Fire Within by Ally Shields Page B

effort to ignore the creepy feeling and crouched next to the victim. She noted each detail. Casual attire. Jeans, blue shirt, leather sandals. The straight black hair was long; loose strands crisscrossed the decayed remains of the victim’s face. Ari decided she’d had fine features. Slender nose, slightly slanted eyes. The position of the body indicated she’d been facing the picnic table at the time of the attack. That must have been where the killer waited.
    Dammit, that’s where Carl was sitting, contaminating possible evidence! Ari straightened to alert the cops, but Carl had already been moved and techs were examining the table. Ryan was a step ahead of her.
    Raised voices near the perimeter barriers drew her attention, and she saw Harold Shale in earnest conversation with one of Ryan’s cops. She wished it had been Sarah Young, but she’d take what she could get.
    “He’s with me!” Ari shouted. The cop waved and let him through. She met Shale halfway and escorted him to Carl’s location. “You two know each other?”
    “Yes, I know Carl,” Shale said.
    The other man sat, morose, non-responsive.
    “He’s been like that since I got here,” she said. “We’d like to talk with him as soon as possible, if you can settle him down. But you can’t ask him what happened. Keep it general.”
    Shale indicated he understood and turned to the task of reassuring the distraught victim. As she left, Ari heard Shale begin with “Carl, I’m so sorry.”
    Relieved the victim’s boyfriend was now in professional hands, she tracked down Ryan. Probably should have told him Shale was coming before the counselor arrived. Would have, if Andreas’s presence hadn’t already screwed up her concentration.
    “That’s the counselor, isn’t it?” Ryan asked as soon as he noticed her.
    “Yeah, I called him when I first got here. Sorry I didn’t mention it before.”
    “You think he can help? Boyfriend’s a mess.”
    “Yeah, I noticed. That’s why I thought we needed a pro. If Shale can calm him, we’ll have a better chance at an interview.”
    “He better not question him about this,” Ryan groused. “The boyfriend’s still a suspect.”
    “I warned him.”
    “Yeah, well, not sure I like getting civilians involved. This second vampire murder is big trouble, Ari.” He gave her an apprehensive look.
    “Yeah.” Neither of them said the words—serial killer—but they hung unspoken in the air.
    “Can’t have a bunch of untrained personnel stumbling around.”
    Ari bridled. “You were more than ready to welcome a certain vampire.”
    “You know that’s different. It’s necessary.”
    “So is Shale. We need to interview the boyfriend tonight. That won’t happen if we have a hysterical witness.” Ryan’s attitude was irritating. How come Andreas was OK and Shale wasn’t?
    “OK. OK. But just because Andreas annoys you, don’t take it out on me. You need to chill. Let’s just get this scene processed.”
    Ari stared at Ryan’s back as he stalked across to his techs. Was she being unreasonable? Maybe, but Ryan didn’t have all the facts. She flushed, wondering what he’d say if he did. One thing was for sure, he wouldn’t want her personal life to interfere with the investigation. She’d work on minimizing the overlap. It’d help if a certain vampire would go home.
    The Medical Examiner came, verified the two murder scenes were similar, and left. Not very helpful. Gillian arrived and took samples from the body and from the surrounding area. Ari noticed she did a complete circuit of the scene, speaking with the crime scene techs and the victim’s boyfriend. Before she left, Gillian found Ari again and showed her the strange readings on the ES recorder.
    “It’s really weird,” Gillian said. “See these multiple rows of sharp spikes. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Gillian shook her head over the strange readings and was mumbling to herself when she left.
    An unidentified pattern. It had