Semper Fi tattoo on the forearm of the man speaking. “Whatever. Slayers are like Marines. Once we earn the title, it’s ours forever. And we never retire. We just eventually lie down after we’re dead.”
He stepped forward with his scanner. “One false move, and I’ll take your head off,” he promised.
“Fair enough.” I allowed him to scan my thumb and I didn’t move.
The scanner beeped. “All right, you are who you say you are. What about the rest of them? More importantly, why is there a dead body in my hotel?”
“We’re working on that part. I know it looks like a vampire perp, but I don’t think so.”
“Where’s your proof?”
“I won’t know for sure until we test the wound for vamp saliva.”
Presley had started to lower her arms, but the guard tapped at her arms with his weapon.
“In the air, Miss.”
“But I’m with her.” She pointed at me.
“We’re all just going to stay right here with our hands up until the police get here,” he said.
Gabe spoke up. “I’m a special investigator for the FBVI. My identification is in my wallet in my front right pocket. I vouch that everyone here is safe to put their arms down and sit until your local LEOs arrive.”
“If everyone here is so competent, I ask again, why is there a dead body in the hallway of my hotel?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” I answered him.
Luckily, it wasn’t long before the police arrived and began removing us from the group, one by one, to give our statements.
“I didn’t do it,” Brooke mouthed to me when they took her away.
I believed her, but someone wanted it to look like she did it.
Finally, it was only Gabe and me left.
“So. Federal Bureau of Vampire Investigations, huh?” I asked him.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I kinda thought you were going to fall over, so I didn’t want them to shoot you before you could sit down. Figured the agency ID would calm their collective tits.”
“You thought I needed to be rescued?”
“We all do every now and then, right?” He smiled. “What do you say we finish our dance after this is over?”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said.
“It’s just a dance,” he said.
“If it was just a dance, you wouldn’t be asking me to finish it.”
“You’re right. Maybe it is a bad idea, but maybe I don’t care,” Gabe said quietly.
“Your turn, Fed.” The security guard came for Gabe and led him away for questioning.
Then it was just me, sitting alone while the forensic techs documented the scene and prepared Lindsey’s body for transport.
Something wriggled in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. There was some connection I hadn’t seen.
Lindsey said she was having an affair with Dallas, but we couldn’t be sure the last time Dallas had been in touch with Presley. So when was the last time he’d been in contact with Lindsey?
Considering each of these events separately, there was no shortest distance between two points. There were a hundred points and they were all over the map.
Yet, considering these events as a whole, the picture was much clearer.
Like I said, I didn’t believe in coincidences.
I was starting to believe that maybe Dallas’s entanglement with Sharice was the real thing, but not Lindsey.
That would mean she was a knowing participant in this. I needed to get to her room and check it out. I’m sure the cops had already been over it, but they wouldn’t know what to look for. They’d be treating it like a victim’s room, not a perp’s.
Finally, it was my turn to go back and give my statement.
When I entered the room, she had a yellow tablet and a pen. I didn’t wait for her to offer it to me. I grabbed it and started writing. I wrote it like a report for the Slayer’s Council, leaving out certain facts that I’d decided were none of their business.
Like my hot and heavy makeout session with their number one suspect.
“Seems like you’re a pro at this, Mrs. Majors.”
“Margie is fine.”
“Trouble on the home front?” Her keen eyes had picked up on my recoil at the use of “Mrs.”
“That’s not pertinent to this investigation,” I said.
“I’ll decide what’s pertinent and what’s not.”
“Then I’ll decide that you can send all further questions to my lawyer.” Two could play that game.
“You wanna play hardball?”
“Honey, you don’t know the meaning of the word. I’ve always had a good relationship with law enforcement.” Except for Sheriff Billy