by Vivi Anna
Standing, he raised his nose and caught the scent almost immediately. Then he started to run. Within minutes, he was through the trees and to the gravel road. He followed the scent along the ditch until it just stopped. Obviously the perp had had a vehicle waiting for him. He set another plastic marker along the ditch.
Crouching down again, Gabriel examined the road looking for tire treads. Maybe he’d get lucky and find one that they could mold and match in a tire-tread website. But after another fifteen minutes of looking, he couldn’t find any distinguishable patterns.
His cell phone rang from his pants pocket. He slid it out and flipped it open. “Bellmonte.”
“We’ll be there in forty-five minutes max.”
Shaking his head, he pushed through the trees again to head back to the house. “Forty-five minutes? You must be traveling, at what, one hundred and forty?”
Sophie chuckled. “Give or take ten kilometers.”
“Okay, see you then.” He flipped the phone closed, and walked the rest of the way back to the cottage.
He decided he should check on Elise. But as he passed the porch to head around back, another scent wafted to his nose. It had the odor of something familiar. Spiced blood. It was a vampire smell, but it was a bit different. And he was sure he’d smelled it before.
Jogging now, he ran around to the back, onto the deck and through the open kitchen door. “Elise,” he called.
He went into the living room where he’d left her. She wasn’t there. Just the blanket she’d been wrapped in lay on the floor.
“Elise!” he yelled. Swinging around the room, he took deep breaths of air. Her scent was still strong. She’d been here only moments before.
Heart racing, he rushed down the hall to her room. She wasn’t there. Panic made his head swim. Then he heard the sound of rushing water. He moved through the bedroom into the bathroom and saw her in the shower.
Still in her robe, she was sitting with her back to one of the walls. Water pounded down on her. As he approached, he could see that she had her face in her hands, resting them on her bent knees.
He pulled open the shower door. She looked up at him, her face wet, her hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead. The broken expression on her face nearly knocked him over.
“The smell of death won’t come out,” she said matter-of-factly as she picked up her sodden silk robe and showed it to him.
Gabriel reached down and grabbed her hand in his. She was shaking badly. Keeping her hand in his, he came into the shower stall and sat down beside her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. He nuzzled his face into her wet hair, trying hard to keep his emotions in check. It wouldn’t do her any good to see him rattled, to see him nearly broken apart by her pain and despair.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, baby. I’ll keep you safe.”
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. Even though he couldn’t feel or see the tears on her face, he knew she was crying. Her whole body shook with the power of her despair.
He rocked her and mumbled soothing words to her until the water ran cold.
Chapter 19
Sophie snapped off a few more pictures, and then lowered the camera. “Wow. That’s a whole hell of a lot of rage right there. Someone’s really pissed off.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel agreed.
“I wonder what set him off?”
That was exactly what he’d been trying to figure out. Something in the past few days had triggered the anger and rage in this stalker. He’d escalated big-time. And something inside Gabriel told him the stalker was male.
“Maybe he figured the two of you were, you know, getting acquainted.” She arched her eyebrow as she said it.
Gabriel didn’t respond but he figured he didn’t have to.
Sophie shrugged. “It’s written all over your face, boss. Plus—” she tapped her nose “—I have the best nose on this team. I could’ve scented the pheromones running rampant in this house from down the road.”
He frowned, and walked back into the house. He found Elise sitting in the kitchen, teacup in hand, giving her statement to Constable Ronald Sharpe, who’d ridden up here with Sophie. He was a good cop.
She smiled when she saw him come through the door. “Coffee, Gabriel?”
He shook his head. “Can I have a minute with her, Ron?”
The constable stood. “Of course. I’m going to need your statement as well, Inspector.”
“I know.”
When Ron had gone out the way Gabriel had come in, he turned to Elise. “Have you talked to anyone in the past two days?”
“Just Lily.”
“Did you tell her about—” he pursed his lips, unsure on how to phrase it “—about us?”
“Of course not.” She set her cup down. “She’s a smart girl, though. I imagine she doesn’t need to be told.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Anyone else?”
“No. I had Lily relay whatever information needed to be relayed to my publicist and agent.”
“Is she still seeing Diego?”
Elise ran her finger along the teacup. “I don’t know. She said she’d break it off, but that doesn’t mean she did right away.”
He sighed, and then sat in the chair vacated by the constable.
“Why the questions? Did you find something?”
“I caught a scent near the porch. It’s vampire.”
“Maybe our paparazzi friend returned.”
He shook his head. “I had Sophie put a tail on him. He hasn’t left the city. Besides, I think I recognize the smell.”
Her eyes widened then. “You don’t think Diego…”
“I don’t know what to think, but I need to find out.”
“What do you suggest?” she asked, but by the lost look in her eyes, he suspected she already knew what he had in mind.
“I’m going back into the city. I have to follow this lead to the end.” He reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “Sophie and I will go back and Constable Sharpe will stay here with you. I trust him. He’s a good cop.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He squeezed her hand. “This will be all over soon, I promise.”
She just nodded again. Her hand still in his, Gabriel stood and came around to the other side. He pulled her up into his arms and hugged her tight. He nuzzled his face into her neck.
“You’re going to be fine. In a few weeks, this will be all just a bad dream, and everything will go back to normal.”
“Maybe I don’t want normal back.”
He pulled away and looked into her face. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But I can’t deny that these past few days with you have been my happiest.” She sighed. “I haven’t felt the pressure and stress of being in the spotlight. I could just be me, Elise, simple farm girl. I can be just me when I’m with you. I like how that feels, Gabriel.”
“But you aren’t that simple farm girl anymore. This is the life you’ve chosen. And you’re remarkable at what you do.”
She ran a hand up his back to his neck. She played her fingers though his hair. “But what if I wanted to unchoose it? Would you be there for me? Would you wait until I could sort it all out?”
He wanted to answer her, but in all honesty he wasn’t sure what his answer was. He’d been waiting for her for fifteen years. Where was she then?
“We don’t have to talk about this now.”
“I think we do, Gabriel. I feel like now is the perfect time.”
He pulled back a little. “Once this is over we can talk about it, if you want. Right now, I have to wrap up this crime scene and get back to the city.”
She dropped her arms and stepped out of his embrace. “Fine. Go do your job.”
“I’ll call you when I get into the city.”
She didn’t say anything, just looked at him over the rim of the cup she’d picked back up and sipped from. “Please do.
”
He could feel the arctic reach of her anger. She was angry at him for not stopping everything to talk about their relationship. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to discuss it—he did—it was just it was not the right time. He had other things on his mind, like solving this case and keeping her safe from harm.
But he didn’t think telling her that would diminish her anger. Communication had always been a problem between them. They came at a conversation from two completely different angles. Unfortunately, those angles just didn’t add up to anything positive.
“We’ll be packing up and taking the body with us. When we’re gone, I’ll have Constable Sharpe clean up the porch, so you don’t have to see or smell it anymore.”
“The smell will never go away, no matter how much cleanser he uses.”
He nodded. He understood what she meant. No one could wipe the sight from her mind. It would stay in there, possibly for the rest of her life. He knew what that was like. He lived with that every day as part of his job. There had been crime scenes in his time that he wished he could erase from his psyche. This one, here at Elise’s cottage, was one of them.
It brought out too many emotions in him, fear and anger being at the forefront. Fear for Elise. Fear for her life. And anger for the fact that he hadn’t been able to keep her from the ugliness of it. It had come to her door right under his nose, and he hadn’t sensed its approach.
“I’ll call you. Stay in the house. Don’t go out running.” He was gone before she could respond.
He came around the house to stand next to Sophie. She’d just finished bagging and tagging some evidence. She glanced briefly at him. “So, what’s the word, boss?”
“We’re taking the body in and then we’re making a house call.”
“You look like a man with an idea.”
He nodded. “I’ve caught a scent that’s familiar. I need to check it out.”
Sophie snapped her crime-scene kit closed, then stripped off her latex gloves, shoved them into her pocket and pulled on another pair.
“Okay, let’s do this.” She handed him a pair of plastic covers for his shoes. “Do you want the head or the tail?”
Ignoring her question, Gabriel snapped on the gloves, put on shoe protectors and stepped up onto the porch. Sophie came over with a plastic sheet. As gently as they could, they lowered the carcass onto the sheet, and he wrapped it up, sealing it closed with duct tape. Then they picked up the plastic roll and carried it down to the lab’s SUV Sophie had driven down in.
Once that was done, Gabriel stripped off the gloves and plastic on his feet and called Constable Sharpe over.
“No one comes near this house. I don’t care who it is. You get me?”
Ron nodded. “I get you.”
“And she doesn’t leave. No matter what. You have to be firm on that. She’ll push you, but be firm.”
“Right. Be firm with a world-famous movie star.” He smirked.
“I’m serious, Ron.”
“I know. I’ll do everything in my power to keep her safe.”
“Thank you. I know you will.”
With a final handshake with Ron, Gabriel went to the vehicle to get in. Turning, he looked at the house and saw Elise standing at the big bay window in front. Smiling, he lifted his hand to her.
She waved back.
A sudden urge to go to her surged through him. He wanted to hold her close and never let go. A sense of dread needled him. As if this would be the last time he’d see her. It was a ridiculous notion, but he couldn’t shake it.
Sucking it up, he opened the car door and slid in, then leaned back in the seat. But he knew he wouldn’t relax on the drive. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to relax again. Not until this guy was put down. One way or another.
Chapter 20
When Gabriel was gone, Elise wandered back into the kitchen. She took her teacup, dumped the now-cold contents and set it into the sink, intending to wash it and the other dirty dishes. But she couldn’t get the image of the gutted wolf out of her mind.
It saddened and sickened her. To think someone could do that. And it scared her to think that Gabriel suspected Diego.
Could it be him?
He certainly had a temper. And he was a full-blown narcissist. He loved to be the center of attention. Also, the letters did start coming not long after they broke up. And the breakup had been a very public event outing him as a cheater, a liar and an all-around nasty person. Was this all a revenge thing?
She shivered, thinking that at one time she’d had real feelings for him. And that they’d had sex. She tried to remember if there had been anything deviant in his sexual behavior.
Oh, my God. She had to call Lily. She had to get the girl as far away from Diego as she could. If he was the one, then he’d been using Lily for information to find ways to get to her.
Elise picked up the phone lying on the counter and dialed Lily’s number. Thankfully, she answered on the third ring. “Hey, Elise.”
“Where are you?”
“Having a late lunch with a friend.”
“You’re not with Diego, are you?”
“No, of course not.” Elise could hear noises in the background, the sounds of people chattering. “I actually haven’t heard from him in days.”
“Lily, listen to me. This is very important. You have to promise me you won’t call Diego or see him.”
“Okay.” Elise could hear the hesitation in Lily’s voice. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Just promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“Everything okay, there? Is the inspector pissing you off?”
Elise chuckled. “Everything’s fine. And the inspector is behaving himself.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“Enjoy your lunch, Lily. I’ll see you soon.” She hung up the phone and set it back onto the counter. She felt a little better now that Lily had been warned. The girl was smart, she’d listen to Elise.
Constable Sharpe came into the house. “Ms. Leroy, I’m going to clean up the mess out front now. Do you have any garbage bags?”
Elise turned and reached under the sink. She grabbed a green plastic bag and handed it to him. “You can call me Elise, Constable Sharpe.”
Smiling, he took the bag. “And you call me Ron.”
“All right, Ron. While you do that horrible job, I’m going to make you some lunch.”
“There’s really no need.”
“Yes, there is.” She smiled. “I feel better when I cook.”
“Well, then, cook away. I can always eat.” He patted his flat stomach, and then headed out with the bag to the front porch. She noticed he stopped to put plastic coverings on his shoes.
