At that moment, Scott and Todd came back through, this time without anything in their arms.
Felicity’s lips parted.
Scott stopped. “Hey, is it you? Really you?”
“You remember me,” said Felicity, twisting her fingers together.
“Of course I remember Felicity Richardson,” said Scott.
“Well, and I remember you too,” she said.
The two grinned at each other for several seconds, before both broke eye contact.
“Well,” said Felicity. “Um. Good to see you.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Real good.”
It was quiet.
Vivica let out another giggle.
I elbowed her.
“Uh, what are you doing later?” said Scott.
Felicity’s eyes got big. “Um… I, uh, I can’t—nothing.”
“Nothing, huh? You want to get a drink with me?”
Felicity nodded, flushing. “Okay.”
“Okay,” said Scott. He pointed at the door. “I’ve got some more stuff to bring in.”
“Yeah,” said Felicity.
He walked off.
I went over to my best friend. “Hey,” I said. “About that boyfriend? You gonna tell Scott about Jensen?”
“It’s a friendly drink,” said Felicity, brushing me off.
“And that’s what Scott is, huh? A friend?”
“An old friend.” She took a deep breath. “Just a friend,” she repeated, almost to herself.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Look,” said Lachlan, “you remember what Caleb was like before, and that was in a place where he thought he had a prayer of manipulating us and orchestrating his escape. It was like pulling teeth to get anything out of him.”
Lachlan, Dirk, and I had made the journey to Roxbone prison. We were set up to interview Caleb Kinnan, who was a prisoner there.
“I don’t remember anything,” said Dirk, “and the deal was that we interrogated all the suspects together.”
“One thing I do remember is that you were way too eager to give in to him,” I said.
Lachlan rubbed his forehead. “I was playing him, Penny.”
Lachlan never half-assed anything, and I was sometimes surprised by how far he was willing to go when he was really committed to something. Several months ago, we’d gone undercover in a vampire gang in order to find a way to keep our baby from attracting rogue dragons. Lachlan had been willing to take drugs, to kill people, whatever it took.
“Right,” I said. “But you would have gone too far if I hadn’t stopped you.” I distinctly remembered the way Lachlan had flirted with Caleb, and it made me feel vaguely nauseous.
“Stakes were high,” he said. “We were going to get locked up if I didn’t do something. Your safety was on the line. The baby’s future. It was important. I would have done what I had to do.”
“But this is different?” I said.
“This is work,” said Lachlan.
Before Lachlan had known me, he’d gone undercover with that same vampire gang. It had been “work” then too, and he had done lots of crazy things. Of course, he’d also been grieving the death of his daughter, and out of his mind, so…
“Look, I have no idea what either of you are going on about,” said Dirk. “But it doesn’t matter, anyway, because you’re insane if you think I’m letting you interview him alone, Flint.”
Lachlan turned to her. “It’s not my fault that I happen to be exactly this killer’s wet dream. If he was into very stern-looking chicks with dogs, I’d send you in, Dirk.”
“Stern-looking?” she said.
Lachlan pointed at his own forehead. “You have these two little lines between your nose? They never go away.”
Dirk glowered at him. “You’re an ass, you know that?”
Lachlan grinned.
“And,” she said, “wet dream? For real?”
Lachlan shrugged.
“You’re not only an ass, you’re an arrogant one.”
“She’s not wrong,” I said.
“I’m going in with you,” said Dirk.
“So am I,” I said.
“No,” said Lachlan. “You should stay out here, Penny. What with the baby and everything?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Why doesn’t anyone think I’m capable of doing anything while pregnant? It’s like you think the baby’s draining out my intelligence or something.”
Both Lachlan and Dirk stepped back.
Oh. I hadn’t realized I said it so loud.
“She’s right,” said Dirk. “ because she’s pregnant doesn’t mean she can’t interrogate a suspect.”
Lachlan dragged a hand over his face. “Seriously? You two are ganging up on me?”
My turn to shrug. Dirk did too.
“You know what?” said Lachlan. “Fine. We’ll all go in. And we’ll see if I get a damned useful thing out of him.”
“It’s a long shot anyway, right?” said Dirk. “Someone’s out there maybe copying his crimes? He’s not even that well known of a serial killer.”
“Well, after he got locked up in Roxbone, there was some press,” said Lachlan. “The hardcore nutbags have heard of him.”
“I’m still saying that we’re wasting a lot of effort on what’s probably going to be a dead end,” she said.
“Well, we have literally no other leads,” said Lachlan.
* * *
Caleb Kinnan was far thinner than he had been the last time that we’d seen him in the Order’s cell.
And he hadn’t exactly been overweight before, so the loss of weight was decidedly unattractive. His face was gaunt, his skin stretched tight over his bones. He looked skeletal. The only bright spot on his face were his eyes, and they sank in dark hollows in his skull.
He sat at a table in an interrogation room. His hands were shackled, and his feet were shackled to the floor. When he saw Lachlan, a smile spread across his face. It was monstrous.
Lachlan, on the other hand, managed to look genuinely happy to see Caleb. He reached out and offered Caleb his hand.
Caleb seized it, shutting his eyes. “Oh, Lachlan Flint. It’s been a long time.”
“Too long,” said Lachlan, pumping Caleb’s hand enthusiastically.
Dirk exchanged a glance with me. I grimaced at her. We both sat down on opposite sides of the table. Me next to Lachlan and her facing us.
Caleb wouldn’t let go of Lachlan’s hand. “I really should hold a grudge, of course. You lied to me, double-crossed me.”
“I never lied,” said Lachlan.
“You said you’d set me free.”
“I promised you wouldn’t go back in that cell at the Order,” said Lachlan. “Which isn’t exactly the same thing.”
Caleb cackled, letting go of Lachlan. “Tricky, tricky.” He wagged a finger at him.
Lachlan shrugged.
Caleb sucked in breath through his nose. “I thought about you while you were gone, you know? Did you think about me?”
“Sure,” said Lachlan.
“Liar,” said Caleb.
Lachlan smirked. “I never said they were positive thoughts. But I suspect you’d be as pleased to know that you horrify me, Caleb.” His voice dropped seductively. “That the things you did have gotten under my skin and that sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and I can’t breathe for the disgust I feel at the thought of them.” He leaned closer and whispered, “They haunt me.”
Caleb shivered, delighted. “I am pleased.”
“I thought you would be.”
“But I don’t think you came by to say nice things to me, did you?” Caleb’s voice was low, too, almost a purr.
“I might have an ulterior motive.”
Caleb chuckled. “Tricky, tricky, Lachlan.”
Dirk cleared her throat. “How do you know Ray Torres?”
Caleb turned to her slowly. “Who is this, Lachlan? Do you have a harem of women now? Need this one to service you while the other is the size
of a hippopotamus?”
I stiffened.
Lachlan’s jaw twitched. I saw his body tighten, and I knew he wanted to wring Caleb’s neck for insulting me. But he let out a breath, releasing it.
Dirk lifted her chin. “Detective Christiane Dirk. How about Dan Parker?”
Caleb turned back to Lachlan. “I don’t like her.”
“Well, I don’t either,” said Lachlan. “But she’s not a bad detective. Usually.” He shook his head at her.
“You telling me you don’t recognize the names?” said Dirk. “Why are you avoiding my questions?”
Caleb sneered at her. “You smell, bitch. You smell like perfume and cunt. I don’t want to talk to you.”
Dirk rolled her eyes.
“Ignore her,” said Lachlan, turning back to Caleb. “You and I were having a nice chat, weren’t we?”
“I don’t know why I’m talking to you,” said Caleb, glaring at Lachlan. “You got me locked up here in this place. It’s so cold here. Don’t they realize that without drinking the right kinds of blood or wearing a talisman, I have no magic anyway? There’s no reason to take it out of my bones. It’s overkill.”
The place was horrible. Since stepping inside, I had felt cold and off kilter. None of my magic worked here either.
“Maybe we could go back to catching up,” said Lachlan, flashing Caleb a dazzling smile. “Should I tell you what it was that made me think of you? What brought me back to you?”
“Don’t bother,” said Caleb. “I’m done with this conversation.” He stood up and raised his shackled hands over his head.
“Caleb,” said Lachlan, “sit down, please.”
Caleb ignored him. He shook his hands, making his shackles rattle. “Get me out of here!”
“Caleb,” said Lachlan.
“Get me out of here now!” screamed Caleb. “Take me back to my cell.”
Lachlan cast his gaze at the ceiling and sighed heavily.
* * *
“I told you I needed to go in alone,” said Lachlan. “I said that I did, and you ignored me, and we got a fat lot of nowhere.”
We were back in the car, on the way home. Dirk had insisted on taking her car, so she was driving. I was sitting next to her in the passenger’s seat, because everyone had agreed I was too large to fit comfortably in the back seat. Lachlan was back there, and now he was leaning forward between our seats.
“You’re not wearing your seatbelt,” said Dirk.
“Fuck my seatbelt,” said Lachlan. “He might have known something, and you ruined it. Why’d you say anything? I had him eating out of my hand.”
“He doesn’t know anything,” said Dirk. “And it was gross, frankly, watching the way you were catering to him. That’s not the way I’d talk to a murderer. How many people did he kill? Twelve? Thirteen?”
“I don’t like the guy,” said Lachlan, “but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
“So, that’s your little secret, Flint?” said Dirk. “That how you close all those cases, get all those confessions? You sit there and make eyes at people? Undress them with your eyes?”
“I was hardly undressing him,” said Lachlan.
“You. Caspian,” said Dirk. “How do you deal with that? Doesn’t it make you crazy jealous?”
“I’m fine,” I said. Truthfully, I wasn’t extraordinarily pleased watching Lachlan and Caleb, but his typical questioning style didn’t make me uncomfortable.
“Whatever,” said Dirk.
“Lachlan isn’t usually that bad,” I said.
“That bad?” said Lachlan. “What do you mean?”
I twisted to look at him. “You’re different with Caleb. Creepy different.”
“I’m not,” he said. “It’s because he’s gay. As much as you claim to be enlightened, you still find two men flirting to be creepy.”
I coughed, blushing. “That is not true.”
“Really?” said Lachlan. “I thought, women just thought, ‘Eww, two hairy backs.’”
I scrunched down in my seat.
“What about you, Dirk?” said Lachlan. “You get off on two dudes?”
“I don’t ‘get off,’” I groaned. “Can we drop this?”
“Absolutely,” said Dirk. “Disgusting conversation. But I can believe you’d go there, Flint. You have no ethics.”
“What?” said Lachlan. “Okay, maybe that was a little crude, but unethical?”
“When you interrogate,” she said. “You make people feel as if there’s some kind of promise. They could interpret it as confessing in exchange for sexual favors from you.”
“What?” I said, horrified.
“No,” said Lachlan. “They could not.”
“No way,” I said.
“I only went there with Caleb because that is his weakness,” said Lachlan. “Sex makes him lose control. Sex makes him kill. Sex makes him vulnerable. There’s no way to catch him off guard any other way.”
“It’s still creepy,” I said. “He’s creepy.”
“Oh, no question,” said Lachlan. “In fact, I think I want to go home and take a very hot shower.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Well, we were supposed to tour the hospital, though,” I said, as Lachlan and I walked through the cold to the hotel door.
“Penny, the hospital was overbooked. There were too many women there giving birth.”
“I know that,” I said. “I understand why we couldn’t take the tour, but it still makes me nervous. Because that was the last birthing class, and we didn’t get a chance to take the tour, and I want a tour before I go into labor. I want to see what it’s like.”
“So, we’ll get a tour. The teacher said if we call—”
“I heard that too,” I said. “Would you please stop repeating things to me that I already know?”
He sighed. “I don’t see why you’re mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you,” I said. “I’m mad at the situation.”
We had reached the door of the hotel, and Lachlan pulled it open for me. “Okay, but you’re taking it out on me,” he said. “Or maybe you’re still annoyed with me about that Caleb thing.”
“I was never annoyed with you about that Caleb thing,” I said as I entered, warm air enveloping me.
“Could have fooled me. You didn’t even defend me to Dirk,” he said.
“You wanted me to defend you? How?”
“I don’t know. She was accusing me of being unethical. That’s not fair.” He helped me take off my coat and then shed his own. “Sure, I haven’t always done things that I’m proud of, but I swear there is nothing about the way that I talk to people that’s unethical. I try to understand people, that’s all. Get on their level. Tell them what they need to hear. It’s good police work, that’s all.”
“I’m on your side,” I said.
“Are you?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh, no,” said another voice. “Are you two fighting?” It was Connor, my best friend, the one who used to live in the suite that Vivica was in right now. Connor was a gargoyle. He had wings, and his skin was gray, like living stone. He was working the front desk for me, even though there was nothing to do. Since he was a gargoyle, he could only work at night.
“We’re not fighting,” I said. “We’re discussing.”
“It’s been a hell of a day,” said Lachlan.
“And we got back from birthing class,” I said, “and we were supposed to tour the hospital, but we didn’t get to, and now I need to tour the hospital, and we’re going to have to take time off work to do it, and we don’t have time, because we’re chasing a serial killer—”
“Ooh, really, another one?” said Connor. “That’s crazy. I hadn’t heard about any recent killings on the news.”
“That’s because they looked like suicides,” said Lachlan. “But we really shouldn’t talk about this until we’re sure how much of it we want to make public.”
“A killer who makes his murders look like
suicides,” said Connor. “That’s creepy. I guess you guys don’t need any help from me? I could do some computer wizardry.”
“You’re really bored, aren’t you?” I said.
He laughed. “Excruciatingly bored.”
“Well, we don’t need any help with the case,” said Lachlan, “but maybe you could convince Penny to move the crib into the baby’s room.”
“What?” said Connor. “Where’s the crib right now?”
“The living room,” I said. “Which is perfect. Because he’s not even going to sleep in it for ages. I have a co-sleeper that attaches to the bed.”
“All the more reason to get it out of the living room,” said Lachlan. “It’s taking up space out there.”
“But…” I didn’t want Connor to know that Lachlan and I weren’t sleeping in the same bed. In the past, I would have shared everything with him, but things were still strained between us. He and I were friendly, but we didn’t talk—really talk—the way we used to. “The baby’s room is… crowded.”
“Only because you won’t turn it into a baby room,” said Lachlan. He turned to Connor. “You know, you’re always going on about how I need to talk some sense into her, but it’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes. She listens to you. You talk to her.”
“Uh…” Connor looked uncomfortable.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to do anything, Connor. You can lock up around midnight if we don’t get any walk-ins, and we won’t. After that, you can go anywhere you want. I’ll pay you for the whole night.”
“Trying to get rid of me?” said Connor.
“No! I…” I hugged myself.
Lachlan shot me a look. “I said something wrong, didn’t I?”
“No,” I said.
“No,” said Connor.
We were all quiet.
Connor licked his lips. “So, your cousin’s in my old suite.”
“Oh!” I pressed my fingers into my bottom lip. “If you ever want to move back in, Connor, we’ll find room for you. I don’t want you to feel like it means that I… gave up on you or… or…”
Connor shook his head. He reached out and rubbed my shoulder. “Penny, it’s okay. I’m happy in my apartment, I swear.”
“Oh,” I said, and I had to admit, I was a little disappointed. This time last year, Felicity, Connor, and I had all lived together under one roof. Some part of me missed that.
Fire Born (City of Dragons Book 5) Page 5