Page 65 of Bad Luck Vampire

Sophie nodded and waited.

“The fire was deliberate. Yer parents were murdered.”

She already knew that, so simply waited for him to tell her more.

“The police report’ll no’ tell ye more than that. They never sorted who was behind settin’ the fire.”

Sophie sank back in her seat unhappily at this news, only realizing then that some part of her had hoped that the culprit had been captured and that too had just been kept from her.

“We ken ye were young,” Connor said now. “But do ye remember anyone yer ma or da had problems with? Someone ye may ha’e heard yer ma or da arguing with?”

Sophie shook her head at once. She didn’t recall anything like that. As far as she remembered, everyone had loved her parents. Her gaze flickered to Inan as he set a glass of soda before her and she murmured, “Thank you.”

Inan gave her a wink and moved back to sit on the counter again.

“Okay,” Connor said as she reached for the glass. “Did ye ever hear yer parents talking about maybe someone at yer da’s workplace? A jealous coworker or something o’ the like?”

Sophie set the glass back down and turned it idly as she thought about that, but after a moment she shook her head again.

Connor was peering at her hard, his gaze concentrated, but then he sighed and relaxed. “Can ye tell us who in yer life died next, after yer parents?”

Sophie blinked in surprise at the question, and it was Alasdair who said, “Andrew.”

“Andrew isn’t dead,” she pointed out at once.

“He’s been in a coma for—” He paused and raised his eyebrows. “How long?”

“Nearly seventeen years,” she answered quietly.

“That’s as good as dead,” Connor decided and asked, “Who was he? Was he important to ye?”

Sophie gave up arguing about whether Andrew should be considered dead or not and admitted, “He was my best friend’s brother... and my first love.”

All the men but Alasdair nodded now, as if expecting the words.

“How did he die?” Inan asked.

Sophie quickly ran through the story she’d told Alasdair earlier, ending with finding him in the park.

“Did anyone witness this accident?” Tybo asked when she finished.

“I don’t think so,” she said quietly.

“Surely there were others in the park?” Connor pressed. “Or houses or buildin’s around it where someone could ha’e looked out and seen it?”

Sophie grimaced, realizing she’d left out a bit of information. “It wasn’t really a park. We just called it that. It was really an old shopping mall that had been shut down years earlier. It was boarded up, but someone had pulled off one of the big wide panels of wood in back where a delivery door was. They’d forced the door. You could just move the panel and slip inside, then replace the panel so it looked to be still secure.”

“And Andrew liked to skateboard in there?” Alasdair asked with surprise. “An old mall?”

“It was cool,” she said defensively. “It was two floors with the stores and a walkway all around the outside. On the main floor, the center was taken up with a large open area with a huge multileveled fountain in the middle. Of course, there was no water in it by then,” Sophie said. “The second floor was set up the same way, only the center had been left open with railings around it so that you could look down on the fountain. The boys loved skateboarding in there, they could use the stairs and the rim around the fountain to do tricks.”

“But with the windows and doors boarded up, it must have been dark in there,” Alasdair protested. “How did they see to do their tricks?”

“It wasn’t dark. Not in the center area. Well, not during the day anyway,” she added. “There were huge honking skylights in the roof over the center area, which were actually still intact. They were dirty, but still allowed in a lot of light.”

“Ah.” Alasdair nodded, but then asked, “Why did you call it ‘the park’?”

“It was kind of a code name. We weren’t supposed to be there,” she pointed out. “If anyone at the group home had realized we were in and out of that place, they’d have freaked. So we called it the park. The kids all knew what it meant when you were ‘going to the park.’ The adults didn’t, though, and just thought we were literally at a park,” she explained. “Besides, we considered it our version of a skateboard park anyway.”

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