Page 40 of Brimstone Bound
‘Which brings us back to the need for Supe Squad’s existence. And you, D’Artagnan.’ She smiled slightly. ‘DC Brown wouldn’t have given you a nickname if he didn’t think you were good enough to stay. He was giving you his blessing as his successor.’ She linked her fingers together. ‘So let’s get down to it. If you died last night, why are you alive now? Are you a vampire?’
Lukas rolled his eyes. ‘Obviously she’s not.’
‘There’s noobviouslyabout anything. Not any more.’
These two were giving me a headache. ‘I don’t know what I am,’ I said aloud. ‘And frankly, right now I don’t care.’ I pointed at the door. ‘My mentor is hanging in his wardrobe across that hallway. He isdead. And whoever killed him has tried to make it look like he committed suicide. Whatever their motives, I will find the bastard that did that to him and who also murdered me. The rest of this is bollocks.’
There was a knock at the door and a uniformed police officer put his head round. ‘DSI Barnes,’ he said. ‘Can I have a word?’
She nodded and walked out, leaving Lukas and I alone.
‘I wish you hadn’t told her about me,’ I complained.
‘She needed to know. And DSI Barnes, for all her designs on Supe Squad, isn’t a bad sort. She’ll keep your secret to herself.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I want you to be aware that my dislike of Supe Squad is not personal to you,’ he said quietly.
‘Ditto.’ I met his dark gaze. ‘And I wantyouto be aware that I don’t care what you think, and I don’t care what’s gone on in the past. I’m going to find the bastard responsible for this and bring them down.’
‘So am I.’ He smiled humourlessly. ‘Finding whoever murdered you and Brown is the only way I can keep your lot from sticking your noses in where they don’t belong. It’s why I involved myself in your death. We both have a vested interest in locating the killer. You don’t want to be in Supe Squad any more than I want Supe Squad to continue. We might as well join forces since our interests align. And perhaps,’ he added, ‘we can find out what you really are along the way.’
It made a sort of warped sense, but I wasn’t prepared to shake hands on it yet. ‘Why did DSI Barnes want to know if you’d tasted me?’
His eyes shifted. ‘In the past, there’ve been a few detectives in Supe Squad who’ve become … close to vampires.’
‘They allowed themselves to be bitten?’ I was incredulous.
‘They didn’t just allow it, they wanted it. Theyaskedfor it.’
I felt sick.
Lukas continued. ‘And to taste someone’s blood is to understand their essence. If I drank from you, it might help me to understand what you are and why you cheated death so successfully.’
‘That,’ I said, ‘is never going to happen.’
‘It wasn’t an invitation.’ He said it almost primly. ‘And I’d never drink from someone without their permission first. No vampire would be so uncouth.’
I snorted. ‘That’s a pretty sweeping statement. You can’t speak for all of your kind.’
‘Yes, I can,’ he said.
Barnes re-entered the room, her expression troubled. ‘I sent two uniforms round to Tony’s flat. You said it had been ransacked?’
I nodded.
‘They broke down the door. The place is pristine. There’s not so much as a speck of dust out of place.’
I started. ‘But—’
‘The killer is covering his tracks,’ Lukas said. ‘He still wants us to believe that Brown died by his own hand.’
I sucked in a breath. ‘I only went to Tony’s place because of what had happened to me. I wouldn’t have gone there to search for him so quickly otherwise. I wanted to confront him because I thought he was responsible.’ My voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I thought he was the one who’d killed me.’
‘That’s understandable. And this is a good thing.’ Lukas sounded satisfied. ‘The real killer doesn’t know that you’ve returned to life, otherwise he’d have cleaned up the mess at Tony’s flat sooner. He wouldn’t have risked anyone seeing the devastation there and becoming suspicious.’
‘So you think our perp attacked Tony in his own home? Then Tony escaped and came here, thinking he’d be safe?’
Lukas nodded. ‘But he was followed. The killer broke in through the window and finished what he’d started. He took his time tidying up because you’d not been identified, and no one suspected that Brown’s disappearance was anything but innocuous.’
‘Well,’ DSI Barnes marvelled, with a definite hint of sarcasm, ‘look at the two of you. It’s like watching Cagney and Lacey.’
