Lukas gazed at me with a strange expression on his face that I tried – and failed – to decipher. ‘Have you told this boyfriend of yours what’s happening?’
‘I’m trying to keep him out of it. He’s not with the police. It’s safer for him if he stays out of it.’
‘Not to mention the fact that you died and came back to life again,’ Lukas murmured. ‘That isn’t the sort of thing that happens to normal people.’
I wanted to argue that I was perfectly normal, but I knew I wouldn’t win that debate. Truth be told, I’d been doing my best to forget my impossible resurrection. One problem at a time. Unless… Hope flared in my chest. ‘Maybe Tony will wake up just like I did.’
‘Maybe,’ Lukas said. He didn’t sound convinced. His eyes grew distant as he mulled over something.
‘He used a tie,’ I blurted out.
‘Pardon?’
‘Tony used a tie. Round his neck. He used it to…’ I swallowed ‘…to hang himself.’
‘Is that important?’
‘I can’t pretend that I knew him well, but one of the first things he told me was that he didn’t own any ties.’
Lukas rubbed his chin. ‘Take me to him. I want to see him for myself.’
The last place I wanted to go was back to that room, but Lukas was a vampire. He might notice things that I couldn’t. I didn’t believe Tony’s death was an accident or suicide – and I realised that, deep down, I needed someone else to believe that too.
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.’