by Nova Archer
Turning Hector smiled. "I was thinking the same thing." He lifted his hand. In between his fingers he held a sports tank top. "Hard Bodies is just four blocks from here. I bet you she works out there."
"Looks like we need to have another chat with Darryl Rockland."
Hector stuffed the tank top back into the drawer and shut it. "I'll see what kind of background, habits, and employment I can find out from the victim's next of kin."
"We'll go back with the body," Jace said glancing at Lyra, then back to Hector. "Do you think we can have an audience at Mr. Rockland's interrogation?"
"I'll see what I can do." With that, Hector slid the evidence he collected into his kit and left the room. Jace and Lyra followed him out.
Tala was there waiting for them, pacing back and forth, wearing a path in the rug.
"It’s drug related, isn't it?" she asked.
"It might be. Why?"
Nervously, Tala glanced at Lyra then back at Jace. He understood her message.
"Lyra, why don't you search the bathroom. Our perp may have gotten a razor blade from the victim's things to use on her."
Lyra smirked and shook her head, but said nothing. She moved down the hall toward the bathroom.
"Okay, spill it," he said to Tala.
"Did you find any Ecstasy?"
"Not that I was looking for that, but no." He eyed her. She looked nervous, jumpy. Itching to do something, or get at something. "What makes you think there's any here?"
"If she knew Rockland, she'd be using for sure. I mean the guy isn't exactly boyfriend material."
"We don't know that she even knew him."
Tala eyes kept flicking toward the open doorway of the bedroom.
"I'm not letting you in there, so forget it," he said as he took a step sideways blocking her line of sight.
"Why?"
"Because you don't need to see that, Tala."
"I've been on the force long enough to have seen a lot Jericho. Don't treat like I'm some fragile little princess."
"I'm not."
"I took down our only viable suspect remember?"
Shaking his head, Jace sighed. "Fine. But don't blame me if you can't sleep for the next few days."
Nodding, she moved toward the room. He stopped her and handed her a pair of plastic shoe covers. "Here, so you don't track blood all over the place."
She visibly paled as she put the covers on. Then squaring her shoulders she stepped into the room.
Jace followed her, curious about what she was looking for. And how she knew where to find it? She had keen senses like an Otherworlder. Maybe she was physic like Gwen, the lab technician. He wondered if she'd be willing to be tested after all of this. Maybe she could come to Necropolis to visit.
And maybe he needed his head examined thinking the way he was. Next thing he knew, he'd be imagining what she'd look like snuggled into his king-sized bed in his apartment.
Once inside the room, Tala made a beeline straight for the bed, her head down inspecting the carpet as she walked. When she reached the body, she glanced up and gasped.
Jace was there beside her in an instant. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't look at her. Keep at what you were doing."
Before he could warn her about the smell, she took in a deep breath and nearly gagged. She doubled over and started to hyperventilate.
He patted her on the back. "Breathe through your mouth."
Suddenly, she dropped to her knees. Jace panicked and made a grab for her to help her to her feet. Except she slapped away his hand, hard.
"Leave me alone. I found something." She stood and turned. In between her forefinger and thumb she held half a small blue pill with a panda stamped on it.
She had found their connection.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"What do you mean the suspect's been cut loose?" Jace growled at Hector as they marched down the hall toward the lab together.
"His high-powered lawyer got him sprung."
"How is that possible? He was charged with assaulting a police officer."
They stopped at the doorway to the DNA lab.
"The D.A. dropped the charges after he agreed to drop the charges pending on you for police brutality."
Jace smirked. "That's ridiculous. I'm not even a cop. Did someone explain that to his lawyer?"
Hector scratched his chin. "I think under the circumstances, the D.A. thought the less we talked about you, the better."
Frustrated, Jace ran both hands through his hair. It didn't help. Strands fell back into his face. "Yeah. Okay. Did you tell Caine? How did he take it?"
Smiling, Hector shrugged. "About the same way you did. Except his speech was a little more eloquent than yours."
Jace returned his grin. The captain wasn't turning out to be such a bad guy to work with. "Well, we still have the warrant right?"
"Yes that we do."
"Good. I want in on that." Jace lifted up the paper bag he was holding. "I'm just dropping the rape kit to DNA, then meeting with the others in the conference room."
"I'll see you in there." Hector tipped his head then left.
Jace walked into the DNA lab with his evidence. The lab tech, Rick, jolted from his work when Jace approached him. The guy reeked of fear. Jace was getting tired of smelling that on almost every single person he ran into.
Setting the bag down on the counter, Jace grunted, "This is the Kipfer kit. Please send it to the lab in Necropolis." He scribbled down the address on the transfer form.
Rick set down the microscope slide he was holding and leaned forward on his stool. "I can test it."
Jace scowled at him. "Nothing that is in there is human, buddy. You're not equipped to analyze this."
"I could try. I could learn."
Jace shook his head. "Look, this isn't school time. Learn on your own time, not mine." He turned and headed for the door. He didn't want to be late for their next meeting.
"It'd be a lot faster if I did the analysis and then I could email the findings to the lab tech in Necropolis."
Jace paused with one foot out of the room. He swiveled around and glared at Rick. He had a puppy dog face with enormous brown eyes. There was something in them that Jace liked, that he trusted. Maybe he could give the kid a chance.
"Okay. But you call Gwen right now before you start. Let her know what you are doing." Jace returned to the counter and scribbled Gwen's number. He set the pen down with a click and stared at Rick. "And you make sure you call me as soon as you get any results."
"I will."
"I mean it. The second that printer beeps with a print out. If you don't." He frowned. "I can't be held responsible for what I will do to you. Do you understand me?"
Rick nodded, his eyes wide. He looked like a boy being scolded by his father.
Before Jace could crack a smile, he left the lab and made his way down to the conference room.
The door to the conference room was open. He walked in to find Caine, Eve, Lyra, Tala and Hector all there seated and waiting for him. It felt strange having them wait for him. Usually he was just one of them sitting, waiting for the chief to debrief them.
Now, it was the other way around. Surprisingly, the sensation wasn't all that unpleasant.
As he marched to the table, he had to stop himself from sitting in a chair along the side. Instead he walked to the head and stayed standing.
"The autopsy went as planned. Nothing abnormal showed up. Nothing prohibited. She was indeed raped, violently, and we did collect a DNA sample. As we all can guess, it won't show up as human. Your lab tech Rick," Jace nodded at Hector, "and Gwen in Necropolis are going to work together on this." Caine's eyebrows went up at this. "I thought it would do this lab a world of good if they brushed up on their Otherworld anatomy, since according to the media, we are about to invade and overrun humanity."
The corners of Caine's mouth twitched, but he remained silent.
"Until we get the results, the only thing we have to go on right now, i
s the drug connection between the victims." Jace's gaze found Tala's. That zing he had come to expect between them cracked across the air hitting him in the gut as usual. He had to suppress the urge to reach across the table and touch her. "Thanks goes to Officer Channing for her findings."
Blushing, she lowered her gaze to the table.
Hector cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, our guy's been cut loose, but we have a warrant for his house and to bring him back in for questioning."
"The partial shoe print came back as a certain type of hiking boot. I looked it up and it is usually worn by mountain climbers. So that matches our rope which is also of rock climbing ability."
"What I wouldn't give for a fingerprint right about now," Hector said, the exasperation in his voice evident. His shoulders sagged.
"At this point, I don't think it would help us much."
"Why?" Caine asked. "I can see those gears grinding Jace. You have a theory."
After running a hand over his face, Jace slumped into the chair behind him. "I don't think we're dealing with human or Otherworld. It's something else. The sulfur smell was so strong at the last crime scene, too. I've never encountered something like that before."
Something flashed in Caine's eyes. Jace caught it right before the vampire turned toward Eve and grabbed her hand on the table. Jace thought it looked like fear.
"That night in the slaughter house, do you remember anything more about what happened?" Caine smoothed his thumb over the back of her hand. Jace knew he did this to comfort her. Eve had gone through hell when she had been kidnapped from Caine's home.
"When I found you, you asked me if we got both of them. Do you still think that there was another person there besides Mel Howard?"
Eve kept Caine's gaze, but Jace could see her throat working. He was positive she was trying to suppress the anxiety she was feeling thinking about that night she was kidnapped.
"I always had a sense of being around more than one person. I couldn't see anything. It was a cold creeping sensation of constantly being watched."
Jace understood that feeling well. When he had been in the freak show, he had experienced that icy sensation regularly.
"And Mel kept referring to he. He wouldn't let me do this, he wouldn't let me do that. At one point I thought someone else was pulling his strings, but later, in the hospital because of the drugs he injected me with, I assumed I just imagined it and that Mel was a nut job with a split personality."
When she was done speaking, Caine pulled her to him and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pressing his lips to the top of her head. Relaxing, she snuggled into him.
Jace envied their obvious comfort and love for each other. He wanted that someday. A lover and a friend. He avoided glancing at Tala as he thought of that someday.
He coughed into his hand and continued with the briefing. "Well, I think it's obvious now that there was someone else in Necropolis participating in the murders and in the ceremonies. Now this someone is in San Antonio running loose and is some pissed at us for following him here."
"Demons."
Jace as well as everyone else swiveled toward Lyra. She was staring down at her open folder, the pen in her hand forming figure eights on a blank sheet of paper.
"Lyra, let's not go there again," Jace said.
She looked up at him and he could tell immediately that she was angry, but there was something else. Trepidation maybe? He usually trusted her insights, because she was usually correct. Smugly so. But he couldn't fly with her demon theory. It was just too damn impossible.
This from a werewolf. He could hear her words echoing around in his mind.
"Would you clarify that, Lyra?" Caine inquired.
"Well, we thought the markings were all about someone doing a demon summoning. Believing in the possibility of calling the dark forces forth. A moron dabbling in the dark arts. What if, the dark forces are already out and about? And he's just calling home for some reinforcements."
Silence cocooned the room.
Jace glanced at every team member. Each had their own look of contemplation on their faces. Hector looked like he was going to pass out. Jace imagined the man was dealing with a lot of information. Here he was sitting around a table with creatures from his nightmares, discussing the existence of demons from hell.
Jace shook his head. "No. Sorry, I don't buy it. It's not possible."
"Jace, how can you say that sitting here in this room with a vampire and a witch at your side? At one time, we were considered impossible."
"Yeah, but our existence is purely scientific, not mystical. We're products of strange and rare genetic codes." He waved his hand to indicate the others in the room. "For demons to be real."
"Evil would have to exist?" Lyra finished for him.
He nodded. "Something like that."
"You're the one that said this guy wasn't human or Otherworld."
"I know, but what I meant that he's something new, something different. A race we've never encountered before. Maybe the sulfur is a by-product of some sort of chemical imbalance in his system, not the remnants of brimstone from the pits of hell."
Caine raised his hand. "Okay, we could probably argue this all morning, but it's not getting us anywhere. It's nothing short of normal for the two of you to disagree, but at this point in the case it's irrelevant. We don't have enough evidence to support either theory. Right now the best thing to do is to move forward. Let's execute the warrant, search Rockland's home and find the evidence we need to link him to the murders or at least to the drugs found with the victims."
Pushing away from the table, Jace stood. "Okay, let's roll then."
Everyone else stood as well.
"I won't be going with you," Hector announced. "I have another matter I have to deal with. I'll make sure there are a couple uniforms available to take with you."
Jace nodded. "I appreciate it."
As they marched out single file, Caine grabbed Jace's arm and pulled him back. When they were alone, he dropped his hand.
"A word of warning, my friend. Don't be too sure about your feelings. If the evidence is pointing in a certain direction don't let your reasoning stop you from seeing the damn arrow."
"I know, Caine." Jace scoffed. "But demons? Come on. It's illogical."
"The definition of logic is the principles and criteria of inference and demonstration. But it also means to force a decision apart from or in opposition to reason."
He patted Jace on the back and left. Damn vampire! Always had to have the last word. And in this case, the last word had sent shivers racing down his spine.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Darryl Rockland lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood close to the fitness center he worked at and the second victim's apartment complex.
At five o'clock in the morning, the team and two uniformed police officers lined up in the hall in front of Darryl's door. The landlady was nervously shifting from one foot to the other, her keys jiggling in her shaking hands.
The young officer from the last crime scene, Officer Mannie Vargas, knocked on the door. "Darryl Rockland, this is the San Antonio police department. We have a warrant to search your apartment."
Several seconds ticked by with no response from inside the apartment.
Mannie knocked again. "Open up. It's the police."
Still no answer.
The officer nodded to the landlady. "Open the door, please."
She shuffled, still in her housecoat and slippers, to the door and opened it. Mannie motioned for her to step away from the door. She did quickly.
Grabbing the door handle, Mannie slid out his weapon and slowly opened the door. "Police. We have a warrant."
He went in, followed by the other officer. The team waited in the hallway for the word to enter.
After a few minutes, Mannie peered through the open doorway. "It's all clear."
"Okay, everyone take a room," Jace instructed. "We're looking for anything to link this guy to ou
r victims."
Eve and Lyra went into the apartment. Tala was about to, when her cell phone shrilled.
She glanced briefly at Jace then flipped her phone open. "Channing."
Jace watched her as she spoke into the phone. The more he was with her; the more he found her appealing. The way her lips moved, the way her auburn hair glinted in the sunlight and the way the little lines at the corner of her eyes creased when she was thinking. And especially when she smiled. Because it was rare to see one on her usually stern face.
But as she closed her phone and slid it back into her pocket, she was smiling. "We caught a break."
"Tell me."
"I found out where the blue pandas have been coming from. There's a known rave location not far from here." She glanced at her watch. "If we go now, we'd just be hitting them as they close up shop."
Jace grinned, sharing her excitement for the chase. "All right." He moved into the apartment. "Hey, we've caught a lead to a known rave near here. We're going to go check it out."
Mannie lifted his hand. "I'll go with you."
Jace nodded to him, and then glanced at Eve and Lyra. "You ladies are on your own."
"Cool," Lyra said. "Just the way we like it, isn't Eve? There's too much testosterone when you're around Jace."
Eve just smiled. "Hey, I like testosterone. I'm married to a vampire, remember?"
Lyra shook her head but returned Eve's smile.
Chuckling, Jace left the apartment to chase his new lead. Well, technically it was Tala's lead. He just wouldn't tell her that he considered it his.
When he, Tala and Mannie arrived at the old art gallery, there were streams of young people wandering out of the building. Some looked normal and tired from dancing into the wee hours of the morning, but others weaved back and forth on the road looking like they were going to fall down at any moment.
And none of them seemed to be bothered by the police cruiser that Mannie parked on the sidewalk.
Jace got out of the car, and he, Tala and Mannie entered through the main doors into the big building that was once a busy art gallery.
Music continued to thump from the multitude of floor speakers situated around the open floor space. Some hardcore partiers were still dancing. Some even on top of the speakers.