Chapter 14
The damp sand clung to the souls of my boots as I followed Alex across to the others gathered on the beach.
“I.D.,” a woman in a high vis jacket said, stepping in front of Alex, effectively halting his progress.
He whipped out a small black wallet and flipped it open, producing the identity card and badge all Division 6 officers got to carry. She nodded, her brown eyes drifting past him to where I stood a couple of paces behind. Beneath her jacket, her navy police uniform looked almost black under the floodlights that had been set up to light the scene. She looked half frozen below the brim of the hat on her head.
“I’m with him,” I said, jerking a thumb in Alex’s direction.
“I.D.,” she repeated.
I didn’t have a Division 6 badge yet, it had been on my list of things to do, but with everything that happened I’d completely forgotten to swing by the admin office when I’d dropped Grey’s car off.
“I’ve got a driver’s licence,” I said, “it’s the best I can do.”
I produced it from the inside of my leather jacket, holding it up so she could see the name and photo on the plastic card.
“And she’s definitely with you?” she asked, turning her attention to Alex who was watching on with a glint of humour in his eye.
“For better or worse,” he said, the phrase sounded odd coming from his mouth.
“Do you have someone I can call to confirm,” she asked. As frustrating as the hold-up was, I couldn’t fault her on her thoroughness in vetting me. Perhaps there had been other breaches before now that had made them more cautious.
“Let them through, Sita.” A man in a dark rumpled suit stood next to the white tent, the black overcoat he wore was open down the front and flapped wide in the wind making it look like a pair of dark wings as it billowed behind him.
“Sir, you said to check everyone who came in,” she said, looking more than a little concerned.
“Officer Bhatt, they’re obviously the goon squad, just let them through.” His voice spoke to the kind of exhaustion that came from asking questions that didn’t have answers, at least not the kind that would get you anywhere.
With a grimace she stepped aside, allowing me beneath the police cordon tape. Alex was already moving toward the detective, his hand outstretched and a wide smile on his face.
“I’m Alex,” he said, “and this is my colleague Jenna.”
“What, no last names?” The detective raised an eyebrow, his lips thinning in disgust as his eyes flicked down to Alex’s hand.
“Division 6 don’t deem it a necessity,” Alex said smoothly, but I could tell from the expression on the detective’s face that he was less than impressed.
“Faith,” I piped in as I moved to stand beside Alex. “I’m Jenna Faith,” I said, “and I’m right there with you on the goon squad side of things. Unfortunately, we’re a necessary evil in this world.”
The detective’s tawny eyes flickered over me. It was quick assessment, but I knew he’d taken in every inch of me, including the whip and blades at my waist.
“I suppose when you’re a hammer, the whole world becomes a nail,” he said, taking a firm grip on my hand at the same time as he managed to shoot Alex a look of disgust. “Detective Shane Cassidy. I was the one who made the call to you lot.”
His handshake was firm, more than firm and it suddenly dawned on me that he was testing me. All it would take was for me to squeeze a little harder and his bones would crunch beneath the pressure. As it was I could already feel the bones sliding over one another. From the slight flexion in his hand I knew it had been broken before. Perhaps even this year, I thought idly to myself as I studiously kept my grip human friendly.
Releasing him, I caught Alex staring and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been the one to shake Cassidy’s hand, if he’d felt the challenge as I had, would the man now be on the ground, the bones of his hand crushed beneath Alex’s preternatural strength.
“What can you tell us about the scene,” I asked, glancing past him as a woman in a white coverall appeared out through the gap in the tent.
“Not much,” Cassidy said. Another sigh escaped him as he turned and gestured for me to head into the tent. “We were kind of hoping you lot could tell us something.”
“Who found the body?” I asked, lifting the flap on the tent. I made it one step inside before the smell hit me. It was so familiar, my stomach instantly rebelled and I covered my face with my hand before the food I’d eaten earlier could attempt an encore.
“What’s wrong?” Alex whispered moving up next to me. I waited for him to get the same smell that I had but his expression remained unchanged.
“Can’t you smell it?”
“Smell what?”
I took my hand away from my face and waited for the scent to return. When nothing happened, I felt heat climb into my cheeks. There was no way I’d imagined that scent. Old blood, fur, and sex. A very particular combination and one I would recognise anywhere. Carmine had worn it like it was an expensive perfume, the scent moving into a room ahead of her announcing her presence everywhere she went.
“Carmine was here, or at least, the body came into contact with her,” I said, taking in the sight. The body or at least what was left of it was curled into the foetal position, the knees drawn up under the chin, arms wrapped tightly around the legs. Or at least that was how it looked.
Where Simon had been pulled from the sea with all the appearances of someone still alive, this body looked more like something that belonged in an old dusty tomb. The limbs stick thin and brittle. The long blonde hair had yellowed and lay in thick matted strands across the face.
“A woman was walking her dog on the beach when she found it,” Cassidy interrupted. “Well, the dog found the body first. Tried to drag an arm back as its prize before the woman caught up.” I looked to where he was pointing and spotted the frayed remains of where the forearm had connected to the upper arm and hand.
“Where’s the arm now?” I asked, my eyes never leaving the body.
“Forensics have it bagged up already,” he said. “Didn’t think you’d need to see it.”
I nodded. He was right of course, we didn’t need to see the arm. If there was anything of note about it, the medical examiner would soon let us know.
Alex crouched next to the head as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves. I watched as he painstakingly pushed and detangled the hair so he could get a proper look at the face. There wasn’t much left to see. Either the time it had spent in the water had destroyed the features or they’d been destroyed before death. At this point it was too early to tell.
“Got something here,” Alex said, moving aside a particularly thick strand of straw-like hair.
I moved over to him, bumping shoulders with Cassidy as he crouched next to me and peered across to where Alex was pointing.
The holes were ragged and they joined a laceration that trailed beneath the chin. Someone had obviously attempted to cover them up by slitting the throat, but whoever it was hadn’t done a very good job and the holes were still obvious.
“Sloppy,” Alex said, as though he could read my mind.
“Is that an injection sight?” Cassidy asked. “Looks a little big.”
“Vampire,” I said. “Fang marks to be precise.”
He turned round eyes to me. “We don’t have a vampire problem here.” There was such certainty to his claim that I hated the words that spilled from my mouth.
“Just because you don’t hear about it, doesn’t mean you don’t still have a problem with them.”
His complexion shifted suddenly, colour flooding into his face and his tawny eyes glittered with anger.
“I would have heard about it,” he said, his anger barely contained. He lurched to his feet, the sand shifting suddenly beneath him causing him to stumble.
I was up, my hand on his arm to steady him before I even thought about what I was doing.
“Let me go.”
Ripping free of my hold, he strode toward the exit.
“Burying your head in your ass doesn’t make it any less true,” Alex said, the humour in his voice only brought more colour to Cassidy’s face as he slammed out through the flap.
“Did you really have to wind him up like that?” I asked, staring after the detective.
“Someone needed to,” Alex said. “Clearly it wasn’t going to be you. You were too busy mooning after him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped.
“Wait until Grey hears,” he continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “He goes AWOL for five minutes and you’ve already moved on.”
“I’m going to talk to the witness,” I said.
“What for?” Alex pushed back onto his feet, sliding the gloves off as he moved. “It’s not as though she was there for the murder.”
“Because this body didn’t just wash up on the shore,” I said sharply. I headed for the exit, following in Cassidy’s footsteps.
“Wait, what?” Alex said, scrambling after me. “How do you know that?”
“Because something that dry and brittle wouldn’t have lasted in the water. It would have broken down entirely. At the very least it would be in pieces.”
He considered my words for a moment. “There could have been magic involved,” he said, “preserving it.”
“Unlikely,” I said. “We’d smell it on the body.” The memory of Carmine’s pungent scent flooded my nose again and my stomach roiled uncomfortably. Was that the scent of her magic? “Fine, have forensics swab for traces of magic,” I said, “the kind that would allow it to travel in the water without destroying the body.”
“Who made you the boss?” The expression on his face was suddenly one of a petulant child, his lip stuck out just a little too far as he folded his arms over his chest.
“I did. Got a problem with it, go tell it to someone who gives a crap.” I stalked away, leaving him to stare after me.
Alex might have been a god at one time but as far as I was concerned he would forever and always be nothing but an overgrown man-child. And it would be over my dead body that a man-child without an ounce of respect for the victims we served would ever run a case I worked.
Chapter 15
“When can I go?” Ms. Rowanberry asked, tugging pointlessly on her dog’s tartan leash. As witnesses went, she didn’t appear to have seen much of anything. In fact, her dog had found the body and part of me wondered if I shouldn’t have been talking to the golden retriever instead.
Ms. Rowanberry’s short honey coloured hair flipped around her face and I couldn’t help but think how it matched the glossy coat of the dog sitting next to her. They did say animals took on the characteristics of their owners, or was it the other way around?
“I just need to ask you a few questions,” I said, giving her a kind smile. She wore her anxiety like a mantle, her eyes darting over and back as she glanced past me to the people milling around on the beach below us.
The dog whined, stretching its body as it pushed up onto its feet, probably in response to her nervousness.
“Jasper, sit,” she said, dragging the leash once more.
Poor dog, I thought staring down into its warm amber eyes.
“I’ve told them everything I know,” she said. “I don’t know what else you people want from me.”
“I know,” I said placatingly. “You’ve been a big help. I just want to go through the details with you one more time.”
She nodded, trying fruitlessly to fix her hair back into place, but from the slight relaxing of the tension in her shoulders, I could tell my compliment had pleased her.
“You say you brought Jasper to the beach around—” I glanced up at her, my slight pause allowing her the opportunity to fill in the blanks.
“Seven-thirty,” she said. “I normally take him earlier but today I was running late.”
I nodded. “And when you got down to the beach, did you notice anyone else nearby?”
She shook her head and I glanced down at the notepad, pursing my lips as I pretended to read over my non-existent notes. She was holding back.
“Are you sure?”
“There was a van parked on the side of the road,” she said, pointing over my shoulder. “I didn’t think much of it.”
“Could you describe it?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m not very good with those kinds of things. It was dark, black maybe, or dark blue.”
“Did you see anyone with it?”
Again she shook her head and I tried to keep my frustration under wraps.
“Jasper started to bark,” she said suddenly and I glanced up at her before I looked down at the dog.
“At the van?”
“No.” She paused and I wanted to reach out and shake her. Instead, I schooled my features so they were entirely neutral. This definitely wasn’t one of my strong suits. In the past when I’d worked with Grey he had always been the people person, leading the interviews when it came to the witnesses. Of course once we had our sights on someone, things tended to change. Getting the truth out of a reluctant criminal was kind of my thing and I was bloody good at it, too.
“When we got to the beach,” she said, “he started to bark, and now that I think of it, I thought I saw someone.”
“Male or female?” I asked, struggling to keep my excitement to myself. Was Carmine here? Had she seen her? There were so many questions I wanted to ask but I needed to keep my head.
“They were far away and it was dark,” she hesitated. “There aren’t any lights on the beach, you know.” She glanced up at me. “They really should do something about that.”
Was she changing the subject? And if she was, why? I definitely needed to keep her on track, there was clearly more to this than I’d first thought. I was so close to the truth I could practically taste it, but I knew getting Ms. Rowanberry over the finish line on this one wouldn’t be easy.
“But if you had to say…” I prompted, “you know, one way or the other?”
“I think male,” she said finally. “He was tall and wearing dark clothes.”
“Why didn’t you say this before?”
“Because until now I wasn’t sure if I even saw anyone,” she said softly. “It all happened so fast. I looked up and they were ahead of me, moving back up to the road and then—” She cut off and I clenched the pen between my fingers so hard it snapped.
“They?”
The noise drew her out of whatever memory she’d fallen into, her eyes widening a little as she took in the broken pieces of pen still clutched in my hand.
“I mean, him,” she corrected with a small self-deprecating shake of her head. If she wasn’t careful, she would shake it off her shoulders entirely. The thought was so absurd it almost brought a bubble of laughter flooding from my lips but I bit it back at the last second.
“And then—” I tried not to sound as eager as I felt.
“Jasper started barking… I think they saw me staring…” There was that ‘they’ again, but I knew asking her about it would only lead to another denial and a further break in the flow of conversation. “In fact, now I’m sure of it. The eyes…” She broke off again, seemingly deep in thought.
I could have throttled her. Not that it would get her to spill what she’d seen any quicker.
“Was there something unusual about the eyes, Ms. Rowanberry?”
“Well, maybe…” She stared off into space and I could practically see the cogs in her head spinning as she contemplated what she was going to tell me about them. “I’m just not sure what colour they were,” she said finally.
“What are you sure about, then?” The words came out a little sharper than intended. Ms. Rowanberry’s nose wrinkled in response, her lips crumpling at the corners.
“I’m only trying to help,” she said. “I was just out walking Jasper, this wasn’t something I expected. You might be used to death and bodies but this isn’t something I’ve ever experienced before.�
� Her distress caused her words get louder and louder as each one left her mouth and instantly sent guilt churning in my stomach.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sucking in a deep breath. “I can appreciate this isn’t an easy situation. If you need to talk to someone, I can arrange for one of our psychologists to set up a meeting with you.”
“That might be a little too expensive,” she said.
“Division 6 would take care of it.” I gave her my best understanding smile, all the while gritting my teeth.
“Oh, well, that would be wonderful,” she said brightly. “I’ve always wondered what it might be like to chat with someone professional.”
With a thin lipped smile, I made a note in the pad I was holding, using the broken pen to scrawl it across the page, careful to keep it out of her line of sight.
“Now, if I could just steer you back to the eyes, Ms. Rowanberry,” I said sweetly. “What do you remember about them?”
“This is just all so unpleasant,” she said. I tried not to glare at her but I clearly failed judging by the way she tightened her hold on Jasper’s leash.
“They were so bright,” she said, “not like they were glowing but bright all the same.”
“The way an animal’s eyes might look in a car’s headlights?” I suggested and she instantly perked up at the idea.
“Yes, they had that flat and glassy look, and when I stared into them…” Her voice faded and I realised I’d lost her completely.
There was no doubt in my mind that what she’d seen on the beach had been a vampire. Their eyes could do weird things in the darkness. She was correct in thinking they didn’t glow, but there was certainly an odd luminescence to them. It was part of what helped them to have such superb night vision.
“Ms. Rowanberry,” I said, but she didn’t respond. Instead, she continued to stare into space.
Raising my hand, I waved it over and back in front of her face and she suddenly jerked as though she’d been slapped.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I think it must be all the stress. You wanted to ask me some questions?”
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