Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4) (2 page)

If I tore my way through her head, made her feel even a tenth of what I fe
lt now, she could get up and call me a liar. Her word was as good as mine used to be around here. She asked me the same questions as Masarelli and I answered the same way.

Her pallor returned to normal and she relaxed her hold on my arms. I gently pulled free of her grip and rubbed my wrists. A grin that said she knew all too well the position she had me in and loved every minute of it, crept across her face. She glanced at the mirror behind me before walking out of the room.

My phone started playing 'If I was your vampire' by Marilyn Manson from my back pocket. Aidan. I slid the phone out and looked at the message.
'Care to explain why my car is on the side of the road and your father is on my couch?'

Another text came through before I figure
d out the best way to summarize what happened.
'Or you could explain why you're with that derelict detective instead of me?'

I should have known Aidan had contacts in the department. As for my father? I imagine he went looking for me at Aidan's when I didn't show up for our meeting.

Masarelli was back with a manila folder before I got the chance to answer. He threw it on the table, spilling its co
ntents. The face of a young girl stared up from the papers scattered across the table.

"I have four more files just like this. Know anything about that?" He tapped a crime scene photo of
what looked like the same girl. Except in this picture she was sprawled naked in a bathtub, one arm slung over the side.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to ask for my a
ttorney? Do you honestly think I would tell you what happened to Olwyn if I killed five girls?" I pulled the pictures out of the file and flipped through them.

"You want to lawyer up? Same firm as last time?" He smirked, knowing Aidan wouldn't be able to masquerade as my attorney again. "I never said they were dead."

"Cut the shit, Masarelli." I spun the photo of the girl in the tub around to face him. "Even you could have put that together."

"
What do you know about these girls, Maurin." He obviously wasn't thrilled about working with me again.

Not that I blame him. The last time we worked together things didn't go according to plan. Sure some of the pro
blem was Masarelli’s desire to cling to old stigmas about the Others and his less than stellar detective skills but in the end the jail cells in the station were destroyed, the department shrink was dead and we had to wipe half of what happened from the minds of Masarelli and his team.

I should
’ve had Aidan plant the idea I wasn't just Liaison to the Council but an expert in preternatural activity and a valuable asset to any Salem Preternatural Task Force case. Not that Masarelli would have believed it for long. My fly by the seat of my pants investigating style would have blown that out of the water.

"I don't know anything." I
flipped through the photos again, trying to place the girl but I'd never seen her before. I told him as much.

"Any talk about a rogue vamp or were
wolf running around?" He sat across the table from me.

"Now that the whole killing Olwyn thing is behind us and we're friends again, tell me something. Where's my dog?" I didn't want to draw too much attention to Conry but I needed to know where he was, especially if I was going to be stuck here for a while. Something told me I was.

"I never said it was behind us. Pollyanna is still processing her report. Your dog is downstairs." He folded his arms and rested them on his stomach.

"Come on, you and I both know she already told you I was telling the truth or you wouldn't be talking to me about this case. And please tell me you didn't lock my dog in one of those disgusting cells downstairs."

"What the hell did you want me to do with him? He looks like a Great Dane that swallowed a mastiff. I can't have him running around the station. We gave him water, and Mike even shared his cheeseburger. The cells have been fully renovated thanks to you. Think of it like a big dog crate." He stifled a yawn.

I chose to ignore the fact he blam
ed me for the destruction of the jail when he was the one who took the amulet, the only thing hiding me from a demon, before locking me up a few weeks ago. "Fine, can someone take him for a walk later?" I wasn't sure what effect the iron bars of the cell would have on Conry since he was basically a fae creature but it certainly wasn't the time to find out. The less time he spent in the cell the better.

There was a knock on the door. Masarelli got up and poked his head into the hall. He grumbled something to whomever was out there before shutting the door and si
tting down.

"Pollyanna says you're clean." He sounded a little di
sappointed.

I
thought he was upset he couldn't use detainment as a threat to get my help instead of not having a legitimate reason to arrest me. "I haven't heard anything about a rogue. vamp or otherwise. What makes you think it's not suicide? Maybe something was going on at school or home?"

"That's what we thought at first. There's one problem. We overlooked it with the first two girls. The lacerations and lack of any defensive wounds all point to suicide. By the third girl we couldn't ignore
the evidence. Notice anything out of the ordinary in the picture?" He spun it around and pushed it closer to me.

I shook my head. Whatever he wanted me to see, I wa
sn't. "Young girl, seventeen, maybe eighteen. Wrist slit along the vein not across."

"What else?" He wasn't going to make this easy and just tell me what I was missing.

"No blood on the floor or outside of the tub. The water was drained. Was forensics already on the scene when this photo was taken?" I had it figured out but wanted to be sure.

"No, that's
exactly how we found her." He nodded, confirmation I was on the right track.

"Okay, so if the tub was empty when the girl bled out, where's all the blood? If she filled the bath with hot water to speed up the process and ensure success as the direction of the wound suggests, where's the water?" I knew these were questions Masarelli had already posed to his investigation team. "Let's say it drained on its own before you found her, bad seal on the drain plug, where's the ring from the bloody water inside the tub?"

"Exactly. I'm ashamed to admit we assumed the tub drained and didn't question the lack of any residue on the porcelain. Seemed pretty cut and dry at the time. The girl's parents were a mess, we just wanted to get the scene processed and  the body out of there." His expression darkened and I knew he silently berated himself for the oversight. "With the third girl we swabbed the drain and pulled apart the plumbing. We went back to the first scene and we went over the bathroom with Luminal, no trace of blood anywhere."

"Okay, so five girls found in tub
s, wrists slit, no water or blood in any of the bathrooms. What else do they have in common? What's special to the killer about these girls?"

"So far just their age. All of them are eighteen, give or take a few months but not one of them is a minor. Different hair, different eyes, different body shape, some with tattoos some without. No patterns in home life or social status e
ither. There's no physical pattern why these girls and not five others."

"Are they witches?" The last time Masarelli and I worked together a
n extremist group was killing witches. To keep the witches from casting while held captive and tortured, their hands were cut off and cauterized. In one case however, the witch’s hands weren't cut off, her wrists were slit.

"No, I already looked into it. That rules out the Inquis
itors. Last I checked they only killed witches, not normal girls."

"Maybe random is the pattern."

"Random is by definition not a pattern."

"For lack of a better word, it is a pattern if you're going out of your way to pick girls that aren't alike."

"We call that MO."

"Do you even know what that stands for
, Masarelli? Maybe the killer is looking for girls who are different from each other so people won't immediately question the suicide cover?"

"The parents wouldn't talk to each other, let alone know about the others unless someone told them. We haven't r
eleased any information to the press. The families don't know we're treating these cases as homicides. You may be on to something, Kincaide."

"Don't sound so surprised.
What's next, what do you need me to do?"

"I need you to liaise or whatever the verb is for what you do. Find out if anyone in your community knows an
ything about five dead girls."

"That's it? You don't want me to get a reading on any of the girls' belongings? You just want me to run info
rmation?" I tried not to sound offended.

"You don't have a badge anymore."

"You don't have to sound so happy about it. Fine, I'll ask around and let you know what I find. We done here? I can go?"

"Yeah, I'll have Mike bring up your dog."

"How about a ride back to my car?"

"I'm not your fucking chauffeur. Call someone to pick you up."

"Hey, I said I would follow you but
no
, I had to ride--"

"
Fine. Quit your bitching and come on."

A
commotion exploded outside the interrogation room. Masarelli jerked open the door to find Conry charging down the small hallway that led to the lower level where the cells were housed. The tow chains they used as a makeshift leash rattled as my dog tried to shake off the patrolman dragging behind him.

I let out a low whistle. Conry slid to a halt, his nails struggling to find purchase on the tile floor. The patrolman leaned against the wall trying to catch his breath. I closed the few feet between us and unhooked the heavy chains around Conry's neck. A normal dog would have struggled under the weight.

"You didn't have to chain him like he's a kraken. He's really well behaved." I rubbed his chest while he nuzzled my side.

Masarelli leaned in. "I'd let it go. Unless you want to e
xplain exactly what he is and where he came from. That's no ordinary dog and he's not registered."

Conry licked the scowl from my face. "We're going home
, boy." I had half a mind to tell Masarelli to forget the ride. I’d jump us back to my apartment but it wasn't worth the backlash of exposing my new skill to SPTF. No one, not the council, Aidan, or my father thought it a good idea for the Norms - especially the ones working for SPTF - to find out I could alter reality and with it the potential to change events.

With Conry in tow I followed Masarelli out of the st
ation. I barely made it through the door before my dog bolted past me down the steps. I called after him and moved from behind Masarelli to give chase.

"Looks like I won't be needing a ride after all." A smile crept across my face as I took in the sight of a vampire, feared among his kind for the harsh justice he served, gi
ving my dog a belly rub.

Aidan quickly regained his composure and leaned back on the side of the car. The similarities of hard lines and muscle between him and the Camaro were not lost on me. I did my best not to melt under his smoldering stare. "Thought you might need a lift." His accent was thick and skin was paler than usual. He hadn't fed yet.

"You might start your questioning with him," Masarelli grumbled on his way back inside.

"Some lawyer you turned out to be." I tentatively closed the distance between us. Something besides hunger had him on edge.

"You seem to have a penchant for getting arrested." He pulled me against him and familiarized himself with the sensitive spot behind my ear.

"I was a little surprised you didn't try to
bust me out." I leaned back, putting a little distance between my neck and him. Aidan had never asked to feed from me but his agitation was bubbling beneath the surface and I didn't want my jugular to get caught up in it. He's tasted my blood twice. Never as a meal. I didn't want his obvious hunger and emotional state to make this a first.

"As was I, when I learned you confessed to killing Olwyn in order to protect the alpha." The last word came out in almost a growl.

His relentless insecurities over my friendship with Cash were pissing me off, so I fired back. "I simply told the truth. Something that might serve you well in this relationship instead of the half truths and secrets between us lately." 

He bristled at my accusation. "I see you've already r
esorted to hitting below the belt?"

I gla
red at him.

“I suppose now you’ll stomp your foot and pout those beautiful lips.” He ran his thumb along my bottom lip for emphasis.

I swatted his hand away. “I don’t pout.”

“You do and as much as it pains me to admit it, I find it irresistible.”

“Knock it off, Aidan. I know you know something.”

“I know a great many things. You have yet to tell me what the detective questioned you about. What makes you so sure I know anything about his case or that this is even a
council affair?” His hand found its way to my lower back, stopping me from inching away.