Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 26

Hi!

If I ever thought my life couldn't get more stressful and complicated, I was proven wrong this week. I'm still waiting for a spell of silence - or a pocketful of extra time. God knows I could need it. Does anybody feel the same? I did my best to edit this one for you in time. Please let me know what you think and have a great (calm) week.

Lara

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  Chapter 26

Four more corpses with bite marks. Vamps close to the last victim I and Alexander found in the streets of the Crimson District. I didn't know what kind of corpus delicti Brown was looking for, but if he didn't get his head out of his brick wall of ignorance soon, I'd shove it into his face. It was time he woke up and smelled the burned coffee.

The only thing that kept me from storming into his office was what little pride I had left. Yes, it's true. I expected Brown to call me and apologize in some way for being wrong or ask me to come back to the force. Nothing of the kind happened.

So I pocketed my pride and waited for my suspension to end. I went over all the murders once again. There had to be a connection I hadn't seen so far. I borrowed a city map from Laura and spread it out on the table. I took a black pen and marked all the crime scenes with an x, staring at the area around Crimson District. I stared and stared until my vision went blurry.

I blinked and frowned. Something bothered me. Sometimes the simplest, most obvious patterns and answers are the hardest to see and recognize.

I gasped. That was it!

Seven out of the nine victims I knew of died in the closer vicinity of the various locations The House – the wandering hot spot for hard drugs me and Ryan visited – occupied. I checked the dates and times of death. It all matched. I rechecked the club Natalie Reynolds left the night she died, and sure enough, it was within a walking distance of The House.

This was the pattern.

I stared at the map in disbelief, suppressing the laughter bubbling up inside. I had to inform Brown about this.

I froze when realization hit me. How could I do this without exposing Ryan and the fact that he had been involved in drug trafficking? Crap.

That was when my cellphone rang. I recognized the number. It was the TF3 headquarters.

* * *

Henry Tanner nodded as a way of greeting. I forwent the opportunity to return the gesture, too caught up in gulping down air. I had a feeling that our team leader was pissed at me. Conrad closed the door, while Blaze remained in his usual position – arms crossed in front of him, feet propped up on the table.

"Good to have you back, Anna," Blaze said.

I nodded at the shape shifter, before turning to face the rest.

"I take it you're familiar with what happened during your absence?" Henry said to me. The former FBI agent was wearing one of his tight suits again, the clinical sharpness in his brown eyes just as I'd remembered it.

"Only that you found a substance matching the drug, and that the last four victims had bite marks," I replied, sitting down on one of the tables.

Henry cast a glance at Conrad, nodding. Conrad moved forward, scratching his chin absently.

"We managed to locate an acclaimed scientist, Dr. George Harding to be precise, doing research in the field of blood enhancement at Harvard. Vanished about four months ago. We talked to one of the professor's assistants, who claimed that Dr. Harding was searching for a way to cure diseases; ways to enhance blood production at a rapid pace and find new means to increase the healing abilities of the human body. According to the assistant, Harding had been quite close to accomplishing that, lacking only one final component to create the medicine."