Page 14 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
“So you just want, like, chicken breasts?” The young woman on the drive-through speaker sounded either confused or dubious. Maybe both, which was...fair.
“Yup. And the one sandwich. Extra tomatoes, extra mayo on that. And an order of fries, aaaand...that’s it.” I’d have loved to get a soda, but I couldn’t exactly carry it while riding. I could get a drink later. Charles would probably give me a bottle of water when I got to his place, if nothing else.
When I got to Charles Mailloux’s mansion on the edge of the city, though, I was in for the surprise of my life.
Cops.
There were cops at a vampire’s house.
Now, I wouldn’t have said that cops were never involved with investigations involving vampires. It did happen. People also won the lottery, escaped from horrific car accidents unscathed, and found previously unknown artistic masterpieces at garage sales. It was about the same regularity with which I saw vampires willingly become involved with police.
If the police were involved with something at the home of an elder vampire, this was something seriously important, and not in a good way.
A moment later, it got even worse. Because I knew the guy who came out the front door onto the steps of the house as I parked my bike. Police Detective Tobias Cain, Avalon’s answer to hot TV show cops everywhere, andhomicidedetective extraordinaire.
What could a homicide detective possibly be doing there?
He was in his forties or fifties, with salt and pepper hair that was always just a little longer than the other detectives in the department. His piercing blue eyes made you want to confessevery ill you’d ever committed, and also, apologize and hope he’d call you a good boy.
I mean, it wasn’t generally my kink, but it wasn’t hard to see the appeal. Besides, I was open-minded. I was willing to give all the kinks a shot, at least once.
Cain was on his phone, but he turned and scowled at me as I headed up the steps, bag of chicken in my hand.
“I have to go, I’ll call you back,” he said into his phone, then he tucked it into his pocket and he was just scowling at me. “Knight. What the hell are you doing here?”
“Hey Detective Cain. Lovely day, right? What are you doing at my friend Charles’s house?”
“Your friend,” he said, deadpan and clearly as unimpressed as ever with me. “You were friends with a septuagenarian shut-in?”
Were. That . . . no, that couldn’t be what he was saying.
“I wouldn’t call Charles a shut-in. He went out to the theater all the time. Art openings, museum dinners, all that stuff. But sure I was friendly with him,” I agreed. For good measure, I shook the fast food bag. “Dropped by with lunch and everything.”
Twist, unimpressed, poked her head out of my pocket and glared up at me. “Father, that is my lunch. You may not give it to this man. Youpromised.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I agreed with her. “Yours is in here too. But it’s notallfor you.”
Technically, I had not brought lunch for Charles, but also, I hadn’t lied and said otherwise. The bagdidn’tonly have Twist’s lunch, but mine as well. Besides, Charles was a vampire and wouldn’t want to eat lunch, and he should be asleep at this time of day.
Cain stared at Twist for a moment, then shook his head and turned his face back to me. “Well I’m sorry if you were close, butI don’t think Mr. Mailloux will be having lunch with you today. Or anyone. Ever.”
I blinked for a moment, flabbergasted by the very...That really was what he was saying. He was saying that...no. That was ridiculous. “I...you can’t be serious. Charles? Charles Mailloux? That’s not—” I broke off, shaking my head, because words were failing me. Charles was almost six hundred years old. He couldn’t just be dead. Like, real dead.
Cain stared at me a moment, those shiver-inducing eyes unreadable, then he motioned for me to follow him inside. The house looked the same as it ever did, full of expensive furnishings and priceless art. The only noticeable change was the loud sobbing coming from the general direction of the dining room.
Charles hadn’t had a huge staff, but I didn’t see any of them as we walked through the place.
“I’ll warn you,” Cain said as we walked, “it’s bad. If you were close?—”
“He’s—hewasa rival of my mother’s,” I corrected. “I’m not exactly friends with him. I was planning to talk to him about his security system.” That, finally, was an absolute lie. I might have talked to him about his security system eventually, but I’d had no plans for it, let alone today.
The detective paused and turned to me. “Was he looking to have something installed? Is that what you’re doing now?”
Cain had, of course, met me in my work as an investigator, and like most cops, he thought private investigators were about one rung up the ladder from drug-addicted police informants. Fortunately for me, for once in my life, my mother’s plans were going to work in my favor. “I’m working with a computer guy now, and we’re installing security systems. I was gonna talk to Charles about getting something set up. There wasn’t a plan in place yet. No agreements, nothing signed.”
We stopped in front of a closed door that I knew led to the office, since I’d been inside it before.
“Too bad it wasn’t already done,” Cain said, then frowned and reared back a little, shaking his head. “No. I’m sorry, that was—obviously this isn’t your fault. Also, I’m not sure a security system would have helped, since it looks like whoever did this, he invited them in. Are you sure...I mean, it’s not pretty.”
