from Armani. They must pay cops way more in St. Paul than they do in Boston. They were clearly good friends, judging by the ease in their body language and how they spoke to each other. “What’s on your so-called mind, Beriberi?”
“Another nickname, Betsy? Wouldn’t it just be easier to get everyone’s actual name right? ‘Hello, my name is Detective Berry, nice to meet you.’ Like that? How hard is that?”
“You do not command me, mortal law enforcer,” Betsy had replied with dead-on arrogance, done well enough to make them all snicker. “Go search yourself, Beriberi.” Then, to Rachael: “I shouldn’t be teasing. Those poor people! And not even killed for something they did. They’re just . . . decoration. Killed only because their killer needs something noticed, something that has nothing to do with them or the lives they led.”
In that moment, Rachael liked the vampire queen more than she could have imagined. She had assumed a vampire queen would have the standard arsenal of charisma and charm. She hadn’t expected that respect would follow so quickly on the heels of liking.
“What are you talking about?” Edward was looking at both of them. “Did you find something out?”
“You could say that,” Detective Berry said. “DNA.”
“No shit! Then you’ve got him, right?”
The detective smiled at Edward, but it was a nice smile, and there wasn’t a trace of condescension in his voice when he replied, “It’s not quite as simple as Law and Order makes it out to be.”
“Those bastards lied to us again?” Jessica yelped. “Oh, Detectives Stabler and Benson, say it ain’t so.”
“Oh, God, don’t start on those two,” Edward groaned. “My roommate—one of my roommates—lives for that show. He’s got a huge crush on Mariska Hargitay. He went to see an episode of The Martha Stewart Show because she was the guest star and Martha taught her how to make doilies, or something.”
Rachael had noticed the other vampire—not the queen—had flinched at oh, God. That was good to know. That was very good to know.
“Well, anyway, the murders aren’t in our jurisdiction, but Betsy’s boss man, there, made a few phone calls.”
“Eric Sinclair is not my boss man,” the queen said, every word a knife.
“Easy, whoa there, big fella,” Jessica said. “Take it easy, Betsy. Your pills?”
“Well, he’s not.”
“The DNA didn’t hit.”
“So it wasn’t any good?” Rachael asked. She was privately wondering if there was any way she or Mrs. Cain could get to a crime scene and give it a sniff.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t any good. I said it didn’t hit. Lucky for you, huh, Rachael?”
She blinked. They were all looking at her, even Edward. “What?” Concern. Fear. Worry. Concern. Resignation. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s your DNA, Rachael.”
Forty-six
“Whoa!”
“Edward—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Edward had more than jumped out of his seat. He had rocketed out of the damned thing. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing.
He’d jumped up and run over and stood in front of Rachael. “She didn’t do it!”
“We know.”
“So just pack up your arresting paperwork and back off, Beriberi!”
“Oh, don’t tell me that stupid nickname’s gonna stick now.”
“Focus, please! Someone’s out to make Rachael look bad. Like they even could, I mean, look at the woman. They don’t come much hotter than this, right?” He gestured to her. She hadn’t moved from her seat, just shifted her weight so she could tip her head back and look straight at him. “That’s what all this has been about, making vampires look bad to Pack, and Pack look bad to vamps.”
“That was our theory as well.”
“There’s no way she went to any of those crime scenes and committed any of those murders to make those crime scenes. No way!”
“Edward—”
“Shut up, Rache,” he muttered. Then, louder, “You guys don’t even know, okay? She’s as smart as she is hot, but even better, she’s as nice as she is smart. Do you know how rare it is to find a chick this smokin’ who isn’t also a huge bitch? Huh? Because it’s pretty fucking rare!”
“Awwww,” the queen said. Then: “He’s right. We are rare.”
“She’s not out here by choice, she got sent here, like for a job. She was made to yank her entire life out by the roots and drag it halfway across the country, get it? And she’s such a good person she didn’t question any of it! So now here she is, and bodies are piling up, and that’s not her fault and it’s probably not even you guys’ fault, but here she is anyway, stuck in the