in splatters across the floor and the stone wall. Some had been smeared, maybe by the killer, maybe by a crime scene investigator. There was a coldness to it—not just because of the gruesomeness. Blake had been murdered, dropped, and left there in the pool of his own blood. The killer had simply walked away.
I looked up, found both gazes on me. Watching. Considering. Evaluating my reaction. I’d seen death, had sent vampires into its bony hands, its wicked care. I didn’t look for opportunities to kill, and regretted the need for it. I pitied his death, the insult of leaving him sprawled on the floor like garbage. But I didn’t know him and found it hard to muster sympathy.
For me, for the city, for Carlie, I had plenty. My anger was growing now, sparked by the waste of life and the real possibility the AAM was bringing more trouble than they’d revealed to me. That made it imperative I help find who’d killed him, and keep them from hurting anyone else.
I pulled the other photographs nearer, the same bloody visual but from different angles, and frowned down at them. Something was missing. There was no visible katana, but he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Casual clothing, so he may not have worn the scabbard anyway.
Something else.
I closed my eyes, thought of the night they’d come to the door in their matching suits, and last night in their matching fatigues. And the one feature they’d apparently been allowed to personalize.
I opened my eyes again. “His pendant is gone.”
Gwen’s eyes widened. “His what?”
I gestured to my neck. “He had a pendant necklace. Some kind of stone on a leather cord.”
“You noticed he was wearing jewelry?” she asked.
“It was unusual,” I said. “They all wear the same clothes—like uniforms. Suits the first night; combat gear the second. A few had on necklaces or pendants. They were noticeable against the sameness.”
“That’s good,” Theo said and earned a sharp look from Gwen, who’d no doubt wanted him to maintain at least the pretense of objectivity.
“We’ll look into it,” Gwen said noncommittally. “Do you notice anything else?”
“The killer used a sword,” I said. I knew what a katana could do.
“Based on the medical examiner’s preliminary opinion, yes. Long, single-sided blade. And wielded by someone with skill. One cut, and no indication there’d been any second thought, any hesitation. The cut would have shown it.”
Vampires liked bladed weapons, I thought. “Where was he killed?” I asked.
“Inside the Brass & Copper building.”
It was one of the city’s famous landmarks—a skyscraper of stone striped with brass and copper that stood on Michigan Avenue just south of the river. It had been built by an industrial magnate—Brass & Copper Amalgamated, natch—during the city’s Gilded Age.
“In the shade, I assume, so the sun wouldn’t disappear him.” I looked up at her. “Someone wanted him to be found.”
“You?”
“I didn’t kill him, and I don’t know why anyone would want him dead.”
“He accused you of breaking AAM rules,” Gwen said.
“The Bureau made the accusation; he’s one of many. And I say there’s an exception; the AAM disagrees.”
“He and the others attacked you,” Gwen said. “They want you in, what did they call it, seclusion.”
“And I declined. Blake, as far as I can tell, was just the messenger. Clive is the one in charge.”
Gwen ignored that. “Where were you last night?”
“The Grove, as you know. After that, NAC headquarters. We helped prepare a catering order, and there were at least two dozen shifters, including the Apex, who’d be happy to verify that. After that, we went home. It was nearly dawn when I went to bed.”
“Alone?”
I looked up at Robinson, my eyes flat. “Yes. My bed empty, my apartment empty. Lulu was . . . gone.” Presumably at Mateo’s, but I hadn’t even had time to ask her before they’d escorted me out.
“So you don’t have an alibi for the time of the murder?”
Sneaky question. “I don’t know when the murder occurred, so I don’t know where I was.”
“Six ten in the morning,” Theo said.
I thought back. “I’d have been in bed and unconscious. The sun is so bad for the skin,” I added dryly, then frowned as I began to think logically again. “That’s, like, ten minutes before sunrise, and it’s at least a twenty-minute drive from Brass & Copper to the loft, depending on traffic.”
I paused, let them do the math. “You found me in the loft just after dawn. I had to be in the loft before the