“What do you mean?” said Lachlan. “Message from who?”
“From the drug dealers,” said Zach. “Maybe he didn’t pay or something. Every once in a while, if they’ve got a lot of outstanding debt, they’ll bump someone off just to frighten people into scaring up the money.”
“Wait,” I said, “how do you pay for drugs in prison?”
“There are ways,” said Zach. “Inmates actually have the ability to access wire transfers of money. They’re not supposed to send out big amounts, but if they claim it’s for their kids or something, it often gets approved. They’ll wire money to their girlfriends, and the girlfriends pay off the drug dealer’s associates on the outside. So, all the money transacting takes place outside the walls of the prison. One of the reasons it’s so tough to prove it’s happening.”
I was stunned. These prisoners had people on the outside complicit in helping them buy drugs? That was insane.
“Tim wouldn’t have had someone to do that for him,” said Lachlan. “Neither of his parents would have.”
“Maybe he had a girl on the outside,” said Zach. “Lots of guys have pen pals, you know?”
“Were there drugs in his system?” said Lachlan.
“Actually, yes,” said Zach. “Lots of barbiturates.”
“But that’s not what killed him?” I said.
“No,” said Zach. “Cause of death was ruled suffocation.”
“Maybe the drugs made him malleable, though,” said Lachlan. “Maybe he didn’t fight as hard as he would have without the drugs.”
“Maybe,” said Zach. “Anything’s possible.”
“So, the killer could have administered the drugs,” said Lachlan.
“Could have, I guess,” said Zach.
“Huh,” said Lachlan. “You, um, you said you know who heads up the drug ring on the inside here?”
“We have a pretty good idea,” said Zach.
“So, we’ll want to talk to those guys.”
“Just the one guy,” said Zach. “There’s a pretty clear ringleader. And that can easily be arranged.”
“Great,” said Lachlan. “Anyone else have beef with Tim?”
“Well, there’s a guy named Levi Bradley who seems to have been involved in the deaths of some other prisoners, but there’s no proof that he is. He’s the only other guy I’d consider a possibility.”
“But neither of these people had access to the cell?” said Lachlan.
“No way,” said Zach.
Lachlan let out a breath. “Can we take a look at it? The cell?”
“Sure thing,” said Zach.
CHAPTER NINE
The cell where Tim had lived was closed behind a steel door with a barred window at the top. There was a small slit in the door that I assumed could be used to pass food inside and back out. It was, indeed, in an isolated corner of the prison. We had to go through two locked doors to get there, one that got us into the general prison population and one that locked off Tim’s wing of one. Zach whistled as he unlocked each with a key from a thick key ring. After the second door, we emerged into a small space. To our left, there was an empty office with a glass wall to look out of.
“What’s that?” Lachlan said.
“This was designed to be a control room for this cell,” said Zach. “But we don’t have the manpower to put one man on one cell like that. Maybe if we were talking about someone really dangerous like Jeffrey Dahmer or something, we’d have this office manned. But we don’t even have it wired up. There’s no computers or anything in there.”
“You can open the cells electronically?” said Lachlan.
“Sure,” said Zach. “That’s how we do it in the cell blocks. One push of a button opens all the cells at once, right?”
“Can this cell be opened electronically?” said Lachlan.
“Yes, but the controls are with C block,” said Zach. “And before you ask, there is no way in hell that anyone infiltrated that control room to get into the cell.”
“No way, huh?” said Lachlan, chuckling a little.
“It’s constantly manned by a staff of two,” said Zach. “There was no break that night or that morning. We’d have seen if someone got in there.”
Lachlan stroked his chin, thoughtful.
Zach pointed at the cell door. “You want to go in?”
“Yeah,” said Lachlan. But before Zach could get to the door, Lachlan stepped between him and the door and peered into the window. “This is where you saw him. On that bed?”
“Yeah,” said Zach.
I moved behind Lachlan to take a look. The bed was set up against the far wall. Straight ahead was a sink and a toilet. Everything was gleaming, clean, and new, but it was also very stark and minimal.
Zach came up beside us and began unlocking the door.
It swung inward.
We stepped inside the room.
There was a small window on the same wall as the sink and toilet. The window wasn’t directly over either, though. It was about three feet to the right of them, so that it would be difficult to stand on the sink and look out the window or climb out of it. It had bars on the outside.
I pointed at the window. “Do the windows open?”
“Of course not,” said Zach.
“And was this one tampered with?” said Lachlan.
“Definitely not,” said Zach.
We stood in the middle of the room and looked around. There was nothing much in the room. Next to the bed, there was a desk with a chair. Both were bolted down. The desk didn’t have any drawers. On it sat a notebook and few paperback books.
“These are Tim’s?” said Lachlan.
“Yeah, we’ve been waiting for the police to come and take this stuff away as evidence, but they haven’t shown up yet.”
Lachlan made a face. “They haven’t examined the crime scene?”
“No, they’ve been here. Did a once-over. Took some photos. But they didn’t tag and bag the evidence yet.”
That was weird. I wasn’t even a cop, and I knew that wasn’t standard.
“It was getting along to lunch time, and they left for a break,” said Zach. “But then they never came back.”
Lachlan shook his head. “Really not a priority for them, hmm?” He strode over to the desk and picked up the notebook. He flipped through it. “Blank except for a few doodles,” he said.
I went over to look. The doodles were of patterns. Interlocking “S”s went up and down the pages, side by side with figure eights. I picked up one of the books. “The Catcher in the Rye. I’ve never read it, but they say lots of killers and crazy people like it.”
“You’ve never read Catcher in the Rye?” said Lachlan.
“No,” I said.
“You should,” he said.
“Is it about a crazy murderer?”
“It’s about a high school kid who has a nervous breakdown and hangs out with a prostitute,” said Lachlan.
I furrowed my brow. “Really?”
“It’s a classic.” Lachlan left the desk and went over to the bed. It had been stripped and was just a bare mattress. “They took the pillow, I assume?” he asked Zach. “That’s the murder weapon?”
“That was used for the analysis of what was under his fingernails,” said Zach.
“What about the sheets?”
“Those were taken the same time as the pillow. They still have all of them, I think,” said Zach. “Theoretically, if they get leads, they can test for DNA to confirm suspects, I suppose.”
“Right,” said Lachlan, “but if the killer was smart enough to get into a locked cell, then he was probably too smart to leave behind DNA.”
“You never know,” I said. “I’m often stunned by the incredible idiocy of criminals.”
Zach chortled at that. “You got that right, ma’am.”
“Call me Penny,” I said. Something about me didn’t settle well with being called ma’am.
“Sure thing, Penny.” Zach winked at me.
; I sighed.
* * *
“He’s just a typical Texan good old boy,” said Lachlan. “I can see how it makes you uncomfortable, but he’s actually less of an ass than some of them. Honestly, this is a state full of blowhards.”
“And here I thought you were a Texan patriot,” I said.
He shook his head, laughing softly. “There’s a reason I left.”
We were back at Lachlan’s dad’s house, having lunch. Vivica and the boys were with us. We were all sitting at the dining table munching on sandwiches that she’d put together. She’d managed to take both boys to the grocery store and to pick up a few things. I was stunned at that. I could hardly imagine accomplishing such a feat. Vivica was amazing.
“So, like, what did he do?” Vivica asked, setting down half of her sandwich.
“He winked at me,” I said.
She wrinkled up her nose. “Eew. Is he really gross?”
I shrugged. “No, he’s not that bad. I don’t think he means it, like Lachlan said.”
Wyatt picked up one of his pieces of sandwich (his had been cut into bite-sized pieces) and threw it into the middle of the table. Then he started wailing.
I sighed. “He’s probably exhausted. I’ll put him down for his nap.” Wyatt had just recently switched to taking one nap. Jackson was still taking two. Because it was hard for Vivica to juggle that, I tried to be home after lunch as often as possible so that I could put Wyatt down. He usually went down pretty easily, though. He would be very tired.
I got up and got Wyatt out of his booster seat. I took him over to the sink and cleaned him up. Then it was back to the bedroom where the boys were sleeping to nurse him for a bit. He fell asleep almost immediately, so I popped him into his pack and play and covered him up.
When I got back to the dining room, Lachlan was gone, and Vivica was depositing the last of the lunch dishes in the dishwasher. “Hey,” she said.
“Where’d Lachlan go?” I said.
“Oh, he said he was going to go look in the barn or something. He’ll be back in a few minutes, though.”
“What did he need from the barn?”
“Something about the car, I think,” she said.
Lachlan had said something about putting on new windshield wipers. “Oh, actually, I think I know what he’s up to.”
She shut the dishwasher and then swept Jackson up off the floor where he’d been stacking some empty cups. “Jackie and I are going to go for a walk, I think.”
“You kidding?” I said. “It’s blazing hot out there.”
“We’ll put on sunscreen,” she said, laughing. She gave me a little wave, and then disappeared down the hallway.
I sat down at the dining room table where the remains of my sandwich was still sitting out. I picked it up and took a bite.
The doorbell rang.
Huh. Who could be ringing our doorbell? That didn’t even make any kind of sense. Had Lachlan somehow gotten himself locked out? I got up and scurried out to the front door. I managed to swallow my sandwich just before I opened the door.
An older man was standing there. He had long silver hair that was gathered into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, and he was wearing cowboy boots and a big brass belt buckle. He smiled at me, and the resemblance to Lachlan was suddenly overpowering. “You’re Lachlan’s father,” I blurted as a kind of greeting.
He offered me his hand. “Nathaniel Flint.”
I took his hand and shook with him. “You want to come in?”
“Thanks,” he said.
I stepped away from the door, and he walked inside. I shut the door after him.
He looked around. “I haven’t been here in years. Place is in good shape.”
“It is,” I said. “We’re really grateful that you’re letting us stay here. It’s a big help.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I noticed that there’s a big flock of dragons out there, all just sitting around on either side of the driveway. That the reason you couldn’t get a hotel?”
“Lachlan didn’t tell you?” I said.
“Lachlan isn’t inclined to tell me much,” said Nathaniel. “But he comes by it honestly, I think. I can be a tight-lipped cuss myself.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. It was quiet for a minute. Finally, I gestured. “Um, would you like something to drink? We have some soft drinks and lemonade.” That was what Vivica had picked up from the store.
“That would be nice,” he said. “I assume you’re Penny, the woman that my son is shacking up with?”
I turned to look at him, eyes wide.
He winced. “That came out wrong. I got no problem with people shacking up, mind you. I think it’s just fine. I just… near as I know, he hasn’t married you, so is there a word for that?”
“Girlfriend,” I said. Then I showed him my engagement ring. “But we are engaged, so I guess I’m technically his fiancée now.”
He nodded. “Sorry.”
I turned and continued toward the kitchen. “You want soda or lemonade?”
He followed me. “Soda’s fine. Listen, Lachlan doesn’t tell me anything, but I’ve been hearing things about you two having a kid together. That true?”
“Lachlan didn’t tell you about Wyatt, huh?” I said. I wasn’t sure what to make of Nathaniel Flint thus far. He seemed a little rough around the edges, but he had yet to do anything that made me want to kick him out of the house. Still, my own grandparents could be very charming if they set their minds to it. But in the end they were shallow and short-sighted, and they weren’t part of my life anymore. I hoped that Nathaniel would be different. It would be so nice for Wyatt to have some family besides Lachlan and me.
“Wyatt’s his name?” said Nathaniel.
I went to the refrigerator and got out the soda. I poured some for him in a glass. “Yeah, that’s his name. He’s taking a nap right now, or I’d introduce you.”
“He’s, uh, he’s Lachlan’s?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “How does that work, though? My son is a vampire.”
“Oh,” I said. “Right. Well, that’s a long story. How to sum it up? Uh… Lachlan and I have something called a blood bond, which happens between dragons and vampires sometimes, and because of that, we were somehow able to—”
“You’re a dragon?”
“He didn’t tell you that either?” I handed him the cup of soda. “That a problem?”
“Not for me,” said Nathaniel. “You got something to do with all those dragons outside the house?”
I chewed on my lip. “Uh… not exactly. That’s another long story.”
“Well, I don’t care about the complications of it,” said Nathaniel. “The truth is, Penny, I’m an old, lonely man. I had a wife, but I lost her. And I had a son and a granddaughter, but I lost both of them too. I’d really like to do anything I could to get my son back. And I really would like to meet little Wyatt. More than anything.”
I smiled at him. “Well, I think that’s good. And I don’t see how meeting him would hurt anything.”
The front door slammed closed.
I jumped.
And then Lachlan appeared, stalking through the dining room. “I thought that was his damned car. What are you doing here? You said you wouldn’t come by. I told you I had no desire to see you.”
Nathaniel turned, cringing as he clutched his soda. “I know I said I wouldn’t come by, but it’s been over four years, Lachlan, and if I didn’t try to see my only son after all that time, well, I’d never forgive myself.”
Lachlan stopped in the doorway to the kitchen. He was angry, and his entire body was trembling. His fists clenched at his sides. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Nathaniel set down his cup on the counter and raised both of his hands, palms up, in surrender. “I should have called first.”
“Wouldn’t have mattered,” said Lachlan. “My answer would have been no. You’ve always been inconsiderate and self-centered. You only
think of what you want, never what’s good for anyone else.”
Nathaniel lifted his chin. “Now, wait a second, that is not fair. I worked my fingers to the bone to provide for you, boy, and you ain’t never been grateful to me for that, just resentful and cranky, like you’re still two years old.”
Lachlan opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, a bright tongue of red, red flame spewed out of his mouth. It headed straight for Nathaniel, who let out a little screeching noise and hit the floor. The flames sailed over Nathaniel’s head and into the toaster on the counter. The toaster burst into flame.
Panicking, I used magic to unplug the toaster. Then I grabbed the spray hose from the sink and doused the toaster in water. The flames sizzled and went out.
Lachlan sagged against the door frame, eyes wide.
Nathaniel slowly got to his feet. Now, he was the one who was shaking. He pointed at Lachlan, but his arm trembled. “You sent yourself down a path, boy, and now you’re reaping the consequences. You should never have gotten involved with magical creatures.”
“Get out,” said Lachlan in a gravelly voice. “Get out.”
Nathaniel scurried out of the house like a dog with its tail between his legs.
We watched him go in silence. The only sound was the hiss of the toaster as the last of the flames went out.
Lachlan rubbed his face.
I set down the sprayer and let out a noisy breath. “Well, you can breathe fire now.”
“Guess it’s a blood dragon thing,” said Lachlan. “Does seem to happen when I get mad, doesn’t it?”
CHAPTER TEN
Our plan had been to go back to the prison after having lunch, and even after the revelation that Lachlan had new powers, we didn’t see any reason to stick around the house. I knew that Lachlan needed to learn to use his powers, but I was frightened of them, since they seemed to be manifesting from negative emotions. I was afraid that this was a result of the dark magic Lachlan had done to acquire the powers of the blood dragon, so I avoided talking to him about the fact he could breathe fire.
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