to the lab and tried another knock and name call, but even before the silence returned, I knew I wouldn’t be hearing from Sienna. I could feel it in my gut. Something was wrong.
Mumbling an illegal Lock Lifter, I let myself into the room and abruptly paused. Nothing looked wrong. Except for the dead person on the table, but I recognized the build of the body as the same one from the morning’s crime scene. He was placed exactly where he should be. Sienna’s tools were out next to him. Her bright pink, furry jacket hung by the door. A set of headphones rested on the desk.
“Sienna?” I called.
An eerie feeling settled over my spine. The door had been locked. The deadbolt had been thrown, something Sienna only did when she was working and didn’t want interruptions.
But if she was supposed to be in here working—where could she have possibly gone?
I scanned the small office adjacent to the lab, but that was neat and tidy, with only a few business items scribbled on a notepad with a glitter-encrusted pen dropped next to it.
I felt stupid as I ducked to check under the tables, but there were only so many places to hide in a sterile, locked room. Nothing turned up from my search as expected. I was procrastinating looking further because the creepy feeling had intensified.
The drawers along the wall on the far side of the lab seemed to be staring me down, calling to me. They were, realistically, the only place I hadn’t looked large enough to house a body. Because that’s what they’d been made for—refrigerated beds for sleeping corpses awaiting Sienna’s attention.
My hands turned clammy when I caught sight of a drawer at chest level propped slightly open. Just a hair beyond the rest, as if someone had been in a hurry and hadn’t taken the time to push it those last few centimeters shut.
I took a few steps closer, my eyes fixated on the doorway, praying for Sienna to burst through, bobbing her head to music and yelling at me to keep my sticky paws away from her bodies. To explain she’d been in the bathroom, and to scream fondly about how she’d have Ursula’s head for letting me back here unsupervised.
