“Y-yes. H-he told me the police would keep my car for a while.” She shuddered and swallowed. “I don’t want it. I don’t even want to be in this house anymore.”
“We know this is hard,” I said, “but anything you can tell us will help. How long had you been with Ike?”
“Only since late May. A client wanted to see the club, so I took her.” She stopped and plowed her fingers through the short curls that lay wilted on her head. “Ike hardly ever came downstairs to the club proper while I knew him, but he came down that evening.”
“Was he doing anything special?” Saber asked. “Checking the bar or talking with customers?”
“No. He came down the main staircase. You know, the one at the front wall of the club. I saw him right away, and I remember he sort of glanced over the crowd until he looked right at me.”
“You started seeing him after that?” I prompted.
“I went back every night for a week. I was nervous as hell, but there was something about him.” She twisted her hands. “I talked a lot about what I did, and what I might do for his business. He finally said he’d hire me if I’d have a late date with him.”
“How did Laurel react?” Saber asked.
“She’d interrupt us while we talked, make catty remarks. I figured she was jealous, but her attitude got worse when I suggested that Ike make some changes in the club. She started stirring up trouble with the others, and that jewelry she asked me to pawn for her? She said they were things from old boy-friends. She blew up when you didn’t arrest me.”
“I believe you, but back up. What changes did you suggest that Ike make to the club?”
“I wanted the on-site sex and biting stopped. Even behind closed doors and consensual, I felt it was dangerous.”
Saber’s cop face was firmly in place now. “What did you see to make you think that?”
She pressed her lips together. “Laurel. The men she bit were still, ah, out of it at closing time. She just laughed and said they weren’t strong enough for her, and that she’d done nothing wrong. But it bothered me, you know?”
Saber nodded. “When did Ike agree to change the policy?”
“After he talked to Ray. Ike didn’t tell me what Ray said, but I guess he agreed with me. Ike stopped the sex and biting just before the end of July.”
“Did you,” Saber pressed, “see the picture of the man who was bitten and robbed?”
“The one from last week? No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Laurel caught the guy outside and bit him, just to thumb her nose at Ike.”
“That makes sense,” I said, “but how do you know it wasn’t another vamp who bit that man?”
She shrugged. “None of the others wiped out their partners. The few vamps that were having sex with patrons came out of the rooms with the people they took in. Never alone like Laurel. And none of the people were savagely bitten, except Laurel’s men.”
“What did Laurel do when Ike changed the club policy?”
“She raved that Ike was making them all run tame instead of seizing their birthright of fear and blood.”
I shivered. That sounded like Laurel’s battle cry, all right, and now she was out running rogue.
“You told us last night,” Saber said, “that Laurel was pressuring Ike to fire you and break off your relationship.”
Donita sighed. “I’d pretty much made up my mind to quit. The job wasn’t worth the hassle.”
“Would you have stopped seeing Ike, too?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t expect we’d last forever, but I never thought—” Her breath hitched on a strangled sob. I passed the tissue box.
“If you had told Ike you were quitting,” Saber said slowly, “how do you think he would’ve reacted?”
Donita swiped at her nose and took a deep breath. “Honestly? I think he would’ve told Laurel to can it or leave. He was fed up with her and her rants.”
“One more thing,” Saber said. “Was Laurel seeing anyone steadily? Was she out of town much?”
“She was out of town a few times, but I never heard her mention dating. She didn’t even hang out with the other vamps.”
“Good enough. Thanks for seeing us.”
Saber rose, but I lingered another minute.
“Do you have someone to stay with? Someone to help you get through this?”
She shook her head. “I can’t leave while I’m a suspect. Jackson made that very clear. Maybe when I’m free, I’ll move out of Daytona. Go someplace completely different where . . .” Her voice trailed off.
Where she could forget, I thought as we left. But she wouldn’t forget. Those moments with Ike’s dead body were indelibly etched on her psyche and would haunt her dreams for a lifetime.
Ike’s residence was actually north of Daytona and way off the main road. The sprawling two-story house sat on several acres of land, with a split rail fence around the outer border. Between the fence and what seemed to be a barn in ruins, the place looked like it might have been the main house of a working ranch at one time. I did a double take at the rocking chairs on the long, wide front porch.