Part 14 (1/2)

”So she knows you're a policewoman?”

”Not from me. Not at that time.” I glanced to the side. ”But perhaps Buchanan's said something to her.”

”Maybe she doesn't know your job, but she must know you to ask you to do that.”

”Never met her before that night.”

”That's some leap of faith she took.”

It wasn't a question, so I just stared at him. He was right, but he had no clue why, and I doubted Domine was about to tell him why she trusted me.

”You weren't there moonlighting as a bodyguard, and you weren't trying to prove you could carry out your own investigation?”

”No and no.”

”And today.” He flicked my report. ”Acting on a call that came to you from the owner, you visited Ms. Hawks' apartment. You became suspicious because of the damage to the main entry door and the smell. You forced entry and called us immediately after you found her?”

”Basically correct. As I said in the report, the owner had been calling me repeatedly while I was on patrol and my personal cell phone was off. I checked it l when I finished patrol and I immediately called her back.”

Morales looked at Nunez. He wasn't happy, but he nodded, picked up his folder and left. IA had lost interest.

Buchanan was halfway to standing. ”You can't be-”

Morales' hand slammed the table like a pistol shot. ”Get out, Buchanan.”

Buchanan stared at me like he wanted to strangle me right there, but he'd been given a direct order. We were not going to be friends ever, me and Detective Buchanan. Such a shame.

It was silent when they'd left.

Morales flipped open my personnel file. He picked up the first page, which was my training scores, and put that in the middle of the table. A couple of pages down, he pulled out my previous employment history and that joined the scores. From his case file, he pulled a single sheet which looked like a page full of dates and numbers. He placed that next to the others and closed the files. His cell phone joined the rest of the parade he'd set up. Then he leaned back in his chair.

”What the h.e.l.l is going on, Farrell?”

”I don't understand the question, sir.”

His hand came down on my employment history. ”Sergeant in the military, ten year service in special operations,” he said. ”No negative reports. All other details cla.s.sified.” He jabbed at the bottom of the sheet. ”That's a h.e.l.l of an aura to be carrying around.”

He rested his finger on the scores. ”Outstanding firearms theory and practical. Lethal in hand-to-hand. Just what you'd expect from the cream of the cream in the military.”

”I still don't see-”

”Because it's not what you expect from a lateral intake to the Denver PD. What the h.e.l.l is a top flight soldier with a cla.s.sified record doing in my patrol department?”

”Looking to be a top flight policewoman, sir.” I had to a.s.sume that aspiration was history now.

”That sounded good. You should practice that, Farrell.”

Okay, we could both do sarcastic.

My eyes edged towards the third page.

Morales leaned forward. ”And this unbelievable rookie, she has an unbelievable random connection to an unbelievable case.” He paused and tapped the third page. ”What that a-” he stopped what he was going to say and tried again. ”What Detective Buchanan hasn't noticed, but will eventually, is that this log of the week's security camera backups from Club Agonia happens to be missing one.”

c.r.a.p.

Domine had done what I'd asked and removed the footage I'd given the colonel. I could see why Morales was going to make that Captain spot.

I said nothing. Delaying tactics were reaching their end more quickly than I'd have liked, but Morales wasn't Buchanan. I couldn't divert him.

”What Buchanan won't know is almost exactly at the time I spotted that, I received a 9-Red-Mil notification.” He pressed his cell and the calendar came up with a red bar on the afternoon. I frowned. I'd never heard of any such notification. Mil meant military, obviously.

”I had to go look it up,” Morales continued. ”It's a priority 'request' from the military through the Department of Defense to make myself available for a meeting.”

He leaned back again and repeated himself. ”What the h.e.l.l is going on?”

I'd run out of delaying tactics.

”I've been operating under orders, sir, and I'll have to leave explanations to the colonel you'll be meeting shortly.”

We sat looking at each other for a minute.

Morales gathered his papers and shuffled his files into a neat pile. The cell went back in his pocket and he rested his elbows on the table, clasping his hands together.

”Farrell, as of now, you are suspended pending further explanation.”

Chapter 18.

I drove out of the station parking lot feeling dazed. I was still in my uniform, but with no badge. Morales had had the contents of my locker delivered to me in a plastic shopping bag. I wasn't even allowed to change on the premises.

The colonel would be here in a couple more hours, so I didn't have time to sleep. Not that I would have been able to: I was too wired.

I'd get into even more trouble if I went to Club Agonia. Without thinking about it, I found the car heading back down to the site of the first murder.

The three vampires were still out here somewhere. If whatever craziness that had infected them was progressive, who knows what they could do next. I couldn't match whatever Buchanan's team were doing on searching through traffic camera videos, or hunting credit card slips or whatever. I had one line that they probably weren't pursuing.

The vampires had walked to the apartment where their first victim died. At the time, they hadn't been acting crazy. It was a fair a.s.sumption that there was a rational decision about walking. They didn't want a car linked to them to be seen at the apartment. But they wouldn't have walked for miles. They left the car somewhere where it was out of sight, or somewhere people were used to seeing it, or somewhere it wouldn't be seen.

That somewhere was in a grid of streets, no more than six by six.