Once Bitten, No Longer Shy by Julie Steimle (chrome ebook reader txt) 📕

in that? He didn’t commit the crime. And he had friends in the police force. It as best to play along until the true culprit was found out. Troy just hoped the victim wasn’t another person from the biting group. Haunted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Four

 

 

As soon as Troy was taken to the police station, closely followed by Randon and Silvia who demanded to know whose murder Troy was accused of, he was taken to an interrogation room where the head of homicide of that precinct—not Officer Johnson’s precinct—informed him that Nicole Collins was found dead, drained of her blood not far from her apartment.

“What?” Troy nearly exploded, jumping out of the chair. “No!”

“Sit down! You were seen spying on her and her lover when they said good-bye to her at her workplace—”

“She can’t be dead!” Unable to sit down, Troy felt as if his chest would burst. No heartbeat, but the pressure within was too much. “I put her on the subway car and sent her home! This can’t be! Nicole!”

“You killed her outside her apartment in a fit of rage—”

“I did not! I sent Nicole home on the subway, and then I walked home. On the way I was attacked by a vampire. But Nicole—?”

“A likely story.”

“I have witnesses who can verify it! Jandra Williams! We took an Uber home together! She had friends on the street who saw!” Troy looked for windows. There were none. Just the huge one way mirror. But would breaking out of there make a difference? What he had to do was find JJ. He could see ghosts. He could verify if this was true. “Damn! Nicole.”

“You just said you walked home.”

“I was walking home when the vampire jumped me,” Troy turned his eyes on the cop. How could they possibly pin this on him? He loved Nicole. “Jandra had tazer on her and she tazed it. You can ask her!”

The policeman paused and wrote something down. In the silence it sunk in that this policeman was not lying. Nicole was dead. Troy dropped into the seat and stared at the table. Nicole was dead. A vampire had killed her.

Was it the vampire who had first bit her? Or was it a different one? If a vampire had come close to her, her wound would have opened up. She would have bled and the vampire would have been drawn to the scent of her blood. And yet, why her? Why now? It was possible, and Troy knew it, that the vampire who had attacked him had also attacked Nicole. It seemed to have been lying in wait for him. And if so, it had not expected Jandra.

Another awful thought flooded into his brain. The Order of Blood was still after him. What if they had been watching him this entire time? Lying in wait? But they could not get him—so they had targeted people he was connected to. First Brandon, possibly. Then Nicole. But could those vampire have known where Nicole lived?

Possibly.

If they had known, she wouldn’t have stood a chance.

And now Nicole was dead.

His body quaked. It was his fault. If she had come home with him, if he had forgiven her then, she would still be alive. Troy grabbed his head. “No. My fault. My fault.”

“Are you admitting to killing her?” the cop said, cruel eyes angled on him.

“No!” Troy shouted out. He pounded his fists together into the table. “I should have brought her home!”

The wood cracked, collapsing on one side, creating an indentation the shape of his arm in the layers of particle board. The right leg broke, dropping through the table top itself.

“So you would not get caught?” the cop backed away, his eyes fixed on the damage.

“No!” Troy screamed. But he really wasn’t hearing anything. His brain seemed to melt down. Nicole was dead. That beautiful sweet girl who had wanted him, obsessed and awkward and all. “She would not have died if she had come home with me! I knew a vampire was on the loose—the one who killed Brandon! Why did I forget! Why didn’t I just take her home? Why?”

“Do you are blaming some other vampire,” the policeman accused dryly, though he kept his distance, his own eyes saying to those on the other side of the mirror: ‘Get me out of here.’

“I didn’t do it! I want Nicole to be alive!” Troy punched the solid wall with loud bursting sobs. His fist went in even deeper than in his apartment. He punched it again, perforating the cinderblock.

“I need backup in here,” the cop openly called to those listening in now.

<< Settle down, or we’ll be forced to shoot you, >> a voice said on the intercom to Troy.

“I didn’t do it!” Troy shouted at the two-way mirror, advancing on it. He could hear the heartbeats of those on the other side. There were five individuals. The mirror would be real easy to break—much easier than the stone walls. Their hearts pounded quicker when he got closer. “I was in love with her!”

“Lovers quarrels are the usual M.O. for murder,” someone said, stepping into the room.

Troy turned around. It was no one he knew, but from the smell of him, Troy had a feeling he had SRA connections. He reeked of garlic. He probably also had a weapon that was anti-vampire.

“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care,” Troy said, wiping his eyes. “I demand that Officer Johnson from the central precinct, or his son JJ—Joshua Johnson—be here. I didn’t kill Nicole.”

“No call for a lawyer?” the man said with a smug twist to his lips.

“I’m not guilty,” Troy snapped. “I want someone who can talk to a ghost here! I want the truth!”

The SRA connected cop snorted. “You are in no position to make demands.”

Yet Troy lifted his chin, as he knew that comment was not only cliché, but also not true. Like he had told Nicole, he knew people. Powerful and connected people. He was in position to make demands.

“Then I demand my phone call,” Troy said. “And we can see if that is true.”

The cop advanced on him. “Vampires have no rights under the constitution.”

Troy stiffened. Was this man going to kill him? He pulled back. Breaking out might be his best option after all.

And the SRA cop grinned more, dismissing the other one.

Troy backed further, looking to the exit, then the mirror. Could he take them on? How armed were they? And how did Tom deal with stuff like this?

But the door opened right after, and in walked Officer Johnson. “Take a step back from him this instant! Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” Officer Johnson advanced immediately on the SRA connected cop.

The SRA policeman grit is teeth and grinned like a tiger at Officer Johnson, yet took a step away.

Troy’s shoulders hung in relief.

Officer Johnson said with a nod, “I came as soon as I heard. But I am not your legal counsel, but a friend here to make sure things will be fair. Please take a seat…” His eyes rested on the broken table. “And please don’t break anything else.”

Troy nodded. He once more sat in the seat in front of the destroyed table.

Officer Johnson took the opposite seat.

Once more the charges were explained to Troy, this time with more thorough explanation from the facts Officer Johnson knew. The SRA affiliated police officer ground his teeth while Officer Johnson explained the severity of the charge to Troy.

“It’s very simple, Troy. Your girlfriend Nicole Collins was killed—found dead, attacked by a vampire and drained of blood not far from her apartment. These folks think somehow you are killing people and yet manage to walk in daylight despite going after Brandon Turner and Nicole Collins, and I keep explaining to them that is not how it works with vampires. But anyway, people had heard about you and her having a fight over her affair with this guy Marcus—which is why they think you killed her. Marcus Williams has been taken into safe custody, by the way.”

Troy ground down his teeth, nearly lockjaw with distaste, noticeably sorry Marcus had not been killed. And since it was obvious, it was noted.

“You didn’t do it, did you?” Officer Johnson finally asked, leaning over the broken table toward Troy, desperate as it did look bad. Troy had opportunity, means and motive. It was despairing to see this worry in the man who had rescued him from the SRA and vampires when he was child, someone whom he never wanted to have lose faith in him.

Troy adamantly shook his head. “No. And I told them what I am telling you—I sent Nicole home, via subway. Our argument was public—in the subway station. Lots of people saw and overheard. But no harm came to her by me. If I were such a vampire to kill the one I love, why would I draw attention to myself like that? If I were such a vampire—believe me I could have taken her to a party or a club, feasted on her there, and made it like some other vampire got to her. But we just had an argument, I put her on the subway and I walked home. If anything, it would be Marcus who has something to fear from me. The damn man has blackmail porn on Nicole.”

Officer Johnson stared. He jotted notes down on this while the other cop narrowed his eyes more sharply on Troy.

“Were you going to try something…?”

“No,” Troy snapped back. “I had texted Tom—Tom Brown—to destroy it.”

Officer Johnson burst into a laugh, nodding and jotting more notes. “Someone trashed his apartment. So that was you?”

“Tom,” Troy said again. “At my request.”

“But that counts for something toward your alibi,” Officer Johnson said, pen to paper. “When did you ask for this to happen?”

“Last night when I got home.” Troy grumbled, closing his eyes, while shaking his head, imagining what kind of dirty pictures that creep had on Nicole. “Bobo was there. I was talking to him.”

“A time?” Officer Johnson waited with pen ready.

“Uh… around eleven, I think? Eleven p.m.” Troy then shook his head. What difference did that make though? If they thought he had gone after Nicole afterwards, they would just use this to create a timetable for her death.

“Do you have anything else to account for your location last night?” Officer Johnson asked.

Anything else? Troy thought a moment. “I was so upset about her and me breaking up,” Troy murmured, wiping his eye, “Bobo gave me one of those valerian drinks to put me to sleep. I was out since then up until noon.”

Two of the cops who had come into the room exchanged looks, their eyes sarcastically saying once more: ‘A likely story.’

“Ok.” Then Officer Johnson heaved a sigh. “I have to tell you, Joshua has been looking everywhere for Brandon Turner’s ghost, and he has had no luck. Either he was reaped—you know about reapers, right?”

Troy nodded. Eve was a reaper—a death angel.

“Ok, so either he was reaped already, or the guy was murdered far from where they dumped his body.” Then the JJ’s father sighed. “Joshua has not been in to look at your girlfriend’s body yet. If her ghost is here, he can talk to her and find out who really killed her.”

“Good,” Troy nodded