Chapter 6
Rhys opened the passenger door of the SUV and held out his hand.
How old does he think I am….five?
She shook her head and slid out without his assistance. The crime scene unit from the shifter division was already on-site, combing the alleyway and dropping numbered cones where potential evidence lay on the street. A blue sheet covered the dead woman’s lifeless body.
“What do we know?” she asked, walking toward Trapp. Rhys and his brothers followed silently on her heels. She heard their deep inhale while sniffing the area. She rolled her eyes.
“Human female, Caucasian, left nude, out in the open for anyone to find. No identification or personal belongings,” Trapp answered. “Matchbook from the club found next to her hand.” He pointed toward the ground where it lay covered in blood. “I’m not even positive she’d been there.”
She crouched, lifting the sheet. A woman’s pale, lifeless face lay turned toward the side, her green eyes opened wide and unfocused. Her mouth gaped as if she’d been killed in mid-scream. Her dark brown hair was matted with the blood flowing from beneath her body. Elizabeth recognized her immediately as the woman who’d walked into the club behind her. She’d been nervous when she’d whispered, ‘Here goes nothing.’
“She was there last night. She arrived the same time I did.” Elizabeth replaced the sheet and stood. “I smelled her fear before she walked off toward the table in the northwest corner of the club. The corner was dark.” She glanced up at Trapp. “She mumbled, ‘Here goes nothing,’ as she walked away.”
Rhys pulled back the sheet so his brothers and he could get a better look at her face.
“Emily.” Max breathed out her name; his voice stung with sadness. “Poor girl. She was a human groupie who wanted to be turned.” He kept gazing down to the sheet, and remorse filled his eyes “About a month ago, she begged me to bite her, and I told her no.”
Elizabeth bent down again and peeked beneath the rest of the sheet at the wounds covering Emily’s body. Deep slash marks, torn down to the bone, covered the pale skin on her chest and down the length of her torso. Flesh and tendons were torn from her neck, and there were more teeth marks further up her neck where the fucker had bitten her. The asshole responsible was an aggressive shit. An odd sensation of déjà vu skirted down her spine, and goose bumps rose on her arms. The markings were similar to the previous homicide she’d worked, the same crisscross design left on the last dead woman, compliments of the wolf Elizabeth had locked away in a cell.
“Do you think this is an attempted turn gone wrong?” Rhys asked.
“Nope, this was violent,” Elizabeth answered. “He might have lured her away with promises of turning her or even having sex, but the asshole tore out her throat and left his marks all over her body.” She tilted her head and crossed her arms over her chest. Taking a deep breath confirmed her suspicions, the smells were similar; she continued, “Sir.” She glanced up to find Tripp watching her. “It’s an identical kill to the one I arrested Horace Stanton for. You’ll need to put a rush into the lab to compare both kills against his DNA. Horace may have been standing over her body, but this kill happened after he was behind bars. I arrested the wrong guy. Either way, the lab will be able to confirm from the DNA.”
“Elizabeth.” Trapp’s jaw clenched. The powerful force of his energy rolled over her.
Rhys stepped to her side. The heat from his big, brooding body warmed and surrounded her in a silent show of support without even a single touch.
“You know what the smug bastard threatened to do when he’s released?”
She clasped her hands in front of her. “Yes, sir. He’ll come after me and give me a whole new set of charges to arrest him for.”
“Don’t sugarcoat his threats, Elizabeth. He threatened to kill you,” Trapp amended, most likely to clue Rhys in on the situation. Could he have made her look any more incompetent for arresting the wrong guy?Jerk.Thanks to him, her overprotective bear would be breathing over her shoulder for the entire investigation.
“He won’t touch her,” Rhys growled, and his brothers stepped closer, flanking them both.
“Get a grip. He can try, but we both know he won’t succeed,” she retorted before dropping the subject and heading back over to the SUV. She opened the passenger door and turned to find the men standing where she’d left them. “Don’t we have some surveillance to look through so we can catch this guy?” she challenged with a lift of her brow.
****
Elizabeth stepped into the security room of the bar, expecting to find a small dinky room with bad lighting, and even worse, smaller computer screens, but she was wrong. The room was filled with long conference tables and large computer screens. A locked cabinet rested along the length of the back wall. She sniffed. Gunpowder, and from the size of the cabinet, she would have thought these guys were ready for WWIII.
A fridge was pressed up against the wall with a long counter running beside it. A full coffee station and espresso machine perched on top. Toward the back of the room, another conference table sat. The room reminded her of a typical office lunch room, combined with a conference room featuring full-on amenities.
“Nice setup.”
“Glad you approve.” Rhys rubbed against her arm in passing before he clicked on the computers, bringing images to life. She moved around the table with the others and watched as every room in the empty club lit up on the screens.
“This should be a walk in the park,” she mumbled before hopping up to sit on top of one of the long conference tables, watching Rhys pull up last night’s feed.
“Go back to ten-thirty, and you’ll see her walk in behind me, talk to me for a second, and head off toward the table.”
“Ten fifty-three,” Rhys corrected. “I know what time you arrived. I already reviewed the footage to see if it would help me pinpoint where the hell to find you.” His fingers flew over the keyboard before he stilled the shot of Elizabeth entering the club. A quick glance over his shoulder and he grinned as he tapped the play button. He pointed out Emily and switched screens for a better shot of more than just the door. They silently watched the woman saunter through the crowded room toward the darkened corner.
“You need better lighting in that corner,” Trapp pointed out.
“There is a light in that corner. It must have blown,” Max answered, rubbing his five o’clock shadow as he moved to stand by Elizabeth.
