by Judith Post
She blinked, surprised. "How did that happen?"
"Mutual need?" His limbs felt lethargic.
She wiggled beneath him, and he pushed himself to his feet. She looked him slowly up and down. "Angels are perfection. This is probably as close to heaven as a vampire gets."
He helped her up. "I'm sorry. I meant to wait. I wanted to wine and …"
She cut him off with a quick, hard kiss. "Don't spoil it. I'm going to bed. For sleep this time."
He watched her go down the hallway and close the door behind her. He was reaching for his clothes when a motion caught his eye. The rogue stood on the balcony, looking in. Enoch raced for him, but with one quick jump, he was gone. Worry wriggled in Enoch's gut. Why had the rogue come? Not to follow him. He knew Enoch could destroy him. So who had he been after? And with a sick feeling, Enoch thought of Voronika. The rogue had followed her. She'd been Vlad's. And Vlad didn't give up his possessions graciously. If the rogue went to Vlad, if he telepathed him her whereabouts… All of a sudden, things had become very complicated.
Chapter 19
Danny's cell phone rang at three in the morning. He had to search under his blankets to answer it. “Yeah?”
"You'd better come," Derek said. "You're not going to like it."
"What are you doing working tonight? Isn't your shift over?"
"Yeah, but I couldn't stay home by myself. I feel better out with the guys, doing something."
"Which is?"
"A homicide. One of yours. You're going to be pissed."
Derek was right. Pissed wasn't a strong enough word. After he got the details, Danny dialed Enoch's number. “We’re too late,” he said. “Gail Lahmeyer's already dead.” A sense of defeat, of hopelessness washed over him. How had the killer acted so fast? Danny had gone straight to the station after he dropped Enoch off. When he found Gail Lahmeyer's address and phone number, he'd tried to call her at home, but no one picked up. He left his name and number on her machine and meant to go where she worked today, once the store opened. But he was too late. The bastard had already gotten her.
Enoch must have been thinking along the same lines. "He had to go straight from Marie to her. There wasn't any time between attacks.”
“No time at all," Danny told him. "She works at the natural food store on Sherman. It was closed by the time we left Henry's. I’m on my way there now. A guy found her in the parking lot.”
There was a pause. No answer. Had he interrupted something? Danny was so used to calling Enoch at all hours that he never stopped to think that he might have a life.
“Want me to swing by and pick you up?”
Another hesitation. "Right now? Where are you?"
"At my place." Danny looked out his bedroom door at the small space he called home. Clothes were tossed on the back of a chair near his closet. An open pizza carton sat on the counter top in the kitchen. A crack traced its way from the corner of the wall to the ceiling.
"That's on Lake, isn't it? That'll give me time to get a few things done."
"At three in morning?"
"It's been a busy night." That's all he said. What the hell did that mean? "I’ll be waiting downstairs.”
Danny pulled to the curb just as Enoch walked out of the building. “He attacked her out in the open?” Enoch asked without preliminaries.
Okay, so his friend wasn't going to tell him what he'd been up to. Should he press him for information? But come to that, how much did he really want to know? If Enoch was chasing down his rogue, did Danny want a description of the clues he'd found? He could only stand so much talk about drained rats and strays. Better to stick to business, as usual. “He got her when she was unlocking her car. The guy who found her had come from a nearby bar. The food store was closed, so he parked there. Talk about losing your happy buzz.”
“Why was she out so late?”
“She might have been lying there a while. I tried to reach her earlier tonight. Don’t have the details yet.” Danny passed the newspaper offices on Main with a string of cars waiting to get papers for their morning deliveries. He turned onto Sherman and bumped over the railroad tracks, made the curve toward the bridge, and then drove past older, weary houses, standing shoulder to shoulder with each other.
A few minutes later, they pulled onto the asphalt lot behind the store. Several squad cars secured the area. People were braving the cold to huddle on the sidewalks to watch. Damn gawkers. Didn't they have anything better to do? Gail's car was at the far end of the lot. Danny led Enoch to the officers standing over the body. He gave Derek a nod.
Derek took a few steps away from Enoch. Still spooked. Danny couldn't blame him. “Someone bashed her in the head,” Derek told them. They stared at the bloody mess that had been the left side of her skull.
Danny stooped to see better. “Looks like she was facing her assailant.”
“No purse or money,” Derek said.
Danny turned to Enoch, fighting mixed feelings. Part of him was relieved that he didn't find Gail shaved with clown make-up painted on her face. Part of him was aggravated that this fifty year old woman had her cranium crushed while she watched the weapon come at her. He hoped everything happened so fast, she didn't have time to react or suffer. “This doesn’t fit. It’s not his style.”
“It’s the right woman, the one I saw."
Danny looked at Gail's long, narrow face. "Right name, right features. It has to be her."
“Maybe she struggled and he panicked.”
“But no clown hat? Nothing?” Danny asked.
“Maybe he was interrupted.”
Danny wasn’t buying it. “This doesn’t feel right. Does it to you?”
“No.”
“Maybe if you. . .” He trailed off. Derek was listening. So were the others. Enoch couldn’t touch her until the specialists were finished. There wasn’t much to do until then. “Tomorrow? At the morgue?”
“I’ll be there.”
“I have to be in court in the morning. My car’s scheduled for a tune-up at the garage.” He ticked his schedule off on his fingers, trying to find a time they could meet.
“Easy fix. I’ll pick you up this time.”
“In your Jag?” Enoch was driving a green Jaguar when they first met. The car impressed Danny more than the penthouse.
“I only drive that in good weather.”
“You mean, you have another car? A winter one?” Danny couldn't hide his surprise. How many toys did this guy have?
The police officers nearby shuffled so that they could hear better.
“A Land Rover, more practical.”
Danny wrinkled his nose. “I like the Jag better. What do you guys say?” He played to the crowd, and the officers laughed and agreed. “If you’re going to pick up a cop,” Danny teased, “you should do it in style. There’s no snow on the streets, no ice.” It was damned cold, but the streets were dry. A good thing, or they'd start their season of fender benders.
Enoch nodded. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint a detective. The Jag, it is.” He moved to the sidelines when the techs went to work, but Danny motioned him closer. “No defense wounds that we can see. She didn’t raise her arms to fend off the blow. Looks like she put these packages on her back seat, and when she turned, he whacked her.”
“That’s how he attacked Marie,” Enoch commented. “He took her by surprise.”
“With a pair of panty hose. He strangles them. Not with a tire iron. It seems funny he cut with his usual ritual. To me, shaving off their hair felt like a major deal for him.”
“He left his kit in the bushes at the Senior Center, remember?”
“So he just needed to kill.” Danny turned that thought over in his mind. How would it play out? He'd attacked Marie, but the vamp girl interrupted him. He'd barely escaped, lost his kit, and had to run for it, but he still needed a fix. Gail Lahmeyer was the next woman on his list, so he came here. She struggled. No, wrong scenario. There were no defense wounds. He got desperate and bashed her
….Danny gave a quick shake of his head. It didn’t feel right.
"No good?" Enoch asked.
"I think it's just as much about the ritual as the killing."
They stayed until Gail was loaded into a body bag and carried away. Then Danny led Enoch to his car.
On the ride back to his place, Enoch said, “Didn’t you tell me that you’re working a case that involves break-ins? Our guy doesn’t take their purses or money. That’s not what he cares about.”
“That case isn’t the right m.o. either. Those guys break into businesses when they’re closed. Strictly small-time stuff. Cash drawers and stolen computers. They wear ski masks and cut the wires for security.”
Enoch frowned. “Then I guess we won’t know anything until I touch Gail's body tomorrow.”
Danny stopped at the front doors of Enoch's building. “Get some sleep, pal. One of us should. Oh, wait a minute, you don’t do that, do you?” It was meant as a joke, but when Enoch said no, Danny’s eyes went wide. “Never?”
“Don’t need it.”
"Why not?" Enoch needed to eat. Why not sleep? “Guess vampire hunters need to stay alert.”
“It doesn’t pay to snooze.”
Danny thought about that. “There are some things I don’t want to know about you. Not yet. See you tomorrow. I’ll call when I’m done at the courthouse.” On his drive home, he pushed thoughts of vampires out of his mind. He forced himself to concentrate on the case, on the things he was familiar with. And even those frustrated him. Tomorrow, Enoch would touch Gail Lahmeyer. And maybe that would give them a new lead.
Chapter 20
When Enoch entered his apartment, he stopped just inside the door. He could tell that Voronika was there. The air felt different. Even though he couldn’t see her, he could sense her. He hadn't wanted to leave her when Danny called. He'd panicked. The rogue had seen her. But vampires can't enter a building without an invitation, and the rogue wasn't going to get one. No one else could enter either. Enoch had locked all the doors and windows, and if a human was foolish enough to break in, Voronika would make short work of him.
Enoch walked down the hallway and hesitated in front of the guest-room door. Voronika was just on the other side. He could imagine her stretched out on the black satin sheets. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He'd been so lonely for so long. Would she stay with him, at least for a while? She wouldn't die like all of the other women he'd loved. Then he shook his head and stalked to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of whiskey and gulped it down.
Enough fantasizing! He pushed Voronika from his mind and went to the computer. It was time to concentrate on something else, or he'd make himself crazy. When Voronika woke at sunset, he'd tell her about the rogue. They'd form a plan together…if she'd let him help her.
Danny called a little after ten in the morning. Good hours to leave vamps. Voronika would sleep all day. Enoch was almost grateful he had something to take his mind off his own worries, even if it was a trip to the morgue. He took the dark green Jag out of storage and drove to the courthouse.
“I could get used to this,” Danny said, settling onto the cream-colored, leather seats.
"This means you'll want me to drive more often, doesn't it?"
"That works for me."
When they reached the morgue, Doc was there to greet them. “This body isn’t nearly as interesting as the other two,” he told Danny. “But I thought I’d stick around to see your friend work.”
Danny looked at him uneasily. “Look, Doc, he doesn’t really want what he does to get around.”
“Don’t blame him.” The examiner turned to Enoch. “Since we're probably going to see more of each other, thought I'd give you a formal introduction. Everyone calls me Doc. It’s stuck. My real name’s Aaron Stark, but I don’t answer to it.”
“Nice to meet you. Enoch Smith.”
Doc grimaced. “I’m not as old as I look. My hair turned in my late twenties, but at least I have hair. And no, it didn’t turn because of a horrible scare. No corpses escaping the morgue and walking the hallways. No ghosts that I’ve seen.” He motioned toward the body. “Killed by a blow with a blunt instrument to the head. Let’s find out what you see when you touch her.”
“My gift is limited,” Enoch said. “All I ever see is the next victim the killer will attack, if there is one.”
Doc looked interested. “I’ve never met a psychic with that talent. Most get vague images—a small town with a railroad track or a field with a pond. Tough to follow up on. Give yours a go.”
Enoch pressed a hand on Gail Lahmeyer’s upper arm and closed his eyes. He waited, but nothing came. He looked at Danny and shook his head. “There’s no one after her.”
“There has to be. There was a chain. Try again.”
This time, Enoch saw a man's body slumped over a cheap, metal desk. The top of his head was blown off. The man opened his eyes and said, "Jim Gouty. They got the Mercedes."
When Enoch told Doc and Danny, Danny said, "How did a guy get on the list? Our killer only goes after women.”
"I think this is a different list." Jim's death had a different feel, something odd about it.
“We have another killer? Do you know where you were?” Danny asked. “Anything besides a name?”
This case was getting more and more involved. Enoch would swear that Gail's death wasn't connected to the clown killer, but there was no way to be sure. “The guy was at a car dealership on Coliseum Boulevard.”
“If we drove past it, would you recognize it?”
“I’d recognize the used Mercedes on the lot.”
“Come on then. See you later, Doc.”
Why not? Enoch had plenty of time. Voronika wouldn't wake until sun set. Neither would the rogue or any other vamp. Enoch knew he couldn't concentrate if he tried to write. He could drive Danny to the car lot, talk to the dealer, and be home before dark.
Doc waved them off. “Good luck. Hope to run into you again—but not too soon.”
Twenty minutes later, Enoch slowed and pulled into the dealership he'd seen. He pointed. "There, that's the Mercedes."
“This guy must connect to Gail somehow. That's how your gift works, right? Maybe one of the women in the chain you saw works here, or….” Danny shrugged. “Beats me. Let’s check it out.”
Enoch listened as Danny talked to the salesman in the office, the newspaper he'd been reading spread across the same cheap, metal desk he'd seen in his vision. Danny used the same story as usual—they'd found this man's name on a card in the murder victim's pocket.
The man ran a hand over his balding head. His dark pants and white shirt were almost as rumpled as Danny’s. “Sorry, I don't know a Gail Lahmeyer, and no women work for me. Nothing against them, just don’t have one right now.”
“A secretary or bookkeeper?” Danny asked, glancing at the two desks in the small, square building.
“You’re looking at him. I have one employee to cover the lot when I can’t make it. He’s part time.” The salesman looked out the window at Enoch’s Jag. “I was hoping you’d come to make a trade, your Jag for the Mercedes and any other car on the lot.”
Enoch smiled. “I’m just a tagalong, giving a cop a ride.”
“Lucky cop.”
Danny handed the man his card. “If anything comes up, give me a call, even if it doesn’t seem important at the time.”
“Will do.”
"And you might want to be extra careful for a while. There has to be some reason the killer wrote your name down."
"No worries." The owner opened a side drawer of his desk and showed them a handgun. "It's legal. I have a permit."
"You might want to keep your door locked unless you have a customer," Enoch said.
"Gotcha."
When they left, Danny sighed. “Dead end. Nothing to tie this guy to Gail Lahmeyer, so no clue why you saw him or what to do about it, but we’ve got other leads to work on."
Enoch nodded. "I hope that guy liste
ns to us. Even people with guns get shot."
"But he's been warned now. He'll be more cautious. And if we can solve Gail's case, I think we'll solve his. I want to interview people about her."
"What about the next girl? The one after Gail?" Whether the killer murdered Gail or not, he'd be ready to move on. He hadn't gotten his usual fix since Liza's death.
"I called Maggie Gilroy to warn her, but she'd already left for work, so I need to see her later tonight. Want to come along? You’re involved in the case. Something might click for you that doesn’t for me. And it’s not like you can get hurt, can you?”
“No worry there.” But Enoch frowned. If he helped Danny, Voronika would be on her own. It didn't matter during the day. But the minute she woke, he had to warn her that the rogue had seen her. No, more than that. He'd followed her. Why? Had Vlad spread the word that he was after Voronika? Was there a reward for the vamp who turned her in? She'd been nervous when he first mentioned a new rogue in town. She was a runaway. She'd probably leave, go somewhere new and hide. He suspected that's what she'd been doing for a long time.
“Do you have insurance?" Danny asked, interrupting his thoughts. "So that the department doesn’t have to worry about injuries?”
“Insurance for what?”
“Life insurance?”
“Which life?”
“Medical coverage?”
“I heal myself.”
“Never mind. I’ll talk to my super. Maybe he’ll let you sign a waiver so that we’re not responsible.”
“I might not be able to help you that much. Kids found Voronika's nest. She's staying with me right now."
"At your place?"
Enoch guessed Danny wouldn't drop by for a while. "The rogue I chased to Three Rivers followed her to my apartment last night."
"You've been looking for the rogue, right? And he came to you? Doesn't that make it easier?"