body was found in Goshen Park, but it may have been dumped there.”
“Not much to go on,” he mused. “Was this another shooting?”
“I’m not at liberty to release further information. The medicos haven’t completed their findings. We’re focused on the identification right now.”
“I see. Or rather, I don’t, but I respect the need for caution. Why don’t I make some calls? I hate to alarm anyone, but this way they’ll notify us immediately if they don’t hear from their female partners at dusk.”
Ari hoped it would be that easy. Her next call was to Lilith and Russell to let them know the vamp killer was still active. She asked them to spread the word and to ask Andreas to call her when he woke. Her last call went to the President of the Magic Council, so he could notify the council members. She spent the rest of the day checking on police progress and writing her official council notification. She delivered it to the clerk by late afternoon.
At 4:15 Ryan called with the ME’s autopsy report on the bones. “Female vic. No dental hits. ID still unknown. Cervical spine severed. Our lab thinks the weapon was some kind of large blade.” He hesitated. “Like a frickin’ sword was what they said. I suppose you’re going to tell me all we have to do is look for a knight.”
No knights that Ari knew of, but half of the Otherworlders in town might have swords, especially the dwarves. That didn’t include the human collectors, like Shale, or the numerous other civil war and medieval enthusiasts. Sword ownership wasn’t as rare as Ryan appeared to think.
He went right on without waiting for her reply. “We turned up nothing at the park, too clean. Couldn’t have been the primary crime scene. Have you learned anything?”
“Not so far. Shale’s checking with his clients. Nothing from Andreas yet either, but I assume he’s contacting the nest leaders.”
“Someone’s bound to miss her as the vamps begin to stir,” Ryan said, renewed hope in his voice. “Want to catch supper while we wait?”
“Can’t tonight. I’m headed to the club. Another time?” Ari puckered her brow, uncomfortable with turning him down. Ryan hadn’t said much yet, but she didn’t want this thing with Andreas to interfere with their friendship or their working partnership.
“No sweat. Call me if you hear something. I’ll probably be around another hour, then you can reach me at home.”
He sounded fine. Maybe she was projecting her own discomfort about dating a vampire. Damn, why was she so ambivalent? Did she have commitment issues? Wasn’t that supposed to be a guy thing?
* * *
By 8:00 that evening Ari knew identifying the Goshen Park victim was going to be harder than anyone had originally thought. No one had called in a missing lover. None of the nests were minus a female member.
Ari finished the latest phone update from Ryan and joined the others in Club Dintero’s new security room. Russell lounged in a chair behind the desk, Lilith sat on the corner, dangling her legs over the side. Andreas looked like an unhappy Italian Mafioso, leaning against the wall, his eyes dark and brooding.
“Where do we look next?” Russell asked, as Ari walked into the room shaking her head at Ryan’s lack of news.
“If the vamps don’t know who she is, I don’t know where to start,” she said. “Without a description, Lt. Foster can’t search police or online records. We’ve got nothing. She could have been a stranger passing through town.”
“Or a solitary hunter,” Andreas said, pushing away from the wall. “We have a few. Vampires who, for one reason or another, have chosen to live on their own. They shun their own kind.”
Lilith scowled. “Hunter? Like feeding on humans?”
“Not necessarily. Most use the blood banks or bottled blood, like the rest of us. Hunter is rather a misnomer in this case. Those who hunt humans are considered rogues. A solitary or lone hunter is a vampire who lives on their own because they have not accepted the transformation to vampire life. They often eke out an existence by working manual labor night jobs or the women stray into prostitution.”
“With human clients,” Ari finished. She crossed the room to sit on the couch, Andreas perched on the arm beside her. She looked up at him. “Could that be the human-vampire sex angle again? I know it’s a reach, but I’m running out of easy answers.”
“Not so far-fetched,” Andreas said. “It would provide a link among most