Chapter Thirty
“What the hell was that about?” Trask demanded as they walked down the sidewalk to Lamar’s SUV.
“I have no clue,” Lamar insisted, just as befuddled. “Everything was fine until you left the other night. Then he got dressed, ordered an Uber, and took off.” He shook his head. “Hell, you’re well aware that I got arrested trying to fucking see him, so how did I break his heart?”
“Think about it,” Trask suggested. “Something must have happened.”
Lamar shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”
“So, what now?”
Another shrug. “I guess I drop you off at your car and then go to the precinct and run these names that she gave us.” He turned the key in the ignition. “Unless you have a better idea?”
“I wish I did, man,” Trask sighed. “I really wish I did.”
By the time that Genov had filled his coffee cup just before the shift started at eight, Lamar had already cleared all seven names that Mandy had provided. Except for a couple of minor traffic offenses, there was nothing to be found. Certainly, nothing suggested any of them were violent criminals.
“How’s it going?”
“It’s going.” When Genov came up behind him, Lamar automatically glanced into the mirror he had taped to the side of the desktop printer. Nothing but his own image. Perfect. “You?”
Genov shrugged. “I sat on the Parker place for a while last night,” he offered. “Nothing. The wife was wandering about for a bit, but no sign of her missing husband.”
Lamar nodded, unsurprised. Since vampires don’t actually need sleep, he knew Genov occasionally did undocumented surveillance for his cases at night. “Let’s get back into the security footage screenshots,” he suggested. “Since we know now that it is a shifter but not an incubus or succubus, we’ll pull the screenshots of everyone who throws a different reflection than they should and see if we can narrow it down from there.”
An hour later, there were eight stacks – one each for the confirmed djinn employees and one for undetermined persons – when Lamar heard his name.
“Hey, Coop?” Lamar looked up and found the desk officer beckoning him. “Can you come here?”
Nodding, he shoved his chair back and stood. Handing his remaining pictures to Genov, he sighed, “I’ll be right back.”
Genov took them without comment and added them to his pile.
Stepping into the public waiting area, Lamar stopped so suddenly that the person behind him ran into his back. “Sorry,” Lamar muttered, stepping out of the center of the doorway and taking one step toward Mandy, his eyes trained on the blond behind her with his eyes on the ground. “Hi.”
Mandy narrowed her eyes at him. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
“Of course,” Lamar agreed immediately. “The conference room should be empty.” Tearing his eyes away from Aeren, he motioned for them to follow him. “This way.”
Detouring past his desk, he tapped Genov’s shoulder, indicating that his partner should join them. Genov rose without a word and fell in behind them. Once the conference room door had closed, Lamar cleared his throat. “Please, have a seat and tell me how we can help.”
Aeren glanced up, his usually warm golden eyes sad and brittle. “Mandy thinks you need to see a sketch I made.” He flipped through the sketch pad and settled on a close up of a humanoid with glowing red eyes, fangs, and yellow skin. Passing it to Genov, he turned his eyes to the window. “It’s Marco.”
Lamar hesitated, trying to remember why the name sounded familiar.
“The guard who escorted you to wait for me last week,” Mandy clarified. “The problem is that this is his employee ID photo.” She pulled out a computer printout that showed a muscular young man with brown eyes and a charming smile. “He’s supposed to be human.”
Lamar looked from the sketch to the photo and back before turning to Aeren. “Why did you draw him like that?”
“That’s what he looks like,” Aeren said disinterestedly, still staring out the window.
Lamar’s brows arched in surprise. He gestured for Genov to hand over his ever-present notepad and pencil. “Aeren, can you do a quick sketch of my partner here?”
Aeren frowned but accepted the pad and turned to Genov. His fingers flew over the paper as Genov’s mussed hair reshaped into a severe widow’s peak, sunken eyes appeared over hollowed cheeks, and long fangs scraped along his thinned lips.
In short, Aeren looked at a young, handsome detective and sketched the inner vampire.
“Holy crap,” Genov gasped. “That’s amazing.”
