Page 40 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

“Orlando, what have you done?”

If Margarite Arnaud was Orlando’s wife, he had to assume that she was his blood-bonded mate. Why would a vampire kill his blood-bonded mate and her entire family? No matter what had provoked Orlando, there was no excuse for this kind of brutal crime.

21

Isabelle opened the file folder with everything she, Nelson, and her team had collected on the murder of Wayne Hong and looked at her father. She and Samson were sitting in his office.

“Where are you on this?” he asked.

“Well, we have suspects, but we have nothing concrete,” Isabelle said with regret. “Hong’s wife is definitely human. Cooper confirmed it. But she’s not exactly mourning his death, and considering the fights they had about the money and the divorce, I can’t rule out that she hired a vampire to kill her husband, without even knowing what he was. She was probably the last who saw him alive, according to Hong’s next-door neighbor. And they were arguing again.”

“Hmm.” Samson looked past her, almost as if he didn’t even hear her.

“Benjamin looked into Hong’s colleague, Brian Colby, who he had a physical altercation with about a week before his death. Again, the guy’s human. His alibi seems to hold for now, but we still have to verify a few things. Benjamin is working on that.”

She didn’t mention the key to the Hummer that Nelson was checking for prints and trying to match to a specific Hummer. She hoped Nelson would take long enough with obtaining this information to give her and Orlando enough time to find the real killer before anybody could suspect Orlando. Because once they zeroed in on Orlando, they would get tunnel vision and wouldn’t try to follow any other leads.

When Samson said nothing, Isabelle looked at him, concerned. “Are you okay, Dad? You look distracted.”

He shifted his gaze back to her and inhaled audibly. “I’m fine. Well, good work so far. What else can you tell me about the case?”

She shrugged and closed the file folder. “Not much. Whoever it was didn’t leave a lot of clues behind. Probably knows a thing or two about forensics. But after seeing the body, we’re one-hundred-percent sure it was a vampire who killed him. Maya found skin cells under Hong’s fingernails. He tried to fight his attacker. But that’s all we’ve got.” She rose, clutching the file folder to her, and reached for her handbag. “I’ll continue following every lead we get. We’ll find him. I promise you.”

Samson rose. “I know we will.” But he didn’t look happy about it. As if he wasn’t sure that he would like the outcome of the investigation.

Isabelle was about to lean in for a hug, when the door was ripped open, and Gabriel stormed in. Gabriel, Scanguards’ second-in-command, wore his long hair in a ponytail, which revealed the large scar on one side of his face that reached from his eye to his chin. To many people who didn’t know him, he looked like a thug working for the mafia, but Isabelle knew that under that hard exterior lived a fiercely-loyal family man with high ethics. And an ace or two up his sleeve.

“There’s been another murder,” Gabriel said without preamble.

Isabelle’s heart stopped for a moment.

“Same M.O. Throat ripped out. She was found in her car, parked behind a dumpster in Glen Park, earlier today. The body just arrived at Scanguards.”

“Fuck!” Samson hissed. “Do we know anything else yet?”

Gabriel nodded. “Maya had a quick look at the body, and given when the victim was discovered and what state the body was in, she believes the woman was attacked and killed between midnight and 4 am. We should have a more exact time, once she’s done her examination.” He paused for a second. “And we know who the victim is. She’s one of ours: a Vuber driver named Jessica Mayer.”

“A Vuber driver?” Isabelle echoed.

“Have you looked at her driving log yet?” Samson asked and marched to his computer.

“No. Let’s see whom she drove last,” Gabriel said, and walked around the desk where Samson sat down now and tapped on the keyboard.

Isabelle sidled up to them, watching as her father logged into the Vuber system. Since Vuber belonged to Scanguards, he had full access to the company’s records.

“Jessica Mayer,” Samson said, as he typed in her name to access her log.

A few seconds later, a window popped up.

“She was on duty last night,” Samson said and pointed to a spot on the screen.

Isabelle was familiar with the layout and was already looking for the area where her last fare was recorded.

Under pickup spot it said Mezzanine. Her heart sank. The time was 1:25 am. And in the farthest column to the right, the name of her passenger stood for all to read: Orlando Carlisle.

Orlando had been the last customer driven by Jessica Mayer. Isabelle had seen her drop him off at his house and drive away. She’d been alive when Orlando had entered his home. Somebody had killed her shortly afterwards. It was easy to see why: to point the finger at Orlando. To frame him for another murder. Was being framed for one murder not enough? Or had the killer lost patience, because so far, nobody had connected the dots and suspected Orlando of Hong’s murder?

Samson rose from his chair. “Find Orlando, and arrest him.”