“Very nice, Alches. Is this your way of telling me to figure it out myself?”
Alches smacked his lips noisily before blinking at me sleepily.
“I guess so,” I muttered, swiping the wallet off the ground and finding it covered in slobber. I gagged a little as I tossed it on the bar before grabbing a wad of napkins to wipe my hands off.
Slobber was the one thing I couldn’t stand. Hate was too light a word. I loathed it. Abhorred it with every fiber of my being.
It was a sensory issue. Something about the consistency tripped my ick factor.
My hands as clean as I could make them, I tossed the napkins toward a trash can.
Grabbing a set of toothpicks, I lifted the wallet’s flap to open it. A folded piece of paper slipped out and fell to the floor.
I bent to grab it, catching a glimpse of Caroline slinking toward her folded clothes in my peripheral vision.
Giving her privacy, I picked up the paper and rose, turning to place it on the bar. The sounds of her shift started in the background as I tried to decipher the note only to find it blank. Setting it aside for now, I rummaged through the rest of the wallet.
There wasn’t much to find. No driver’s license or credit cards that would reveal his identity. Though I did find indents of where those cards might have once been. It led me to think he’d removed them prior to embarking on his fatal night out.
That wasn’t suspicious or anything.
“I was right earlier,” I told the dead man as the rustle of Caroline putting on her clothes came from behind me. “You really were up to no good.”
This was a dead end.
“Find anything?” I asked Caroline, searching the wallet for anything else.
“The smell of smoke obscured any useful scents,” Caroline admitted, coming to stand next to me. She squinted. “Wait. Is that his wallet?”
“Seems so.”
My fingers brushed against something hidden in one of the folds.
“Where did you find it?” Caroline leaned over my shoulder as I slide the paper free.
Alches barked.
Caroline twisted to look at him. “When did a dog arrive? He wasn’t here when I came in.”
I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “He was actually. You just didn’t notice him.”
“Is there a reason why didn’t I notice him?”
“Let’s just say he’s a bit special. If he doesn’t want to be seen, you’ll never see him.”
“Oh.” Caroline dragged a hand down her face, shooting the shadow hound a troubled look before shaking her head slightly.
“What makes you so certain the wallet belongs to the human?” Caroline asked, choosing to return to the topic of conversation. “It could be the vampire’s.”
The folded square of paper came free. Carefully, I unwrapped it, finding another smaller paper inside. From the glossy feel, I could tell it was a photo.
I set the larger paper on the bar before flipping over the photo and freezing.
Caroline’s forehead furrowed as she looked at the paper I’d set on the bar earlier. “I could be wrong, but isn’t that your schedule?”
A ringing filled my ears as my face stared up at me from the photograph. There, printed in full color ink, was proof someone in my circle had betrayed me.
twelve
