I was a card punching fool for the next hour. The folks who came in were mostly humans. Apparently lots of people had wanted to tan last night but had been unable due to the curse — spell — whatever. They were making up for lost time. Our t-shirts were selling like hotcakes and I tried to be as helpful as I could with the sizing. Logo tees were the in thing right now. Unlike Raf, I tried to direct them to shirts that actually fit. Of course some wanted them small so their navel rings would show. Ouch! To each their own.
I noticed a FedEx box in the corner. Thinking it contained more tees the day crew hadn’t gotten around to un-packing; I opened it when we got a lull. Not tee shirts, but gold lamé shorts like Raf wore. Were we going to sell these now too?
“Oh, good! They’re here,” Raf said over my shoulder.
“We sell shorts too?”
“No honey, those are yours, the rest of your uniform.
“Oh shit! You’re kidding me right?” My hopes were dashed by his bright smile.
“You better stay away from sharp wooden objects. Someone just might push you into one.”
Scowling first at him and then the shorts, I lifted a pair of the skimpy things. They were like a jogging short with the panties built right in. Excellent! Now when my butt showed as I bent over at least it would be covered in matching gold fabric. Woohoo!
“Your idea I suppose?”
“Of course, the staff uniforms must match.”
“So the day crew wears these, too?” Somehow knowing that didn’t make me feel better.
“Of course,” Raf assured me. “We’ll all be wearing the same outfits.”
He seemed awfully happy of a sudden. I couldn’t help wonder if little mister green eyes was causing at least a part of his smile. I grinned back because you can only stay mad at Raf for a short period of time, in my case, about ten seconds.
“Can I see you in the office for a minute?” Tom asked from his doorway.
Becki still sat by his desk and neither one looked particularly cheerful. Raf motioned me to go on.
“What’s up?” I asked to anyone who felt like answering me.
“Detective Elms has a few more questions for you,” Tom replied as he motioned to the other chair in front of his desk. When I was seated opposite Becki, he returned to his own chair and waited.
“Connie, did you notice anything else the night you found the body? Anything at all?”
“Well yeah I did — an odor. I thought I told you about it?” She shook her head as she looked through her notes.
“I couldn’t put my finger on it until yesterday. It smelled like formaldehyde. Like in Biology class? But there was something else mixed in, sort of like vanilla. Sounds sick right?” I noticed Tom and Becki make eye contact. “So what’s going on?”
“Detective Elms thinks this may be some sort of prank,” Tom answered. “The corpse was preserved and some of the dismemberment occurred post-mortem.”
I’d watched enough C.S.I. to know what he meant. “So do you have an ID?”
Becki shook her head. “Probably a John Doe. Some homeless guy who died on the streets most likely. Nobody claims them the med students get them for anatomy class or whatever.”
“So you think med students did that?” A class had just graduated. And a bunch of newbies had entered pre-med. “Isn’t that unlawful, desecrating a corpse or something?”
“We’re looking into the possibility. I hope it wasn’t a student prank. It could cost some young doctor his or her license. I’ll have forensics recheck for anything vanilla in the dumpster. They’re gonna love me.”
“It was like industrial strength, Becki,” I said, not sure if it made a difference.
She nodded as she rose, “I’ll tell them. Thanks for talking to me. I’ll let you get back to work. Hey, Rocky sure misses you. He won’t let anyone else cut those toenails. He’s beginning to look like Freddy Kruger.”
I smiled. Rocky was her rescued Rottweiler and he had a mind of his own when it came to getting his toenails trimmed. It’s hard to argue with one hundred pounds of muscle and teeth. You couldn’t muzzle him or he went berserk. For some unknown reason he liked me. I scribbled my address and phone number, something Raf must have stuck in my head, on the back of a business card. I stuck it in her hand as she walked to the door. “Bring him by sometime and I’ll cut them.”
“Oh God, thanks! I’ll owe you big time.” Becki paused to raise her skirt mid-thigh. The bruised scratch ran down to just above her knee.
I winced. “I’m off Saturday. Any time after noon.”
“I’ll call first. Thanks a million.” She exited, climbed into an un-marked car and drove away.
“So tell me!” Raf said as soon as I reached the counter.
“Not much to tell. She asked if I noticed anything else that night. I told her about the nauseating smell. She explained part of it. The corpse may be a cadaver, preserved in formaldehyde.”
“Does she have any leads?”
“They sort of think it might be a prank, med students stealing a cadaver from the hospital.”
Willy started to growl under the counter. “What’s got you going?” I asked him. He had growled more in the past few days than in the entire time we’d been together. Every time he did, something bad happened. I felt the hair on my nape rise in anticipation. A group came through the door and Willy’s growl grew stronger. How do dogs know these things in advance? They had trouble written all over them. One even had an obscene tattoo on his bald head.
“So this is the vampire place,” Baldy said to his buddies. “Don’t look so special to me. How ’bout you Kat?” He asked of the girl under his arm.
“I want one of them spray tans to cover up my bikini lines, Harley,” she said with a smile.
So, Harley was Baldy’s name. The alpha of the group by the looks of things.
“Sure thing, babe. We’ll all get spray painted. Y’all do wash down the equipment right? I wouldn’t want to catch nothing.” He looked at Raf as he said it. “So what’ll it cost for the five of us, pal?”
“We’ll need to see ID first,” I said as I stroked Willy with my foot.
“I was talkin’ to the fag, not you, Blondie. Besides, what you need ID for? Y’all serve liquor?” His buddies punched his shoulder like he had just made a big joke. “You got a dog back there?”
My “Oh Shit Meter” was sounding red alert, but Raf seemed totally calm. Willy tried as hard as he could to get out from under my foot. “We need ID to prove you’re eighteen or we need a parent to sign giving consent. It’s just a precaution in case you get burned,” I answered as calmly as I could. I noticed the odd man, the one without a girl attached to him, seemed to be sidling closer to the counter. I turned slightly to better keep an eye on him and Willy used the opportunity to roll out from under my foot and the counter. He headed straight for Harley.
“Hey look!” Kat squealed. “The dog’s in a wheelchair!”
“Damn, dog’s a gimp,” Harley declared as he squatted for a better look. He reached for the chest harness as if he wanted to pull Willy closer.
Willy responded by showing all his teeth, tail wagging slowly from side to side, hackles raised. Dachshunds think they’re Great Danes when it comes to a fight. Willy was in fighting stance.
Harley drew back his hand as if to strike him, and I flew around the counter totally forgetting the odd man in my haste to reach my dog. He grabbed me before I registered his movement, twisted my arm behind my back and poked a knife tip to my throat.
“Where you goin’, Blondie?”
A scream of rage and fear tore from my soul when Harley backhanded Willy, sending him and his cart crashing into the wall.
CHAPTER 11
My memory of the events that followed is a bit shaky as my attention was divided between my unmoving dog under his overturned cart, the knife at my throat, and the action going on around me.
The two girls screamed as the bulk of the man named Harley flew through the plate glass storef
ront and well into the street beyond. After a sound much like a branch snapping in a storm, the knife at my throat dropped to the floor and my arm was released. I had no interest in the gurgling sound behind me as I ran to Willy and carefully freed him from his overturned cart. Only when he was cradled in my arms did I really take stock of the mayhem around me.
The girls huddled in a corner staring toward Raf who held man number three suspended in the air by his throat — the gurgling sound. Taller than Raf by several inches, his toes barely touched the floor. I realized then Raf hovered about a foot off the floor. The one who attacked me leaned against the counter cradling his limply dangling wrist.
Sirens warbled in the night.
My face hardened into a savage smile when I saw Harley lay unmoving in the street. With a little luck the wailing squad cars would run him over before they saw him.
Strong arms lifted me and carried me into the office, Willy and all. I raised my eyes to Tom’s dilated ones, asking the question I couldn’t form into words. He stood me on my feet before carefully removing Willy from my arms and laying him on the desk. His eyes opened and seemed to focus but his little body was motionless.
“Is he breathing?” I somehow managed to ask.
“His breathing seems even and strong.” Tom pulled a seat cushion from one of the chairs and placed it on the floor, gingerly moving Willy to it.
Tom’s fangs were still fully extended when he turned back to me. “You’re bleeding.”
I raised my hand to my throat. It came away covered with blood. The knife had nicked me after all. I remembered the limp, dangling hand and smiled. “Please tell me Harley is dead.”
The left corner of Tom’s mouth curled before he answered, “I’m not sure. The paramedics are still working on him.”
A commotion in the lobby made me turn. I shot past Tom and out the door.
“Leave him alone! He saved me,” I yelled at the officers trying to force Raf to release the third man. The gurgling had stopped. The officer brushed me aside to hit Raf with a stun gun. I plowed my fist into the cop’s nose.
“Put your weapons down now!” a feminine voice bellowed. The officers did as they were told but the one with the stun gun sure looked pissed as blood streamed down his face.
“Raf, honey, you can put him down now. Raf?”
He turned in my direction but I wasn’t sure he saw me. His eyes were dilated as Tom’s had been, his fangs extended. The paramedics swarmed the limp man as he dropped to the floor. Surprisingly he wasn’t dead, only unconscious. A few more minutes might have made a difference. Who’s to say? I threw my arms around Raf and his slowly wrapped round me.
“So who wants to tell me what happened here?” Becki got more than she bargained for when she was rushed by customers, all wanting to tell what they had seen.
While we were occupied, the lobby and lounge had filled with customers in varying degrees of undress as they exited the tanning rooms. Any who might have been attempting to enter had wisely detoured. Someone apparently dialed nine-one-one but had yet to step forward as Becki’s officers took witness statements.
Tom put a hand under my elbow and led me to the restroom. The neck of my tee shirt was wet, and blood seeped down near my breast. A glance in the mirror revealed the wound was about an inch long and maybe half an inch in depth. It bled profusely, possibly due to the pain reliever I had taken earlier in the day, or maybe neck wounds just do that? It was only a flesh wound, having luckily missed the artery. Tom’s eyes were stygian pits in the reflection above me, his yearning, palpable.
“Is this my idea? You’re not putting thoughts in my head?” The reflection’s nod was slight but unmistakable. I tilted my head slightly and closed my eyes.
A shudder ran through him and seemed to enter me as his head lowered. His tongue flicked in my ear. My eyes flew open and I jerked away, not in fear, but surprise, and turned in his embrace. He offered me a crooked smile before again lowering his head to the wound. He began to lick very gently, tracing the blood trail to the hollow of my throat. I held my breath, exhaling only when he retraced the trail back to my wound. He cleaned it tenderly, carefully, never drawing on it, only the gentle rhythmic motion of his tongue until the wound began to seal itself. His lips trailed to mine in a kiss so filled with longing I felt something in my heart give way. My arms found his neck and I returned his kiss measure for measure. I’m not sure which of us pulled away when we heard Becki calling. He allowed me to leave first. I sat on the office floor with Willy answering Becki’s questions by the time he strode in.
“Do I need to call Lori for you?” Becki asked tactfully. “Several of the witnesses stated they saw the dead guy knock Willy into the wall.”
Yippy Skippy, he’s dead.
Becki met my gaze with a cold smile. She and I were on the same page.
“I appreciate the offer Becki, but what could she do now, put him in a cage till morning and give him steroids to reduce any swelling? I can do that. We’ve been through this before.” Never this bad. “I have prednisone at home. He flipped his cart when he was learning how to drive.”
I felt tears building behind my eyes. I wouldn’t be able to keep it together for long. I tried a different tack.
“What was with officer stun gun?” I rubbed Willy’s tummy with my good hand, knowing he couldn’t feel it. The comforting gesture was as much for me as him. My right hand’s knuckles were swollen twice their size.
Becki winced. “Look Connie, you know the jerks out number us ten to one. You can’t throw a rock around here without hitting a bigot. We’ve got them on the force just like everywhere else. It takes time to change decades of stupid.”
“You’re not charging Raf — or me?”
“Hell no! Everyone in this place said it was self-defense, although, I doubt your friend was worried about himself.” She raised an eyebrow. “All three of those idiots had knives and the dead one even had a gun in his boot. I wouldn’t be surprised to find the girls are packing, too. But, I’d try not to make it a habit of hitting my officers if I were you.”
“Harley,” I said in relief. “Dead guy’s girlfriend called him Harley.”
“Harley, huh? Now I got to rename my puppy.” She sighed. “So what do you two think the motive was?”
“Robbery maybe? The guy who cut me was working his way to the counter. Willy started growling before they even came through the door.” I choked on his name, swallowed and continued. “Willy got loose and the shit hit the fan.” Brave little guy. I tried hard not to break down, swiping the back of my swollen hand across my eyes.
Becki turned to Tom, “So how did it go down?”
“Unfortunately I was on the phone with the governor … ”
“Oh yeah, congratulations,” Becki said.
I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Thank you. At any rate, Raf had already taken care of … Harley. I removed the knife from Connie’s throat.”
Becki snorted, “You damn near removed the hand holding it! You do the clean-up?” she asked, pointing her pen to my neck.
Tom quirked an eyebrow at her but answered truthfully, “Yes.”
“Remind me to call one of you guys the next time I get shot.”
She was dead serious. She had been shot twice in the line of duty. Both times they missed her vest. Luckily one round hit her in the shoulder and the last time, in her upper arm. If it had been neck, head, or groin she might not be here. She twirled her hand to indicate he should continue.
Tom shrugged. “Raf had control of the other one by then and the girls didn’t seem to be a threat. I concentrated my attentions on Connie and Willy.”
“Well Mr. Thornton, as much as I hate to say this, I’m going to have to shut you down for a while. Not that any of this is your fault. I’m not saying that at all. We have two incidences at this location, which are probably totally unrelated. Unfortunately they both ended up involving bodies.” She paused a minute before adding, “We’ll try to be a qu
ick as we can. I’m sure some of these idiots have records, which should speed things along.”
“I understand. My employees won’t mind a paid vacation. But please don’t dawdle. I’m not made out of money you know.”
Becki gave another snort, “That’s not what I hear. Let’s say you can reopen next Monday unless something comes up.” Her hand touched my shoulder. “Take Willy on home. I’ve got your number if I think of anything else. Get some ice on that hand.”
The customers were interviewed, statements taken, and personal information recorded before they were allowed to leave. Bright yellow crime scene tape crisscrossed the broken glass of the front window. The forensic guys crawled all over like ants on a pile of sugar.
Raf came into the office and sat beside me, his arm around my shoulder. That’s all it took, I broke into a million little pieces. I cried until I had no more tears, sure I had lost Willy tonight. There isn’t a lot of hope for a quadriplegic dog. I barely heard Raf over my sobs.
“You or me?”
Tom answered, “I will.”
I watched as Tom opened his wrist with the little letter opener from his desk. Wetting his finger in the blood, he rubbed it onto Willy’s tongue, once, twice, then a third time, no more than a couple of drops in all. By then, the cut had closed. In a few minutes Willy raised his head and looked at me, in a few more, his tail wagged and he rolled onto his back for me to rub his tummy. I found fresh tears, tears of joy. A little red wiener dog licked them from my face as they fell.
• • •
When the elevator door opened on the second floor of our home, we all walked out, including Willy.
I had heard all the stories concerning the healing properties of vampire blood. Tonight I had seen for myself they were fact rather than fiction. My neck wound was sealed and only a thin red line remained. The thought of how it had been healed sent shivers up my spine. I glanced at Tom to find him smiling.
Midnight Sun, Inc. (Crimson Romance) Page 9