Detective Gonzalez started the disc again. Neither he nor detective Knowles watched the computer; they watched Elena, who could feel their gazes as she concentrated on the black and white images on the screen. After the robber left the store, the death angel appeared out of thin air. She gasped, and then looked at the detectives, who were oblivious.
In the recording, the death angel spoke and then shoved her over onto her back effortlessly, as if she were a rag doll. He stood over her and withdrew his sword. Grabbing her chin, he forced her head to the side. She remembered he had told her to spit the blood out of her mouth so that he could understand her. Elena in the recording went limp.
She watched the laptop screen, mesmerized, as he lifted the sword to plunge it into her chest, but stopped short. He resheathed the sword and squatted down over her, opening her eyelid with his thumb and finger. Then he parted her lips and examined her teeth. He turned her head to one side and then the other, as if he were checking out her neck.
He ran the back of his fingers over her cheek. When he withdrew his hand, he balled it into a fist and punched the metal shelf next to her, causing an avalanche of candy to cascade to the floor. He appeared to shout as he stood up. Pausing a few times to look at her, he paced like a fierce, caged animal. Elena was glad there was no sound to the recording, because from the look on his face, she was sure his words were as aggressive and dangerous as his movements.
He stopped pacing and returned to her unconscious body. He pulled out a cell phone, punched some numbers, and put it to his ear. After speaking only a few words, he shoved it into his back pants pocket. As if he were afraid to touch her, he rolled her onto her stomach. He placed his palm over her shoulder blade and slowly pulled his hand away. When he turned his palm over, it looked like something was in his hand, as if he were a magnet that had attracted something. The bullet? No way.
Not breathing, she watched the computer screen, as he repeated the process over the middle of her back. Again, something stuck to his palm. Damn. It had to be the bullet. He put whatever it was in his front pocket and stood up. After staring at her for a moment, he shook his head and disappeared.
A woman entered the store and covered her mouth. It was clear she was screaming. After some time, men came and put Elena on a gurney. Obviously paramedics. The next stop would be the hospital. End of story. She wasn’t dead. Death had saved her instead.
Detective Knowles stopped the recording and closed the laptop. “So, um, explain that please, Miss Arcos.”
“Explain what?” she mumbled, half buying time, half testing to see if they had seen the death angel.
Knowles put his hand on her shoulder. “Miss Arcos. It looks like you were shot, but there are no bullet wounds. We expected it to be fake blood, but you heard the nurse; it appears to be your blood. How is that possible?”
A sexy death angel pulled the bullets out? “I can’t explain it.”
Gonzalez spoke while Knowles packed the computer up. “Miss Arcos. We need you to cooperate here. Something about this isn’t right.”
No shit.
Gonzalez sighed as if his patience grew thin. “Do you know the man who shot you?”
“No.”
“Can you describe him for us?”
The death angel reappeared at the foot of her bed before she could answer. He put his finger to his lip indicating she should be silent. His nearness caused her heart to fire into hyperdrive again. She swallowed and took a deep breath, hoping her voice wouldn’t tremble like her body. “Um, well, I didn’t really get a good look at him. I was pretty freaked out. I don’t remember anything, actually.”
Gonzalez leaned close. “Miss Arcos, the cashier died. If it turns out that you are somehow involved in this crime, you will be an accessory to murder. You need to tell us the truth.”
Why wasn’t she telling them the truth, she wondered. Crazy was better than guilty of murder. She stared at the man with the sword who had lost his air of ease. He seemed to sense she was considering coming clean about what had really happened. He took a step toward her. The sword made a metallic shing sound as he pulled it out of its sheath.
“If you remove the Veil, I will have to kill them. Your fate is already sealed. Reveal nothing, or they are dead as well.” His unusual accent punctuated the danger in his words.
As well…
“Miss Arcos, you won’t like it in jail,” Gonzales said.
At that moment, a tall brunette woman wearing a lab coat strode into the room. She looked from Gonzalez to Knowles to Elena. “I beg your pardon. I’m Dr. Williams. This is my patient. Is there a problem, gentlemen?”