“You recognize him? Know who bit him?” Jackson demanded.
“I do not recognize him, but then I am upstairs in the office, not in the club. May I?” He indicated the other vamps with a sweep of his hand.
“Sure, show them.” As the photo was passed around, only Tower and the guy in the Gators T-shirt showed a clear reaction.
“He was here tonight,” Tower said and nodded at Gator guy. “Coach served him at the bar.”
Coach nodded. “He stayed about an hour. Had two beers and paid cash.”
“He say anything?” Saber probed.
“Naw, man, he was the surly kind. Just watched the crowd for a while and left. Ya ask me, I think he was Covenant.”
I sucked in a little breath. If the victim was one of the vamp-hating Covenant members, any vampire might have gone after him for that alone. And yet, I didn’t have the sense Ike or his buddies were lying.
Ike folded the warrant and looked at Jackson. “There you have it, Captain. This man was here but he left whole. None of my people harmed him.”
Saber ran a hand through his hair. “You didn’t happen to install outside security cameras like I suggested, did you?”
“I have hardly had time to replace the computer hard drive,” Ike responded, heavy on the sarcasm. “The only cameras we have record activities in this room.”
“You’d save yourself a heap of hassle if you’d wire the outside, too. Where’s Laurel tonight?”
Ike’s mouth tightened. “As of our wakening, she is being punished.”
“For what?” Saber asked sharply.
“Normally this would be our business and ours alone, but I will tell you. Laurel gave Donita the stolen property to pawn. After my day manager informed me of your search, I forced the truth from Laurel.”
“Why didn’t Donita tell us Laurel gave her the stuff when we were here earlier?” Saber asked. Ike gave a negligent shrug. “Because she knows I can deal with Laurel as you cannot.”
I gulped, remembering the discipline Normand dished out in the old days.
Jackson snorted. “What’d you do, Ike? Slap her hand? If Donita didn’t lift those things, then Laurel did.”
Ike’s mouth stretched into a most unpleasant smile. “Laurel has not adequately explained where she . . . acquired the jewelry, but I am persuading her. I have banned her from the club for now and given her the task of cleaning our residence. Thoroughly, nightly, and in shackles.”
“Laurel can break shackles, Ike.”
“Not these, Saber. Laurel is not free to leave and will not be until I allow it.” He paused. “When I am satisfied she is telling the truth about where she came by those items, naturally I will inform you.”
“We’ll still need your surveillance feeds,” Jackson said instead.
“I understand. Take the hard drive, and leave another receipt.” This time Ike sounded resigned. “I suppose you want to examine the lost-and-found box again as well?”
Jackson nodded, and Ike signaled to Zena. She and one of the cops headed to the bar. As they passed near me, Ike made full eye contact, and I fought the instinct to flinch.
“Francesca, Princess Vampire,” Ike purred. “Welcome to my humble establishment.”
The blonde in the cheerleader outfit gave me a double take, squealed, and bolted from her chair.
“Oh my little G-god, you’re the Princess Vampire!” she said, bouncing toward me. “Can I call you Francesca? I’m Suzy with a ‘y.’
Am I supposed to curtsy?”
I peeked at Saber’s amused smirk and deduced that Suzy wouldn’t perk me to death.
“Uh, no. No curtsying.”
Her nod sent her ponytail dancing around her neck. “ ’K. Can I have your autograph? There are napkins and pens at the bar.”
“I don’t think—” I got out before Ike interrupted.
“Susan, escort the princess here to meet your nestmates.”
“But Ikey—”
“Susan, come.”
Suzy pouted a little but grabbed my hand and practically galloped me to the table where Ike now sat at his leisure.
“Saber, may I ask the humans to join us now?”
Saber raised a brow at Jackson, who hesitated, then called his cops away from the booth. While the human women came toward us from one direction, Zena and her cop escort closed in from the other.
“Thank you, Zena,” Ike said when she placed a file-sized cardboard box on the table. “Princess, you remember Zena and Tower, of course.”
My manners kicked into high gear, and I offered a smile. “Of course. Nice to see you again.”
Saber, the smart-ass, made a choking sound beside me. Tower and Zena remained impassive.
“And may I also present,” Ike went on, “Susan and Coach, Ray, and Miranda and her husband, Charles.”