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I followed Glenn to midway down the Inderland side, watching him double-check the card against a slip of paper before unlocking the door and yanking it open. Came in Monday, he said over the sound of sliding metal as the tray slid out. Iceman didnt like the attention given to her, so he gave me a call.
Monday. As in yesterday? The full moon isnt until next week, I said, avoiding the sheet-draped body. Isnt that early for a Were suicide?
I met his deep brown eyes, reading a sad understanding. Thats what I thought, too.
Not knowing what I would see, I looked down as Glenn folded the sheet back.
Holy crap! Jenks exclaimed. Mr. Rays secretary?
A sour expression fixed on me. When had being a secretary become a high-risk position? No way had Vanessa committed suicide. She wasnt an alpha, but she was pretty damn close.
Glenns surprise turned to understanding. Thats right, his low voice rumbled. You stole that fish from Mr. Rays office.
Irritation flickered through me. I thought I was rescuing it. And it wasnt his fish. David said Mr. Ray stole it first.
Eyebrows bunched, Glenn seemed to think it made no difference. She came in as a wolf, he was saying, his manner professional as his eyes lit on only the bruised and torn parts of her naked body. A small but gorgeous koi tattoo swam in orange and black across a high patch of her upper chest, a permanent sign of her inclusion into the Ray pack. Standard procedure is to turn them back after the first look. Its easier to find the cause of death on a person than on a wolf.
The smell of dead things in a pine forest was getting to me. It didnt help that I was running on empty. The coffee wasnt setting well anymore. And Id known the SOP, having briefly dated a guy who made the charms to force a shift back to human. He was a geek, but he had lots of moneyit wasnt an easy job, and no one wanted it.
Jenks was making a cold spot on my neck, and not seeing anything out of the ordinaryother than her being dead and her arm torn to the boneI murmured, What am I looking at?
Nodding, Glenn went to a low drawer at the end of the room and, after checking the tag, pulled it open. This is a Were suicide that came in last month, he said. You can see the differences. She would have been cremated by now, but we dont know who she is. Two additional Jane Wolfs came in on the same night, and theyre giving them a little extra time.
They all came in together? I asked, going over to look.
No, he said softly, gazing down at her in pity. Theres no connection other than the timing and that none of them can be found in the computer. No ones claimed them, and they dont match any missing-persons reportU.S.-wide.
From my shoulder came Jenkss muffled voice saying, She dont smell like a Were. She smells like perfume.
I winced when Glenn unzipped the bag to show that the womans entire side had been ravaged. Self-inflicted, he said. They found tissue between her teeth. Its not uncommon, though theyre usually a lot less brutal than this and simply open a vein and bleed out. A jogger found her in an alley in Cincinnati. He called the pound. The faint wrinkles around Glenns eyes deepened with anger. He didnt have to say that the jogger had been human.
Jenks was quiet, and I searched for cool detachment as I examined her. She was tall for a Were, but not overly so. Big up top, with shoulder-length hair that curled gently where it wasnt matted. Pretty. No tattoos that I could see. Mid-thirties? She took care of herself, given the definition. I wondered what had been so bad that she thought the answer was to end it.
Seeing me satisfied, Glenn opened a third drawer. This one was hit by a car, he said as he unzipped the sturdy bag. The officer recognized her as being a Were, and she made it to the hospital. They actually had her turned back to treat her, but she died. Creases appeared in his brow as he looked at her damaged body. Her heart gave out. Right on the table.
I forced my gaze down, flinching at the bruises and skin split by the accident. IV tips were still in her, evidence of the efforts to save her life. Jane Wolf number two had brown hair as well, longer this time, but it curled the same way. She looked the same age and had the same narrow chin. Apart from a scrape on her cheekbone, her face was untouched, and she seemed professional and collected.
Running in front of a car wasnt uncommon, the Were equivalent of a human jumper. Most times they werent successful, landing under a doctors care, where they should have been in the first place.
I followed Glenn to a fourth drawer, finding out why Jenks was being so quiet when he gagged and flew to the trash can. Train, Glenn said simply, his voice soft with regret.
Coffee and lack of sleep were warring in me, but Id seen a demon slaughter, and this was like dying in your sleep compared to that. I think I was earning points with Glenn as I looked her over, trying not to breathe in the scent of decay the chill of the room couldnt stop. It appeared as if Jane Wolf number three was as tall as the first woman and possessed the same athletic body build. Brown hair to her shoulders. I couldnt tell if she had been pretty or not.
Seeing me nod, Glenn zipped up the bag and shut the drawer, closing all of them on his way back to Vanessa. Not entirely sure why he had wanted me to see this, I trailed behind him.
Jenkss wings were silent as he returned, and I gave him a sympathetic smile. Dont tell Ivy I lost it, he asked, and I nodded. They all smell the same, he said, and I felt him hold on to my ear for balance as he stood as close as he could to my perfumed neck.
Jeez, Jenks, they all look the same to me. But I dont think he appreciated my attempt at humor.
Glenns steps slowed to a halt, and we gazed at Mr. Rays secretary. Those three women were suicides, he said, the first one dying by self-mutilation, as Mr. Rays secretary appears to have died. I think she was murdered, then doctored up to mimic suicide.
I glanced at him, wondering if he was looking for ghosts in the fog. Seeing my doubt, he ran a hand over his short, curly hair. Look at this, he said, leaning over Vanessa and picking up a limp hand. See? he said, his dark fingers circling her thin wrist in sharp contrast to her pale skin. That looks like a bruise caused by restraints. Soft restraints, but restraints. They arent on the woman who made it to the hospital, and I know they had to tie her down.
Okay. Now I was interested. Maybe Vanessa had been into sex games and it went too far? Leaning forward, I agreed that the soft red ring could have resulted from a restraint, but it was her nails that caught my attention. They had been professionally manicured, but the tips were split and ragged. A woman considering suicide doesnt pay beau-coup bucks to get her nails done, then tear them up before she can end her life properly. Where was she found? I asked softly.
Glenn heard my interest and flicked me a grin that quickly sobered. Under a dock in the Hollows. A tour group spotted her before she could get cold.
Not wanting to be left out, Jenks flew from my shoulder to hover over her. She smells like a Were, he proclaimed. And fish. And rubbing alcohol.
Glenn twitched the sheet with which shed been covered in lieu of a bag all the way off. Her ankles have pressure marks, too.
My brow furrowed. So someone held her against her will and then killed her?
Jenkss wings clattered. Theres a strand of medical tape caught in her teeth.
The breath Glenn had taken to answer me exploded out of him. Youre kidding.
Adrenaline pinged, and feeling woozy, I looked to see. Im not trained for this, I said when Glenn took a penlight from his pocket and motioned for me to hold her mouth open. Gingerly I took her jaw in my hands. Im not going to take a knife to her and poke around.
Good. He trained the light on her teeth. I dont have authorization for that.
The squeak of the double doors pulled my head up. Jenks swore as I let go of Vanessas jaw, my swinging hand almost smacking him. Tension flashed to fear for an instant as I saw Denon, my old boss from the I.S., standing in the middle of the floor like the king of the dead.
This is an Inderland matter. You dont have clearance to even look at her, he said, his honey-smooth voice rippling over my spine like water over rocks.
Damn it all to hell, I thought, jerking my fear back. He wasnt my boss anymore. He wasnt anything. But I was too deep underground to tap a line, and I didnt like it.
The low-blood living vampire smiled to show his human teeth, a startling white beside his oh-so-beautiful mahogany skin. Iceman was behind him along with a second living vampire, high-blood this time by his small but sharp canines. The scent of burgers and fries had come in with them, and it looked like Glenns fifty dollars had bought less time than hed hoped.
Jenks rose in a hum of wings. Look what the cat dragged in and puked up, he snarled. It smells like it used to be something, but I cant tell what, Rache. Fuzzy rat balls, maybe?
Denon ignored him, as he ignored everyone he thought beneath his notice, but I caught a twitch of an eye as he kept smiling, trying to impress me with his mere presence.
Glenn clicked off his penlight and tucked it away, his jaw tensed, unrepentant. Denon wasnt anything to be afraid of. Not that he ever had been, and especially not now. He was probably the reason I had lost my license, though, and that ticked me off.
With a practiced swagger, the large muscular man came forward on cat-light feet. He was technically a ghoul, a rude term for a human bitten by an undead and intentionally infected with enough of the vamp virus to partially turn him. And whereas living high-blood vampires like Ivy were born to their status and envied for having a portion of the undeads strengths without the drawbacks, a low-blood vampire was little more than a source of blood as they tried to curry the favor of the one who had promised them immortality.
Denon clearly worked hard to build up his human strength, and though his biceps strained his polo shirt and his thighs were heavy with iron-pumping muscle, he still fell short of his brethren and would until he died and became a true undead. And that was contingent upon his sponsor remembering and/or bothering to finish the job. With Denon taking the blame for Ivys leaving the I.S. with me, that likelihood was looking slim. His master had turned a blind eye, and Denon knew it. It made him unpredictable and dangerous, since he was trying to ingratiate himself back into his masters good graces. The fact that he was working the morning shift spoke volumes.
Though still beautiful, he had lost the ageless look of one who feeds upon the undead. It was likely they were still feeding on him, though. He had once overseen an entire floor of runners, but this was the second time Id seen him working the streets since leaving.
Hows your car, Morgan? his beautiful voice taunted, and I bristled.
Fine. Anger overpowered my fatigue to make me stupid. The two techs slipped quietly out, and I heard a soft conversation and the metallic clinks of a gurney being set up.
Denons pupil-black eyes rose from the dead secretary. Come to see your handiwork? he mocked, and Jenks lit us with a burst of light.
Move off the corpse, Jenks, I muttered, coming out from behind the drawer to give myself room to move. Youre getting dust all over it.
Denon smirked, hiding his human-size teeth like the joke they were. I put my hands on my hips and tossed my hair. Are you saying this isnt a suicide? I taunted, seeing a chance to irritate him. Cause if you say Im responsible for her murder, Im going to sue your little brown candy ass from here to the next Turn.
In a smooth motion, Glenn yanked the sheet over Vanessa. He hadnt said anything yet, which I thought was remarkable since it had been only a year ago that he thought he didnt owe vampires any respect at all. Leave the needling to those who might survive it.
The evidence speaks for itself. Denon moved forward to force Glenn and Jenks back. Im releasing her to her next of kin for cremation. Move.
Damn it back to the Turn, in a few hours everything would be gone. Even the paper and computer files. Thats why he was doing this at such an insane hour. By the time everyone was at work, itd be too late. Eyes narrowing, I forced a laugh. It was bitter, and I didnt like the sound of it. Is that what youre doing now? I mocked. You been bumped to clerk?
Denons eyes tried to go black. It was stupid pushing him like this, but I felt the lack of sleep keenly, and I did have Glenn beside me. What was Denon going to do?
The rattle of the gurney intruded, and Denon swaggered forward, trying to shove Glenn away with his presence. Glenn wasnt moving. You cant take her, the FIB detective said, putting a possessive hand on the top of the door. This has become a murder investigation.
Denon laughed, but the two guys with the gurney hesitated and exchanged knowing looks. Its been ruled a suicide. You have no jurisdiction. The body is mine.
Crap. We didnt have anything yet, and if we didnt find it, wed look like fools.
Until its been ruled a human didnt murder her, I have all the jurisdiction I need, Glenn said. She has pressure marks on her wrists. She was held against her will.
Circumstantial. Denons brown fingers reached for the drawer handle. Glenn didnt back down, and the tension rose until Jenkss wings were making a high whine.
I shuffled around in my bag and brought out my cell phone. Not that I could actually reach a tower down here. We can have a court order in four hours. Your enthusiasm to destroy the evidence will be on it. Still want to release her?
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