Exclusive Excerpt from Dead Wrong

by Gillian St. Kevern

“Why do these things always come in threes? You never win the lottery three times, do you?” Gunn had steeled himself for entering the yoga studio by lighting a cigarette before he went inside. The tobacco and sulfur scent mingled oddly with the herbal notes of the incense lingering in the room, but even that couldn’t mask the smell dominating the studio—death.

Kenzies snorted. “If our perp sticks to only three we’ll be lucky.” She turned to Nate. “You okay, blossom?”

Nate swallowed. The victim’s eyes were open, and she stared at the ceiling. Her short hair was buzzed on one side and spilled into vibrant green-purple-indigo curls on the other, but while she’d obviously gone to a lot of effort to get the cut, she hadn’t maintained it. Her brown roots were showing.

Why am I focused on her haircut and not her death? Nate felt bile at the back of his throat. The woman was dead, the third victim in this ongoing case. She lay on her back on a runic circle that even to Nate’s untrained eyes looked exactly like those the previous victims had been found on. The two fang marks in her neck stood out against the paleness of her skin like a brand. Just like the others she had been entirely drained of blood.

With a start, Nate realized Kenzies was still waiting for an answer. “Yeah. Uh. Fine.”

“There’s something really suspicious about your reactions,” Gunn remarked conversationally. “I can taste shock, but we’ve already established you don’t know the victim. Has this convinced you that Ben’s responsible?”

Nate gulped. That was it, wasn’t it? If Ben was in Saltaire’s custody, he couldn’t have done this. I need to talk to Godfrey ASAP.

“How long has she been here?” Kenzies asked.

Clay stepped forward. He was far, far too cheerful for anyone who worked with Gunn. “The yoga studio closed at six. Sunset was at 7:02 p.m. The corpse was discovered by the cleaner at—when did you say, Tremaine?”

Tremaine looked up from her inspection of the studio’s supply cupboards. “I got the call at 8:17 p.m. I arrived here ten minutes later.”

Nate was relieved to see that she no longer looked ill. She didn’t even look tired. Having a case to work on was clearly more to her liking than crowd control.

Tremaine cocked an eyebrow at him, and Nate realized he was staring. “I see you got your uniform without problem.”

“Yeah, thanks for dropping it off.” Nate tugged the shirt straight. The new shirt didn’t adhere to his skin. “I feel much more comfortable.” He cast around for a way to change the subject. He didn’t want to remember what had followed the delivery of Nate’s new uniform. Ben snarling as he launched himself at Aki in an entirely unprovoked assault.

Am I sure that Ben isn’t guilty? He has all the killing instinct of a vampire… I have to talk to Godfrey. Nate slipped his hand into his pocket, gripping his phone, and took a step backward toward the door.

Gunn spat out smoke. “What are the odds we can’t identify this one either?”

Clay grinned. “Bad news.”

Gunn glared. “Security footage only shows victim?”

“Not even that. It’s a complete blank from the owner leaving to Tremaine arriving. Also, we had the owner in to ID the victim, and she says she’s never seen her before.”

“Do you think they’re doing this just to annoy us?”

Kenzies sniffed. “It would explain the wolfsbane.”

Nate was startled. “You can’t smell anything?”

“I can smell too much. Even despite the best efforts of him”—she jerked her head toward Gunn—“and the goddamn patchouli this place is drowning in, I can barely make out the smell of the rite. And you know how much necromancy stinks!”

Nate did not, but he filed that away for future reference. Evil equals smelly. “And the wolfsbane?”

“Overkill. Then again, the fact they used it at all is a good indication, if one were needed, that our perp is not a wolf.”

“Or a vampire. Don’t they have sensitive noses too?”

Kenzies looked sadly at Nate. Out of respect for Nate’s feelings, she referred to the killer as ‘the perp’ when Nate was in earshot, but he suspected she shared her superior’s views of Ben’s guilt. “I caught a whiff of vampire when we approached the building.”

“We gotta go,” Gunn announced. “Another night, another demonstration scheduled outside the Registry. You’d think people would have better things to do, but there you go. Kenzies, I leave the rest to you.”

Kenzies saluted. “I’m going to sniff around here. Clay, you monitor the Forensics team, and make sure they don’t accidentally set off a necromantic booby trap. Tremaine, take Nate back to the station. I want you to figure out who these victims are.”

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