Fire Born (City of Dragons Book 5)

by Val St. Crowe

  “Can we look around?” said Lachlan.

  Douglas grinned. “I don’t have rooms full of talismans, of course. You can look all you want.” He chortled. “Oh, man, I can’t believe I’m a suspect!”

  I turned to Lachlan.

  He sighed.

  Yeah, this guy definitely didn’t do it.

  “Thank you for your time, Mr. Gray,” said Lachlan. He turned to go, and we all followed.

  “Wait,” said Douglas. “Don’t go.” He ran to get in front of us and plastered himself in front of the door. “I want to confess.”

  “Confess?” said Lachlan. “What?”

  “Yeah, I did it.” Douglas’s eyes danced with glee. “Uh, I’ll tell you all about it. First murder. Ray Torres. I stripped him naked and compelled him to shoot himself in the head. Second murder. Albert Morris. I made him jump.” He put his hands out. “Cuff me! Come on. I’ll tell you about the other murders down at the station.”

  Lachlan cleared his throat. “Mr. Gray, let’s be serious.”

  “If you don’t cuff me and arrest me, I’m going straight to the newspapers and confessing to them. I’ll tell them you’re incompetent and wouldn’t take me in.”

  Lachlan sighed.

  Dirk shook her head, perturbed.

  “Fine,” said Lachlan, taking out a pair of handcuffs. “Douglas Gray, you are under arrest.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “I told you the media thing was a bad idea,” said Dirk.

  Lachlan was standing outside the interrogation room in the station where we’d listened to Douglas Gray confess—in gory detail—to each and every murder. With each recounting, he seemed to get more and more excited. Now he was in the room, bouncing on his chair and singing under his breath.

  “He knows all the details of the murders because it was all over the news last night,” said Dirk. “You made this crazy guy really good at confessing to crimes he didn’t commit.”

  “Are we sure he didn’t?” I said. “I mean, he seems to really know about the murders.”

  “He doesn’t know anything that wasn’t on the news,” said Lachlan.

  “No?” I said.

  “No,” said Lachlan. “Besides, he doesn’t seem the right type.”

  “Not depersonalized enough for you?” Dirk mocked.

  Lachlan’s face tightened. His lips parted, and he took a deep breath. And then he rubbed his forehead, pivoted, and started down the hallway, away from both of us.

  “Hey!” called Dirk. “Flint, don’t walk away from me.”

  Lachlan kept walking.

  Dirk pursed her lips. “What the hell was that?”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I think he’s a little under the weather.”

  She shook her head slowly. “Remind me never to work a case with him again. Never.”

  “Right,” I said. “Well, um, I’m going to… go after him.”

  She only glared at me.

  * * *

  When I caught up with Lachlan, he informed me that we were going to take care of this Douglas problem without involving Dirk, and that from now on, I should let her know that we wanted to take separate vehicles.

  I guessed that Lachlan wasn’t speaking to Dirk anymore. Great. I was going to be in the middle of the two of them. This was perfect.

  Lachlan kept walking after that. He walked all the way to the parking lot.

  I asked where we were going.

  He didn’t answer, put his head down, and beelined for his car.

  I told him that we’d promised not to interrogate any suspects without Dirk.

  He gritted his teeth. “This isn’t a suspect.”

  Then we drove.

  He didn’t speak the rest of the way.

  * * *

  “How do you know that Doug’s my boyfriend?” said Craig Bennett, who was at his desk in the Sea City United Bank, where he worked.

  “Douglas was wearing a little necklace with a heart on it and the name Craig written on it,” said Lachlan. “And then there was a piece of mail with your full name on the coffee table, and I looked you up.”

  Wow, I hadn’t noticed any of those things in Douglas’s apartment. Lachlan really was a better detective than me. I mean, that wasn’t saying much, since I wasn’t a detective at all, but he was really observant.

  “Not that he is my boyfriend,” said Craig.

  “No?” said Lachlan.

  “We’re breaking up,” said Craig.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because he got arrested for murder,” said Craig as if we were both particularly stupid. “He called me from jail and told me all about it, like he was proud of himself. Now, I might have put up with his stupid serial killer obsession, because at least it wasn’t comic books or something, you know? Serial killers are creepy and all, but those comic book figurine things are tacky. No way am I going to build a life with someone who wants to put Wolverine figurines everywhere. No way.”

  I nodded sagely. “Yeah, I can see that.”

  “You think there aren’t a lot of gay nerds?” said Craig. “Well, you’re wrong. Nerddom is the refuge of the gay man who doesn’t think he’s Streisand.”

  “We’ll keep that in mind,” said Lachlan.

  “Listen,” I said, “we’re pretty sure that Douglas didn’t actually commit those murders, so if you’re breaking up with him because you think he’s a killer—”

  “I know he didn’t commit the murders,” said Craig. “That is not the point. The point is, he’s insane. He uses his one phone call to tell me not to bail him out, because this is his time to shine. He’s actually excited about being arrested for murder. He’s confessing. And that means he’s a sicko.”

  “How do you know he didn’t commit the murders?” said Lachlan.

  “I should have seen the signs,” said Craig. “I should have noticed what was happening, but I thought that his little forays into BDSM were a little bit kinky and exciting, and there are a lot of people who want to try erotic asphyxiation, so—”

  Lachlan cleared his throat.

  “What?” said Craig. “Too much information?”

  “A little bit,” I said.

  Craig focused on my stomach. “Oh my God, at this phase, the baby can hear everything, right? I totally warped its little mind. I’m so sorry!”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I’m sure the baby doesn’t understand English yet.”

  “Could we come back to the part where you know that he didn’t commit the murders,” said Lachlan.

  “Oh,” said Craig. “Right. Because he was working the cruise ship when all but the last one happened.”

  “He works on a cruise ship?” I said. “Doing what?”

  “He plays keyboard and does covers—mostly Meatloaf songs,” said Craig. “Really sexy on stage too. That’s what drew me to him in the first place.”

  “Meatloaf,” I repeated.

  “Yeah, he does this version of ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ where he does the girl’s part in a falsetto, and it’s—”

  “The important thing,” said Lachlan, “is that he wasn’t in town when the murders happened.”

  “He was in international waters when the murders happened,” said Craig. “Honestly, I think that our relationship started to go downhill when he got back from that cruise. We were much better off having a long-distance relationship, I think. Love from afar.”

  “So which cruise ship was this?”

  “Holiday Celebration Cruises,” said Craig.

  Lachlan got up. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Bennett.”

  “I never knew him, not really,” said Craig, staring forlornly into space. “And to think that there was a time when I fantasized about marrying him. I was so wrong about him.”

  Neither of us were sure what to say.

  “I’m going to go home and throw all his stuff out on the sidewalk. I don’t even want to look at it, you know?” Craig shook his head.

  Lachlan and I looked at each other and then
back at Craig.

  “Um, Mr. Bennett, we’re really very—”

  “I think the betrayal is the worst part,” he went on. “He ruined everything for us. Everything.”

  “So very sorry,” I said.

  “We, uh, do have to be going,” said Lachlan.

  Craig sniffed loudly, nodding. He waved us away.

  * * *

  “So?” said Lachlan from the driver’s seat.

  I shut the phone. “Yup, cruise line confirmed it. Douglas is their employee, and there’s no way he performed those murders. Even someone powerful like Darla Tell couldn’t do compulsion from the other side of the world, so I think it’s pretty obvious he’s innocent.”

  “Good,” said Lachlan. “Then we’ll cut him loose and release a statement to the press about how he’s crazy and hopefully that will keep him from making us look like idiots. Because if he gets to the reporters before we do, people are going to be demanding to know why it is we let him go. He’ll make himself look incredibly guilty.”

  “I think it’s a little ironic that we spent most of the day proving our suspect’s innocence,” I said.

  “Tell me about it,” said Lachlan. “And now we don’t have any suspects at all. We don’t even have any leads. It’s no use trying to figure out people connected to the victims. Seems fairly obvious that they were strangers to the killer. That’s how serial killers usually work.”

  “Well, there is the fact that they all worked in some capacity for Eaglelinx. Did you notice that?”

  Lachlan shot me a quick glance and then went back to the road. “Really? Every single victim?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “All different departments, though. One was a janitor. Another worked in sales. Two of them worked fairly high up in the organization, though.”

  “Eaglelinx is dragon owned, right?”

  “It’s public,” I said. “It’s incorporated. But there are some influential dragon shareholders, and it was founded by dragons. I don’t think the current CEO is a dragon, though.”

  “This could be a dragon, right? Dragons can do compulsion naturally. Maybe it’s someone who works at the company.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But I also thought about what you said, about how they were all in the same area because the killer probably stalked those area bars? Hung out looking for the right kind of guy on those streets?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, Eaglelinx is located in that part of town.”

  “So, when Eaglelinx workers get off shift for the day, they go to those bars for a drink afterward.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Those bars are probably full of Eaglelinx workers every day.”

  “So, that connection’s a dead end.”

  “Unless he’s into Eaglelinx for some reason.”

  Lachlan sighed. “Well, maybe he does work there. Maybe that’s why he picked that area. Because it’s convenient.”

  “But how many people work at Eaglelinx?”

  “Oh, God. Lots. Even if we got our hands on a list, I don’t think we’d be able to narrow it down without talking to everyone on it, and that could take weeks or even months. There’s gotta be a better way to look for a lead.”

  “The evidence?” I said. “Like Dirk was talking about?”

  “If we get lucky,” he said.

  I made a face.

  He put on his blinker and turned down a street, taking us closer to Atlantic Avenue, the main street in Sea City. “Let’s not talk about this for a while. Take a little break.”

  “Okay,” I said. “What do you want to talk about instead?”

  “Well, I was thinking about that birth plan thing,” said Lachlan. “You want to do one?”

  “Not really,” I said. “I mean, I don’t want to have any interventions or anything. I want to do it all natural, but I don’t think writing it down is going to make that work any better.”

  “Yeah, okay,” he said. “Look… you don’t have to try to do the all natural thing.”

  “What?” I turned to look at him. “Seriously?” We hadn’t really talked about this, but I thought he was on board with me.

  “I know they tell you all that scary stuff about how it’s so much better for the baby and everything, but trust me, they actually do know what they’re doing at the hospital. And it can all turn out fine if you end up deciding you want meds.”

  I was quiet. I fiddled with the talisman I wore around my neck, the one that kept the baby safe from the rogue dragons. “I guess Debra didn’t go all natural?”

  “She tried,” he said. “But after she was in labor for nearly fifty hours, she was like, give me the epidural, and I was really freaking glad she did, because we were both going to collapse. And then we got to sleep, and then Hallie came, and it all went fine.”

  “Fifty hours?” I whispered in horror.

  “Yeah, it was over two whole days in a row. It was crazy.”

  “Well, it won’t take me that long.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “It’s because that was her first baby.”

  “No,” he said, “it wasn’t.”

  “Oh, of course.” A chill went through me. Of course Hallie wasn’t her first. Hallie was Lachlan’s first, but Debra already had a child, Timmy, who would go on to murder her little girl. I was horrified that I’d made such a mistake. “Right. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

  We were quiet.

  “This is your first baby, though,” said Lachlan.

  “No, it’s not,” I said.

  Lachlan flinched. “I only meant—”

  “I delivered two other babies,” I said. “They just weren’t… alive.” I drew in a sharp breath and turned to look out the window.

  “Hey,” Lachlan whispered. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless of me. I shouldn’t have—”

  “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have… I brought up...”

  More silence.

  I turned back to him. “Anyway, I got induced with both of them, and I did have an epidural when it got bad, and I…” I shook my head. “I don’t want that this time. It’ll remind me of the other times. Besides, I can handle it. I can handle the pain. I’m tough.”

  “No, I know you are.” He didn’t say anything else.

  I toyed with the talisman some more.

  “I guess I wish there was more I could do,” he said with a sigh. “The whole thing kind of sucks, to be honest. I don’t want you to have to be in pain, especially when there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “You were at the classes,” I said. “You can hold the heating pads on my back and give me massages and stuff. You’ll help.”

  “I’ll do what I can.”

  “For what it’s worth, if there was some way that you could have the baby for me, I would totally let you.”

  He laughed a little. “I wish I could. Really. I do.” His hand snaked across the car to rest against my thigh.

  I put my hand over top of his. “I’ll be all right. I can do this.”

  “I know you can,” he said softly.

  * * *

  “Here you go,” said Dirk, handing over a stack of computer printouts to Lachlan.

  “What’s this?” said Lachlan.

  We were all back in the office that afternoon. We’d come over to give Dirk the good news that Douglas was out of the picture, but she’d buried us in paper before we had a chance.

  Abruptly, Lachlan turned to me. “You know what? Forget it.” He handed the printouts to me. “You talk to her.” He stalked off to his desk.

  I yelled after him, “I’m not doing this! I’m not going to be in the middle of you and Dirk. You guys better work this out.”

  He ignored me.

  I turned back to Dirk. “Look, you locked us up for murder.”

  “The evidence pointed to you at the time,” she said.

  “Not the physical evidence,” I said.

  “That’s because there was no physical evidence,” she said. “You burned the crime sce
ne to the ground.”

  “Except it turned out not to even be the crime scene,” I said. “Alastair didn’t die in his house.”

  She folded her arms over my chest. “What do you want? Me to apologize or something? I was only doing my job.”

  “An apology would be a start,” I said. “I think Lachlan would appreciate it.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “He comes back and everyone treats me like I’m second fiddle. When you guys didn’t work here, I had respect. Now, I’m practically chopped liver. I think it’s because I’m a woman, and he’s a man.”

  “It’s not,” I said. “He’s good, that’s all.”

  “You saying he’s a better cop than me?”

  “No,” I said. “Not at all. But you were wrong about us, you know.”

  “Like he’s never been wrong.”

  “I’m only saying—”

  “I don’t care what you’re saying,” she said. “When I solve this case and put the serial killer behind bars, I don’t want to be in your shadow. In fact, from here on out, let’s work apart. You two try to find the killer, and I’ll try to find the killer on my own. Whoever solves it first wins.”

  “Wins what?”

  She let out a frustrated noise. “Just wins.”

  “Okay,” I said. “That’s probably fine with Lachlan.”

  “Good,” she said.

  I started to go after him. Then I turned back and waved the stack of papers in her face. “What are these?”

  “Oh,” she said. “You two wanted to alert the media. We did. Now we have tips. That’s your stack. I have a stack of my own to go through.”

  “Tips?” I said.

  “People are calling in like crazy. Most of it’s bullshit, of course, but maybe there’s something worth knowing in there. Have fun figuring it out.”

  I riffled through the stack of paper. That many already?

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “So, you could have told me,” said Vivica.

  “Told you?” I was leaning over the front desk in the lobby, checking on the schedule for the rest of the week. I had given one of my employees the rest of the week off, and I was considering simply turning off the phones. Business was dead, dead, dead. This part of the year was torture.