“Nyet. That will be next. My contact is still waiting on the first two books. Many important details are in them.”
“I’m solving a murder case that’s eight hundred years old,” she boasted to the room.
“Based on a book?” I asked. “What if the author lied?”
Wyatt chortled. “They made a false accusation against someone in a book, hoping it would be discovered almost a thousand years later? Talk about a patient man.”
“No, silly.” Gem let go of the rope and sat cross-legged in front of me. “We usually have atleasttwo sources to corroborate facts, and when names are mentioned, the higher authority can open an official investigation and charm witnesses. I love solving cold cases.”
“If you say so, Agatha Christie. I’ve seen you in action at crime scenes.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to actuallyseedead bodies. There are other methods to solve a crime. After eight hundred years, there’s no body left to look at anyhow.”
“Why did you call us in here instead of the dining room?” Blue didn’t waste time getting to the point, especially since we had a tendency to drift off topic when we were all put in the same room.
Viktor wrung his hands. “I did not want to risk the boy overhearing this discussion. Or Switch. This is a very sensitive topic to Shifters in particular. Because of our living situation, I must be more careful about where and when we hold our important meetings.”
With his hands in his pockets, Christian strode over and stood near the wall.
Viktor scratched his ear. “My contact has reason to believe there is a fighting ring in the Breed district. Not the Bricks, but right in the middle of good society.”
Blue’s eyebrows popped up. “Someone has a lot of gall to do that in city limits.”
I’d heard of cage fights, pit fights, and illegal rings where Shifters were forced to fight against each other. Some watched for entertainment, while others engaged in gambling.
“These fights are illegal and immoral. The higher authority punishes offenders to the fullest extent of the law, and that is why most are held outside city limits. Those are difficult to track.”
I sat cross-legged. “If the higher authority thinks there’s fighting going on, why haven’t they sent in Regulators to bust everyone?”
Viktor clasped his hands. “It is more complicated than that. We cannot make arrests based on assumptions. Slander is against the law, so we need to gather hard evidence on who is behind the operation. A smart criminal will go to great lengths to hide their identity. Regulators might break up a fight, but what good will that do if they have no evidence of who is in charge? If you want to kill bees, you cannot smash the hive. You must capture the queen.”
Wyatt put on his faded green shirt. “You shouldn’t go around killing bees. I read that if bees ever go extinct, so will everything else. Plants and trees won’t get pollinated, and people will”—he snapped his fingers—“disappear off the face of the earth.”
“What are the clues we have to go on?” Christian asked, ignoring Wyatt’s remarks. We’d grown used to him injecting random facts or wild speculation into a conversation.
“We have linked three bodies,” Viktor said. “They were dumped in human alleyways where juicers hang out, but none of these women lived or worked in the area where their bodies were found. It is possible they went there for other reasons, but when we discovered the second victim worked at the same club as the first, we suspected something more than a random attack.”
“How do you know they worked at a club?” Blue asked.
“They had a tattoo that linked them to the establishment. We can’t always tell someone’s Breed right away, but all three had a Creator’s mark.”
“Juicers might have done it,” Claude pointed out. “Remember that Creator we recently caught who was giving every random Joe Blow his first spark? Who knows how many he made, and unclaimed Learners are targeted by juicers more than anyone else. They’re weak, and it’s possible to kill a young Mage if you take too much light. I don’t see how a few bodies connect to a fighting ring.”
“None of these women were Learners,” Viktor stated. “Two were ancients.”
I shook my head. “Then how did they die? You can’t juice an ancient to death, can you?”
“The first victim had blood on her but no marks. That investigation was handled poorly, and they cremated her body. When a second girl with the same tattoo showed up dead, they called me, and I sent Shepherd to examine the body.”
“Ah. Sothat’sthe case we’re talking about.” Shepherd bent his knee and draped his arm over it before filling us in. “The first girl I looked at died scared and fighting. It was a long battle, and it didn’t take place in that alley. The residual emotions on bodies fade, so the fresher they are, the more I can read. Pride was a big one, and that particular rush I’ve only felt when someone accomplished something in front of a cheering crowd. She had a few significant injuries. Same on the third girl, except not as much fear. Mostly exhaustion, so she must have fought for a long time. The full sensory experience is long gone after a person dies, but sometimes what’s left is enough for me to put two and two together.”
“We found no weapons at the scene,” Viktor added. “The higher authority sent Regulators to the club after hours to speak to the manager who overlooks the staff.”
“Oversees,” Gem said, correcting him.
“Spasibo. She told them that just before two of the victims went missing, they mentioned quitting the club because of a side job. She thought it was unusual since the club pays well and customers tip very high. People in those positions will work multiple jobs and rarely quit one for another. She said they weren’t the only ones who had mentioned quitting and were secretive about the second job. Shortly after this meeting, the higher authority decided it would be prudent not to send in Vampires for questioning.”
I jerked my head back. “Why not?”
