Page 57 of The Hive Queen

Before I reach it, the door swings inward, and Chief Lynch enters.

His dark brown eyes sweep over the room before landing on me. “Sharpe, good, you’re here.”

I stop and clasp my hands behind my back. “Yes, sir.”

He steps farther into the room, the yellow lights reflecting off his bald head. “Captain Bailey and I were discussing this whole situation on the way over.”

The pounding in my head worsens. “Captain Bailey, sir?”

“Yes, he has a lot of insight to offer, since he’s been working the case longer.” Chief Lynch frowns at the empty whiteboard. “He’s grabbing coffee, but why don’t you get started, and we can bring him up to speed when he gets back.”

My hands clench so hard my fingers go numb. “With all due respect, sir, Captain Bailey’s team fumbled the case with Josephine Domingues, and as a result, we’re a month behind this serial killer.”

I force my hands to loosen. “The file they sent over for that case was riddled with so many holes that it’s useless.”

Chief Lynch’s eyes narrow as he takes a seat. “And you let our only suspect escape right out of the back of one of your patrol cars. I wouldn’t go casting stones so fast, Sharpe. The city officials are already unhappy with the damage Clearhelm keeps taking under your supervision.”

“The person from the crime scene is named Amalia Wolf, and she’s a bounty hunter who is tracking the same monster we are, sir.” I brought my laptop in with me, and I stride to the table.

And thank goodness for the legwork the slippery bounty hunter did for us. She’s the only reason I have something new to report, since all of the camera footage we’ve searched through has proven useless, and my techs haven’t found any DNA from the killer on the bodies.

I open my laptop. “Earlier, Amalia delivered more information to my people that we were not previously aware of.”

Bailey strides into the room. “Shocking that you’d be in the dark about something, Gavin.”

He sets a steaming cup of coffee next to Chief Lynch before taking a seat next to the man in a clear power move to make me feel like they’re both my bosses.

Bailey sips from the cup of coffee he brought for himself in case I missed that he didn’t bring one for me, too, then raises a brow in question. “And when you sayyour peopleyou mean...?”

I clench my teeth in frustration. “Mr. Boru was the one to interview her.”

“So, not even someone from the JTFPI.” He turns toward Chief Lynch. “This is what I’ve been talking about. If contractors do all the legwork, what’s the point of having a special division?”

Lynch holds up a hand to stop him. “I’ve already heard your opinion on this matter. Now is not the time to push your agenda. What did this bounty hunter have to say?”

I connect my laptop to the projector attached to the ceiling.

The case files Flint had sent over appear on the screen. “As you can see, Clearhelm is not this serial killer’s only hunting ground. There have been two other cases with the same mode of operation used, which happened between the murder of Carlitos Hernandez and the John Doe from the alley.”

“Don’t you mean Alvero Müller, from the parking garage?” Bailey’s lip curls. “Or are you saying that these two other murders happened yesterday, as well?”

I drag in a steadying breath, refusing to let the older man get a rise from me. “John Doe’s death predates Alvero Müller by several hours. He is also the only victim who doesn’t register as an Other, which you would know if your people had bothered to run a test on Carlitos Hernandez.”

I click a button to pull up Carlitos’s file, displaying the result that shows Carlitos had witchblood. “Luckily, the evidence pulled from that crime scene contained enough DNA for my people to run our own tests.”

Chief Lynch drums his fingers on the table. “But John Doe wasn’t an Other?”

I shake my head. “The test my lab ran uncovered trace evidence he was addicted togenicae.”

The drug had hit the streets as soon as Others came out in the open, selling a magical experience to regular humans. When it came out that it was witchblood mixed with stimulants, the drug fell out of use fast, but it looks like it didn’t completely vanish from the drug market.

I open John Doe’s file beside Carlitos’ bloodwork to show the genetic differences. “The drug produced a false positive on the first test we ran, which is why we believe he was targeted, and why his genitals were left at the scene of the crime.”

Chief Lynch’s face turns ashen, and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “So, you think this serial killer is targeting Others for their magical semen?”

“Witchblood, specifically, yes.” I pull up the picture Amalia had captured of Alvero Müller in the parking garage at the point of his death. “This is the best shot we have right now of our suspect, and it matches the description Josephine Domingues gave of Carlitos’s killer.”

The two men squint at the grainy image.

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