I stepped closer to him, and we faced the scene. “Where’s her jacket? It’s thirty degrees out here. Look at the way her hair is arranged. She sure didn’t drive here, or we’d see an abandoned car. And why is she way over here away from the bar? If he killed her here in broad daylight, there would have been witnesses. She would have screamed.”
“A Vampire could have scrubbed any witnesses.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. If I were a human driving in my car and saw a murder, I wouldn’t get out. I’d also start filming it on my phone and call the police.”
Gem walked past us, wiping a tear from her cheek as she headed back to the van. Niko strode behind her like a shadow, a look of concern on his face.
“See any ghostly apparitions?” Christian asked Wyatt, humor edging his voice.
Wyatt stalked toward us and growled, “Keep it down.”
Christian plucked a piece of candy from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. “If we have a freshy lingering about, then you better ask her some questions. Might save us a little time.”
Wyatt lifted the collar of his green jacket to block the wind. “She’s nowhere to be seen, but there’s someone else hanging out by my car.”
Christian laughed and clapped his hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. “The dead seem quite fond of you. Must be the aftershave.”
I approached the victim and felt a wave of sorrow. “I wonder who she was.”
Shepherd’s hands were on the body. A Sensor could pick up emotional energy, but I didn’t know if it worked with dead people.
“Can you feel anything?” I asked. “I thought the person had to be alive.”
He spoke without looking up. “Strong emotions leave behind imprints.” Shepherd lifted up the back of her skirt. After a few seconds, he straightened it out and stood up. He dusted off his hands and circled around her. “She didn’t die here.”
Christian pointed between us. “You two should work together.”
Shepherd zipped up his leather jacket. The tips of his ears were red from the cold air. “Even with Vampires, blood never completely drains out. Livor mortis tells me she died on her back, but notice how her body is shifted slightly on its side?”
I frowned. “Don’t you mean rigor mortis?”
“Rigor is body stiffness. Livor mortis is where the blood settles.”
I glanced at Viktor and the detective talking in the distance. “Doesn’t the higher authority have morticians or forensic experts who look at this kind of stuff?”
Christian scratched his beard. “You watch too much television. The higher authority isn’t going to waste their money on someone to cut open bodies and try to figure out why their head came off. Most deaths aren’t a mystery, and bodies turn up all over the city because of crime. You should know that better than anyone.”
I never did give much thought about who might have found the bodies I’d left behind. Had there been a detective assigned to the case, or had they just wiped down the floor and called it a day?
Christian glanced around. “Usually they send out a couple of Regulators, but it looks like they assign a detective when there’s a pattern. We have to fly under the radar so the humans don’t catch on. It’s hard enough concealing a Breed jail, but a police station wouldn’t go unnoticed. That’s not how we do things.”
“Then how do we do things?”
“When there’s a murder, cleaners usually show up and take a report before destroying evidence and getting rid of the body. Like I said before, most murders aren’t a mystery. When there’s a pattern, they call in a detective to handle those cases.”
“What do they do with the bodies?”
His lips eased into a grin. “Curious about what happened to your previous lovers?”
I folded my arms and shivered. “I’m just curious how it all works.”
“If no one comes to claim the body, the remains are either cremated or buried. It depends on whether or not there’s enough space in the Breed cemetery. They’re not likely to waste good real estate on a John or Jane Doe. If they don’t have an identity or believe the victims were human, they’ll cremate them.”
I stared at the puncture marks in her neck. “Why would a Vamp dump the body in front of a human bar?”
Christian glared. “There’s a word I’d like to snip from your vocabulary.”
“Vamp? I’ve heard it come out of your mouth, so spare me the lecture.”
