Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down (20 page)

I stared back at him, swallowing back the hurt his words produced.  Why was he so mad all of a sudden?  I wasn’t the one giving off mixed signals
,
he’d
been the one to kiss
me
.  Pain melded into a ball of cold resolve as I shoved the humiliation away, my head coming up a fraction.  “So you’re saying you don’t give a damn about me.”

“In a nutshell, yes.”

“You’re just doing your job.”

“The job is all that
m
att
ers
,
anything else is a distraction.”

“
W
hat happened between us…”

“Is not a big deal, it’s common when sharing a feeding.”

“It’s just the blood that made you kiss me like that, that’s what you’re sticking with?”

“I told you, it was nothing.”

“Then let me go.” 

In the course of the exchange, he’d managed to press me up against the side of the building again, his hands grasping the tops of my arms tightly.  I saw what looked like defeat on his face for a fraction of an instant before his mask snapped back in place.  Without a word he pushed away, boots ringing on the pavement in his haste to get away.  I sagged against the building, more confused than ever when I heard his words float back to me on the breeze. 

“Easier said than done…”

Chapter
Sixteen

You know that feeling you get when things are going badly and you know th
ey
can’t get any worse?  How is it that things can
always
get worse?  

I was still muttering to myself over temperamental men with more mood swings than sense when I turned onto my street.  All I wanted was to change into my comfy pj’s and curl up on the sofa with a real gentleman like Darcy,
Knightly
,
or even a scoundrel like Rhett. 

Too bad Detective
Lucas
had other plans. 

“
You don’t call, you don’t write.  I’m starting to think you don’t want to see me anymore
,” he quipped, his ready smile making me wonder if he somehow knew what I’d been up to that night.  He couldn’t possibly know I’d… Oh God, what if
Josh
had died after leaving the bar and someone pointed me out as the last person to see him alive?

“I’m sorry,” I managed to get out.  “
I’ve been busy…
”

“
It’s okay
,” he shrugged easily
. 
“
I have a crazy work schedule too, but I’m willing to try and make it work if you are
.”

“Can I help you with something, D
etective?
”  Unsure what he was up to, I let him follow me into the building and up the stairs.

“
I thought you were going to tell me if you remembered something about that night
.”

“
I was,
” I nodded, “and
I don’t
.”  Not exactly a lie, the single dream I’d had about the experience couldn’t be called a true memory. 

“
You were s
potted
at the crime scene, how did you know to go there
?”

“I was?” 
Frak..
.
  Was he having me watched or the place I was attacked?  I was pretty sure we’d be having a different conversation if I was the one being shadowed.  “
I got the address from the ambulance company.  I have a friend at the hospital
.”  I was becoming a much better liar, only I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 

“Oh right, your roommate, Miss Russo.”
 

“That’s her.  A
nd I already told you everything I
remember, so…”

“O
kay, let
’
s say for a minute I buy that,
” he shrugged noncommittally
.
“
W
hat about the murder
last night
?
”

“
What?  Who died
last night
?
  Did he kidnap someone else?”  Could I have a new vampire sibling even now at the morgue, waiting to wake up for the night? 

“No, I’m talking about
Trent
Stenger, who I believe was your ex-boyfriend.”

“
Trent
is dead?” I stared at him in shocked silence. 

“
T
hey don’t get any deader.”

“But
,
I just saw him…”

“I’ll say you did.  Want to tell me what the two of you were fighting about?”

Oh no…
“We weren’t fighting, not exactly.”

“I’d hate to see you with the gloves off then, by all accounts you cracked him a good one.  What
were
you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I didn’t mean to hit him, it just sort of… happened.”

“Uh huh.  And did you have a history of hitting him… accidentally before?”

“No!  I’d never done anything like that before in my life!” I replied with absolute conviction.  It was only after I’d died that I turned into this violent creature with a hair trigger temper.  What would happen if the cops found out I’d belted Serena the same night?  Would they decide I was a prime suspect due to my violent outbursts?  Would they find out about my attack on
Josh
?    

I was saved from making an inappropriate outburst by Bridget’s appearance from the bedroom.  “Hey, who’s this?”

“Bridget, this is Detective
Lucas
.”  I wasn’t sure if I should say why he was there or not, but he seemed glad to see her. 

“Great, you’re home
.
”
H
e rose and gestured for her to join us.  “That’s two I can cross off my list at once.  You were a friend of
Trent
Stenger’s too, weren’t you?”

Bridget’s lips curved into an unpleasant smile.  “If that means wanting to flambé his balls and serve them up to him with toast points, then yeah, we were friends.  Why?” 

Sh
e was shooting herself in the foot!  “Bridge,
Trent
’s dead,” I interjected, wanting to save her from saying anything else incriminating. 

“No shit?  How’d he die?  Wait, let me guess,
auto
erotic asphyxiation?”  She looked only moderately surprised by the news, but I knew her well enough to tell it was quite a shock.  Beneath
the
tough exterior, I knew she’d been deeply hurt by
Trent
’s betrayal.  Not so hurt she’
d
go after him with a machete and a torch, but more hurt than she let on. 

“Before we get to that, do you mind if I ask you where you were last night?”

“Not at all.  I was out with Anja all night.  We went to a bar called the Bloody Hart or something like that.” 

“The Bleeding Hart?” he asked.  I was surprised to hear the detective was familiar with a vampire bar, but then again, he might not
know
it was a hangout for the undead. 

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Huh.  That doesn’t seem like the usual crowd for girls like you.”

“Girls like us, what?”
H
er chin came up pugnaciously and I couldn’t help but wince, hoping the man wasn’t about to get an earful. 

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”  His hands came up
to ward off any outburst
.  “I just meant, it’s not a big hit with the college set.”

“Yeah well, I’m not in college, I’m a working stiff. And I’ll drink wherever I goddamn well want to.”

“Bridget, I’m sure he didn’t mean…” I started to soothe her, but
Lucas
beat me to it. 

“As is your God given right,” he nodded sympathetically.  “Is there anyone who can attest to your whereabouts between the hours of ten p.m. and two a.m.?”

“I don’t know, probably,” Bridget shrugged and he leaned forward. 

“Care to be a little more specific?”

“Shit, I don’t know, I had a few boilermakers that night.  Anja, who was there?  The bartender…”

“Scotty,” I nodded, leery of giving out too much in the way of details of who we’d seen at the bar.  “And we also spent
some time with the owners, Jarro
d and Leander.  I’m afraid I don’t know their last name.”  They seemed safe enough to mention, it being their own place.

“I’m sure I can find them.  Anyone else?”

Bridget snapped her fingers.  “Oh, what about that fancypants guy?  The Russian?” 

Instinctively I knew Aleksandr wouldn’t want to be drawn into a police inquiry.  “I… can’t remember his name.  But um… didn’t you have a business card for the guy that gave us a ride home?  That was around one a.m. I think.”  While Rob might not appreciate us naming him either, he struck me as a guy who could handle a police interrogation without breaking a sweat. 

“Oh right!  Rob…  Hold
on a sec,
I’ll go get it.” 

Once Bridget was gone, I felt the need to fill the silence, not wanting to give him too much time for idle speculation.  “How did he die?”

“Maybe you should tell me.  Did you kill him?”

“What? 
No!
How
…
what would make you possibly
think that?
”  He wasn’t serious
,
was he?  I was about to try and focus on catching his eyes to try and compel him into thinking something else when
Lucas
burst into laughter. 

“
I was just kidding.  I didn’t really
figure
you killed th
e
guy, but you have to admit, violence does seem to be following you around.  Has anything else strange happened to you since we last talked?
”

What had happened
lately
that wasn’t strange?
  “That’s a very subjective question.”

“That’s me, the subjective detective,” he quipped.  “So has it?”

“Has what?” I blinked, still reeling from the sudden shift.  Now I wasn’t a suspect?  Then what the heck was up with the third degree?

“Has anything strange happened to you since we last talked?”

“Detective, I’m a college student in
San Francisco
, strange things happen to me every day,” I snorted, feeling more confident now that I knew I was off his list of suspects.  “How come you didn’t ask me about an alibi?”

“Instinct.  I couldn’t see you ever hurting a fly,” he grinned. 

An image of myself lunging for
Josh
’s throat came back to me, and I gave him an uneasy smile.  “That’s a good instinct
,
you should definitely go with it.”  For once I was happy to have that book nerd vibe about me if it made me less of a predator to the local law enforcement. 

“Have you made any progress on my case?” I changed the subject and Detective
Lucas
had the good grace to look embarrasse
d for not mentioning it
. 

“We’re still following up on a few leads.”

“What kind of leads?”

“I’m ah, not at liberty to say.”

“At least
tell
me if you’re saying that because you’re trying to protect the integrity of the investigation or if you’ve got nothing,” I demanded and he stared at me a long, hard moment. 

“We’re at a dead end,” he admitted.  “Unfortunately I don’t have the same resources I’d have if he’d actually killed you
,
and the bulk of the evidence is still in the hopper with forensics.”

“You sound almost sorry I survived,” I murmured and his grin reappeared. 

“As much as I love a good homicide to sink my teeth into, I’d rather have you here alive and kicking.  It’s much harder getting answers out of the dead.” 

“How
did
Trent
die?” I asked softly.

“I don’t have the final report from the M.E.’s office back yet, but it looks like h
e was beaten to death, and then cut with something serrated at the neck
, or possibly in the reverse order
.
”  His glib smile
gone, a somber look more befitting to the topic finally assert
ed
itself.  “Do you have any idea who might have wanted him dead?  Besides the two of you, I mean?”

“I never wanted him dead.”  That needed saying right off the bat.  “And neither did Bridget.  We both dumped him and moved on.  As for who might actually want him dead?”  I let out a long breath.  “I honestly don’t know.  Other than running into him at school I really didn’t have much contact with him after we broke up.” 

“Why did you slug him?”

“He wouldn’t let go of me.”

“Literally or figuratively?”

“Both I guess,” I shrugged. 

“So he wanted to patch things up between the two of you?”

“I’m not sure.  At one time I would have believed him
,
but now…  It could have been a line of bull on a lonely night, you know?”

“Maybe a jealous new girlfriend saw the two of you together and decided to teach him a lesson?”  He was probably only joking, but my forehead puckered with worry.  Was I somehow involved in the reason for his death?

“Here you go.  You can keep the card
,
I’ve already got his number in my phone.”  Bridget reappeared, Rob’s card in hand.

“Thanks,” Detective
Lucas
glanced at it and slipped the card into his pocket.  “
Alright
then, unless either of you has anything you’d like to add…?”
H
e paused for a moment.  “No?  Then I should be running along.  If you think of anything else, please give me a call.  You still have my number?”

“I do,” I nodded, holding the door open for him.