Page 78 of D for Dead

Boaz shrugged and pulled a face. ‘You want me to take these in?’ he asked Sullivan, turning his back dismissively on Rivers.

‘What is wrong with you people?’ Rivers snapped. ‘We’ve got another dead body on our hands; another victim she knows. The pressure is on and we need answers. Hickok will back me on this. I’m trying to do my job, for chrissakes.’

‘You’ve found another body?’ Amy felt her blood run cold. All three men looked at her.

‘Another body?’ Boaz repeated; his own expression confused as he played catch up.

Amy had learned over the days they’d spent together that he wasn’t the brightest cop, but his heart was in the right place, most of the time.

Sullivan gave Rivers a heated look.

‘You pick your moments,’ he muttered, before finally fully acknowledging Amy and closing the distance between them with easy strides. ‘We’ve just come from the crime scene. Victim was found this morning.’

Amy stiffened. ‘Who?’

‘ID in his pocket says Leon Pruitt. He’s a doorman at your bar, right?’

She closed her eyes for a moment as a mixture of emotions bubbled; sadness, guilt, anger, frustration. Leon was one of the regular doormen at the Velvet Lounge and although she only

knew him through work, she knew him well enough. He didn’t deserve this; none of the victims deserved this.

‘Saturday night he took off. He’s recently separated from his wife and been going through a tough time. She’d come to the bar a few times and they’d argued. We figured same thing had happened again and that was why he’d disappeared. We should have known it was out of character.’

Without thinking, she reached out for physical contact, and took hold of Sullivan’s hand. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t pull away.

‘His wife is going to wonder why he hasn’t been in touch. They have a little girl.’ Her grip tightened. ‘Oh Jesus, his little girl; and Fran – she doesn’t know. She’s gonna take this hard. They were close.’

‘We’ll speak to his wife.’

‘How did it happen? How did he die?’

Sullivan hesitated.

‘I want to know, please? I need to know.’

‘The vampire killer book,’ Rivers told her. ‘Throat was slit and body drained of blood.’

‘Oh God.’ Amy drew in a shaky breath.

‘That’s enough, Rivers.’

‘The pathologist is at the scene now, which happens to be across the road from your apartment. I expect we’ll find he was strung up like the victims in your book and left to bleed out; it would have been a slow and cruel way to go.’

It happened quickly. One moment Sullivan was in the kitchen with Amy, the next he had hold of Rivers by the collar and was dragging him to the door.

Huckleberry was on his feet, emitting a low growl at the federal agent.

‘I told you, enough.’

‘Hey, get your damn hands off me.’

Sullivan threw open the door, pushed Rivers out into the hallway and followed. The door slammed shut behind them. Amy sucked in a breath, her mind reeling. She looked at Boaz. He was watching her warily, awaiting her reaction.

‘Uh, you okay?’ he asked, looking half afraid her answer would be no.

She guessed he didn’t want her to fall apart on him. He didn’t seem the type of man who was good at dealing with emotional women.

Pull it together, Amy.