Page 53 of The Doctor's Wolf: Part Two
Adler growled and turned.“You’re taking photos?”
Maxim managed to look innocent.“I thought you might want them for your album?I’m being helpful.Else I’d just be standing here and watching you, and that would be very voyeuristic.”
Gordon chuckled while Adler sighed.
“Okay.Fine.Sweetheart, Maxim and I are leaving.Call me if anything comes up, okay?”
“Is that an order, detective?”Gordon asked coyly.
He has no idea what that does to me.Just play it cool.“Yeah.Yeah, it is.”
Gordon bit his lip, not really making things easier for Adler, but this time, Adler knew he had to leave.One stair after the other, and just before Gordon went back into the apartment, Adler gave him another kiss on the cheek, then walked outside after Maxim.
“He loves me, you know,” Adler said as he and Maxim got into the vampire’s car.“He’s a good mate, better than he needs to be.The idea of anyone thinking he couldn’t be because he’s not a werewolf…” Adler shook his head.
“Yes.I agree.We need not be born a thing to be that thing.That’s a truth I have seen confirmed over and over again in my long life.”
He put the car in gear and drove off.
It’s time we put an end to whoever is doing this.
Chapter 29
Afterthetwomostridiculous men in Gordon’s life had left the crime scene, it didn’t take long for Corinne to arrive with the corpse mobile.White-clad, she pushed the gurney into the apartment in which the two deceased sat and waited for attention.
“You know, I know what you always say about how we’re only supposed to deal with the what and when and how and that the investigators have to deal with the who and the why, but this—” she pointed at the bright wallpaper lettered with blood, “—seems uncannily familiar.I know we caught Pearson, and this wasn’t her, but…” Corinne looked away, shaking her head.“This is upsetting.”
Gordon shrugged as he helped lift LeRoux.“It is.This one was a professor for English literature, and our other, open-chested friend was a social worker.They were only ever trying to help people, nothing else.”Gordon sighed.“But you’re right; we don’t handle the whys and whos.That’s for Adler and Maxim to figure out.”Plus, I cannot tell you about a possible conspiracy.Sorry about that.
Corinne’s hold almost slipped.“Did you say lit professor?”
“Yes?”
“At NAU?”
Gordon nodded.“Yes.You don’t know her, do you?If so, that’s a conflict and—”
“No, no.”Corinne shook her head.“I just… I have a friend who’s doing English and French lit, and she was in this group project with this guy.She said the prof is a fae, and I don’t think there’re a ton of fae literature professors at NAU.It was just the two of them in the group because the other guy moved groups.Anyway.I think they got the project done in a flash and then just geeked out about, I don’t know, literature.”She pointed.“Like you and the toys, but with books and stuff.”
Gordon gasped even if the whitesuit hid it.“Corinne!They’re nottoys.Don’t say that, it’s offensive.I raised you better.”
“Yes, yes.You know what I mean.Yourcollectibles.But those two, they speak a different dialect of geek than you do.Anyway, she was telling me how the guy had this wild theory about how Arthur Conan Doyle was really just a straw man and how the real creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories was some ancient vampire who lived through the fall of Rome or whatever.She said the theory was really elaborate—she gave me the highlights, but I don’t remember.Ask me to name all the bones in the foot, no problem, but literary conspiracy theories go over my head.”
They had the fae on the gurney now and were closing her into her comfy body bag.
“Okay?LeRoux let her students run wild.Sounds like she was a good teacher.”
“Yes, I guess.That’s not the point though.He vanished.”
Gordon cocked his head as they were maneuvering the gurney back to the van before taking the second body.
“Who vanished?”
“The nerd with the conspiracy theory.Do you think—” Corinne lowered her voice on the stairs, walking backward and half turning to make sure she didn’t miss one.“Do you think maybe he did this?”
“What do you mean, he vanished?”Gordon asked, hating that Maxim and Adler had already left and weren’t here to ask smart detective-type questions.
Corinne waited until they were at the van.She opened the door.
