off her phone so she wouldn’t have to ignore Declan’s calls and making a stop at a bakery, Sailor pulled into the crime lab, on the campus of California State University. The parking lot was thick with RESERVED signs and warnings of dire consequences if a vehicle even paused there without a permit. But it was the end of the workday and dozens of spaces were empty, so she decided to take her chances.
In the lobby area, she pretended to admire a wall display of the top brass in the LAPD and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department while scoping out the joint. To her left, a receptionist sat in a glass-enclosed cubicle, probably bulletproof, reminding Sailor that criminal evidence passed through here and uninvited civilians did not. Beyond the receptionist Sailor could see her destination. No point trying to talk her way in, especially as the man she’d come to see wasn’t expecting her. Sometimes a woman’s best bet was magic.
Sailor closed her eyes, took a deep breath, held it for the count of five and slowly exhaled. She inhaled again, and this time, when she exhaled, she let her mind fall behind her eyes, the weight of her body slide away, and then she willed herself into the far hallway.
When she opened her eyes she was a bit unsteady but satisfied. The glass-enclosed reception desk was on her right, and in front of her were the elevators.
* * *
She had to ask three people before she found Tony Brandt in the chemical analysis department, in conversation with a lab-coated technician. He turned even as Sailor approached.
“Sailor! What are you doing here?” he asked. Tony was a large man, structurally sturdy, with a center of gravity that was low to the ground, typical werewolf. “Did my office tell you I was here? I’ll fire them all. And how did you get past security?”
Instead of answering, she strode over to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Here,” she said, and handed him the box. It was white and tied with string.
“What’s this?”
“A bribe.”
He grunted and opened the box to reveal three giant red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. He sighed heavily. With the proprietary attitude of one who’d known her since her infancy, he said, “Did you teleport? You must be practicing if you can bring along baked goods and purses now. Just like the damn Elven. Take off those sunglasses and show me your eyes.”
She glanced at the man in the lab coat, and Tony said, “It’s all right. This is Fergus MacIntyre. He works here in chemical analysis. Fergus, Sailor Ann Gryffald.”
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Fergus said, shaking her hand.
“Really?” she said. She looked at him more closely. “Vamp?”
“Yes. I’m a fan of your uncle Piers.”
Sailor removed her sunglasses and let Tony examine her eyes.
“Have you seen Krabill today?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
“We can take a blood sample here. Save you the trip. I don’t suppose it’s occurred to you to take it easy?”
“I get restless, stuck in a petrie dish.”
“So you sneak into the crime lab.” Tony shook his head. “I don’t recall your father resorting to trespassing.”
“Know what, Tony? I don’t know what my dad would do if he were new on the job, infected with a killer virus and faced with multiple murders. And if he didn’t have friends like you. I’d give a lot to know. Unhappily, my dad’s half a world away and incommunicado, and a stickler for security measures that prohibit cell phone use. What I imagine he’d do is whatever it took to protect his own.”
Tony gave her an unexpected smile. “Okay, no need to get huffy. You people keep hounding me, I won’t get any work done, that’s all I’m saying. So what can I do for you?”
“Wait, what do you mean ‘you people’?”
“Keepers,” Tony said. “Declan Wainwright came to the morgue earlier today. You show up here now. Might as well put on a pot of coffee and wait for your cousins to arrive.”
Declan. Interesting, Sailor thought. Why hadn’t he mentioned he’d seen Tony? “Then I’m sorry to ask you to go through it again,” she said, “but I’m an Elven Keeper, and those women are my responsibility. Anything you told Declan Wainwright, you can tell me.”
“Which would be exactly nothing. He came by, but I was in a meeting with the mayor.”
“Then what you didn’t tell him, you can tell me,” she said. When Tony didn’t respond, she added, “You want my blood samples? I want