Deadly Lover (17 page)

Jolaj watched her conversation intently.

She mouthed the word “brother” before continuing. “I just need a data search.”

Background voices drifted over his com. “Okay, send me what you have.”

Lily sent the code and planned to ask him to tag her com when he turned up anything, but he didn’t give her a chance.

“I’ve got it,” he said. “No individual name, but it’s linked to a midtown flat that’s owned by The Corporate Leasing Company. Sending the address now.”

“Thanks, Brian.”

“Anytime. Gotta go. Love you,” he said then closed the link without waiting for a reply.

“The address doesn’t match what was in the victim’s case file,” she told Jolaj.

“Is that bad or good?”

“It might be our first solid clue to what’s really going on.”

“Good, then,” he said.

“Maybe, yeah.”

The address tied to Doc Smith’s com code was upscale. Nothing like the efficiency room deep in The Mixer, listed on Ginger Simon’s case file. Lily was very aware of the barely concealed curiosity all around them as she and Jolaj entered the high-rise building located at one of the midtown transport hubs. It was a good location for getting anywhere in the city quickly. The area was largely residential with a few retail and service businesses to meet the needs of the people who lived there.

The treaty required the Ormney to live in an approved zone. Many worked among the human population, but their work was concentrated in specific areas. An Ormney in midtown stood out. If Fresna or any other Ormney visited Doc Smith there, someone would remember.

When they reached the level for Doc’s flat, the hallway was empty. Probably most of the residents were inside working at their remote terminals.

The locks were high security. Lily crouched down to get a better look. “I’ll have to go back to my place and get my kit to hack this.”

When she looked up to Jolaj, she saw decision flash in his eyes and knew he would
slip
at any second.

“Wait!” She grabbed for his wrist and his skin tingled against her as she made contact. As she held him the tingle faded to be replaced by the hyperawareness of his claws that could lead to panic. She acknowledged it and decided not to let it rule her. Not today. Not this moment.

Lily kept her grip tight on his wrist. “It’s too dangerous. You’ve never been inside before.” He could
slip
to just inside the door. Odds were good the area would be clear. She’d seen Kiq do the same thing dozens of times, but she suddenly didn’t want to rely on the odds when it came to his life.

He wrapped his free hand around hers and gently pulled it away then used his grip to draw her to her feet. She could feel the dangerous pressure of his claws pressing against her skin. They stood very close together.

He slipped his hand slowly free of hers, carefully brushing along the edges of hers with the soft pads of his fingers.

“Thank you for your concern, Agent Rowan. This is well within my abilities.”

“But—”

“I’m able to make partial
syncs
. It allows me to determine the safety of the surroundings before I
slip
fully
in-sync
. I’ll be able to avoid any obstacle.”

News to her, but his posture was all confidence. He believed it was safe. She nodded.

He
slipped
toward
out-of-sync
and was gone. Seconds later the door clicked open and he urged her into the cool interior of Doc Smith’s flat.

They’d entered into the main living area, Lily just steps inside with Jolaj at her back. An arch in the wall to the right led to another area. Privacy tinted glass took up the whole of the far wall. The décor was monochrome, very sleek, very modern. A pricey audio-visual display wall glowed softly, providing ambient lighting in subtly shifting hues. “A lot of square footage in a high rent district for a woman who hung out with dock workers and kept a low-rent apartment in The Mixer.”

An incoming call blinked in the corner of Lily’s com-lens. Rose’s name flash across the display as she put it in focus. “Damn.” Her sister hadn’t spoken to her in years. Now she was calling?

Jolaj moved up to stand beside her. “Problem?”

“My sister.” Until that moment, she’d completely forgotten the incident with Bradley. Shoved it to the back of her mind to make room for the dead who needed justice and the innocents probably already targeted by the killer. They were a hell of a lot more important than Bradley and Rose.

She blocked the com and went back to studying the room. She walked over to the sofa and lifted a throw pillow and squeezed it in her hands. A lavender additive drifted up from the compressed material.

Jolaj moved to the archway and glanced through then turned back to her.. “What are we looking for?”

“Anything that will tell us who
Doc
really was.” Lily tossed the pillow back on the plump seat cushions. “It’s been cleaned recently.” She ran her finger tips over the surface of a café table positioned in front of the window. “How would a small time street criminal be connected to a place like this?”

Jolaj had propped a shoulder against the arch, choosing to watch her rather than moving on to the next room. “It would seem unlikely that such a character would live in this home. Perhaps you were given the wrong file. Another woman who died in the river at about the same time? Doc Smith’s body might not even have been found.”

“Possible, but I’m pretty sure Doc Smith is an alias. This place is scrubbed clean. No personal possessions. If someone had reported her missing, Metro would have tagged this address. Why isn’t anyone looking for her?”

Jolaj shrugged. “I don’t know.”

They shared a long moment of silence as they studied each other more intently than they’d studied the elegant flat.

Lily pitched her voice low. “Were they lovers? Doc Smith and Fresna?” She was more uncomfortable with the subject than she cared to admit. It wasn’t the general idea that bothered her. It was Jolaj. In the space of a few hours he’d gone from being an untouchable, Ormney quasi-priest figure, to someone who might want her. Someone she might want right back.

She’d never thought of Kiq that way and they’d worked very closely. She’d liked him. Cared for him. But she’d been his Training Agent. That made him off limits even if she had been attracted to him. She hadn’t been. Not to Kiq.

But Jolaj? Oh, yeah. Undeniably.

Jolaj tipped his head in thought. “I honestly don’t know if they were lovers. I didn’t know him. It was Shev who told me what had happened.”

“But Lanyak and Jennifer Richardson were lovers, and Oz and Mary?”

Jolaj held her gaze as he answered, “Yes.”

Lily twisted the length of her hair around her hand and lifted it off her neck. The temperature in the room suddenly seemed too warm. “How common is this?”

Jolaj shifted his weight back to both feet and took a step toward her. “Not common at all. It is forbidden by decree of the Council.”

Lily frowned. “Why?”

“Many reasons,” he said. That decree didn’t stop his gaze from drifting over her breasts, stoking the heat making her perspire.

Hastily, she knotted her hair at the base of her neck and dropped her arms. She let the vague answer go for the moment. “Well, if they were breaking the rules, that could point back to an Ormney behind the attacks.”

“If the Council learned of this, they wouldn’t deal with it in this manner.”

 “I wasn’t thinking of the Council.” Though Lily didn’t have any reason to rule them out.

Jolaj’s stare followed her as she went looking for a household interface and adjusted the thermostat. “Most of the individuals involved,” he said, “have been very careful to keep their relationships a secret. I don’t think there are many who know.”

When Lily turned back to face him, Jolaj had drifted back under the arch. It only took a few strides to reach him. Just being close to him had the power to send her senses into overdrive. Not at all like the panic that had swamped her in the past. “But you knew about Lanyak and Oz. Do you know of others?”

“Yes.” The single word dropped softly into the conversation, despite the weight it carried.

She matched his tone. “They’d fit the pattern, then. We need to warn them of the danger.”

His pupils were wide again, almost round in the dim light. “I already have. They’re being as careful as they can, but I can’t keep the men away from their mates and they can’t bring them into The Zone.”

Mates? That seemed like a really weighty word. “Why just Ormney men? Aren’t there any females who have human lovers? Or were you generalizing?”

“
Slip
talent is often stronger in males than females. Many more females died in The Crossing, leaving many unmated males among us. We have not yet overcome the deficit.”

Lily had to take a few steadying breaths. He answered her questions completely without feeling and she suspected that lack hid some very big, bad emotions that he’d prefer to keep hidden.

She wanted to lean into him. Press her palms against the heavy muscles of his chest. Foolish considering her personal experience and her tendency to panic at the least contact. “That first night, when you showed up in my apartment. This is the secret you wanted me to keep, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Lily nodded. She would keep his secret as long as it didn’t put more lives in danger.

She moved to edge past him into the space beyond, but he turned sideways keeping them from brushing together.

Lily stalked through the two bedrooms feeling like a voyeur. One bedroom seemed to be a spare. No clothes in the storage. No sundries in the lav.

The main bedroom gleamed, spotlessly clean, but there were clothes neatly folded and hung in a well-organized walk-in dressing room. There were office clothes, evening gowns, a few casual things, and lab coats. This couldn’t be Ginger Simon’s. Lily was abruptly certain of it. The question was, had there been a mistake in identifying the file or had the identification been intentionally falsified?

In the corner of the room, an area had been set up with a data port for a professional grade com unit, but there was no unit connected to it. If a relative or someone who knew the woman had gone through the apartment after she went missing, why would they take a com unit and none of her personal effects? Or had they? Maybe they’d taken mementos that just weren’t noticeable as missing and left the wardrobe?

“Lily,” Jolaj called out from the living area. Lily followed the sound of his voice and stopped at his shoulder, facing the large media screen.

“I found a memory strip laying on the top of the screen edge.”

He stood, watching faces play across the scene. Smiling people played to the vid capture in a collection that seemed to catalogue the dead woman’s family or friends.

“Freeze frame.” Lily studied the average features of the woman on screen. “I’ve seen her before.”

He complied then looked at her over his shoulder. “Do you know her?”

Her brain had been snagged by the image but the answer didn’t immediately come. “I don’t—damn. Yeah.”

“The image from Ginger Simon’s file?”

“No. She worked at the Deepwater med facility. I don’t remember her name, but I remember her. She was one of the damn vampires, always running checks, always wanting blood.”

“Deepwater.” Jolaj’s voice went even and emotionless again. Lily remembered him telling her he wanted her help because of her Deepwater contacts. He’d suspected the investigation might turn back to them.

It made perfect sense. The flat was owned by a corporation. Probably one of Deepwater’s sister companies.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll look into it. I told you I would.”

He turned, bringing them face-to-face. “I fear I am putting you in even greater danger.”

Lily wanted to wipe away the worry lines on his brow. Instead she shoved her hands in her pockets. “I’ll be discreet.”

He didn’t seem satisfied, but he said nothing as she pocketed the memory strip and opened an audio only com line to Director Gardot at Deepwater.

Despite the fact that Lily would normally have to go through several admin levels to get to the director, Marjorie Gardot’s voice snapped across the line. “Agent Rowan. Problem?”

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry to bother you, but based on your last guidance I didn’t want to involve anyone else at the company without your authorization.”

“I took your call, Rowan, spit it out.”

“I’m standing in a midtown flat I believe to be a Deepwater duty-flat and I think its most recent occupant was one of my victims.” Lily rattled off the address.

“And?” The director replied without hesitation, admission, or denial.

“And, I’d like to confirm these facts without involving Metro.” It was akin to a threat. It could get her fired, but she didn’t think so.

“I can confirm the address is Deepwater owned.” Gardot’s voice was granite. “And I can confirm that the assigned Agent disappeared two weeks ago. We were unaware of the reason for her disappearance. We will
not
report her missing status to Metro. Is that understood?”

“Understood.” Lily made a conscious effort not to clinch her jaw. “But I need to know who she was and what she was working on.”

“Most recently, we’d been keeping her close, working as a research tech in our med lab. No covert or field assignment authorized.”

Lily’s brain spun. Nothing authorized. Director Gardot chose her words carefully. Nothing authorized didn’t rule out something unauthorized.

Lily decided to push. “A name, Director.”

“I can’t give you a name at this time, Rowan. Find another thread to pull. This one isn’t going anywhere. End com.”

Lily slid a finger over the com-link tucked over her ear and met Jolaj’s gaze. She’d left the line audible so he could hear the unfiltered conversation. Gardot would be pissed if she knew. That thought only amused her. She was less amused at Gardot’s half helpful answers. “Deepwater suspects
Doc Smith
was doing unauthorized research. But research on what?”

Jolaj drifted closer. “According to Kuna and Shev, she was researching the Ormney.”