Page 23 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

“They were getting a divorce. She didn’t live with him anymore,” Isabelle said.

“You guys think she’s a vampire?” Buffy interjected.

“It’s possible,” Isabelle said, “though it’s also possible that she hired a vampire for the job. Maybe not even knowing that her hired assassin was a vampire.”

“We’re gonna check her out when we’re done here,” Cooper added.

Isabelle continued looking at the body of Wayne Hong. He was a tall Asian man with a muscular physique. Her gaze drifted to his arms. She noticed bruises there.

“He fought back?”

Maya nodded. “Yes, and against a human, he might have won. He looks strong and healthy.”

Isabelle pointed to his hands. “Did you find anything under his fingernails? Maybe he scratched his attacker?”

“We were about to do that when you came in. Buffy?”

Buffy reached for a steel tray with a few utensils and a petri dish. Maya proceeded to scrape material from under Hong’s fingernails into the petri dish.

When she was done with the left hand, she addressed Buffy, “You’ll do the other hand.”

Buffy took the metal tool Maya handed her and executed her order. “There. That’s it.”

Isabelle looked at the contents of the petri dish. This wasn’t just dirt. It looked like it could be biological material from the killer. “When will you know what this is?”

“Give me a couple of hours to run a few tests in the lab,” Maya said. She brought the petri dish to her nose and took a deep inhale. “It does seem to be biological in origin, so it’s definitely possible that this came from the killer. Unfortunately, if Hong did scratch the vampire who attacked him, the vampire’s injuries would have healed within hours if not minutes.”

“At least it’ll confirm that the killer was truly a vampire, and once we have a suspect, we can compare this sample to the killer’s skin cells, right?” Isabelle asked.

“Yes, there should be enough material to do the lab tests and a comparison to skin cells if we can get them from the killer.”

“Can’t we do a DNA analysis?” Buffy asked.

“I’m afraid not.” Maya’s voice was gentle. She would be a great teacher for Buffy. “Nobody’s ever sequenced vampire DNA. Maybe one day, when I’ve got more time for research, I’ll attempt it, but until then, that option isn’t available.”

There was a beep at the door, and it opened inward. Isabelle looked over her shoulder and watched Benjamin enter.

“Hey, I was told you guys were all here.” He glanced at the body and approached. “That the guy, huh? Gee, that’s gruesome, and I’ve seen my share of gruesome.”

They all had. Being employed by Scanguards and having to deal with rogue vampires had given all of them plenty of experience with the cruelty some creatures were capable of. It was one thing to hunt a brutal human killer, but a vampire was much more dangerous and powerful than his human counterpart. Often, a hunt didn’t end with a prison sentence but with death. And there was nothing pretty about death.

“Hey, Benjamin,” Isabelle greeted him. “How did the inquiries go?”

“Pretty good.” He opened his notepad. “Hong worked for the post office for seventeen years, always reliable and punctual. He not only lived in Glen Park, it was also his postal route for the last three years. He got on with his colleagues pretty well, except for an incident last week.”

“What happened?” Cooper asked with interest.

“Got into an argument with one of the other mail carriers, something to do with taking stuff away from him. Nobody knows exactly what it was about. Anyway, Hong went postal on the guy, excuse the pun. The supervisor and two other employees had to pull them apart before they killed each other.”

Isabelle nodded. “You think the other guy could have come back to finish the job?”

“Possible, but I saw the guy he fought with. Name’s Brian Colby. Definitely not a vampire or any other preternatural creature who would have had sufficient strength to pull that off.” He made a gesture to Hong’s torn-out throat, then added, “I can definitely check out his alibi though.”

“Yeah, do that,” Isabelle said. “What about the timeline? Were you able to confirm when Hong left work on Tuesday?”

“Yeah, he parked his mail truck at the sorting facility at four twenty that afternoon, signed out, and then left the parking lot in his own car. We have him on camera, so that’s confirmed. Anything from your end?”

Isabelle tipped her chin in Cooper’s direction.