Gem hurried toward the door. “Speaking of dead bodies, I still need to wake up Wyatt. Downstairs in five!”
* * *
Wyatt yawned dramaticallywhile speeding down the road in his vintage Mini Cooper. The driver’s seat was on the wrong side of the car, so it felt awkward to be sitting beside him.
I zipped up my leather coat since his heater was about as warm as an arctic winter. “You should have brought your coat. You’re going to freeze.”
“Gem woke me up in a panic. I thought Viktor was having a meeting, not an outing.”
“Did you find anything on Penny’s computer?”
He tapped his horn at someone. “She bought a lot of fur-lined boots and Western romance novels.”
We hit a deep pothole, and it shook the car.
“What about the dating website?” I asked.
“That’s going to take me a little more time. I made a list of the men she corresponded with, but they all go by handles. Breed sites are closely monitored against hackers, so I went to plan B.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“I created a fake profile, and Blue agreed to put on a blond wig since that might be his type. Ever seen Blue in a blond wig? Hot mama.”
“So you’re baiting him?”
“Yup. We made her pose demurely so she wouldn’t be recognizable. I gleaned some generic facts from Penny’s profile and tried to mirror it as much as possible without it being obvious.”
I glanced over at his T-shirt, which said: I WOULD CUDDLE YOU SO HARD. “Is that appropriate considering where we’re going?”
He rubbed lazily at the whiskers on his face. “You’re lucky I put on pants, buttercup. When I’m asleep, I don’t like anyone creeping in my room and jolting me out of bed. I already told Viktor I’m not down with this.”
“Then why didn’t you stay behind with Gem?”
I grabbed the dash when he slammed on his brakes and shouted at a car running a red light.
“They think because it’s three in the morning that they own the city,” he complained. “Oh, you were saying?”
“Viktor has enough of us going. I just wondered why you didn’t stay home.”
“I’m going on the off chance that the specter is still hanging around. If you want to know the truth, I thought the victims might have been mentally unstable ex-girlfriends whose lovers got rid of them. After sniffing through Penny’s personals, I feel like I have a better idea of what kind of woman she was. She didn’t seem like a crazy.”
I snorted. “Looking for a girlfriend?”
He pulled his beanie down in the front. “I only date women with a pulse. My friend could probably use a little company, though. In fact, it might be just the diversion I need to keep him occupied. I thought having all the spooks out of the house would be bliss, but now I’m beginning to see that it’s made him a little too clingy.”
I turned around to see if the van was still behind us. Wyatt had invited me to keep him company instead of riding along with everyone else. He preferred taking his own car in case he wanted to bolt, and I was on board with that plan.
Wyatt pointed as we passed a club called Red Door. “We’re almost there.”
After another block, he turned into a vacant parking lot. We were still in the heart of the city, but this was one of those areas that had unused strips of land. The headlights shone on Detective Glass, who was standing in front of his Mercedes with his hands in his coat pockets. I scanned the area in search of a body, but nothing immediately caught my eye.
As soon as I stepped out of the car, my hair whipped around and tangled in front of my face. I swept it back and headed toward Glass. “Another one already?”
Glass gripped my shoulders, his tone sending a chill up my spine. “You might not want to see this.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo, Glass. I’ve seen dead bodies before.”
“Detective,” Viktor said in greeting. “It is unfortunate we see each other again under these circumstances. How long do we have?”
