Page 12 of Immortal By Morning
“You do not think it is one body chopped up and spread around?” he asked with interest.
“Well, I suppose it could be, but most people don’t have two right hands,” she pointed out.
A smile of approval grew on his face. “You noticedthe two right hands. Well done. Peters did not notice that and he is an officer.”
Abril shrugged. “Detail oriented, remember?”
“Yes, you certainly are.”
They peered at each other in silence for a moment until Detective Delacort suddenly cleared his throat and straightened in his seat. Pulling out a notepad, he flipped it open to a blank page and asked, “Can you give me a full name please Abril?”
“Abril Anne Newman,” she answered easily.
He made a note and then asked, “Can I have your phone number?”
When Abril’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, he quickly added, “For the report.”
“Oh, of course,” she said flushing with embarrassment and wanting to smack herself in the forehead for thinking he might actually want her number for some personal reason. As nice and flattering as that would have been, she’d never been a femme fatale that men fell all over. Clearing her throat she quickly rattled off her phone number and watched him write it down, then glanced out the sliding doors when movement caught her eye. The excavated hole was directly outside the doors and somebody was climbing out of it using a ladder.
Curious, Abril stood and moved to the doors at the end of the kitchen. Her excitement turned to concern once she could see down into the busy beehive that the partially excavated area had become.
There were a lot of people in the large hole, all wearing special gear that covered them from head to toe in white so that the only thing showing was their faces and those were half obscured by masks. Seeingthe white coveralls with hoods they wore over their heads and outerwear, the white boot covers over their shoes and boots, and the gloves on their hands, Abril felt guilt slide through her. She hadn’t had any protective covering at all to prevent contaminating the scene.
Worse yet, Lilith had been all over the area. But then Officer Peters and the two detectives had been without protective gear as well, she recalled and would have relaxed a bit, but now that that worry was eased, others were crowding in to take its place. Like, there were a lot of people bustling around outside now. A lot. Too many to be able to guess how many. She actually had to count quickly under her breath. Apparently, not quietly enough she realized when Detective Delacort asked, his voice distracted, “Hmm?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just counting the people working out there. There seem to be a lot of them,” she added a little worriedly and glanced toward the parking area in front of the house. The sliding door overlooked the side yard. She couldn’t see much of the driveway, just the front ends of one, two, three—
Giving up her position by the door overlooking the hole, she moved to one of the large front windows to get the full picture of the driveway and parking area. Her face blanched with horror as she took in the many vehicles, both cars and vans, and all of them bearing the labelLondon Police.
“Gina’s going to kill me,” she breathed with dismay.
The rustle of clothing announced Detective Delacort’s approach as he joined her at the window. The heat of his body told her he’d arrived and stood directly behind her. As did his breath against her ear ashe said, “She cannot blame you for this. You did not bury the bodies in the garden.”
Abril let her breath out slowly, resisting the sudden ridiculous urge to lean back against his chest. Instead, she straightened slightly, and shook her head. “No. I didn’t bury the bodies there. But by now the whole neighborhood must be aware of the foofaraw taking place in her yard and that’s what she’ll blame me for.”
“What could she possibly expect you to do? You cannot prevent us from doing our job. That would be illegal.”
“True,” she murmured, but knew that made little difference. Gina would be upset, not at her necessarily, but she would definitely be upset that her beautiful new home had bodies buried around it. Not to mention that the police were now filling her driveway and parking on the street in front of her house as they dug up those bodies and investigated. Sadly, Abril was the only one Gina could vent to about it. And would. Unfortunately, that would take the shape of yelling and screaming at Abril unhappily and it would feel like she was getting hell.
“Wait,” she said suddenly, as her gaze slid over a man carrying several large black zippered bags toward the excavated area. “He must be carrying at least a half dozen body bags.”
“Yes,” Delacort agreed, sounding a little mystified at what her point might be.
“But—” Sidling out from between him and the window, Abril crossed back to the sliding doors to look down into the excavated area again. Yes. As she’d thought she’d noted when she’d first looked, the peoplein the hole were still working, still uncovering bones in at least three different spots in the hole.
“Dear God. How many skeletons are down there?” she breathed with dismay.
Delacort joined her at the door and peered out at the working members of the forensics team.
“More than three apparently,” he said quietly and then placed a hand on her upper back when she slumped where she stood. Frowning, he asked with concern. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I just...” Her voice died off as his hand began to move, gently massaging her tense muscles. It felt so good. Seriously. Her tension was melting under his talented fingers, her body leaning into the pressure as he kneaded her shoulders with first just the one hand and then with both as he stepped behind her. His hands moved down to her trapezius muscles and Abril heard herself moan as he worked her. Then he let his hands move to her sides to grasp her by the waist.
For one minute, she was afraid he was going to set her away from him and stop what he was doing, but then his hands began to move again. The kneading became more of a caressing though, and she raised her hands, one clasping the window frame, the other pressing flat to the glass as his fingers slid up her sides until the tips of them trailed over the sides of her breasts before gliding back down to her waist again.
While Abril’s muscles had relaxed under his touch, everything else seemed to be tightening. Her nipples were becoming hard little buds, her toes were curling on the hardwood, and her thighs were pressing tight together in response to the tingling and pooling thathad started between them under the influence of what he was doing... and in anticipation of more.
Much to her disappointment, though, there was no more. His hands suddenly stopped massaging and caressing. Instead, he simply held her, his hands resting lightly at her waist, his breath stirring her hair, his body hard against her back and butt.
