Page 23 of Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters
“Me and Carr were patrolling along the river. Two kids out late along Boathouse Row. Something came out of the water and attacked them. Carr heard the screams, but by the time we got there, the animal—thing, whatever—was gone.”
“Wait. Along the river? But we nabbed that guy. Is this something new?”
Carrington shook his head in obvious frustration and shooed Edgar away from his pen. “The lab report came back on your garden trowel this morning. The flakes were rust and dried clay. From what we’ve gathered, we’re certain the incident last evening is connected where your cell phone thief was not.”
“Ms. Yearwood here’s fine.” Amanda coaxed Edgar up onto her forearm and carried him back to his perch. “Her boyfriend’s in the ER with a chomped foot. And Carr’s probably not the best person for this.”
Thisobviously meant questioning the witness, currently bristling and looking about two words short of punching Loveless in his condescending face.
Edgar paced back and forth on his perch, calling out, “Can’t get it up! Can’t get it up!”
“Edgar!” Carrington snapped. “Why can’t you just saynevermorelike a proper raven.”
“Never say never! Never say die!” Edgar replied, hopping up and down until Amanda located his pens and placed them back in the cup on his perch. He was more than capable of retrieving his own pens when he dropped them, but he seemed to find it more interesting to take everyone else’s.
“Looks like we’re the cavalry.” Kyle strode forward, hand held out. “Morning. I’m Officer Monroe. This is my partner, Officer Soren. We’ve been working on the attacks along the river. Loveless, you all right if we take Ms. Yearwood into the break room to ask her some questions?”
Kyle had to give the vampire credit. He put his obvious irritation aside to say, “Of course. Thank you for coming in.”
The young woman, dressed all in black, shook Kyle’s hand though her gaze traveled up and down Vikash. “Finally, someone nice.”
Behind her, Loveless rolled his eyes, but thankfully stayed silent while Kyle led Ms. Yearwood out to the break room for a less formal conversation with coffee and snacks. Someone had left pizza in the fridge—Kyle’s stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten. He sighed in disappointment when opening both boxes revealed pepperoni, but he brought them to the table.
Vikash peeked into the box. “Guess you can’t just pick them off.”
“No. Can’t get all the residue off. Unless you want to call nine-one-one this morning.”
“Not really.” Vikash wandered to the vending machines and returned with a bag of trail mix that he placed in front of Kyle. “Just to hold you over.”
“Thanks. Ms. Yearwood, do you have a first name?” Kyle asked as she raided the pizza box.
“Caitlin,” she mumbled around the half slice she stuffed in her mouth. “God. Cold pizza in the morning is the best.”
Vikash blinked at her and Kyle could only imagine what he was thinking about her table manners. He had to sip his coffee carefully so he wouldn’t spray the table laughing.
“Glad you like it.” Kyle leaned forward with his bestwe’re here to helpface. “Can you tell us what happened, Caitlin? Whatever you remember?”
Caitlin chewed for a moment, then said with her mouth still half full, “That other creep asked all this already.”
“Sorry. I know. But if you could run through it for me and Officer Soren? So we can hear it firsthand?”
Vikash had his notebook and pen out, attentive and proper, and Caitlin addressed her statements to him. Maybe he looked like the more responsible partner.Or maybe she’s just eye fucking him… Stop that. He’s gorgeous. Of course she wants to look.
“Okay. So me and Colin, we were on our way home and he thought, hey, it’s a nice night to walk by the river, with the moon out and all? He’s kinda sappy that way, but whatever. We’re walking by the boathouses and we get to a spot where a couple of the lights have burned out. And there’s this splash. Like a big fish flopped out of the water or something, right?”
She stopped to shiver and took another bite of pizza. Kyle was starting to understand why poor Loveless had lost the little patience he had. “Did you look to see what the splash was?”
“Nah. River has stuff living in it. You don’t think about it, right?”
“All right, so what happened next?”
“Okay, so Colin’s talking about this new book he’s reading, how it’s all the best book ever and junk, and I’m all mm-hmm, and yeah, and not really listening. And thisthingcomes out of the water—”
“Pardon, sorry, were you closer to the water, or was Colin?” Vikash asked softly.
“God, you have the prettiest eyes,” Caitlin said as she reached into the box for a second slice. “Colin—no, wait. I was at first.”
Kyle took advantage of the break in her story. “And the thing? Could you see it? What did it look like?”
