Red (24 page)

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Authors: Kate Serine

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fantasy

BOOK: Red
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“I had nothing to do with their deaths,” Seth protested. “I barely knew either one of them!”
“How about a guy named Dale Minnows?” I asked, my heart sinking a bit.
“The reclusive billionaire?” Seth said. “He’s one of the investors in Caliban’s business ventures, but there’s something going wrong with the deal, I think. I overheard Caliban ranting to Sebille about Minnows wanting a larger share of profits than what they’d originally agreed to.”
“Oh, God, Seth,” I breathed. “Tell me you’ve never met Minnows.”
Seth swallowed hard. “He came into the restaurant a couple of weeks ago and asked to see me. Nice guy. He wanted to taste my food for himself to make sure I was the right person to run the steak house while Caliban was filming in LA.”
“He was the second victim.”
Seth was visibly shaken by the news. “Oh, God.”
“What about Alfred Simon?”
Seth shook his head, his expression a little panicked. “Everybody knows him. He makes deliveries to all the restaurants in town.”
“He’s dead, too,” I announced, my voice cracking.
The blood drained from Seth’s face. “I hadn’t heard.”
“Have you been living under a rock?” I yelled, my fears for him getting the better of me.
Seth gave me a frustrated, angry glare. “Excuse the hell out of me for keeping my nose out of everyone’s business!” he spat back. “I’ve been brought in so many times by the FMA, I’ve lost count. You guys have a hell of a knack for profiling, in case you haven’t noticed. Old Mother Hubbard’s dog is missing? Oh, the werewolf must’ve eaten it. Some princess reports a Peeping Tom? Well, hell, let’s drag in the werewolf—had to be him! It’s not just the little shepherd boy who likes to cry wolf, Red.”
“Seth, this isn’t just about you being harassed!” I yelled even louder. “Up until now we haven’t been able to link all the victims together in any way. We couldn’t connect all of them to any one person. It seemed random. We could only choose our suspects on their criminal histories. But now, I can connect almost all of them to you!”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Seth said quickly, grabbing my arm. “Caliban knows them all too, right?”
“He has airtight alibis,” I told him.
Seth laughed, sounding a little wild. “Oh, I’m sure he does!”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Seth leaned toward me, his face close to mine. “Sebille has created a wall of protection around him,” he said bitterly. “He’s destroyed his cooking show set dozens of times. He’s threatened all the investors at some point. He’s been charged with assault and battery too many times to count. And yet, he’s still strutting around town, free to piss on whoever he pleases.”
My eyes narrowed a little. “That sounds a little harsh.”
Seth pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, calming himself. After a moment, he said, “Listen, I know you cared about Caliban once—”
I jerked a little. “You do?”
He gave me an exasperated look. “It’s not like your affair with him was a secret, Red.” I felt my cheeks growing a little warm as he went on. “Anyway, all I’m saying is that maybe you should take another look at Caliban’s story. Double check what Sebille’s telling you. She’d do anything to protect her precious Caliban.”
“Like lying to the FMA to keep him out of trouble?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Okay,” I relented. “I’ll look into things a little more, but we still have the problem of your association with the victims. Caliban’s not a werewolf. He couldn’t possibly have harmed these people himself. And we know the attacks weren’t perpetrated by a human.”
Seth’s brows came together. “Caliban’s a completely different person when his temper takes over. Are you sure it couldn’t be him?”
“Positive. The forensics team confirmed it and was hoping to make an ID off some DNA evidence gathered from the crime scenes.”
Seth’s eyes brightened. “So then compare my DNA to the other samples. Then we’ll know for sure about me,” he urged. “I’ll lick a stick, piss in a cup, whatever you need. But I gotta know, Red.”
“The evidence was destroyed,” I said with a grimace. “The creature attacked the coroner in broad daylight and destroyed the lab. The samples were contaminated. They’re unusable.”
Seth paced a panicked circle, pulling his hands roughly through his hair. “This can’t be happening,” he mumbled. “Not after all this time. Not after all I’ve built here.”
I stepped forward and took hold of his arm, pulling him to a stop. “Seth, unless you can give me something to work with here, you’re looking like the most likely suspect.”
“You said I was connected to
almost
all the victims,” he pointed out. “Who are the others?”
“The most recent two are Tim Halloran’s doormen,” I told him. “His girlfriend, Sophia, was also attacked, but she should pull through. I think the Sandman was the real target. And I know you’re acquainted with Tim—he already told me it was his idea for you to run the steak house.”
“Exactly!” Seth cried. “He’s one of my most loyal customers. Why would I want to kill the guy who was giving me a shot at something bigger?”
Luckily, he had a point. Still . . .
“Stranger things have happened.”
“Who’s the last victim?”
“Her name is Sarah Dickerson. She was a maid.” I pegged him with a don’t-bullshit-me glare. “Do you know her, too?”
Seth’s breath burst from him, his relief almost palpable. “No. I can honestly say I don’t know her.”
I plopped down on the edge of my bed and put my head in my hands. He said he didn’t know Sarah, and I believed him. After all, he’d readily copped to knowing the others. But that didn’t necessarily mean anything. I still didn’t know a motive, so I couldn’t just disregard the other connections. For all I knew, there could be some connection I just wasn’t seeing yet.
“And what about my Gran?” I asked, lifting my eyes to his.
Seth stared at me, unblinking. “What do you mean?”
“She was attacked in her studio.”
He sat down next to me on the bed and clasped his hands together between his knees. “I would never do anything to hurt the woman who took you in, Red. You have to know that.”
I nodded. “I know that, but others don’t. If you were trying to scare me off your trail, it would make sense to hurt someone I love as a warning of what you could do. Or maybe Gran was a threat to Caliban’s business deals because her ratings are better, so you tried to take her out to eliminate the Tale competition. Your rising star is hitched to Caliban’s, Seth. His profit is your gain.”
Seth closed his eyes, realization dawning on his features. “And his loss is my loss.”
“Precisely.”
“Then I’ll just get someone to vouch for me. A character witness.”
“Like who?” I threw back at him. “It’s not like you’ve gone out of your way to make friends in the Here and Now, Seth.”
“I have friends.”
I pegged him with an expectant look.
“There’s Caliban.”
“He’d sell you out in a hot second to save his own ass,” I told him.
“Tim Halloran is a fan.”
“Of your food, not of you,” I said. “Plus, he’s a known criminal—not exactly the best judge of character.”
“There’s Molly.”
“She’s an Ordinary, Seth.”
“But she knows me, knows my affliction,” he insisted. “How could I live with a woman and not harm her if I was a murderer?”
I shrugged. “Happens all the time. You really
have
been living under a rock, haven’t you?”
“Damn it.” Seth rubbed the back of his neck in a quick, agitated motion. “I’m totally fucked on this one, aren’t I? What am I going to do?”
If I was any kind of Enforcer, I would have arrested Seth and thrown him into the clink where he could have sat awaiting trial while we let the lawyers sort it all out. After all, that was my job. That’s what I’d been told to do.
But I couldn’t. Not this time.
I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes, knowing Mary Smith wouldn’t need to show a connection to Sarah Dickerson to get a conviction for Seth. I’d seen her put guys away with much less. She’d have no trouble convincing the Tribunal, who were already gunning for Seth, that being connected to the other five was enough. After all, they’d pegged Seth as a mindless, bloodthirsty killer centuries ago. They just hadn’t been able to catch him in the act yet in the Here and Now. Mary wouldn’t even need to suggest a possible motive when everyone thought Seth killed just for shits and giggles anyway.
I ran my hands through my hair in frustration.
We might be living in the twenty-first century, but the villagers were still lining up with torches and pitchforks, waiting for the opportunity to assign blame for the evils of the world, clinging to fear and prejudice instead of truth and logic and calling it justice. And with that kind of mob mentality working against him, Seth would either end up on the executioner’s block or rotting in the Asylum for the rest of his days. He didn’t have a chance. Unless I gave it to him.
“You need to leave,” I said, abruptly getting to my feet and pulling him up with me. “Get out of town, hide out somewhere for a while. I don’t want to know where you’re going—if I don’t know, I can’t find you—at least, not right away.”
Seth frowned at me. “What are you talking about? You said you believed I was innocent—”
“I still do,” I interrupted. “But do you really want to put my gut feeling up against circumstantial evidence that everyone wants to believe no matter how flimsy it is? I can tell you which one is going to hold up in a trial with Mary Smith prosecuting.”
Seth stared at me for a long moment before he said, “I can’t hide out forever.”
“It won’t be forever,” I told him firmly. “I’m close to figuring this out. And I think someone else has noticed. Why else would somebody send rats to spy on me? But I need more time. If they bring you in on this, I’ll be off the case and there won’t be anything else I can do.”
Seth looked at me, his expression serious, and a little afraid. “What if your instincts are wrong?”
“They aren’t.”
“But what if they are?” he pressed. “What if I
am
dangerous?”
I pressed my lips together in a grim line. “Then the next time you see me, there’ll be silver in my gun.”
Seth gave me a solemn nod. “I’ll leave tonight.”
A sudden thought occurred to me, and I said, “Take Molly with you.”
Seth shook his head in confusion. “Why?”
I sighed, wishing it still didn’t hurt so much to let him go. “She loves you, Seth. You already walked away from love once. Don’t do it again.”
A slow smile curved his lips. “You are one of a kind, Tess Little,” he said. “I hope you find the kind of happiness you deserve.”
I returned his smile, hating that our first hello in so many years was to be followed so soon by good-bye. “You, too.”
Chapter 29
 
“What do you think?”
Trish rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times. “It’s a rat,” she said matter-of-factly. “A big one.”
I huffed impatiently. “Come on, Trish. I wouldn’t have woken you up in the middle of the night to look at just some ordinary rat.”
She pushed her curls back from her face, then slid her glasses a little down her nose to get a clearer look at the carcass lying on the conference room table. “I can’t really do any sort of real autopsy while I’m cooped up in here,” she grumbled. “However, I don’t see any outward signs of magic.”
“There has to be,” I pressed. “Seeing a rat vanish into thin air earlier tonight, then having one just like it jump out of my closet doesn’t scream coincidence to me, Trish. There’s got to be someone behind it. I think it’s a familiar.”
Trish straightened, her eyes wide. “A familiar? What makes you think that?”
I shifted uncomfortably on my feet, not about to admit that my source was our prime suspect in the serial murders—the same suspect I’d just let go free, by the way. “Call it a hunch.” When she gave me a doubting look, I pleaded, “Just go with me on this for a minute.”
Trish shrugged. “Okay. Fine. For argument’s sake, we’ll say it was a familiar. But I can’t
prove
that, Red, unless I’m able to conduct some tests and determine if there’s any magical residue clinging to it.”
“What do you need for that?” I asked anxiously.
She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a sour look. “A new forensics lab.”
“There’s
nothing
you can do without your equipment?” I pressed. “I need this, Trish.”
Trish’s expression was sympathetic. “It would be little more than guesswork. I’m really sorry.”
“Damn it!” I kicked one of the conference room chairs, sending it rolling across the room and into the wall. The impact sent an irritatingly inspirational poster featuring a sweat-soaked, grimacing athlete crashing to the ground. I cursed roundly at the mess of shattered glass. With a sigh of frustration at my lapse of self-control, I bent next to the glittering pile and gathered up the larger shards in my hand before pitching them into a nearby wastebasket.
At least this time the glass hadn’t shattered because my skull was cracking against it, I thought wryly. I winced, remembering the pain that had blasted through my skull as the creature had slammed into Nate’s car that night on the winding road leading away from Tim Halloran’s estate—
I glanced up at Trish. “What if I can get you a makeshift lab? What’s the absolute minimum you’d need?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Where would you possibly get equipment for a lab?”
I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets and shrugged evasively. “I know a guy.”
Trish studied me for a long moment, her green eyes suspicious. But she finally sighed and raised her arms in surrender. “All right. You make the arrangements, and I’ll see what I can find.”
“Text me a list of equipment,” I called over my shoulder as I headed for the door. “I’ll have it here by morning.”
“Red?”
I paused in the doorway and turned back toward her, feeling a little uncomfortable under the intensity of her scrutinizing gaze. “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?” she asked gently. “You seem a little . . . out of it.”
I looked pointedly at the rat. “I didn’t bring you the werewolf hair you wanted, but you might find some interesting DNA on that thing.”
As I left the room, I heard Trish make a wordless noise, an unasked question lingering in the sound, but I didn’t stop walking. I wasn’t anxious to explain my late-night chat with Seth to anyone—and certainly not the brilliant forensics Investigator whose loyalty was to the FMA and not to the pain-in-the-ass Enforcer who’d let her emotions get in the way of doing her job.
In spite of whatever misgivings she might have had, Trish texted me a list of equipment before I even made it out of the building. I scanned through it quickly, then made a call. The phone rang only a couple of times before a gruffly basso voice answered. It wasn’t the one I was expecting, but it would do.
“Hi there, Aloysius,” I said cheerfully. “Is your boss around?”
There was a moment of hesitation. “No.”
“Oh, come on . . . I’m not calling to harass him,” I assured him. “In fact, I might have some news he’d find interesting.”
“News? About what?”
I let out a slow breath to keep my bitch switch from tripping. “About who might have hurt Sophia. Do you think maybe the Sandman could spare a sec to chat?”
There was another pause, longer this time. “All right. I’ll wake him up.”
I waited for several minutes, pacing up and down the quiet halls of headquarters until I heard the muffled sound of movement on the other end of the line. A few seconds later, Halloran’s angry voice hissed, “This had better be damned important.”
I barked a little laugh. “Well, hi to you, too, sweetums.”
“Do not toy with me, Enforcer. Aloysius said you had something to tell me.”
“I had a rat in my house tonight,” I told him, cutting the bullshit.
“Tragic. Call an exterminator.”
“The only good one’s six feet under,” I retorted. “But here’s the thing, Sandman—I think he might have somehow been involved in the rampant rat infestation to begin with.”
“I beg your pardon?”
I leaned my back against the wall, crossing my legs at the ankle while I thought out loud. “I think the rats were used as familiars, spies to gather information. Then Dave would come in and clean up the evidence before anyone caught the rats and figured it out.”
“An interesting theory, Enforcer,” Halloran drawled, “but do you have any proof?”
“I will if you can help me out.”
I could hear the smug grin in his voice as he said, “Is that so?”
“I need a lab for our forensics Investigator,” I told him. “The beast that attacked Sophia destroyed the FMA’s lab and we won’t have a new one set up for a couple of days.”
“I fail to see why you need
my
assistance,” he replied.
“If my furry little pal was enchanted, Trish needs to run tests before the magic residue fades,” I informed him. “If we wait until the FMA has the new lab set up, the evidence we need could be gone.”
“And how exactly does the FMA’s ineptitude concern me?” Halloran demanded, his tone annoyingly condescending.
I could’ve strangled the bastard through the phone. “Do you want me to catch the creature that did this to Sophia or not?”
There was a pause. “If I provide the equipment you need, I will expect some favor in return.”
“I figured as much. What do you want?”
“Nothing immediately comes to mind,” he taunted. “But I am certain I will have need of your assistance someday.”
I ground my back teeth together, wanting to tell him to shove his favor up his ass, but there was no one else who had access to the kind of equipment Trish needed on such short notice. “Just make sure to have everything here by morning.”
“Send me the list of items you need,” he said, all politeness now that he had something to hold over me.
“Fine.”
“And, Enforcer?”
“Yeah?”
“I do so look forward to working with you again soon.”
Without replying, I hung up, desperately needing a shower after making such a filthy deal, but with no time to spare for such a luxury, I forwarded Trish’s list to Halloran and received an immediate response, assuring me I would have the materials I’d requested.
With nothing more to do but wait until morning, I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, hoping to rest for just a moment before heading back home.
“Enforcer!”
No such luck.
I sighed and opened my eyes to see Alex McCain, one of the newer Investigators, running toward me. As far as Fucking New Guys went, he wasn’t bad, but seeing him now made me want to knock his teeth down his throat. “Where’s the fire, McCain?”
“The Chief wants you in his office A-sap,” he gasped breathlessly, sliding to a halt. “There’s been an incident.”
I frowned slightly. “What kind of incident?”
McCain shook his head. “Something about an Ordinary.”
This brought me fully alert. “What Ordinary?”
“No clue,” he replied. “The Chief heard you were in the building and said for me to bring you to see him. He’s also called in Detective Grimm.”
I shoved away from the wall and walk-jogged down the hall as quickly as my stiletto boots would allow.
“Enforcer Little!” I heard McCain calling to me. “Wait! I needed to tell you—”
“Thanks, McCain,” I called over my shoulder. “I got it from here.”
I picked up the pace as I neared Al’s office, a knot of apprehension tightening around my gut. Turning the corner at a dead run, I collided with a solid wall of muscle that sent me staggering backward.
“Don’t you ever sleep?” Nate teased, his arm darting out to steady me. He was grinning but the strain in his eyes betrayed the depth of his concern.
“Not lately,” I mumbled, squeezing his arm briefly before hurrying on my way again.
“Nice outfit,” Nate said, falling in beside me. “You’re looking very Elektra tonight.”
I snorted. “Don’t tell her that. She’s not a member of my fan club.”
“You have a fan club?” He grinned when I cast him an annoyed glance.
“It’s not very big,” I said, opening the Chief’s door. “Trust me.”
I expected the Chief to be scowling and surly when we walked in as was his custom when calling me to the carpet for some infraction. I never expected him to be sitting at his desk, his face slack, his arms hanging loosely upon the arms of his chair.
“Al?” I said cautiously, trading a worried glance with Nate.
Al’s eyes lifted from the documents on his desk, flashing with recognition when he saw us standing in front of him. “Shut the door.”
Nate quickly complied, then came to stand beside me. “What’s going on?”
“There’s been another attack,” Al told us, his voice worn thin. “As I feared, the creature has taken the life of an Ordinary, bringing our problem to the attention of the Ordinary authorities.”
“I’ve almost cracked the case,” I said quickly, taking a step forward. “In another couple of days—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Al interrupted. “We’ve caught the Tale responsible for the murders. He was still at the scene when our people arrived to try to control the damage.”
“That’s great,” Nate said slowly. “So, why the midnight meeting?”
“I didn’t want either of you to hear about it through the grapevine,” Al replied. He leveled his gaze at me. “Especially you.”
Oh, shit.
“What are you talking about?” I croaked, my breath stuck in my lungs.
“We’ve taken Seth Wolf into custody,” Al announced bluntly.
I shook my head quickly. “No, that’s not possible. It can’t be him.”
“I’m really sorry—”
“Who’s the victim?” I cut in, knowing the answer in my gut even if my brain wasn’t ready to acknowledge it.
“An Ordinary woman named Molly O’Grady.”
“Oh, God,” I moaned, my knees buckling under me. I grabbed onto Nate’s sleeve and slowly sank down into the chair. “I know her.”
“So did Wolf,” Al announced. “Apparently, she was a waitress at the same restaurant where Wolf worked. She was staying in his apartment.”
“This is a mistake,” I mumbled. “Seth wouldn’t have hurt her. She loved him.”
Nate gave me a curious glance as he took a seat in the chair next to mine and squeezed my forearm, but didn’t ask any questions of me. “Are you sure it was Wolf?” he said to Al instead.
Al nodded. “He was holding her body in his arms when the Ordinary authorities arrived. His clothes were covered in her blood. Mary Smith will file the notice of his guilt with the Tribunal first thing in the morning.”
Al’s words cut through my stupor, bringing my head up. “It wasn’t him.”
“Red,” Al said patiently, “I understand that this is difficult for you. . . .”
I shook my head. “No, that’s not what I mean. He cared about her. If he came home and found her, of course he would have tried to help her. Her blood on his clothes looks bad, but it isn’t proof.” Plus, it didn’t fit the MO of Seth’s blackouts. This one was different. Someone had very much wanted it to look like Seth was the murderer, frame him up nice and tight so that we’d stop looking anywhere else. A perfect bait and switch.
“She has a point,” Nate chimed in. “If Wolf had killed her, why would he have stuck around to get caught?”

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