Chapter Fourteen

Kennard had posted a security guard outside Tony's room. I couldn't imagine why anyone not on official business would want to go in there, but I guessed that whoever she'd spoken to when she'd called the police had insisted upon it. I was prepared to argue my way back in and insist that I had every right to be there, trainee or not, but Lukas already had the matter in hand.

‘You will open the door and step aside,' he intoned. I caught an odd rasp in his voice. Whatever strange vampire magic he employed, it worked: the guard, who I'd been certain was about to deny us entry, did exactly as instructed.

‘Jedi mind tricks again?'

Lukas glanced at me. ‘I don't have a light sabre, but I'd take on Luke Skywalker any day. He wouldn't stand a chance.'

Did that mean the vampire belonged to the dark side? It wouldn't have surprised me.

The odd sour odour clinging to the air seemed stronger. Lukas paused inside the door, his nostrils flaring. ‘The smell of fear?' I asked.

He shook his head. ‘Death.'

Was that what I'd smelled like? I pushed away the unbidden thought. Focus, Emma.

I straightened my shoulders and followed Lukas into the room. I was on the verge of becoming a fully qualified police detective; I couldn't let a dead body get to me. I knew it was the fact that it was Tony's dead body that bothered me, but a corpse's identity shouldn't matter. It should simply make me more determined to find out what had happened.

‘Be careful not to touch anything,' I said, in a bid to re-assert my authority. ‘Assuming this is a crime scene, we don't want to contaminate any evidence.'

‘Not my first rodeo,' Lukas replied mildly. ‘But thank you for the tip.'

He walked round the room, glancing at the porn magazine and the rumpled quilt on the bed. When he reached the wardrobe, he gazed at Tony's body for a long moment. I thought his manner was detached and clinical until he looked at me and I saw the anger in his dark eyes. ‘Check the window,' he said. ‘Can it be opened?'

I stared at him. ‘We're on the fourth floor.'

‘We're not in your world any longer, D'Artagnan,' he retorted. ‘Humour me.'

Supe or not, I failed to see how anyone could clamber in from the outside; even so, I did as he asked. I pulled my cuffs over my hands so I could tug the catch without leaving fingerprints. It slid upwards without so much as a whisper.

‘Unfortunately for Brown,' Lukas said, glancing at the open window, ‘this is an old building that's not sealed its windows to guard against jumpers. Unfortunately for all of us, jumpers aren't the only thing we need to guard against.'

I peered out. ‘I still don't—' My voice faltered as I stared at the marks etched into the grey stone wall beneath the window frame. If I hadn't been looking, I wouldn't have seen them. Without Lukas, it wouldn't have occurred to me to look.

He joined me, his body brushing against mine as he leaned out. He stiffened when he saw the gouges in the stone.

I measured the distance between us and the pavement below. It seemed an impossible height to scale. ‘You don't mean that a werewolf climbed all this way up?'

‘Do you believe that Brown was murdered?'

I didn't hesitate. ‘Yes.'

‘Then,' Lukas said simply, ‘this is the only way they could have got in.' He pulled back. ‘Although the question remains, why go to the bother of making Brown's death look like misadventure then leave your murdered body out in the open so ostentatiously?'

‘And why kill either of us in the first place?'

Lukas nodded abruptly. ‘You've spent less than two days with Supe Squad. Did you have any interaction with wolves when you were with Brown? Did any of them visit the office?'

Before I could answer, the door opened. I whirled round. When I saw who it was, my mouth dropped open.

‘Ah,' Lukas said, ‘I was wondering when you'd get here.'

Detective Superintendent Lucinda Barnes frowned. ‘The pair of you are disturbing my scene.'

‘DC Brown doesn't mind,' Lukas answered.

I just stared.

Barnes strode in, gazed at Tony's corpse and sighed. ‘Such a shame.' She tutted and glanced at us. ‘The hotel has given us the room opposite to use as a base. Come on, you two. It's time we had a little chat.'

***

Wilma Kennard knew what she was about; she'd already sent coffee and sandwiches to the hotel room. I grabbed a cup and gulped it down, then sat awkwardly on the edge of one of the twin beds. DSI Barnes and Lukas took the chairs.

‘So,' Barnes said, looking at me, ‘obviously these are far from ideal circumstances. Explain briefly what has happened up to this point.'

I drew in a breath. ‘Tony didn't show up for work today. I went round to his flat, found it turned upside down and tracked him here.'

‘Yes.' She sniffed. ‘I saw your logins on the system and your request to track his phone. You're not supposed to do that on your own, you know. You're not qualified yet.'

The last thing I was going to do was apologise for investigating Tony's disappearance. I met her eyes and shrugged. ‘I don't think this was an accident. I think Tony was killed deliberately.'

DSI Barnes glanced at Lukas. ‘What do you think?'

‘I concur with D'Artagnan's assessment.'

Her eyebrows shot up. ‘D'Artagnan?'

I looked away. ‘It's what Tony called me.'

A tiny smile lifted the corners of her mouth. ‘Did he, indeed?'

‘I'm sure you know by now what us supes are like with names,' Lukas said. ‘At least when it comes to people we don't know very well. But in any case, D'Artagnan here has left out the most important information.'

I stiffened. Wait a minute.

‘What's that?' Barnes asked.

‘DC Brown is not the only police officer who died recently.'

‘We don't need to cover this!' I snapped.

‘Actually,' Lukas said firmly, ‘we do. DSI Barnes, I take it that you heard about the woman killed at St Erbin's Church?'

‘Yes.' Her lip curled. ‘I also heard that we are no further forward identifying her, and the pathology team are delaying the post-mortem.'

Lukas pointed at me. ‘Meet Jane Doe.'

I folded my arms and looked away. Great: the fanged freak had just told my boss that I was the walking dead. Whatever happened to me now, there was no chance that it would be good.

‘Pardon?'

‘Your cute little trainee had her throat cut and her skull fractured,' Lukas said. ‘I saw her corpse myself. Twelve hours later, she woke up very much alive and without a single wound on her.'

Barnes stared at me.

‘Did you know this was going to happen?' the vampire asked.

She flinched. ‘No,' she whispered. ‘I had no clue. Have you tasted her?'

He smiled, clearly amused. ‘I don't think we've reached that stage in our relationship yet.'

I flicked my eyes from one to the other. ‘What the fuck is going on here? Are you discussing drinking my blood? And why on earth would DSI Barnes have known what was going to happen?' I got to my feet, raising my voice. ‘What the hell is this?'

‘Sit down.' Barnes sighed. ‘There's no great conspiracy here.'

‘That's not what it sounds like to me!'

‘Sit down,' she repeated, her expression returning to its usual hard-nosed professional facade, ‘and I'll explain.'

I did as I was told like a recalcitrant child. I'd hear her out – but I wanted some fucking answers.

She unbuttoned her jacket and leaned back in her chair. ‘I'm sure it didn't take you long to work out what things are really like in Supe Squad. The government has been decreasing funding for decades, but if we lose the last control we have over the supes then that will be it. We'll never gain it back – not without a fight.'

Lukas didn't look happy. ‘Control is not the word I'd have used.'

She waved a hand at him dismissively. ‘You know what I mean.' She sighed. ‘DC Brown has been negotiating on our behalf with both the vampires and the werewolves. We want to keep a hand in their affairs – after all, nobody knows what's around the corner. Our involvement makes the public at large feel better about the supes' existence, and helps us to maintain peace.'

‘From what I understand,' I said, ‘a police presence is neither required nor desired.'

‘That's what we keep saying,' Lukas said. ‘However, we also wish to expand. We find the current limits placed on our kind constricting. For example, we can only turn one in every thousand applicants. We are virtually ghetto-ised and prohibited from trading outside our area. All supes are seeking to ease some of those unfair restrictions placed on our kind.'

‘Unfair restrictions? We can't let you turn every Tom, Dick or Harry who shows up at your door into a vampire,' Barnes returned. Despite her obvious irritation at vamp methods, I had the sense that she was holding herself back out of some strange deference to Lukas. Perhaps DSI Barnes was actually afraid of vampires.

‘It is not a process we take lightly,' he growled at her. ‘You know that. Neither is it a case of biting someone and suddenly they're a vampire. It takes weeks. The vampires we turn become part of our family. Even without the restrictions, very few would make the cut.'

‘It's not just about that. We can't allow you to grow your wealth to such a point that you have a stranglehold over the country. You take enough blood from us as it is!'

‘All our blood comes from willing participants,' Lukas said. ‘And you know very well that we only need to sup once a month to survive.'

‘You live twice as long as the average human. That's a lot of months.'

Lukas looked calm, but I sensed that inside he was seething. ‘Vampires are not the only ones seeking concessions. The wolves want to expand into another pack, turn more humans and make better use of the countryside.'

‘Which is all very well,' Barnes snapped, ‘until the next full moon when they lose control and end up killing innocent farmers! Regardless of its failings in recent years, Supe Squad exists for a reason!'

‘Supe Squad is all but superfluous,' he shot back. ‘As you know.'

I held up my hands. ‘This is all very well and good,' I said. It looked like this argument could go on for hours. ‘But what exactly does it have to do with me?'

Barnes calmed down slightly. ‘DC Brown would have acknowledged that he had a somewhat laissez-faire approach to his job. But he was approaching retirement and he wasn't … enthusiastic about giving it up. His wife died not too long ago, and he feared losing himself to the loneliness of old age. We had agreed that he would insinuate himself more into the supes' day-to-day lives. In return, we'd delay his retirement and try to find a second Supe Squad detective to continue the process alongside him. One new detective to begin with, then the plan is to introduce more.'

She glanced at Lucas. ‘It has to be someone who both the vampires and werewolves can accept. I acknowledge that many of the police officers who've worked out of Supe Squad have been less than … effective. We've been searching for a detective who is willing to learn, and has the potential to grow into the job, but who won't let their head be turned by what the supes have to offer. Someone who won't take any shit.'

I met her eyes. ‘Me,' I said flatly.

‘You are our opening gambit. You meet our skill requirements and, as a trainee, you haven't got the baggage that other detectives might carry.' She leaned forward. ‘Please understand that you'd never be forced into taking a position at Supe Squad. The plan was that we would discuss it with you at the end of your rotation. If you found the notion distasteful, we would never mention it again. There are plenty more trainees where you came from.'

I frowned. ‘You should have explained this to me at the start.'

‘If we had, your attitude would have been different. We need someone who is completely unbiased.'

‘Well,' I remarked, ‘you won't find a much more unbiased police officer than a dead one. Good work.'

DSI Barnes winced. Lukas was unmoved, however. ‘Very few vampires, werewolves or humans know what's been going on, or that the Metropolitan Police are seeking a more active role. If Brown was murdered because some supe is unhappy about the police wanting to involve themselves more in our lives, the killer wouldn't have tried to mask his death as an accident. They would have made it as bloody as possible in order to make a point.'

‘My death was pretty damned bloody,' I said. ‘And I think that killing two Supe Squad police officers in one night would be more than enough to scare off any others from wanting to work there.'

‘I don't believe that's why you were murdered,' Lukas said, grinding his teeth. ‘Either of you. It might be hard for you to understand what it's like to be a supernatural, but I've been doing this for a long time. We don't care about subtleties. We don't send coded messages. We don't have to. The motive for the killings is something completely separate.'

I think that he believed that but, until I had proof to the contrary, I was withholding my judgment.

‘But you do think it was a supe who did this?' Barnes asked.

His answer was terse. ‘Yes.'

‘Which brings us back to the need for Supe Squad's existence. And you, D'Artagnan.' She smiled slightly. ‘DC Brown wouldn't have given you a nickname if he didn't think you were good enough to stay. He was giving you his blessing as his successor.' She linked her fingers together. ‘So let's get down to it. If you died last night, why are you alive now? Are you a vampire?'

Lukas rolled his eyes. ‘Obviously she's not.'

‘There's no obviously about anything. Not any more.'

These two were giving me a headache. ‘I don't know what I am,' I said aloud. ‘And frankly, right now I don't care.' I pointed at the door. ‘My mentor is hanging in his wardrobe across that hallway. He is dead. And whoever killed him has tried to make it look like he committed suicide. Whatever their motives, I will find the bastard that did that to him and who also murdered me. The rest of this is bollocks.'

There was a knock at the door and a uniformed police officer put his head round. ‘DSI Barnes,' he said. ‘Can I have a word?'

She nodded and walked out, leaving Lukas and I alone.

‘I wish you hadn't told her about me,' I complained.

‘She needed to know. And DSI Barnes, for all her designs on Supe Squad, isn't a bad sort. She'll keep your secret to herself.' He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I want you to be aware that my dislike of Supe Squad is not personal to you,' he said quietly.

‘Ditto.' I met his dark gaze. ‘And I want you to be aware that I don't care what you think, and I don't care what's gone on in the past. I'm going to find the bastard responsible for this and bring them down.'

‘So am I.' He smiled humourlessly. ‘Finding whoever murdered you and Brown is the only way I can keep your lot from sticking your noses in where they don't belong. It's why I involved myself in your death. We both have a vested interest in locating the killer. You don't want to be in Supe Squad any more than I want Supe Squad to continue. We might as well join forces since our interests align. And perhaps,' he added, ‘we can find out what you really are along the way.'

It made a sort of warped sense, but I wasn't prepared to shake hands on it yet. ‘Why did DSI Barnes want to know if you'd tasted me?'

His eyes shifted. ‘In the past, there've been a few detectives in Supe Squad who've become … close to vampires.'

‘They allowed themselves to be bitten?' I was incredulous.

‘They didn't just allow it, they wanted it. They asked for it.'

I felt sick.

Lukas continued. ‘And to taste someone's blood is to understand their essence. If I drank from you, it might help me to understand what you are and why you cheated death so successfully.'

‘That,' I said, ‘is never going to happen.'

‘It wasn't an invitation.' He said it almost primly. ‘And I'd never drink from someone without their permission first. No vampire would be so uncouth.'

I snorted. ‘That's a pretty sweeping statement. You can't speak for all of your kind.'

‘Yes, I can,' he said.

Barnes re-entered the room, her expression troubled. ‘I sent two uniforms round to Tony's flat. You said it had been ransacked?'

I nodded.

‘They broke down the door. The place is pristine. There's not so much as a speck of dust out of place.'

I started. ‘But—'

‘The killer is covering his tracks,' Lukas said. ‘He still wants us to believe that Brown died by his own hand.'

I sucked in a breath. ‘I only went to Tony's place because of what had happened to me. I wouldn't have gone there to search for him so quickly otherwise. I wanted to confront him because I thought he was responsible.' My voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I thought he was the one who'd killed me.'

‘That's understandable. And this is a good thing.' Lukas sounded satisfied. ‘The real killer doesn't know that you've returned to life, otherwise he'd have cleaned up the mess at Tony's flat sooner. He wouldn't have risked anyone seeing the devastation there and becoming suspicious.'

‘So you think our perp attacked Tony in his own home? Then Tony escaped and came here, thinking he'd be safe?'

Lukas nodded. ‘But he was followed. The killer broke in through the window and finished what he'd started. He took his time tidying up because you'd not been identified, and no one suspected that Brown's disappearance was anything but innocuous.'

‘Well,' DSI Barnes marvelled, with a definite hint of sarcasm, ‘look at the two of you. It's like watching Cagney and Lacey.'

Making a decision, I stood up. ‘We'll work together for now. We'll find the supe responsible for this and bring them to justice.'

‘Supe justice,' Lukas said.

Barnes' mouth tightened. ‘Very well.' She began to re-fasten the buttons on her jacket. ‘I won't advertise any suspicions about the manner of DC Brown's death until we have proof. The two of you have the freedom to investigate further – but I don't want word getting out either about DC Brown, or that I'm permitting a trainee to remain in place without adequate supervision. These are extraordinary circumstances. It will harm all of us if anyone gets wind of what might have really happened. The last thing we need is to sour relations between the police and the supes even further, or to create any more public ill-will.'

She glanced at me. ‘And that silence covers your … resurrection, too. I don't understand what happened to you, or what you are, but I strongly suggest you keep it to yourself for now.'

‘Agreed.' I jerked my thumb towards Tony's room. ‘Send him to Dr Hawes at the Fitzwilliam Manor. She'll know what to do. We can trust her.' I checked my watch. ‘We don't know how long he's been dead but, if he's going to wake up like I did, it won't be long until he does.'

‘Noted.' She raised her chin. ‘Tony Brown was one of us. Find the bastard who did this.'

Lukas nodded. ‘Count on it.'