Similarly, the case was locked at a dead end.
I paced back and forth on the carpet, desperate to grasp any straw that might lead to some new information.
“So where are we?”
Jeremy gave me an odd look. “Exactly where we were five minutes ago. Sara Field was studying in third year at a local community college. Good student. Not that great, but she’d her talent. She was an air mage, learnt from Samantha and her crew back in Florida. Nothing jumps off the page. I’ve written to Samantha and let’s see what she says.”
“Who is Samantha?” asked Bryan.
I didn’t turn back to look at him. He was sitting on the couch in the far left corner, and in his hand was a cup of coffee. “A mage has to learn magic during their formative years. The parents or guardians teach some, and by the time a child is nine, he or she is handed over to a teacher. Samantha runs a mage school during evenings. She is good and whatever she can’t teach, she hires good teachers.”
“Was Sara involved with vampires?” he asked.
“No one gets involved with vampires,” said Jeremy. “There are too few of them out there. In this state, Dubey is the only one we know. There are a total of seven in the United States. Rest are scattered on other continents. Most of them live in Alaska, the far northern parts of Canada, or Antarctica. The weather suits them.”
“We don’t have time for a history and geography lesson,” I muttered.
Ok. So I was antsy. It had been twenty-four hours already, and we didn’t have a damn clue to help us figure out who killed that poor woman. The killer was out there, and we couldn’t touch him or her.
Jeremy gave me another look. I shrugged and merely rolled my shoulders. Oh, please. I was entitled to pissed-off moods if I so pleased. If Special Agent Bryan couldn’t take it, it was his problem, and not mine.
He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly exhausted. “I’ve checked her travel records and she never went out of the country so it’s safe to assume she didn’t know any foreign vampire. I’ve failed to find a link between her and any of the local vampires but I’ll keep digging that angle.”
“It’s not a vampire.”
There was no evidence to back my claim, but I just kind of knew it.
Jeremy opened his mouth but whatever he was about to ask was forgotten the moment Augusta ran into the room. “Colonel Sanders has been arrested.”
Silence reigned in the room. We were all frozen to our spots. Augusta was always well groomed, but today she didn’t even bother to comb her hair. Clearly, she just got out of bed. I’d never seen her look so distraught.
Jeremy was the first one to leap up. “What? Why?”
She rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “I don’t know the details. Go now. Figure it out, and please get him home.”
We ran outside. Augusta didn’t come with us, but the rest of us took Bryan’s car. Colonels Sanders arrested? How? Why? He obeyed laws. Since he considered himself as a military man, he seldom did things that collided with his sense of wrong or right.
“What could he have done?” asked Bryan.
It was a good question, but none of us had the answer. “Colonel Sanders is the last person I would have expected to get in trouble with law. Now, Cleo here, she is a good candidate for a tryst in jail,” said Jeremy.
If I weren’t so bothered about Colonel Sanders, I would have delivered a pithy response. Instead, I merely growled. Jeremy drove. As we reached the police station, I looked for signs of trouble. No mob. No agitated people. No reporters. Good. At least he didn’t get into a public fight or showcase his magical talents in front of dozens or hundreds of ordinary people.
What the hell did he do?
We got in. “Hi, Office Morris.” Jeremy raised a hand in greeting. We took pains to know the local police well. They weren’t aware of who we really well, but they were friendly to us. “Heard you dragged one of our people into the jail? What did he do? You know us, we’re law abiding citizens.”
Officer Morris, a chubby, bearded man glanced up. “He tried to solicit a prostitute.”
I nearly stumbled. If it wasn’t for Bryan’s steady hand under my arm, I might have keeled right over. The shock was profound. “What?” said Jeremy as he slowed his pace. “What did you just say? I don’t think I heard right.”
Officer Morris leaned back. While he was at least a decade older than Jeremy, he’d a keen, vigilant look in his eyes. I’d seen him in the local bars at times. He wasn’t much of a drinker, but his wife was. She was what one might call an alcoholic, and I knew that he was valiantly trying to help her win the battle. They had three girls, as I recalled. While we tried our best to stay out of the radar of the local police, it was in our interest to know them.
“It’s true. He was caught in a car with her.”
I flopped on the chair without an invitation. What the hell was going on? Clearly, on some level, this should be amusing. But I was simply too shocked to enjoy this hilarious moment.
“My, my. This is a complete surprise,” said Jeremy.
I was so glad that Augusta didn’t come along. She would have popped a vein or something. “What do we need to do to get him out? Do we need to call our lawyer?”
It occurred to me that we should have called him on the way. Of course, we never needed lawyers much, primarily because it was in our interest to stay out of trouble.
Office Morris wrinkled his nose. “Since it’s his first offense, and he wasn’t actually caught doing anything. I mean…he was in decent condition when we pulled him out of the car, so we are not going to press any charges. It would be a waste of our limited resources and money. Budget cuts, you know.”
Sure. Who didn’t know the plight of all civil and government institutions? They were run on a shoestring budget while we waged wars outside our borders. Not that I was much into politics. But really…sometimes it got annoying. And yet I was so glad for the city’s limited budget right now. “Yeah, sure, we know. And we appreciate that you are showing him this consideration.”
Yes, I could play nice when it served my needs.
Officer Morris glanced at another guy who went inside towards the cells. “If he is caught again, we would have no choice but to press charges. As it is, we have to let the woman go. It’s also her first offense. Apparently, she is new at this game.” He cleared his throat. “This is a clean town. We run a tight ship. There are not many of us here, but we like the populace to self-regulate their personal behavior. After all, we want to guide the youngsters towards a better future and not steer them into a wrong direction.”
I thought about his nearly alcoholic wife but kept my mouth shut. We all had skeletons in the closet, and there was no need to bring out his. Who would have thought that we would have to sit here and endure a lecture because of Colonel Sanders, but that was life with the commune.
The party never ended.
Colonel Sanders came out. His hands were not cuffed, but there was a sheepish look on his face. Since he didn’t meet our gaze, we tried to pretend that he wasn’t there. Let Augusta deal with him. Luckily, this was her headache, and not ours.
“Thank you, officer. We’ll make sure this never happens again.” I stood. “We appreciate your cooperation. Just by the way, who was the woman?”
“I can’t disclose her name,” he said in a stiff voice.
I shrugged. Not that I was so keen to meet her, but there was something that just didn’t make sense here. I guess I would have to ask Colonel Sanders. Oh! That particular conversation would be as humiliating for me as it would be for him. Maybe I didn’t need to know her name after all.
“Sure, no problem.” I stood. “If there is nothing else, we would like to leave now.”
Officer Morris’s gaze traveled to Bryan. “Who is he? A new commune recruit?”
“Oh no, he is a friend.”
He thrust out his hand. “Special Agent Bryan, FBI.”
Officer Morris’s eyebrows shot up. “FBI. You’re here on a case?�
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“Of course, not.” I smiled even though my teeth clamped together. “Bryan’s a friend of mine. He is just visiting.”
Office Morris stood. If he were an animal, his fur would have bristled. The police never liked FBI encroaching on their territory. “If there was a case, we would have to know about it.”
Right. Great. More trouble. Exactly what we needed. “There is no case,” I assured him. “He is on leave, and we’re just hanging out together.”
Hanging out? What were we? Thirteen? I nearly bit my tongue. Office Morris’s gaze was locked on Bryan. Clearly, he guessed that there was more to the story, but since he didn’t have a damn idea what it was, he couldn’t do much. “Ok. Take Colonel Sanders. And make sure something like this never happens.”
We escaped. “You had to announce who you were, didn’t you?” I grumbled as we sat in the car.
“What was I supposed to do? Lie to him?”
“You could have simply avoided telling him about your work. Now he would be suspicious of your presence, and honestly we don’t need that kind of attention. For years, we have lived here, worked for the FBI, and not declared it to the local police. Don’t forget that we have quite a lot at stake here. We don’t want to announce the presence of mages to the local populace.”
He might have said something, but Jeremy merely raised a hand. “Children, children. Shush. Cleo, I am glad he came with us. If the police had wanted to press charges, Bryan’s presence might have been enough to persuade them to let the Colonel go. Come on. It’s no big deal. They don’t know anything.”
Rather than argue, I merely glanced out of the window. Fine. Whatever. Special Agent Bryan could be the one to blow open our cover, but that wasn’t my concern. It shouldn’t be. Jones would deal with it.
Bryan’s phone rang. “Yes, sir?” he said when he picked up. “Are you sure? But…yeah…I’ll tell them. We’re looking into it. Thank you for the information.”
“Who was that?” I said as soon he swiped the phone close.
“Jones. Sara Field died of natural causes.”
Impossible.
“What do you mean?”
He turned back to look at me. “She had a heart failure.”
“Heart failure? She was barely in her twenties.”
“Maybe she’d a childhood defect.”
That didn’t add up. “Someone took her to the clearing. Someone did something…”
He turned back to look ahead. “Nothing about this case makes sense.”
“So this wasn’t a murder?” asked Jeremy as he drove back home.
“What? You think she did all this on her own?” I growled.
“There was no struggle, no sign of foul play…” he said.
Maybe.
“No, it was a murder alright. Young women don’t just pop into a clearing, sit down to allow someone to drink a pint of their blood, and then force their heart to stop. Something happened. Something bad. And someone did that to her. We have to figure out who it was and what happened. And we will.”
My gaze flickered to Colonel Sanders who sat hunched as if he wanted to avoid our gaze. He looked out of the window, his body turned away from me. Clearly, he was ashamed. Once again, my instincts flared. Something was going on with him also, and I didn’t quite know what it was.
Oh well, Colonel Sander’s horny issues would have to wait. We’d something big to deal with for now. A murderer was loose in the state, and we were wasting time dealing with wayward adults and their trysts with prostitutes. It was time to get serious.
We better catch the murderer before someone else got killed.
That was priority number one – and there was absolutely no question about it.
Chapter Three
I drove like a maniac. Had to. Frustration mounted inside me. It swirled through me, threatening to drown me. Everything about this case was disturbing, and I needed to break lose a clue.
“You’re over the speed limit.”
“Agh.” I slowed. It didn’t help that Agent Perfect was a stickler for perfection. The only time he broke the rules were for me during the last case, and he saved my life. As much as he annoyed me, I couldn’t forget that. “You didn’t have to come with me.”
“I wanted a decent cup of coffee.”
Gratefully, I turned into the parking lot of the supermarket. It sat right next to Starbucks. Sure, I didn’t blame him for wanting to get out for a while. We had been at it for forty-eight hours, and still nothing. Not a clue, not a hint. On top of it, Colonel Sanders didn’t open his mouth to tell us what really happened to him.
One thing at a time.
I wouldn’t get anything done if my mind was plagued with too many thoughts.
“I’ll go pick up a few things.” Even when we were on a case, there were chores to do. Augusta gave me a list and I wanted to buy quickly and go back. “You can get the coffee. As I recall, it’s better than ours.”
“That would be an improvement,” he grumbled.
I nearly snarled but his complaint against our coffee was genuine. Maybe it was time to invest in a decent coffee machine, but we were always short of cash. The commune got by on the income we earned from working with the FBI and on the fruits and vegetables we sold at the local farmer’s market. It was never enough for luxuries.
As he walked towards Starbucks, I sauntered in, quickly checked the aisles and got what I wanted. New sheets. Why did we need those? Cleaning supplies. Ok. Those were necessary. A broom for Jasper. Some other random stuff. Once all was loaded, I paid and got out. Bryan got out of the café, holding a cup. Walking over, he took over two of the bags. I held on to the broom as we walked to the car.
Suddenly, I stopped. “Bryan, drop the bags.”
“What? Why?” Maybe he saw the look on my face when he turned because he dropped the bags and the cup and pulled out his gun in one smooth move.
It was too late. They were on to us. The three assassins who popped out of thin air wore black. Ski masks covered their faces. Only their eyes could be seen. Deep. Dark. Determined. They meant to kill us.
Assassins were deadly.
They generally never missed their mark.
I flexed my hand and the broom struck one of them on the chest. He tumbled back. Bryan’s gun boomed, but they were protected. The bullet deflected. Realizing that his weapon was useless, he threw it aside and jumped on the man nearest him.
Bad move.
I saw knives in their hands.
Shit.
We were involved in a mortal combat.
My heart was in my mouth. The assassins were well trained and ruthless. If they got a chance, they would kill him even if he wasn’t their target.
Great.
This day just kept getting better.
I leapt over and smashed one of the guys on his nose. I heard the satisfying sound of bone breaking. He reeled from the impact and the pain but it didn’t stop him from kicking me right in the abdomen. I bent over but stuck out my leg to trip him over before he could plunge the knife in my back. The third grabbed my arm and yanked it back. She was a woman; I kicked her right on her knee. She fell down. The knife clattered out of her hand. I didn’t make any attempt to pick it up. It would be spelled to burst into fire if anyone other than the original user touched it. That way it could never be used as a weapon against the attacker. The fight was brutal, relentless. Bryan and I stood, back to back, lashing out at the three people who were determined to end our life. One of them caught me on my arm. The knife slashed my sleeve. Even though I turned away, it skimmed over my skin and blood trickled out from the wound on my arm.
Hell.
My elbow connected with the assassin’s chin, and a moment later I kicked her between the legs. She screamed, but I barreled into her and she was on the floor. With a vicious leap, I landed on her leg and it broke with a satisfying sound. Unable to stand, she collapsed.
We were still two against two, but I was hurt and the fight wouldn’t last long with me
in this condition.
“Bryan, run,” I yelled.
They were after me. Maybe he could save himself if he put enough distance between us. They wouldn’t come after him if I were the primary target, which I probably was.
“No way,” he growled as he kicked one of the guys straight in the nuts.
Ah! I wanted to scream. He would die, and I would be responsible for his death. My magic sparkled at the tip of my fingers. I wanted to use it. I had to if I was to save his life. I was gone, but he wasn’t. He had a chance, and it was up to me to give it to me. It was too late for me. This could be my saving grace, one last act of valor.
Oh yes.
Energy spiraled through my veins. I would have to use a lot of force to break apart their protective spells. Such a burst of energy wouldn’t go unnoticed. Their protective spells were strong but not enough to save them from what I had to offer. But using magic in such an open, public space might land me in greater trouble. The White Council didn’t easily forget such transgressions. The commune where I lived would get embroiled in an investigation.
But I had no choice now.
Do or let Bryan die here.
Power shot through my veins. It tickled my fingertips, ready to burst out at my silent command. Just as I was about to release it, the sound of police sirens reached my ears. It was the best music I ever heard. One of the assassins picked up the woman, and they ran to the side of the building. A moment later they disappeared.
Probably they had a way out planned.
The only rule was they couldn’t allow witnesses to see them using magic. The White Council left them alone as long as they obeyed the three main commandments: don’t bring attention to mages, don’t start wars, and don’t reveal magical secrets to non-mages.
“What the hell?” said Bryan as he watched them melt into air as if they didn’t even exist.
It was quite likely they wore an illusion and just walked away, or maybe they had a car stashed at the back of the building.
I should go after them, or else I should…
Every breath that came out of my mouth was wheezy. I was dizzy. It was impossible to concentrate. “We need to leave.”
01 Serial Killer (FBI Paranormal Casefiles) Page 2