Dani’s endless, tiring day was finally over. Midnight had long passed as she headed away from HQ and along the Aston Expressway towards Sutton Coldfield, the traffic on the roads as light as Dani was weary. She’d spent the best part of the last two hours with Easton in an interview room with Silviu Grigore. Easton had left the office some forty-five minutes ago, while Dani tried in vain to think of anything else she could usefully do before heading home. The time spent with Grigore had been next to useless. Grigore was giving nothing away. Had answered everything put to him either with ‘no comment’, or by pretending that he didn’t even understand the question. In the morning Dani would source a translator so that next time around he wouldn’t have that excuse.
For now, though, they were at an impasse. Dani was sure they had enough evidence to charge Grigore with murder. Both in relation to Jane Doe and Clara Dunne, the circumstantial evidence was strong. But that wasn’t good enough for Dani. She wanted to know the full truth. What had happened to the two women? What had happened to Liam Dunne? What was the involvement of Victor Nistor and Alex Stelea and Nicolae Popescu and the second man that Grigore had been with the night he’d been stopped with Jane Doe’s mutilated body in the back of his van?
And perhaps the most troubling unanswered question in Dani’s mind: what was Ben’s role in it all?
As Dani passed over a junction her eyes fell on a sign for Good Hope Hospital, the largest hospital in the North Birmingham area. Not the hospital that Jason was at, but spotting the sign still led to a knot tightening in her stomach. Stuck in the thick of an ever-changing investigation, she’d barely seen Jason since the weekend, and when she had seen him, it had mostly been late at night or at a horrendously early hour in the morning when he’d still been asleep.
Her tiredness now made the situation feel all the worse. Friday was supposed to be the first of their home ‘trials’, where Jason would stay the night, just the two of them. A normal couple, doing normal coupley things, if only for a day or two. For months Dani had longed for that moment to arrive. Now it felt like it was too much too soon, a burden almost, and she hated herself for thinking that way.
Unfortunately, with the melancholy thoughts taking hold, Dani could think of little else for the remainder of the drive. She’d been intending to get home, strip off her work clothes and dive straight into bed, rather than faffing with sorting out work clothes for tomorrow and heading back to the hospital to see Jason. But now she wasn’t so sure, despite the late hour.
Her street was deserted. Not a soul in sight, no lights visible inside most of the properties except for the odd one where the security-conscious owners had left a porch or hall light on to deter burglars.
Dani’s house was encased in darkness, not just because of the lack of interior lighting, but as a result of the layout of the street’s lampposts which meant there wasn’t one within thirty yards of her home, creating something of a black void around hers and her neighbours’ properties. It was only when she turned onto the drive, and her headlights lit up the brickwork, that she was able to confirm that indeed her house remained standing.
She shut down the engine and the lights flicked off and she was plunged into darkness once more. Dani tensed. Her eyes darted nervously as she stepped from the car. She trod carefully through the dark towards the front door, because she couldn’t see the path at all, and also due to the rapidly forming frost making the surface treacherous.
The street was silent, except for a gentle breeze rattling the bare branches in the trees. But then a faint scraping sound behind Dani, back towards the road, caused her to jerk and she whipped her head around to stare back at the street, nearly losing her footing in the process.
Of course there was no one there. The noise was mostly likely to be a cat or a fox or even just a frozen twig blown from a tree.
What the hell was she expecting to see anyway? A bloody vampire or something?
She carried on to the door, already shivering from the cold, but not helped by the dark thoughts now swirling in her mind.
Did she really want to stay here alone tonight?
She unlocked the door and took a half step into the porch and quickly reached out for the light switch before she’d even taken the key from the lock. The two spotlights overhead flicked on and Dani stepped fully into the porch as she pulled out the key.
That sound again.
Definitely not a twig.
Dani spun around. One hand on the door, ready to slam it shut.
That was her intention at least.
Except she hadn’t expected to be paralysed by fright when she saw the blacked-out figure standing just a few yards from her.
Dani gasped, but she couldn’t move. Brigitta Popescu’s ominous words rattled in Dani’s mind. Bodies, bones, Strigoi.
The figure, dark clothing, hood shadowing their face, took a step forward. Dani could see only a glimpse of skin and it glistened from the porch lights. Glistened red.
Blood.
Another step and the figure pulled down the hood.
Dani was left wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
‘Ana?’