“Let me see the pictures. Then I’ll think about your issue.”
He grunted in annoyance. “I’ll give you the pictures. I’ll even do you one better. We have all of the items here at the compound, down to the last piece of lint. I’ll have them delivered to your office and you can waste your time, but when you’re done, you tell me if there’s anything Danny could repeat that should worry us.”
I snorted rudely. “I’ll do that, Don.”
Thirty minutes later I flipped through the photos of the hospital room. Don was correct. Everything looked as tidy as could be. Even the IV needle that had been pulled from Danny’s arm rested innocently on the bed, as if waiting for its next vein. No footprints, no fingerprints, no blood, no bodily fluid, not even a frigging sheet out of place. Molecular transportation couldn’t have been neater. Maybe that was it. Maybe Danny had been beamed right the fuck out of there. It would almost be worth telling that to Don just to see the look on his face.
After I examined the pictures for an hour, I moved on to the personal and medical paraphernalia that were tucked in another medium-sized box. A pair of shoes, the tread not even worn. Clothes, underwear, socks, shaving cream (I poured some onto my desk. Yep, plain old shaving cream), cotton swabs, bandages, hypodermic needles carefully capped, wadded-up paper towels, a watch...
Spots danced in front of my vision. The hand I extended to pick up the watch shook so, I missed it twice. My heart pounded, and I felt like I was going to faint. I knew that watch. After all—it used to be mine.
To anyone else, it was a plain old watch. Nothing fancy, no pricey brand, just an ordinary watch that could be a man’s or a woman’s. The lack of flash had been deliberate so as not to draw attention, but it had an extra feature that didn’t come standard. Push a button barely visible on its side and a page went off. A page that was short-range and only connected to one beeper. That button had saved my life once, and the last time I’d seen this watch was when I took it off my wrist and left it on top of the goodbye note I’d written Bones.
If I’d been the one to go to Chicago, I would have found the watch. Had Don not kept me out of the loop this one time, it would have been me who went there. Me, not Tate, and Bones had all but left me his goddamn phone number. The pager was only good for a radius of five miles. He would have been that close, waiting to see if I came and pressed that button.
I held the watch so hard, it cut into my skin. How Bones had heard about Danny or what happened I had no idea, but he’d been quick. After all these years, he’d reached out to me. I just hadn’t gotten the message in time.
The sheer irony of it all made me laugh. That’s how Don found me, on the floor and chortling in mirthless laughter. He eyed me with caution but stayed near the door.
“Do you mind telling me what’s so funny?”
“Oh, you were right,” I gasped. “There’s nothing here. No clues whatsoever. But you can rest your mind about Danny Milton. Believe me when I tell you, that man is dead.”
“What kind of vampire are we talking about?” I asked while climbing in the van. Normally the guys didn’t pick me up at home unless one was still at the scene. When Tate called to say he was on his way, I apologized to Noah, who I’d had dinner plans with, and left. Another night interrupted. Why Noah was still around, I had no idea.
“Probably a young one, maybe two,” Tate answered.
He’d been stiff with me ever since my relationship with Noah began. I had no idea what prompted his attitude, but two could play cold shoulder.
We didn’t talk again until we parked at the club. Even over the pounding of the music, I heard the heartbeats inside. Lots of them.
“Why hasn’t the club been evacuated?”
“No bodies, Commander,” Cooper said. “Just someone saying they saw a woman struggling with some blood on her neck. Then the woman disappeared. Don didn’t want to make the vamp suspicious if he’s still here.”
Cooper had exceeded my expectations of him. Since that horrible afternoon at the cave, he never questioned my orders again. He still called me a freak to my face, but that didn’t bother me. Now it was more like, “You’re a freak, Commander. Come on, men, you heard the bitch! Move! Move!” He could call me any name in the book as long as he showed that same dedication.
“And the rest of the team is standing by?”
This was the most half-assed approach to a potential murder we’d ever taken. The guys weren’t even properly suited up. They probably figured this was bullshit since the 911 caller had sounded drunk. It wouldn’t be the first false alarm we’d received. Or the fiftieth.