THE ARRESTING officers put Chaz inside interview room three. Chaz flashed to his first few days on the force when he’d interviewed a mugger who had stolen a bunch of credit cards and questioning him in the same room. Chaz had been so, so worried about the two-way mirror giving him away with the small halo around his head. No one back then thought that anyone on the force could have been a vamp, so no one suspected him.
When the officer tossed him in the room and barked orders at him to stay, he glanced at the mirror against the wall. Chaz’s reflection was there, solid and complete. The faint halo of light was there too.
“How the hell can you show up?” the officer asked. “Aren’t you a vamp?”
“I’m still born of a body. I have a glow of the supernatural—that’s all.”
“Disgusting.” The officer made a face and left. Chaz didn’t know his name. None of it mattered now, because everyone knew his secret and he’d made the decision not to hide. It was the most terrifying and freeing decision he’d ever made.
Chaz waited on the edge of the chair and replayed the typical interrogation sequence. They would question him for fraud. For lying on official documents, and he would bring up Divine Interventions and Atticus Dubcek. Atticus was alive in jail, so that was where they could get that information if they needed it checked. Chaz knew that was still a gamble, but if Atticus did work for the good side now, maybe he’d be honest.
When Jack entered the room a couple minutes later, his face was grave. “Chip. Or should I say Chaz Solomon?”
“Yes, please call me that.”
“Shit, man. So you admit it?”
“I’m a vampire, yes. And I’m sorry for all the confusion. I know we were partners, but….”
Jack shook his head. He sat down on the rickety chair and unbuttoned his jacket. He stared at the file folder a long time. “Do you understand how much trouble you’re in?”
“I know. Lying on the force is bad. But look—I’m willing to help out. I have so many leads for our case, but I can’t help unless I can be open. So charge me with fraud. I’ll find a lawyer and I’ll beat that even though the system is rigged against monsters, which is why I had to get Atticus to lie for me in the first place.”
“Atticus Dubcek?”
Chaz nodded. Jack wrote down the name and underlined it, but his face still seemed ashen. Chaz wanted to say he was sorry a million times over. Jack was his friend; they’d been so close not six months ago. He deserved better than this.
“Look, Jack. I wanted to come clean. I wanted to tell you, but it was the only way to keep my job.”
“So why kill people?”
“What?”
“Why kill other vamps? Did they want to expose you?”
“Whoa, whoa. Wait. No. I didn’t do those murders. I have evidence of who did, though.”
“Then who? Because let me tell you, Chaz, right now it’s looking pretty good for you. You know the system. You know procedure. Fuck, you were even around when the evidence was destroyed at the brothel and vamp blood was mixed with elemental. You weren’t working when we found Ramirez, and you were already at the scene when we showed up. Then there’s tonight. Don’t even get me started on tonight.”
“What happened tonight?”
“A protestor was killed. A human one, man. So we have you for sure.”
“I couldn’t have done that. It couldn’t have been me. I’ve been searching down another lead around the Kawartha Lakes region. Come on, you have to believe me.”
“Who were you with?”
“Imogen Nicholas. She’s a social worker. And, um….” Chaz trailed off. Nat and Gabe were in witness protection. He couldn’t say he was with them, because it would only expose them all over ago. So he gave Gabe’s fake name, and what he remembered of Tansy. He didn’t mention Nat at all.
Jack wrote these down but didn’t bother to underline them. “Who are they? How do you know them?”
“I was helping them solve the crimes.” Chaz reiterated as much as he could from the house, including how some of the vampires had been transported, but Jack only shook his head.
“Come on, man. Have you heard yourself?”
“It’s all true. Look in my car, Jack, please. For the love of God, you have to believe me.”
“We already have looked at your car. Nothing to find but a bunch of cigarette packages,” Declan said. His voice cut through the tension. He stood in the doorway, not quite leaning into the room. He held a file folder in his hand but didn’t read from it. “You know when those women were shouting at the other crime scenes about the devil? How do I know they weren’t talking about you?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“This is all nonsense. Sex workers. Fiends. You’re trying to protect the lowest of the low, Chaz. You’ve always been doing that, ever since your days at Divine Interventions. Vamps are always the same.”
“I’m not like that.”
“You think yourself so pure,” Declan said. “So you kill everything else that comes into your way, thinking you can heal yourself by taking out all you’ve touched with your body and your mind. But it won’t do, none of it will do.”
“No, no, that’s not it at all. You have to look at the research. You have to. And Imogen’s number is in the file. Ask her. She knows I was there—so I couldn’t have killed that protestor.” Chaz shot a look to Jack, who was staring at his legal pad. He could barely look up, seemingly crushed. Declan seemed delighted. He hung in the doorway, not moving but taunting with the research.
Chaz touched his jacket pocket and pulled out the saint card. “Saint Therese. The patron saint of gardeners and florists. Imogen gave me this.”
“The same type of cards we found on the bodies?” Jack said. He picked up the card by its edges and put it into an evidence bag. “Chaz. What are you doing?”
“Nothing! I didn’t do a thing. I—”
“Ah yes,” Declan said, eyeing the number on the card’s back. “Imogen Nicholas. She’s come up a couple times in the vamp cases. I will look into this, but I suspect it won’t do much. She gonna alibi for everything with this monster business?”
“She’s not a monster. She’s human.”
“Okay, well, as long as she passes a blood test, that’s good to hear,” Jack said. “That will do favors for you. But we’re still going to need alibis for the other kills. Let’s start at the beginning.”
Without another moment, Jack listed off all the victims’ time of death. When it came time for Hector’s, Chaz shot a look at Declan. “I was with you.”
“You were in a separate hotel room. And he was killed the same time as Patrick, so you can’t exactly use me as your alibi.”
“Then I was at Jack’s party. A lot of people saw me.”
Jack nodded, his brow furrowed. Chaz saw a flicker of belief flash on his face. “But Ramirez. You were out on injury leave with that.”
“I was with Sully. The entire time after the explosion. I was always with Sully.”
“The translator?” Jack asked.
“And your fuck toy?” Declan said. “I’m sure that’s not a complicated alibi. You pay him for it?”
“Shut the fuck up.” Chaz slammed the table with a fist. Jack jumped at the sudden movement. Declan just seemed pleased.
“We know about Sully. He’s not a translator,” Declan said. “He’s a fiend like you. We found his records at the school. Tracked down the guy who bought his degree and had a nice long discussion. Your boy is a worker. Your boy is scum. And for once, it’s not going to come clean.”
“Don’t you dare talk about him like that. You know nothing about any of this.”
“We know that you’ve been working for the wrong side for too long. And now it’s time to pay for that.” Declan edged closer to the table, closer to Chaz and got in his face. It was only for a brief second, but it was as if they both turned to white light in the mirror. “You brought your whore to the house where he made his cash lying on his back. Did he help you kill more whores to make yourself feel better? What a crock.”
Chaz leaned out to hit Declan on the jaw, understanding exactly how Gabe must have felt. Declan was too quick. He slunk back against the wall while Jack restrained Chaz.
“This is not getting us anywhere. Declan—go home. Take a break. You’ve been working too long on this case.”
“I have no—”
“Go home.” Jack’s voice was hard, stern. He wasn’t taking no for an answer. After a while, Declan straightened his jacket. He shot Chaz another devious look, one that had no warmth or light in it whatsoever. His eyes were like ice and made Chaz shudder until he left.
Jack placed his hands on the table, drawing Chaz’s attention back to him. “You know, Chaz, things will go a lot easier if you confess. There are a lot of families who want to bury their kids in proper cemeteries. They can’t now because of you.”
“They can’t because of a silly law. They can’t because we don’t recognize vamps as people.”
“I’m not here to change the law,” Jack said, his eyes pleading. “I’m only here to enforce it.”
“Why can’t we change it, though? You know it’s bullshit just as much as I do.”
Jack shook his head. “Killing will always be wrong no matter what.”
“I know that, Jack. Please. You know me. I’m not a killer. A vampire, yes. But I’ve never killed a single person. I’ve turned them, yes, in the past. But I haven’t done that anymore.”
“So Divine Interventions cured you?”
“I never needed to be cured because there was nothing wrong with me. A vampire is still human. Still born of body. I haven’t done anything wrong here. I haven’t killed those people.”
“Maybe so. But someone did. And the evidence is looking good for you unless you get more credible witnesses. Not Sully. The department already looks bad for letting him get too close.”
Chaz balked. “What about Imogen? She can alibi me for tonight. If one chain in this supposed pattern is broken, then it’s not me.”
“Maybe,” Jack said. “But if you’re not going to confess, then there’s nothing I can do here. We have enough information to charge you.”
Chaz gasped. There wasn’t enough information at all, especially since the law said he couldn’t be held for killing vampires. But that one person—fuck, until Imogen arrived, they had him on the one by using the vampire kills as an established pattern. Now that Chaz wasn’t a human anymore but a monster in this system, it was back to being treated like crap. He remembered his first arrest and the cart off to prison.
“Shit, Jack. Don’t leave. Not yet. I get a phone call, right?”
“You do. And a lawyer if you want. Get a good one.”
“Okay. Get me the phone call and that person will get a lawyer.”
When Jack finally nodded, Chaz had arranged the dominos as they were supposed to fall in his mind. It would take a lot longer than he anticipated to sort out this mess—but he wasn’t a killer. One was still out there, with the freedom to commit horrible crimes because there was no law to punish them.
Now, more than ever, Chaz needed to focus.