Blood Trails Page 12

  Jeremy stared at her. “It’s not … a hill. It’s a sheer building.”

  She shrugged. “Not sheer enough, obviously.”

  “You know, the only thing keeping me from daring you to prove it is that I think you actually believe you can do this.”

  When he just kept staring at her and didn’t say anything else, she got impatient. “So do we do this your way or mine?”

  Hailey imagined she was a telepath in that moment. His thought process was so clear on his face. Take the dying mutant, or not? Risk whatever psychological issues she had flaring up, or risk her plunging hundreds of feet to her death? Risk her wrath, or her sister’s?

  That last one amused her the most. The boy was between a rock and, well … her. With no easy way out and he knew it.

  But Amelia wasn’t here. Hailey was.

  Decision made.

  Hailey smiled a little.

  Jeremy glared. “You have exactly one hundred and twenty seconds.”

  She was gone before he’d even finished. And ninety-four seconds after that, she was back, dressed and ready.

  He glared even more. “I could really hate you sometimes.”

  Hailey beamed.

  Chapter Ten

  Jeremy was a levelheaded, reasonable sort of guy. He’d been able to argue his way out of trouble since age ten. He could charm his way into anyone’s good graces in minutes if he wanted to, and he could arbitrate disputes between telepaths like a pro, which was a feat.

  The only one he could never get around was Pixie, and that was only because she knew him better than anyone and could anticipate his every move like a chess champion. When she’d been ten, she’d dragged him into a pet store because she’d wanted a puppy. Jeremy had had his arguments neatly lined up, the logic unquestionable: they couldn’t afford a dog, couldn’t keep one where they were living, and Pixie was too young to take care of it anyway.

  After two hours, they’d walked out of the store with a cute little furball neatly stowed in an open-top box carried by a befuddled Jeremy. The dog had lasted three weeks and then one of the other kids had taken pity on Jeremy and took it for himself.

  Arguing with Hailey was nothing like that. She didn’t know his strategy and she didn’t have one of her own. She just made stuff up on the spot and that made her completely unpredictable. He had no idea how to deal without predictions. Hence, ten minutes after receiving the call they were exiting the elevator in the main lobby and heading toward the transport he’d rented. He thanked God for the divine intervention of ID lock technology, which linked the transport’s navigation to him alone so she couldn’t talk herself into taking the wheel.

  Driving to the police station with Hailey in the transport was like trying to give a cat a bath. She couldn’t sit still for two minutes at a time. She fiddled with the windows, changed the radio stations, poked around in the computer system and navigation. Then she crawled into the backseat—and nearly caused him to drive them off the road—and crawled back again.

  It didn’t take a telepath to see she was anxious.

  But the moment they got to the station house she grew unnaturally still. She hesitated getting out of the transport and took a full minute before stepping away from it toward the front door.

  “You can stay here if you want,” he offered. It usually didn’t take much more than that to get an unwilling person to turn back.

  Of course Hailey didn’t act like a regular unwilling person. Oh no. That would be too easy. Too normal and predictable. “No,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  At least it got her moving.

  They met the police chief at the front desk and he escorted them to a quiet room to go over everything pertaining to the case.

  “Are you an agent too?” he asked Hailey.

  “She’s a third-party consultant in my investigation of this case,” Jeremy said before Hailey could get them both kicked out. The lie came out of nowhere and for a split second he didn’t know where he was going with it.

  Chief O’Reilly looked iffy. “She got all the necessary clearance?”

  “As far as you’re concerned, yes.” What was the matter with him? Pulling rank was the best he could come up with? He sent the chief a mild compulsion to let it go. It was a risk but the alternative was having Hailey wait outside. Lesser of two evils.

  Hailey struck a defiant pose but thankfully the chief decided to ignore her and focused on Jeremy. “Don’t want to get in trouble, you know.”

  Jeremy was about to reassure him when Hailey chimed in. “My expertise in this case is mainly medical. I don’t really care about the files but I will need access to the body, if at all possible.”

  Damn it. Chief O’Reilly swung his gaze back to her, no-nonsense eyes flat. He’d seen Jeremy’s credentials but not Hailey’s. Jeremy had planned to pass her off as a civilian, not in any way involved before the lie slipped out. Maybe as his charge or girlfriend who refused to stay home. He could have passed her off as a consultant, too, even without credentials, if she’d just kept her mouth shut. The chief had just been about to take Jeremy’s word for her status.

  That was out the window now.

  “You said your name was…?”

  “Chase,” Hailey said, flashing him her ID with the first name conveniently covered by her thumb. “Dr. Chase.”

  The chief typed it into his computer. Jeremy monitored the results through him as he scanned the readout to make sure there were no red flags. There weren’t many people with that name in the database he’d pulled up and without her first name the chief found her sister’s file to verify her credentials. “Fair enough,” he said. There was no photo attached to Amelia’s file.

  Thank God.

  And that was all the checking O’Reilly was about to do. Jeremy made sure of it.

  For the next hour, Hailey sat in relatively patient silence while they went over every detail of the ongoing investigation. Jeremy got a firsthand look at the techniques used when vastly different jurisdictions were involved. The chief traced the murders from the presumed first victim to this last one. There were a handful of eyewitness accounts, mainly interviews with people who’d found the bodies. The police psych consult had put together a profile of the killer, the details of which Jeremy insisted on reading rather than discussing.

  None of it fit what he knew about Hailey.

  The police had theories about the perpetrator using trained animals to kill. The victims suggested crimes of convenience. Easy targets to take down for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Possible motives were listed as some sort of political statement for animal habitat conservation or—and this was the one that chilled Jeremy—“Because he could.” One theory said that the animals were still in training, being taught to kill on command. Government involvement also made its way into the Maybe column. The frightening truth was, this was just the sort of thing the government might do if they knew about the viability of creating shape-shifters and were attempting it.

  When Hailey leaned over to read, he moved so she couldn’t see. No reason to alarm her yet. The Special Unit had managed to keep details about their unique abilities off government radar this long despite intense curiosity aimed their way, and they would continue to hold their ground. There was nothing in their charter that said only telepaths were eligible candidates. Hunt was already an honorary member—only because he was too … Hunt to join officially. For their aid five years ago, both he and Dara were under the Unit’s protection. Jeremy would make sure Hailey would be too.

  If she survives.

  She would. She had to.

  Jeremy put the file back on the chief’s desk more roughly than he’d intended, earning strange looks from both O’Reilly and Hailey. He cleared his throat. “I think I’ve seen all I need to here. With your permission, we’d like to see the body now.”

  The chief nodded, still frowning. “Follow me.”

  The walk down to the morgue was tense. Jeremy let the chief lead the way a
nd kept pace with Hailey. She wouldn’t look at him and ignored every attempt he made to get her attention.

  A short talk with the medical examiner was all it took. They were given disposable garb and a menthol ointment for the smell. Once again Hailey hesitated but made herself move forward. Jeremy could feel the effort it took her.

  “You don’t have to do this,” he told her.

  She ignored him. One of these days he would have to explain to her that not every suggestion he made was a challenge to be met and answered. She was fighting him needlessly.

  The criminal morgue was relatively small for a metropolis like this. There was only one wall of metal drawers, and two autopsy tables. Everything was gleaming clean, but the faint stench of death was ever present. It was more psychological than physical. This facility was state-of-the-art, and their air filtration systems would be too.

  The ME led them to almost the end of the room and opened one of the compartments. When he pulled out the drawer, the body on it was covered with a white cloth. Jeremy was used to seeing things like this.

  Hailey wasn’t.

  She slapped a hand over her mouth and he heard her swallow hard. She took a couple of deep breaths and pulled her hand away again, taking on the persona of a professional scientist. “Sorry,” she said to the ME. “I’m getting over a bad case of food poisoning.”

  The ME gave her a commiserating smile and said nothing else.

  Jeremy had to admire her ability to think on her feet.

  He thought she’d lose it again when the white sheet was drawn back, but except for clenching her hands around the drawer’s edge, she remained outwardly calm.

  “If you need anything, tools or something, let me know,” the ME offered congenially.

  “T-tools?” Hailey said. “Umm, no, thank you. That won’t be necessary. I just need some space, please.”

  “Of course.” The ME left them there alone but Jeremy could sense him just outside the door. The man was curious, he could tell. Outsiders didn’t usually take such an interest in dead bodies.

  Jeremy positioned himself to shield Hailey from sight. She looked green. “Are you okay?”

  Hailey shook her head.

  “Great. What do you need?”

  The body was of a nineteen-year-old female. She used to have blond hair, but it was now dark, stained with blood. Her skin was white, ghostlike, and not at all like a live human being’s. Blue tinged her lips, around her eyes, and the tips of her fingers. She’d been dead long enough to look it but not to start decomposing.

  Her neck and torso were ripped open. The file said the injuries were consistent with an animal attack. The injuries were attributed to a large breed of dog but the scratches were too large and too deep for a positive ID. The findings were inconclusive because of it.

  Hailey stared at the body as though in a trance. Jeremy didn’t like the look on her face, or that she was so quiet. For long moments, she didn’t move. Then she raised a gloved hand and spread her fingers to trace the claw marks, keeping an inch away from the ravaged skin.

  Four claw marks, straight and deep. Jeremy could tell where the tips grazed the skin and where they hooked in to tear. Hailey’s hand shook over the girl’s body and she pulled it away. “The spacing is about right,” she said.

  “But you can’t be sure.”

  She shook her head. “I’d have to take impressions and make a model to be sure, but…” Her eyes were haunted. Jeremy didn’t have to look inside Hailey’s mind to know she was thinking about all the ways she could have done this. Innocent until proven guilty was his policy. Hailey’s seemed to be the opposite. She was staring down at the grisly aftermath of a vicious attack, and in her mind that was evidence of guilt.

  Hailey believed herself to be dangerous and the scientist in her wouldn’t let her accept anything less than cold, factual proof to make her change her mind. Jeremy couldn’t give her that. All he could do was play devil’s advocate and make her see the other side.

  “Let’s think this through,” he said, when he probably should have kept his mouth shut. He couldn’t stand the sight of Hailey the way she was now, as though she was drowning. She looked as much a ghost as the dead girl on the table. Jeremy wanted to shake her up, make her angry, make her fight. Anything but this meek acceptance.

  It had been a mistake to bring her. She never should have had to see this. He should have stuck to the plan and taken Hailey directly to Torrey.

  Stupid.

  And reckless. Because what he really wanted to do was shove the drawer back out of sight, take Hailey into his arms and tell her everything would be all right. He wanted to kiss the color back into her lips and feel her breath return. His job was to bring Hailey back to Torrey, not to be her caretaker. He told himself it was all just pretense to calm her down so he could get her onto the shuttle.

  Except it was becoming difficult to see where pretense ended and reality was supposed to begin. Jeremy cleared his throat and dragged his gaze away from Hailey’s downcast eyes to the matter at hand. “This girl is five feet, seven inches tall, about a hundred and twenty pounds—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Hailey said. “It doesn’t matter how tall she is, or how much she weights, whether she knew karate, or had a weapon. She never would have seen it coming. Doesn’t take much to take prey down. And once you get that far, it doesn’t take much to keep it there.” Her voice was hollow as she spoke. She still wouldn’t look at him.

  Jeremy pulled the white sheet back up to cover the girl’s face and break Hailey’s stare. “How do you know that?”

  Hailey tapped her temple. “It knows. So I know.”

  “Instinct,” he guessed.

  Hailey nodded. “Or memory.” She put her hand over the girl’s forehead. “I remember seeing her. She was wearing a green glitter wig and four-inch platform shoes. She winked at me. Said she loved the hair.”

  Jeremy took her hand and pushed the drawer back into the wall. “Look at me,” he said.

  “What if I killed her?” She was losing it, her mind starting to shut down. He had to break her out of it somehow; this was killing him

  “Stop,” he ordered. “Look at me.” If she went into shock he’d never get them out of here before someone started asking questions.

  She slowly raised her gaze.

  “You sensed something last night. Do you remember that?”

  Hailey frowned. “Vaguely.” That blank look began to fade. It wasn’t much but it was a start. Still not enough; she was still too close to the edge. Jeremy pushed.

  “Try harder. Think back. It was something you recognized.” If he could just get her to focus on something else…

  “I guess. What does it matter?”

  He wanted to probe more, ask the things that had been bothering him about this case for a while now. But the window of opportunity slammed shut when he felt the ME decide to butt in. Jeremy let go of her hand and put a step more distance between them when the morgue door opened. “Everything in order?” the ME called.

  “Yes,” Jeremy answered. “We’re done. Thank you for your time.”

  “Of course,” he said. There was curiosity in his mind. He wanted to get in on whatever Jeremy and Hailey were doing. When neither of them volunteered any information, he said, “If you’re ready, I believe the chief is waiting for you upstairs.”

  “I’m afraid we can’t stay,” Jeremy told him. “We are expected back at our HQ. Our flight leaves this afternoon.”

  “It does?” Hailey said, sounding dazed.

  “Yeah, I got the message this morning.” He took her hand again to lead her out past the ME. “Thanks again,” he told the man. “Please convey our gratitude to the chief.”

  He had them out of the building and in the transport in minutes, and on the road seconds later. Hailey was still pale as death, even in the light of day. He was starting to worry. “Are you still with me?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m missing something,”
Jeremy said. “Can’t see the big picture this close to the ground.” And he had to. Nothing about this was adding up. Hailey changing Amelia’s research, bolting off world the second she realized she wasn’t dead, the attacks, Hailey refusing to come back. For the first time he didn’t believe it was all random. Hailey leaving might have been a knee-jerk reaction, but she wouldn’t have kept running unless she had reason. She wouldn’t have avoided Amelia’s lab knowing it was her only chance to save herself.

  Damn, he couldn’t think! He was becoming too invested in this case. His objectivity was faltering and it was clouding his judgment. Jeremy didn’t care. His instinct told him Hailey was in danger and he wasn’t about to ignore it. The sooner he could get her to Torrey, to his playing field where he knew the surroundings and could control security, the better.

  “Can we go to where they found her?”

  “What?” Taken aback, he ran a red light and swore. “Why would you want to?”

  Hailey looked out the window. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail before stepping into the morgue. It was still like that but he could tell she wasn’t comfortable even with that little constraint. “Maybe if I saw it, I could remember.”

  “There’s nothing to remember.”

  “You don’t know that,” she said. “And until I see that place, I won’t either.”

  The transport picked up speed and he had to make himself ease off the gas. Probably not the smartest idea he’d had to drive manually when he was this worked up. “What do you expect to find? A sign written in blood on the wall: ‘Hailey was here’?”

  A pause.

  Then, “Maybe.”

  “And if it’s not there, then what?”

  Hailey sighed. “Can you please just drive there?”

  “Fine,” he growled. “It’s on the way to the shuttleport. We’ll go to the hotel, pack up and check out. We’ll have some time to stop in the alley before the flight.”