House Rules - Chloe Neill Page 0,75

me what you know about the rest of it.”

I nodded. “I’ll call Jeff, and we can go through the entire thing together,” I said, dialing his number on the conference phone.

“Milady,” he answered.

“It’s Merit and the Ops Room gang.”

“You never have good news when you call me from the Ops Room.”

“Sad, but true,” I agreed, sitting cross-legged in the chair. If I was going to be miserable, I might as well be comfortable.

“Two Navarre vampires have been killed,” I said. “Nadia’s sister, Katya, and her friend Zoey. They were found this evening on the first floor of Navarre House. Both were decapitated, and they were found holding hands.”

The room and phone were silent for a moment. Luc crossed himself, as if honoring the vampires’ memory.

“That sounds like our man,” Jeff said.

“It does,” I agreed. “Same method, down to the placement of their bodies.”

“And he only kills in pairs?” Luc wondered.

“So far as we know,” I said.

“Different affiliations, though,” Lindsey said, turning around from her computer station. “Two Rogues first, then two Navarre vampires.”

“But random picks of vampires from each group,” I said. “I mean, nothing we know suggests he targeted these particular vampires.”

“Instead, he was targeting the groups,” Juliet said.

I shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know if it matters, but there aren’t any vampire registration issues with the Navarre House murder. Katya and Zoey were home in pajamas when they were killed. That doesn’t fit the profile of a vampire who’s pissed at Oliver and Eve because they were registering. Oh, and Navarre vamps are the only ones who can get into the House after hours. They’ve got biometric security.”

“Biometric?” Jeff asked. “That’s fancy. For a House anyway.”

“I take it you don’t know much about how they do it?” Luc asked.

“I don’t. Normally biometric means a fingerprint or retina scan, but in this case I’m not sure. Theoretically, though, Merit’s got it right: Biometric scanning would be a pretty solid method of security. I mean, it’s easier to steal or swap a pass card or metal key than an eyeball, you know?”

“So, only a Navarre vampire could have murdered these two,” Luc said.

“That’s how it’s supposed to work,” Jeff said. “But I’ll talk to Navarre.”

Luc nodded. “Thanks. However they manage it, if it had to be a Navarre vamp, that takes McKetrick out of the equation.”

“For the killing,” I said. “But we still found aspen at the first murder scene.”

Luc frowned. “Any aspen at the Navarre scene?”

“Not that I saw. And it probably would have been obvious on the marble floors. The aspen had to be at that first scene for a reason. Maybe our killer isn’t McKetrick, but has ties to him or something. Like they’re buddies?”

“That seems unlikely if the killer’s a Navarre vampire,” Luc said. “McKetrick doesn’t like vampires.”

“And nobody likes Navarre vampires,” Lindsey muttered. Giving up the facade of working at her computer station, she pulled out a chair and joined us at the table. “Maybe the killer, the vampire, doesn’t like McKetrick. Maybe he got his hands on a weapon, and he enjoys implicating McKetrick as much as McKetrick enjoys implicating us.”

I nodded. That sounded entirely logical. Unfortunately, we had no evidence to support it.

“While we’re talking,” Jeff said, “I’m doing some poking around. I’ve got more evidence it’s not McKetrick—at least, not him personally.”

“That was fast,” Luc said.

“Ya. I popped onto his official city Web site for ‘S’s and ‘G’s, and he’s got an alibi. According to the numerous photos they’ve thrown onto the Web with no apparent artistic sensibility, he’s been on a fund-raising junket with Mayor Kowalcyzk.”

“Any chance the pics aren’t legit?” Luc asked.

“Let me check,” Jeff said. “I can run them through a program that flags image manipulation. Beep beep boop boop.”

Luc, Juliet, Lindsey, and I looked around at one another.

I squinted at the phone. “I’m sorry, Jeff, did you just say ‘beep beep boop boop’?”

“Computer sound effects,” he said, as if I’d asked him to explain the most obvious conclusion in the world.

“All right. Here we go. So, I’ve only checked one, but let’s say it’s obvious Diane’s had a bit of digital work done. Unfortunately, the image of McKetrick is legit. It wasn’t copied or pasted into the shot, which means he was really there with her. Sorry about that.”

“Wait,” Lindsey said, “what kind of digital work done?” She loved celebrity gossip, and had once graced the cover of a Chicago tabloid because of her fierce vampire style. Luc had not been amused.

“Focus,” Luc said. “And never apologize for facts.