Hot Case

by Patricia Rosemoor

  Though it was far from dawn, the streetlights on Randolph allowed me to see Jake’s visage tighten.

  “Lake Street’s dicey after dark,” he said. “You really should stay away from there. I’ll drive and bring you back to your car.”

  Get in a vehicle with a man about whom I know nothing when someone—him?—may be killing young women?

  Not hardly.

  “I’m perfectly capable of driving myself.” I was already backing away. “See you in ten.”

  Before he could object, I was on my way. The all-night diner was a short drive west and north on Ashland. It wouldn’t take long to rendezvous. As I rounded the corner, I glanced over my shoulder to catch Jake staring after me. Feeling thrown a bit, I waved him off. He turned and jogged west, while I headed for the elevated structure.

  The area was deserted and middle-of-the-night quiet. So quiet I could hear my own breath.

  Was this what it had been like last night when Thora had left the bar?

  A quick shiver shot through me, and I pulled the light cape closer. How odd. Summer evenings in Chicago were fairly comfortable, and not usually cool enough to give me a chill.

  Then I realized the chill came from deep inside me, as did the prickling along the back of my neck. This was no message from Silke, but the kind of prickling that came from gut instinct.

  From the certainty that something was amiss.

  Approaching Lake Street, I slipped my hand behind me and unfastened my holster so I could get to my weapon quickly if necessary. My eyes never stopped moving, my head never stopped turning, my ears never stopped straining.

  Nothing, nothing, nothing.

  Nothing but this sense of unease, of something about to happen.

  I spotted my Camaro, so I should have been relieved, but my stomach was knotted. Then a skittering sound sent my pulse shooting skyward, but I couldn’t place the direction. I kept moving toward my car but danced around in a circle to search the shadows for Elvin Mowry or one of his so-called vampires.

  But I saw no one. Heard not another sound until my key was in my car door lock. Then a high-pitched whine—familiar somehow—made me whip around and go for my gun.

  A flurry of material and wildly flashing limbs seemingly dropped down on me from above. I flew back and threw out my weaponless hands against the car to catch myself. In the dim haze of streetlight, I could see my attacker was a woman. As she came at me, a sweet, cloying smell enveloped my senses and yards of velvet material surrounded my body.

  What the hell!

  I felt her wet breath and a pinprick on my neck even as I shoved her off.

  “Hey, get away from me!”

  I was really strong. She was smaller but stronger. It took everything I had to keep her off me. No way could I get hold of her, either. I would rather not have hurt her, but I had to defend myself, and the simpler control tactics I knew weren’t going to work here.

  I hit her, elbowed her, kicked her, all with little results.

  The streetlight caught her eyes and they seemed to glow strangely against the dark, as if the irises were on fire. She made a mewling sound and licked her lips before coming at me with a fury. Somehow, I kept her from getting too close. Our movements were jerky, as if we were engaged in a bizarre dance.

  “What the hell do you want?” I grunted.

  She gave me no answer. Her expression vacuous, she seemed not to hear me, as if she were completely focused on some internal need. Or she was drugged. She was also determined to get to me, but for what purpose?

  I put some distance between us and tried a roundhouse kick. My leg was halfway to her when she caught my foot and twisted hard and fast. My other foot went flying and so did I. My body did a three-sixty. I landed on the sidewalk with an explosion of breath. She was coming for me once more, her face eerily illuminated by streetlight, her eyes still having that spooky glow. I lashed out with my foot and she jerked back, then came for me again.

  Another high-pitched whine suddenly assaulted my head, and I squeezed my inner ears to protect them, but the pain didn’t diminish. I couldn’t help myself—I put my hands to my head and covered both ears.

  My attacker stopped and stood still, as if enthralled by the blast of pain. And then, as if against her own will, she backed away from me.

  Meaning to go after her, to stop her, to get some explanation about what was going on, I let go of my ears and jumped up to my feet just as the high-pitched whine stopped. I pulled my weapon and ran after her. She was too fast for me. I couldn’t catch up. Then she slid around a corner, and by the time I got to the cross street, she was gone.

  “Damn!” I stood there, breathing hard.

  Wondering what the hell had just happened.

  Chapter 5

  Jake melded with the shadows even after he’d convinced the new one to give up her attack despite her need to feed. What had thrown him was that Silke had covered her ears as if she were able to hear the high-pitched command.

  How was that possible?

  And was it equally possible that this was not Silke Caldwell?

  He watched her now as, weapon held out in a two-handed grip, she peered around into the dark, but Jake didn’t think she was ready to see the real danger. Few people were.

  She managed to get her car door open without letting down her guard. Gun still in hand, she slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut. Listening intently, he caught the click that told him she’d locked herself in.

  Whoever she might be.

  All night, he’d felt something off…something different about this Silke. Like when she’d floored Mowry’s follower—not the sweet-natured Silke he was used to, certainly, not unless she’d been play-acting all along and had showed her true colors only tonight.

  A woman with a weapon…

  Waiting until her car was headed west under the elevated track, Jake left the shadows and headed for his own vehicle, wondering how he was going to deal with the armed and dangerous woman.

  I was still shaking inside as I headed down Ashland Avenue toward All Night Long, the diner where I would meet Jake.

  One of the recruits in my gym class had asked me if I was ever afraid being a cop. Hell, yes, and I never wanted to stop being afraid. It was the overconfident cops who got themselves hurt or killed.

  You never knew what you were getting into when it came to a street altercation. And I still didn’t know what I’d just run into.

  That sound that had stopped me cold was familiar. And now I knew why. I remembered the night I found LaTonya. When I’d called for backup, I’d heard that very sound, though not as loud; I’d thought it was my cell phone gone bonkers. I’d been wrong. So what had I heard?

  Whoever had attacked me seemed out of her mind on drugs. And she probably had been trying to get up close and personal to get money off me to feed her habit.

  As to those weirdly glowing eyes…

  I reminded myself they had some pretty fancy contact lenses these days. Ones that made a person’s eyes look like those of a cat or a lizard or other animal. And crazy ones for Halloween. Ones that looked like fire. That had to be it—the only thing that made sense.

  So why was the skin at the back of my neck crawling as I remembered feeling her wet breath on it?

  What had that been about?

  Too up close for my comfort.

  I saw the neon diner sign ahead and started looking for a place to park. Even at night, parking was at a premium. But for once Lady Luck was smiling at me. I got a spot practically right in front of the door.

  But then when I walked into the diner, I changed my mind and thought maybe Lady Luck was having a good laugh at my expense.

  No Jake.

  Considering how long I’d been held up by the woman attacking me, Jake should have been here a while ago. Okay, so had he stood me up or what?

  I was still charged, pumped, the adrenaline queen. No way was I going to sleep anytime soon. I might as well give Jake a shot at showing.

>   No sooner had I claimed a table than the outside door opened and Jake himself strolled in. This was the first I’d seen him in good light. Candlelight—even the fake kind like that at Heart of Darkness—romanticized everything, especially a person’s appearance. But in Jake’s case, I was sure he could stand up under bright sunlight.

  He spotted me and immediately headed for my table.

  “You showed,” I said. “I was beginning to wonder.”

  He glanced at the table empty of anything but salt and pepper shakers and a napkin holder. “Looks like you just got here yourself.”

  “I had some trouble getting into my car. What happened to you?”

  “Had to stop for gas.”

  Gas, huh? Now, where in the world would he find a station open in this area at this early hour?

  Jake took the seat opposite me. His lips were slightly curved as if he was amused about something, and his teeth shone white under the fluorescent light. I could hardly take my gaze off his mouth. And as I stared, I swore his incisors seemed slightly longer than normal. Then I blinked and realized my imagination was playing tricks on me.

  The waitress came around and asked if we wanted coffee. Call me nuts, but I did. The adrenaline was pouring out of me now and I needed that caffeine jolt to clear my brain cells if I was going to get any worthwhile information out of Jake DeAtley.

  He had coffee, too.

  Before the waitress could get away, we each ordered the manager’s special: three eggs, three pancakes, three slices of bacon, three sausages and hash browns.

  “A woman who eats,” he mused.

  “Most women eat, just not in public.” Thinking to myself that, despite her exotic beauty, the bar owner probably starved herself to stay so thin, I said, “Not every woman is a Desiree Leath.”

  “I would hope not.”

  I could hardly miss the irony in Jake’s tone. Well, he for sure knew more about the woman than I did. How much more?

  “You and Desiree seem pretty friendly.”

  “Strictly business.”

  “And what a business, right?”

  “It keeps life interesting.”

  “How interesting?” I pressed. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen go on in the bar?”

  “I think it’s pretty weird that non-Goths come to be entertained by a group shunned by most of society. Even weirder when a non-Goth tries to pass as one.”

  He was staring at me so hard I thought he could look right inside me when he said it.

  “People like to pretend they’re someone they’re not once in a while,” I said. “Sometimes a costume is necessary.”

  One of his eyebrows shot up, a dark slash over oddly pale irises. “You know, I really do admire a woman who can handle herself.”

  I was not immune. The short hairs on my forearms stood at attention. “So you said earlier.”

  He leaned back in his chair and watched me through slitted lids. “And you said something interesting about evil. About people not recognizing it.”

  “Ted Bundy.” I was unable to think of a better or more appropriate example. “He used his charm on twenty-eight young women to get them in situations where he could rape and murder them. Twenty-eight that we know of. His victims could actually number more than a hundred.”

  “There are other kinds of evil in this world,” Jake said. “Evil that can’t be fought in traditional ways.”

  A curious sensation slid through my stomach. “Examples?”

  “Evil that’s seductive, that will make a normal person rethink his or her values to get what they most desire.”

  “Which would be?”

  “Power. Wealth. Immortality.”

  My stomach twisted, but I told myself the smell from the grill was getting to me. Jake could be weird, all right. And serious. He wasn’t so much as cracking a smile.

  “About that creep with roaming hands,” I said, hoping to get his take on the vampire cult. “Do you know anything about him?”

  Jake shook his head. “I’ve never noticed him with Mowry before. Have you?”

  “Uh, no.” That was the truth since I’d never even been in the bar before. “He’s probably one of Mowry’s cult members.”

  “Cult?”

  “You know, the vampire cult.”

  Jake snorted. “Pretentious little pissants. They wouldn’t know a vampire if one bit them.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “If there really were vampires, you mean.”

  “How do you know there aren’t?”

  I gave him a look. Of course he was joking, but I played along with him anyway. “I’m a rational woman.”

  “Not everything in life is rational.”

  “No, murder isn’t, for example,” I said. “Nor draining women of their blood. I really have heard rumors about the vampire cult doing such a thing. Actually, Thora pretty much confirmed them.” Even though it had been to my twin rather than to me. “I just hope Mowry doesn’t know she was talking to me about it. Or to anyone else.”

  “You sound worried.”

  “I am. It doesn’t help that Thora didn’t show tonight, either.” I eyed him to see his reaction when I said “It makes me wonder what happened to her.”

  “So call her and find out.”

  “Are you kidding? She can’t afford a cell.” Or so Silke had told me. “And I don’t know where she lives, either. Well, I do know she’s living with Mowry. I just don’t know where that might be. You wouldn’t know, would you?”

  “Sorry.”

  Was he? Rather than sounding concerned, Jake seemed aloof. His eyes were hooded and trained on me. I shifted in my chair and tried to think of a new tactic.

  “For someone who has been at the bar awhile, you don’t seem too connected. I thought bartenders knew everything about their customers.”

  “One could say the same about waitresses.”

  Here we were at an old-fashioned standoff, and me without a tiebreaker line.

  Then Jake said, “I haven’t been working for Desiree all that long, remember.”

  Of course I didn’t remember. And Silke hadn’t told me how long anyone had been there, something I hadn’t thought to ask. I didn’t know how to respond.

  Luckily for me, the waitress arrived with our breakfasts. She set an oversize plate in front of each of us. For the next few minutes, food was the center of interest and conversation fell to the side. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. Or maybe I hadn’t been hungry until after expending the unexpected energy of fending off an attack.

  “So tell me about yourself,” Jake said when half his plate was empty.

  “What’s to tell? You know I’m an out-of-work actress. Out of theater work,” I amended, not liking the topic. I didn’t want to talk about Silke. “What about you?” I asked, turning the question back on him. “What’s your excuse for bartending?”

  “Paying the rent. Buying you breakfast.”

  That he was being as evasive as I came across to me loud and clear. But why? And after working with Silke, why had he chosen this particular time to try to hook up with her?

  Not that any actual hooking up would be going on, I thought, not in the literal sense. As I pierced a whole sausage with my fork and nibbled off the end, I suddenly realized Jake was staring at my mouth. I shoved the rest of the sausage in and grasped at a way to get our conversation back on track.

  But all I could think of was, “You don’t seem like the bartender type.”

  “What type am I?”

  “Someone who should be in charge.”

  “I am in charge. Of myself, anyway. The rest of the world has to take responsibility for itself.”

  I was getting vibes off him again, as if I’d hit too close to home about something he didn’t want to discuss.

  Jake gave me an appraising look. “Why did you accept my invitation to breakfast this time?”

  This time? Silke hadn’t mentioned any other invitations.

  So I echoed his “This time?” My nerves flu
ttered as I hedged, “You mean the only time.”

  “Uh-uh. A couple of weeks back I asked if you wanted to meet me for coffee.”

  “No, you didn’t,” I said, wondering if it was true. I simply didn’t believe it. Silke knew what was at stake here, so she wouldn’t hold out. Even so, my senses were all at alert as I tried to remain casual, because I couldn’t figure out why he was testing me. “You’re confusing me with someone else.”

  “Mmm. The Silke I know would get flustered rather than get rough with some guy who came on to her. She doesn’t have a sharp retort in her repertoire. She wouldn’t answer a question with a question.”

  I pretended to go along with him. “It sounds like you know this Silke of yours pretty well.”

  His gaze sharpened. “She’s not mine, but you…well, that’s an interesting proposition.”

  A provocative statement from a potentially dangerous man, I decided. He had made me. Not that I would admit it. What reason did he have for playing games with me? My fluttering pulse shot into overdrive. I forced a laugh and made another Silke expression.

  “I’m tired.” Of playing games with him, though I didn’t finish my statement, either. “Thanks for breakfast. It’s been…well, unusual if entertaining.” Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten what I’d hoped for. Instead, I was simply suspicious of Jake. “But as much fun as I’m having, I guess I’d better head for home. A girl needs her sleep, and it’s late.”

  “Almost dawn,” Jake added glancing toward the windows, where the first streaks lightened the sky. “Let me take care of the check and I’ll walk you to your car. City streets can be dangerous. You never know what might be waiting for you out there.”

  If only he knew how true that statement was.

  Or did he?

  With her good eye, she stares at me. The other rolls along her cheek. “It’s about time.”

  “I never gave up.”

  “Words don’t mean anything.”

  “I’m on it, I swear. I’ll find your murderer if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

  “Until you do, I can never rest….”