Blood Secrets-Valorian 1 (7 page)

Eve took a step forward, blocking the detective’s line of vision. “Aaron.”

He nodded to her. “Eve. Good to see you.”

“You, too.” She glanced over her shoulder. “This is Caine Valorian from the other lab.”

Caine tipped his head. “Detective Salinas.”

Aaron ignored him and motioned toward the couple sitting on the pale blue sofa. “John and Barbara Crawford.”

Eve nodded to them respectfully. “Sir. Ma’am.”

Caine observed that the couple sat apart on the sofa, indicating a level of guilt and accusation between them. He wondered who blamed whom for Lillian’s rebellion and eventual disappearance.

“Do you have news about our daughter?” Barbara asked, her hands wringing in her lap.

Eve looked at Caine. He nodded his head to indicate for her to proceed. It was best that everything came from her. No one would appreciate his input. Not now. Not when the girl’s slaying was so fresh in their minds.

Setting her kit down, Eve slid out some autopsy photos of Lillian from the manila envelope she’d been carrying under her arm. She set one of the photos, a facial shot, on the coffee table in front of the Crawfords.

“Is this your daughter Lillian?”

They both looked down at the black-and-white photo of the dead girl’s face. By the wave of horror that surged over him, Caine had no doubt that they recognized the dead girl to be their daughter, Lillian Crawford. He could taste their anguish in the air. It was bitter.

Barbara covered her face in her hands and sobbed. The father just stared down at the photo, unmoving, his hands curled over his knees like claws.

“How did she die? Can we see her?”

Eve picked up the photo from the table and slid it back into the envelope. “She was murdered, sir, out of town.”

He looked up at her then, and even from across the room, Caine could see the pain in the man’s eyes. Caine had no doubt that neither parent was involved in the girl’s death. They may have pushed her away, or misunderstood her, but they didn’t contribute to her actual murder.

Barbara’s sobbing increased. John looked at her. Caine thought he was going to say something. Instead, with a shaking hand, he reached out and touched her shoulder.

Turning, she threw herself into his arms, burying her face into the safety of his shoulder.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly, tears now streaming down his cheeks.

“Who did this to our girl?” John choked out.

“We’re working on that, sir,” Detective Salinas grunted. “But I promise you this, we will do everything possible to find her killer. You have my word on this.” His hardened gaze turned to Caine.

Caine kept Detective Salinas’s gaze, his predatory instincts rising to the surface. He would only allow the man so much leeway with his prejudice and hate before it crossed the line. If the cop pushed him too hard, he’d push back, and it wouldn’t be pretty.

Eve cleared her throat, jostling both men back to the task at hand, and addressed the Crawfords. “We need to ask you some questions to help us in our investigation. Would that be all right?”

Mr. Crawford nodded, letting go of his wife and wiping his eyes.

“Lillian lived here with you?”

“Yes. She was planning to move out next year with—” he paused “—a friend.”

“A boyfriend?” Eve interjected.

He nodded.

“What’s his name?” Detective Salinas asked, his pen poised over his small pocket notebook.

“Chad Murphy.”

“Do you have his phone number or address?”

He nodded.

“Was it usual for your daughter to be out all night, or gone for days?” Eve asked.

Mr. Crawford nodded again. “We were starting to worry about the people she was hanging around with. Strange bunch of kids.”

Caine stepped forward. “Strange…how?”

“They wore black all the time even when it was ninety degrees. Black and white makeup, red lipstick. Even the boys.” He ran a hand over his face. “Dressed like, like what’s the style called?” He glanced up at Eve.

“Goth?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Goth.” He shook his head. “They all looked like damn vampires to me.”

Eve and Detective Salinas swiveled and stared at Caine. He didn’t meet either of their gazes and looked straight at Mr. Crawford. “Can we search your daughter’s room?”

He motioned toward the hallway to the right of the living room. “The last room on your right.”

“Thank you.” Caine snapped on a pair of latex gloves, then proceeded to move toward the hallway. Eve followed him, also putting on a pair of gloves.

“I’m sorry about Aaron,” she said softly as they reached the last door on the right.

Caine wrapped his hand around the doorknob and turned, pushing the door open. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault he’s an asshole, is it?”

“No, I blame his parents.”

The moment Caine crossed the threshold of the girl’s room, he began scanning the room, looking for anything that would give them a clue as to how Lillian Crawford ended up with a vampire’s fangs in her neck.

Her bed was neatly made. The things on her dresser and desk were precisely arranged.

The girl was orderly and tidy. There were no clothes tossed on the floor or shoes lying haphazardly on the rug. No outward signs yet on how she ended up with the wrong crowd.

Eve made her way toward the girl’s desk. A pink-colored laptop sat open on the bleached oak frame. “I’ll check her computer.”

While Eve booted up the laptop, Caine searched through the dresser drawers. He found nothing but neatly folded clothing. No secret letters or diary.

Turning, he eyed the bed. He pulled off the covers, and checked under the plump, pale blue pillows. Still nothing. Leaning down, he checked under the bed. Nothing. Not even any dust bunnies.

As he grabbed the edge of the bed to push himself to his feet, he noticed the edge of something black poking out from between the top mattress and the box spring. He pushed the mattress aside. A black piece of paper—looking a lot like a promotional poster for an alternative rock band—lay flat on the box spring. Right next to a black bound book on vampires.

He picked up the paper by the edge to study it.

It was a promotional poster for a band calling themselves Crimson Strain. There were four members pictured. Male, varying colored spiky hair, facial piercings and dark leather accessories.

And all vampires.

Even in a photo, Caine could see that the four males were Other. It was in their eyes.

They shimmered like tinsel on a Christmas tree. If a person didn’t know what they were looking for, they definitely wouldn’t be able to discern it. However, they would be drawn to the poster regardless. Their power wasn’t in their voices like the chanteuse Nadja, but in their eyes.

“What do you have?” Eve asked.

Caine turned around and showed her the paper. “Poster for a band. A vampire band.” He read the dates. “Looks like they played at Creston Community Hall a couple weeks ago.”

“Whoa. That’s illegal.”

Caine took out a plastic evidence bag and slid the paper into it. “It sure is.” He zipped it closed. “Looks like we have a few suspects to talk to now.”

After tucking the evidence into his kit, Caine walked over to where Eve sat working at the girl’s laptop. “Got anything?”

She nodded. “A couple of e-mails from someone named X, talking about the concert and how he really enjoyed meeting her, and can’t wait to see her again. His e-mail address is vamploverX at hotmail dot com.” She looked at him sideways, and arched her brow.

“Looks like we have another suspect.”

“Or this X is one of our VBB members.”

“VBB?”

“Yeah, vamp boy band.” She grinned.

Laughter bubbled from Caine’s mouth before he could stop it. Shaking his head, he rubbed a hand over his lips. “That’s clever.”

“I have my moments.” Eve looked down at the computer and fiddled some more with the girl’s e-mail account.

As she worked, trying to backtrack and find the address of vamploverX’s computer, Caine watched her. She certainly did have her moments. This was one of them, when he saw past her forced bravado and glimpsed the woman behind the crime scene investigator.

A woman he found to be very appealing.

She looked up, caught his gaze and held it. Once again, to Caine it felt like the room disappeared and they were alone in time. He could feel her heat embracing his body, taste her attraction on his lips. He licked them with the tip of his tongue and tasted sugar, sweet and savory.

Her face heated and she glanced back down to the keyboard, breaking the spell.

Sighing, Caine took a step back, and grabbed his kit. “Let’s go. We’ll take the laptop with us and try to get the guy’s address from the ISP.”

She just nodded, shut the top on the computer, slid it under her arm and followed Caine.

He grabbed her kit for her as they went to secure permission from the parents to take the victim’s laptop.

Once they were through the front door and outside, Detective Salinas caught up with them. He put his hand on Eve’s arm and stopped her from walking any farther with Caine.

Caine paused at the end of the walkway and turned around, watching. He didn’t like the way the detective was looking at Eve.

“Why are you doing this?” Aaron asked Eve.

“Doing what?”

“Working with them.” He motioned toward Caine. “When I heard you had volunteered, I couldn’t believe it.”

She shrugged off his hand. “I volunteered to work the case, Aaron, nothing more.”

“How does it feel working around them? I hear they have a wolfman on staff.” He sniffed derisively and glanced over his shoulder at the uniform still standing at the front door to share his joke. “It’s like working with an animal.”

“Well, it’s no different than working with you, now is it?”

Caine could smell the cop’s anger intensify. Colored waves swirled by Salinas’s right hand, indicating motion. Without another thought, Caine rushed toward the cop. To the humans it would seem like he transported there in front of them, his hand circling Salinas’s wrist before he could raise it.

“What the hell?” Salinas took a step back, his eyes wide in shock. And fear, Caine was pleased to see.

“Don’t even think about what you were about to do, Detective.” Caine squeezed the man’s wrist tighter.

Salinas tried to pull away, but Caine held him there. “Let go of me, freak!”

“I will, but only if you turn around and go do your job instead of interfering in Eve’s.”

Eve put her hand on Caine’s shoulder. “Let him go, Caine.”

After another tight squeeze on Salinas’s wrist, Caine released his hold, but didn’t step back. He wanted the detective to know that he wasn’t backing away. It was one thing to insult him, but even to think about hurting Eve—there was only so much he would let slide, and that was not one of them. There were two things he hated most in the world: child abusers and crimes against women.

“Now, go back in there and ask the right questions. Get the phone number and address of this boyfriend, her other friends, then phone it into us at the lab,” Caine demanded.

The detective rubbed his wrist. “I’m reporting this.” He turned and rushed back into the Crawford residence.

Without a word, Caine walked back to the end of the sidewalk, picked up both kits and made his way back to the SUV. Eve ran to catch up with him. Once she was at his side, she grabbed his arm.

“What was that all about?”

“Your Detective Salinas seems to enjoy violence.” Opening the back of the vehicle, he slid both kits in.

Eve set the laptop carefully into the back on a soft cushion. “The only one I saw being unnecessarily violent was you.” Without looking at him, she walked along the SUV and jumped into the passenger side.

Expelling a deep sigh, Caine closed the SUV hatch. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised at her reaction. She had no idea that Detective Salinas was about to raise his hand to her. She couldn’t see things the way he did. He could explain it to her, but he didn’t think that she would believe him.

Caine jumped into the driver’s side, and started the vehicle. He glanced at Eve. She was staring out her window, seemingly unfazed by what had transpired, but he could see her hands fidgeting in her lap.

“Why would you date a man like that anyway? He seems like a Neanderthal.”

Without looking at him, she answered, “At first he was really sweet. Romantic. And he’s a good cop no matter how he looks tonight.” She rubbed her mouth with her hand. “I really don’t want to talk about it with you, okay?”

“Okay.”

He turned and watched out the front windshield as the sun started to lighten the night sky.

Dawn was rapidly approaching. It wouldn’t be long before it was full and glaring down.

He could walk in the sunlight, but not for extended periods. Too much exposure gave him a sunburn from hell. Another reminder of how different Eve and he were. Day and night.

Literally.

“How about I drop you off at your lab with the laptop. You’d be more comfortable there, tracking down his real name and address, then you can phone it in to me and we can go from there.”

She swiveled in her seat and glared at him. A strong sense of hurt washed over him. He predicted her anger, but not this emotional pain.

“You can’t keep me out of this case. It’s mine just as much as it’s yours.”

“I’m not keeping you out of anything, Eve. I just thought it would be…easier if you were at your own lab.”

“Easier for whom?” She sniffed.

“I thought in order to keep incidents like the one with Detective Salinas from interfering with our case it would be best to keep our involvement separate.”

“I don’t care what Aaron has to say.” Frowning, she waved her hand around. “If I truly cared what anyone thought, I would never have volunteered. Besides, I think we’re better together than we are apart.” She pointed at the gearshift. “Now, put this sucker in drive and get us back to the lab. I want to catch this bastard.”

“Okay.”

She looked at him wryly. “Anyway, the sun’s coming up. If you turn into a pile of ashes, who’s going to drive the SUV?”

Smiling, Caine picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the button to speak with the escort vehicle. “We’re heading back to Necropolis.” Setting the communicator down, he put the SUV in Drive and pulled out onto the street. It was getting late and they had a killer to catch.