“Detective,” Gilbert says slowly, looking into my eyes like he’s trying to remember something. “You use clues to solve crimes, and you work for law enforcement.”
“Yeah, that’s right. How do you know?”
“I’m not sure.” He closes his eyes for a few seconds. “It’s almost like a memory. The red thing you got into. It’s familiar.”
“The red thing is a car.” I rub my ice-cold hands together. Jacques steps behind me, sharing his warmth. “Some neurologists think we pick up on things around us while we sleep. People used to live in the house. They drove cars, talked, and probably watched a lot of TV. You would have heard life go on around you.”
“TV?” Thomas questions.
“You still have a lot to learn.”
“Go before they come,” Hasan says, and his deep voice sends a jolt through me. “We’ll handle this.”
“You’ve done this before.”
“Many times.” His dark eyes meet mine. “Go.”
“Meet me back at the house,” I tell them. “And don’t get seen.”
Once again, I shove the shock aside and take off, wiping away as much blood as I can as I backtrack to the ravine. I carefully pick my way down it and then up again, finding my flashlight glowing on the ground where I dropped it. My gun is a few feet from it.
I pick off the wet leaves and shove it back in the holster on my waist. Composing myself the best I can for the second time tonight, I walk back to the active crime scene and bullshit a story about falling down the steep drop-off thanks to slippery footing.
I start to finish up everything I have to do before I can go home, feeling a ball of guilt start to form in my stomach. The CSI team is working hard. Tiffany left her young baby and new husband to get out here and take photos of the body.
Everyone is working tirelessly on the case, desperate to catch a killer that doesn’t exist. I can’t keep quiet forever, can I? What would I say?
Vampires are responsible for the killings and they attacked me, too, but don’t worry, my gargoyle friends showed up and saved the day. Want evidence? Sorry, there is none, because the thousand-year-old friends I just mentioned are apparently experts on hiding bodies.
I’d be checked into a psych hospital faster than you can sayvampires actually fucking exist.
“Ace!” Tiffany’s voice rings out across the field. “Where have you been?”
“Sorry.” I smooth out my hair, finding more wet leaves around the base of my neck. Regardless, I flip up my hood to try and hide the blood. “I went off following a lead. It was nothing.”
“Take somebody with you next time.” She shakes her head. “I do not want to photograph your dead body, you know.”
I walk into the light and her eyebrows go up.
“What the fuck happened to you?”
“I slipped in wet leaves.”
“You slipped and fell?”
“Yeah. Down a ravine with water at the bottom. Even I get clumsy every now and then.” I know the subconscious indications people do when they are lying, and I make sure to not do a single one. “I’m freezing.”
“I bet. I’m cold and I’m not wet and muddy. Go home before you get chilled.”
I’ve been chilled for a while now. “I’m almost done. What about you?”
“I think I got all I can. The coroner is bagging up the body.”
We walk back to the crime scene together, wrap up our work, and go to our cars. I’m parked near Tiffany.
“See you in the morning,” she says with a small wave. “Unless there’s another murder.”
“Yeah, see you.” I wave back. There won’t be any murders. Now that I know who’s behind this, I’m going to stop them.
