Page 25 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

Isabelle smiled. “I think you’re right about that. This is not the first double shift I’ve pulled.”

He walked ahead of her to the living room. Isabelle made one step into the room, before she stopped. There was blood everywhere, but the largest pools were on the sofa and the area around the coffee table.

“Booties and gloves?” Nelson asked and already handed her a pair of latex gloves and disposable blue shoe covers.

“Thanks.” She put both on, while Nelson did the same.

“This is where his sister found him. There’s blood in other parts of the house too, but not much.”

Isabelle looked around. The amount of blood was consistent with what the body had looked like. The blood loss had been substantial. Even now, she could smell its metallic scent. As a result, she felt her fangs itch, wanting to descend. Despite having had a full bottle of blood this morning, and then eaten a substantial lunch in the Scanguards lounge, she felt hungry.

In order to distract herself from this feeling, she said, “Thanks for sending the body over to us.”

“Sure. Was it helpful? Were you able to dig anything up that might help us figure out who did this?” Nelson asked.

“A few things, yeah. It was definitely a vampire kill just like you assumed. And the vampire fed from Hong before he killed him.”

Nelson tossed her a quizzical look. “You think this might have been an accident?”

Quickly, she shook her head. “No. Definitely not. But he wasn’t in a hurry. He took his time to feed, before he killed him. Almost as if he was enjoying it.”

“That’s sick.”

“It is.”

“Anything else?”

“There were defensive wounds. We found skin cells under his fingernails. Our physician called me an hour ago and told me that the test confirmed that they’re not human. The cells are from a vampire.”

Nelson hesitated for a moment as if he was trying to figure something out. “So, does that mean we have DNA from the killer?”

Isabelle let out a regretful sigh. “I’m afraid not. Vampire DNA hasn’t been sequenced yet. Nobody’s ever done it. So that’s a dead end, other than confirming that it was a vampire, and that the victim fought.”

“Hmm.” Nelson pressed his lips together. “Well, then I suppose we have to look for other clues to find our suspect.”

“We’ve got two suspects already,” Isabelle said.

“You do? That was fast.”

“The next-door neighbor, Ms. Martinez,” Isabelle said, pointing over her shoulder, indicating the house to the left, “heard Mr. Hong having an argument with his estranged wife around nine forty-five on Tuesday night. Cooper is checking her out to see if she’s a vampire or has any connections to vampires or maybe hired one to kill her husband. Apparently, they were fighting over the financial settlement of their divorce.”

Nelson nodded. “Money is always a good motive. But you mentioned a second suspect.”

“Yes, a work colleague. The two of them got into a physical altercation at work a week ago. We know the colleague, Brian Colby, isn’t a vampire, but we’re checking his alibi and who he’s been talking to in the last week.”

“All right, that’s good work. It looks like you don’t even need me. You’ve got this all in hand like a pro.” He smiled at her. “Let’s look around, shall we? We’ll start in this room. Maybe the killer left us a clue.”

Isabelle nodded. While she let her eyes roam, opened drawers and looked under decorative items and behind books, she made sure not to step into the pools of blood, not wanting to drag it around the entire house.

“Let’s check under the furniture too. I didn’t see his cell phone first time I was here.”

Isabelle crouched down, lifted up one side of an armchair and spied underneath it. Only dust and a few loose coins were underneath it. She set it back down then crouched lower to look under the couch where the attack had taken place.

“Nothing,” Isabelle proclaimed.

“Did you check in between the cushions?” Nelson asked from the other end of the room where he’d lifted up a heavy ottoman and looked underneath it.

“Let me see.” Isabelle stepped behind the sofa and bent over it, this angle making it easier for her to reach in between the cushions without her clothes being stained by the blood. On her second attempt she felt something. She pulled it out.