it’s you. But you’re the only link so far.’
‘Me and the fact they’re all living on the streets. I think you’ll find a lot of other links if you bothered to look.’
Bakare scrubbed his hand through his thinning hair. ‘Let’s eliminate you from the suspect list, shall we? Then I can get Datta off my back about you and we can follow the other leads’
James wanted to take the DI to task over it all – the irregularities and lack of proper protocol, Datta’s clear prejudice, the idiotic assumptions. He was sure that Bakare was aiming to observe Gabriel’s reactions, and attempt to catch the artist in a cover-up or lie, and it simply wasn’t going to happen. Gabriel was innocent.
More to the point, if vampires had killed Daryl Mulloway, vampires might also be involved in the deaths of Alicia Jarret and this new corpse. Gabriel Dare was no vampire. He hadn’t even recognised James as being one.
James very much wanted to see, first-hand, if this new corpse had been killed in the same way as Mulloway. Because if it had, some arsehole vampire was on his patch and he was not fucking having it. Not for one hell-damned second longer.
Aye, I’ll feckin’ skelp the bastard.
Fifteen minutes later, the DI’s car, then Datta’s, pulled up in a small square of park next to a boarded-up shop and a derelict garage. Soon after, James was standing next to Gabriel at the tape barrier, staring up into a tree.
A body was draped between its branches, head hanging back. The dark hair fell away from the young man’s face, which was frozen in a rictus of horror. A scar ran from beside his mouth to just underneath his chin from the glassing. The faintest rust red was smeared on his lips and teeth. His throat had been gashed open on the left, but there was no other blood at the scene.
Gabriel stared at the body. ‘That’s Ben,’ he said dully.
Bakare looked at Gabriel, at the body, at James. ‘You’re going to give an alibi to Gabe, aren’t you?’ he said.
‘Of course I fucking am,’ snapped James. ‘We were together at home all evening, except for those few hours under the Chelsea Bridge. Then we went home.’
‘You can vouch for him all night?’
‘Yes.’
‘He could have slipped out while you were sleeping.’
‘I don’t sleep. I’m an insomniac.’ When Bakare didn’t look convinced he added, ‘Ex-army, active front line service in a warzone. I don’t sleep well at the best of times. Last night was not the best of times. I was awake all night. Gabriel didn’t leave the flat after we got home. Happy now?’
‘Yeah. Pretty happy.’ Bakare cast a glance at Gabriel, who had not taken his eyes off the body in the tree. ‘I’m sorry, Gabe. It’s my job to ask.’
‘Fine. Go ask some other people. Find out who’s doing this. We’re done here.’
James regarded the corpse in the tree closely. He tilted his head and inhaled deeply, passing it off as the settling of nerves, but he could smell it, even from here: the vampire blood in Ben Tiller’s mouth. Not enough to turn him, even given there was no guarantee a turning would work. Ben had bitten the vampire who murdered him.
Brave lad. Poor brave, terrified boy. It took courage to bite a vampire. Not much damage caused, but he’d drawn blood, with its distinctive scent for those with the power to detect it.
What made James particularly angry was knowing that murder wasn’t necessary. There were clubs for this sort of thing, with willing volunteers who offered their throat to the beast and off they went, happy as crazy, crazy Larry. Vampires didn’t need that much blood in a sitting. Even for the greedy, a mouthful from each of a dozen volunteers provided sustenance without hard-to-hide deaths. Too many of those and the police investigations would start, and those were, James gathered, irritating and inconvenient.
James hardly thought that London’s vampires would bother acting against this particular killer, though, no matter the inconvenience. It wasn’t as though vampires had any real hierarchy. As far as James had learned, the individuals in London’s small vampire population had their petty domains and were very selective about who they brought in. No. London’s vampires, like London’s constabulary, probably wouldn’t be arsed to act in this matter unless it threatened them directly.
The murders were unnecessary, James reflected, which mean that the vampire committing them was possibly doing it for fun.
It was exactly the sort of thing that gobshite, Major Cael West, would have done.
James clenched his jaw. He could hardly suggest that to anyone. No-one would believe him for a start. Well, they might if he fanged up in front of them, but James couldn’t think of a single scenario where that ended well.
‘You said you’d found Alicia Jarret too,’ said James suddenly to the DI. ‘Was she like him?’ He gestured towards the corpse. ‘No blood?’ At Bakare’s look he added, ‘I’m a doctor and I was a combat medic for six years. Give me some credit.’
Bakare blew out his pent-up breath. ‘Yes she was. Stuffed into a drainage outlet. Throat lacerations. No blood.’
Gabriel trembled. James could practically feel him vibrating from where he stood. He took Gabriel by the elbow and steered him away from the horror.
When James noticed that the scent of vampire blood was following them, he realised that they were in fact following it. He peered around and saw the smudges of blood along the footpath, dripped against the kerb as well. He tried to lead Gabriel away from the path he was unwittingly following, but Gabriel wouldn’t change course.
‘He bit his attacker, did you see?’ asked Gabriel.
‘What?’
‘Ben’s mouth had blood on it. All in his teeth. Well, I think it was blood. Odd coloured, dark, but blood I think.’
‘How did you see that?’
‘I’m an artist, James. I notice things, especially colours where they shouldn’t be. Ben’s mouth was all smeared with the wrong kind of red. You did see, didn’t you?’
Well, bugger. This is turning into a right guddle, isn’t it, Granda?
‘Aye.’
‘Good, because there’s more of it all along this street.’ Gabriel nodded at the smudges of blood on the concrete.
James realised with alarm that their path was not coincidental after all. ‘We should leave this to the police.’
‘Right. Yeah. Because they’re so keen to find out who’s actually doing this and stop the killing. Obviously it should all be left in their safe hands.’
‘Gabriel–’
‘Datta has had it in for me from the day we met, and it’s so bad now that Bakare stopped to eliminate me first before doing a proper investigation. Do you know how many people have gone missing from the streets in the last month? Six. Six people, James. I didn’t know all of them, by the way, if you’re asking.’
‘I’m
