“My sister and Mr. Laurier. But it wasn’t either of them,” she said with certainty.
“I thought you said you didn’t get a good look at the intruder?” Santo reminded her with a frown.
“I didn’t get a good look at his face, but I saw his silhouette. Mr. Laurier’s an old guy with stooped shoulder and a potbelly. This guy looked young and fit, not . . .” She paused as the image flashed in her mind and she recalled something she hadn’t really noticed at the time. “He had a coat on.”
“A coat?” Julius asked with surprise.
“It’s been rather warm for a coat,” Marguerite pointed out.
“Yes,” Pet agreed, and then shrugged helplessly. “A long coat that didn’t reach quite to the knees. Like . . .”
“A doctor’s coat?” Marguerite said, obviously reading her mind when she paused.
“Patrick wears a lab coat to work,” Pet said slowly, her thoughts turning in her head. “He puts it on at home before he leaves for work and takes it off and throws it in the wash when he gets back. Quinn says he’s obsessive compulsive about it. I think he just likes the world to know he’s a doctor. He thinks it gives him a prestige.”
“He has your sister’s keys?” Marguerite asked sharply, obviously having pulled that thought from her mind. “And you think he was the intruder that night.”
That was exactly what she was thinking. In fact, several things that Pet hadn’t really thought much of were starting to paint a scenario in her mind that she didn’t like.
“But why would he try to break into his own house?” Santo asked, his eyes narrowed. “He has keys.”
“There are dead bolts on the front and back doors. I made sure both were bolted before bed that first night. Even if he’d unlocked the door, the barrel bolts would have kept him from opening the door,” Pet murmured, her thoughts tracking other things.
“But he could have knocked to get in,” Zani said, joining the conversation now. “He didn’t have to try to break in.”
“Wait a minute.” Bricker set the bags of food on the coffee table before turning to peer at her. “Are you thinking it was your brother-in-law who broke into your apartment and attacked you?”
Was she? Pet wondered. Or . . . Biting her lip, she pointed out, “It was Parker’s window the intruder was at the first night, and Parker was at my place during the second attack.”
When silence fell over the room, she sighed and added, “And Patrick hasn’t been answering Quinn’s calls.” Pet hesitated, but then turned to Nicholas and said, “You guys were talking as you returned from cleaning Mr. Purdy’s house and I thought I heard you say he mentioned that someone named Pete came to the house and there was a scuffle?”
She’d asked Nicholas, but both he and Jo nodded.
“Are you sure he wasn’t trying to say Peters?” she asked. “That’s my sister and her husband’s last name. Peters.”
No one spoke, and Pet stood silent and still, her stomach churning. If Patrick had gone over first thing in the morning as he’d promised Parker . . . But why didn’t he take the cat? And why had he not just come home afterward? Had Dressler turned him? Was he hiding?
“Zani,” Lucian barked suddenly. “Show Pet the phone you found in Purdy’s house.”
The younger immortal stood at once and carried the phone to Pet. He held it out, but she just looked at it silently.
“Could that be your brother-in-law’s phone?” Lucian asked grimly.
Pet shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I’ve never really noticed what kind of phone Patrick has. Open it up.”
“It’s locked,” Zani reminded her. “We’ve been trying to figure out the combination.”
“Oh, right,” she sighed, and stared at the phone. There were six blank circles above the number pad on the screen.
“Try 052209,” Pet said quietly, and then explained, “It’s their wedding anniversary.”
Zani punched in the numbers, but shook his head. “No.”
She thought briefly and then suggested, “070611.”
As he tapped in the numbers, she added, “Parker’s birthday.”
“Bingo,” Zani said triumphantly as the number page slid away revealing several icons.
Feeling faint, Pet watched as Zani opened the photo icon and flipped quickly through the pics. “There are a lot of pictures here of you and Parker.”
“Not me. Quinn,” Pet breathed, dropping to sit on the end of the couch. “Oh, God. He’s not out of town.”
“No,” Marguerite agreed quietly.
“Dressler turned him, didn’t he?” Pet said unhappily.
There was silence and then Marguerite admitted, “That seems likely.”
“But why didn’t he just come home and tell us?” Pet asked with frustration. She didn’t like her brother-in-law much, but he was Parker’s father and her sister’s husband. She’d have done what she could to help him.
“Does he know about your past with immortals?” Marguerite asked quietly.
“Probably not,” Pet admitted on a sigh. “Quinn won’t even talk about it with me, I doubt she’d tell him. I certainly never did. He’s such a sarcastic prick, he’d have decided I was crazy and taunted me every time I saw him. If I saw him and he didn’t just refuse to let me anywhere near Parker and Quinn. And if he didn’t just have me locked up in an institution.”
“I doubt Dressler explained things to him,” Nicholas murmured suddenly. “The bastard probably turned him and then took off.”
“Probably,” Eshe agreed. “But what I want to know is why Dressler took off at all. What spooked him? And how did he leave without you guys seeing him?”
“If he was watching from the house the night we were looking for whoever it was that tried to break in, he might have seen our eyes,” Zani pointed out.
Pet glanced at him. She didn’t have to ask what he meant. Immortal eyes reflected light in the dark like a cat’s.
“And Santo’s tearing the door apart would have given away that we are immortals,” Bricker pointed out solemnly.
“If so, he could have slipped away while we were all inside talking to the police,” Julius said grimly. “In fact, that’s the only time there wasn’t someone watching the house after we got here.”
Pet glanced around at the people in the room. They all looked dour and angry. She knew they were upset about Dressler, but her concern was her family and she asked, “What will Patrick do now?”
Silence reigned for a moment, and Pet noticed that all eyes turned to Lucian. The tall icy eyed man didn’t look happy when he said, “We have to find him before we leave.”
There were several curses in response to that, but Lucian ignored that and said, “I want a guard on the house twenty-four-seven in case he tries to come back again. We need to protect Pet’s sister and nephew.”
She frowned at this. “You don’t really think he’d hurt Quinn and Parker, do you?” she asked with concern. “I know he attacked me, but maybe that was because he was trying to get to Parker.”
“Pet,” Marguerite said gently, “if Dressler didn’t train him, or explain anything, he basically . . .”
“Your brother-in-law woke up with fangs, hungry for blood, and no one to tell him that he’s immortal and not a vampire,” Julius finished for her.
“He’ll assume he’s basically the son of Dracula now,” Bricker said on a sigh.
“Elvi did,” Marguerite murmured, and when Pet peered at her in question, waved away her interest. “A sister-in-law. She was accidentally turned, had no training, so simply went by what she knew about vampires. Coffins, no crosses or mirrors, etc. It’s most likely your brother-in-law reacted the same way.”
“Elvi had an incredible support system, though,” Julius said quietly. “Patrick doesn’t. At least, he isn’t trying to approach those who would be his support system. He’s gone after his son, twice.”
Pet was on her feet at once. “Oh, God, I have to warn Quinn.”
“I’ll come with you,” Marguerite said, following her to the door. “You might need help if she takes this poorly.”
“She’ll take it poorly,” Pet predicted as she hurried outside and down the driveway. The minute she hurried around the hedge, she saw that the front door of her sister’s house was open. Home invasion, she heard Oksana squawking in her head, and burst into a run.
“Wait,” Marguerite said sharply, grabbing her arm to stop her as she reached the door and started to push it. But it was too late, the door swung open revealing Quinn on the tile floor at the base of the stairs. Pet spotted the blood on her face, and nothing could have stopped her from rushing in.
She heard Marguerite curse behind her, and glanced back to see her waving toward the Caprelli house. Signaling that there was trouble, Pet supposed, as she knelt by Quinn and checked for a pulse.
“She’s alive,” Marguerite said grimly as she reached her. “I can hear her heartbeat.”
Pet merely nodded. She could hear it now as well, but she’d also found a pulse, strong but too fast. Frowning, she started checking Quinn for an injury, looking for the source of the blood, but . . . “I don’t see a wound.”
Marguerite immediately leaned over and lifted one of Quinn’s eyelids.
Pet gasped when she saw the silver coalescing in her eyes. “He turned her.”
A curse drew her gaze up as Lucian led the others into the house. He’d obviously heard her words and now barked, “Bricker, take Quinn back to the Caprelli house, chain her up, and pump her full of the drugs Mortimer sent for Pet. The rest of you start searching the—”
A high-pitched shriek of terror from upstairs brought his words to a halt.