Our time together would soon be over, which made me glum. “I don’t want the night to end,” I told the vamp.
“Okay, then, I’ll bite you and then we can stay together forever,” he said and then barked out an eardrum-shattering cackle. He looked away from the road and flashed me a grin. “Can you imagine the two of us living together for all of eternity? Sorry, but I’ve only got room for one queen in my life. Me.”
To my relief, Jerry returned his focus to driving. It was making me nervous, the way he kept taking his eyes off the road. I wanted to remind him that, unlike him, I couldn’t be put back together like new after a car wreck with a few pints of blood. It was pouring outside; raindrops flooded down from the sky, sounding like giants banging their fists on the car roof.
“I’ve always considered myself more of a princess, anyway,” I teased. “So, really, you’d be more like a wicked stepfather.”
“Ooh, you bitch,” he laughed.
I fluffed my hair. “I try.”
The smile vanished from Jerry’s face as we turned the corner and saw a motorcade of police cars lining the perimeter of the apartment complex. An ambulance was pulled up on a lawn.Mylawn. “I hope nobody has been hurt,” he said, but I hardly heard him.
I sat up straight, clutching Jerry’s arm in fright. I saw it, then, the thin line of bright yellow police tape that blocked the entryway to my apartment. A grisly red smear marred the front door. “Oh my God! Liz!”
I threw the car door open while it was still in motion. Jerry slammed on the brakes, bewildered. I sprinted toward my apartment, ducking under the police tape as I reached the edge of the building. A few uniformed police officers tried to grab me, but I snaked through their arms, ignoring their protests.
An officer built like a brick house stepped in my path. His nametag read Hamilton. “Stop!” he shouted in my face.
“This is my apartment!” I screamed. “What happened to my roommate?”
Whatever it was must have been bad, because the officer’s expression instantly changed from outrage to pity. He took a step forward and angled his umbrella so that I was shielded from the downpour. “Are you Olivia Taylor?”
“Yes! Where’s Liz?” His face softened and he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Why aren’t you . . . Please . . . Oh God, Liz!”
“I’m sorry. There’s been an attack,” he said gently.
I studied his face. “Liz?”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Hyperventilating, I bent over and gripped my knees woozily. Officer Hamilton grabbed me under the armpit in a swift motion and led me to a large, covered picnic area in the courtyard. I crumpled onto the nearest bench. David was there, too, sitting a few yards away. He looked awful. His hands were stained with dried blood and his hair was clumped with streaks of red. He gazed at me vacantly, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“What happened?” I asked the officer in a daze.
“We’re still trying to figure that out. We got a call from that young man over there.”
“That’s her boyfriend, David,” I said.
He nodded. “He says Liz was going to bring a set of keys to his place. When she didn’t show, he took an Uber here and discovered your roommate on the lawn. He claims she was dead when he found her. He tried to resuscitate her, but unfortunately it was too late.”
I wiped away tears with the back of my hand. Poor Liz. And poor David for discovering her that way. I couldn’t imagine what I would have done if I’d been the one to find her.
Officer Hamilton handed me a wad of tissue. “It’s been in my pocket, but it’s clean.”
I blew my nose. “How did she die? Did she suffer?” I met his eyes. The compassion contained within them intensified my despair. Whatever had happened to Liz must have been horrendous. “Please, tell me.”
He looked around to confirm nobody else was listening. “I was a park ranger before I joined the force, and I treated a lot of animal injuries. Bears, mostly. From what I saw, your roommate’s throat injury is indicative of an animal attack. We need to wait for the M.E. to confirm, but to me it looks like the work of a mountain lion, although I’ve never heard of one attacking someone in a busy residential area like this.”
I sat up with a start.Throat injury.Could it have been a vampire? I felt like I’d been kicked hard in the stomach.
“Not everyone agrees with me, and I could be wrong,” he admitted. “So, I have to ask: do you have any reason to believe Liz’s boyfriend might have wanted to hurt her? Have they been arguing a lot lately, or have they recently broken up?” He extracted a small notebook for his pocket and clicked his pen.
“David? No way. He’d never hurt her, not in a million years. They were planning on moving into together in a couple weeks.”
He scribbled in his notebook. “Could they have been arguing about the move? Was money ever an issue with them?”
I shook my head, then used the tissue to dab tears from my face. I still couldn’t believe she was gone. “I’m telling you, there is no way David had anything to do with this.”
