head.” He holds his fist out to the wound. “Looks like it could have been something this size. Think he could have another injury under him?” Putting words to action, Rafe places a hand under the corpse’s hip and shoulder, lifting him up to look. “Nothing in his chest.” He lowers the body back down to the carpet.
“You’re sure you don’t recognize him, right?” I ask.
“From his face? Nah. I’d have recognized that scar.” Rafe points out the small crescent-shaped scar on the left cheek, and I jot the observation down in my notebook. “Did you see his shoes?” Rafe nods in the direction of his feet. “He wouldn’t be walking around in those loafers outside for long. The winter temps here would freeze his toes off in minutes.” He looks back up at me, a frown creasing his forehead. “He’s fully human, right?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” I lean down to draw in a deep sniff of air from near the body. Subtle undertones of the victim’s personal scent seep into my brain. The pure, clean essence of his human blood overpowers everything else when I look for it. “He carries no blood marker from another vampire. Which means he is not a servant or a mate. He could be a companion who arrived late, someone we’re unaware of.”
“Good point.” Rafe stands up. “Who do we have left after yesterday’s departures?”
“Hmm, let’s see…” I step back from the body so I can think. “The Natsuhara group out in cabin two. Jet has his mate and one companion with them. There’s the loner in cabin five, Drew Lipshultz. Here in the main building, we’ve got Salvador’s group, a party of eight. They’re in the west wing. I don’t know why any of them would have a reason to be here in the north wing though.”
“This door was locked, right?”
I wave my handy master key card. “Yup.”
Rafe pats the dead guy’s pockets. “He’s very warm. Can’t have been dead too long.”
“No, you’re right. The maids would have been here this morning. I’m sure we would have heard their screaming if he was here then.”
“Hey, got a wallet.” Rafe holds up a tattered bi-fold. “Looks like there’s no ID. But I do see a credit card.” He takes it out, angling to read it. “John Pierre Vaughn. Ring a bell with you?”
“No. Don’t know it.” I glance around at the red mess. “This rug looks shot.”
Rafe ignores me. “What could he have been doing here? How did he get in?”
“Well, his stuff has got to be somewhere.” Scanning the room, I add, “I don’t see a coat or his bag.” I check the closet and the bath, shaking my head as I return. “Nope, nothing in there either.”
“Are you thinking the killer could be human?” Rafe stands, facing me.
“My first guess would be a human. Most vamps wouldn’t waste this much blood. Even though a newly turned fledgling only needs a quart a day, a vampire can drain a body if they want to.”
He smiles and leans forward, kissing me lightly on the mouth. “Remind me never to piss you off.”
“Ha! Like that would stop you.”
Rafe steps close, lifting a hand to run through my long copper hair. “You okay? You don’t seem yourself.”
“I’ll be good once we get rid of this body. I cannot freakin’ believe we’ve got this to contend with right now.” I sound a bit whiny, even to my own ears.
“It’ll come together. We’ll work it all out.” His calm sureness in life is always a wondrous thing to experience. “After all, we’re on 10,000 acres in the middle of nowhere. It’s pitch dark twenty hours a day and we control the only airstrip for miles around. Where is the killer going to go?”
He’s right. But the practical side of me keeps seeing only one thing: We have a dead guy, cooling fast, in our hotel room.
“You know something, hon?”
“What?” He sounds distracted.
“Trying to figure this out isn’t fun anymore and we’ve got people arriving in,” I cut my eyes down again to my watch, “thirty minutes. I can switch the MacKellans down one room, but we’ve got to move pronto. This guy’s going to start to stink soon and we need to make a good impression on the new arrivals.”
Pressure builds in my chest.
Rafe takes out a utility knife from the back of his slacks. I swear he would have made a great Boy Scout. He’s always so damn prepared.