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tracked her movement, but no lights came on and, more important, no alarm had sounded. She found the entrance to the morgue and swiped her card. The door clicked open. In the morgue’s outer rooms, bright light flared, making her eyes water.
Cursing softly, she quickly stepped inside and shut the door. “Lights dim,” she hissed. Instantly, the glare became a muted glow. She glanced around. Though she’d come down here only when absolutely necessary, that was still often enough to know the general layout of the place. Mark Righter, the medical examiner, had a desk in the far corner. More than likely he’d be handling Jack’s examination himself.
She rifled through the papers and files sitting on his desk, but Jack’s file wasn’t among them. Surely they couldn’t have finished the autopsy already? Frowning, she swung around and headed for the morgue. She didn’t have time to do a proper search for the file. Finley would notice she was missing soon. Before the alarm was raised, she had to get in and have a look at Jack—because she had a feeling Assistant Director Gabriel Stern would be canny enough to guess exactly where she’d gone.
The sickly strong scent of antiseptic punched her senses the moment she entered the room. Behind it, elusive and yet just as powerful, was the smell of death. She shuddered and quietly closed the door. The morgue was long and silent. Shadows crowded the far corners, despite the dim glow of the lights. Her gaze went to where the dead lay waiting, and after a moment’s hesitation, she walked across the room. The freezer units were categorized alphabetically. Jack’s was about halfway along the wall. She grabbed the handle, then stopped and took several deep breaths to calm her suddenly churning stomach.
She could do this. She had to do this, if she wanted to start finding answers.
Gripping the handle tightly, she pulled the drawer open. Jack’s body, cold and white, slid out to greet her. Her gaze went to what was left of his head, and her stomach rolled in revulsion. She let go of the drawer and backed away, desperately trying to control the urge to be sick. It wasn’t as if she’d never seen a dead body before, for Christ’s sake.
But this was the first time she’d seen anyone she’d cared about down here.
And absolutely the very first time that person was down here because she’d shot him.
For a reason, she reminded herself severely. She’d had no other choice, of that she was certain—even if she was certain of nothing else. And if she wanted to know why Jack had forced that choice, then she had better control her stomach and get back to examining the body.
Before AD Stern and his cronies came and dragged her away.
Taking another deep breath, she walked up to the drawer. And saw that death had frozen a look of disbelief on what remained of Jack’s face.
Oh God … no.
She staggered away and threw up in the nearest trash can.
“You okay?” The question rose out of the semidarkness, the voice familiar and filled with concern.
She groaned. Just what she needed. Gabriel had found her before she’d had a chance to overcome her nerves and look at Jack.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, digging into her pocket to grab a handkerchief and wipe her mouth.
“There’s a water fountain in the outer office. Would you like a drink?”
That had her looking up. He’d leave the room, leave her with the body? That went against every rule in the book … but then, Gabriel Stern didn’t seem to care much about the rules. Not when ignoring them suited him better. “Yes. Thank you.”
He nodded and turned around. She watched him walk back through the door, and then she pushed away from the desk and walked back over to Jack.
Trying to ignore the look on his face, trying to ignore her rebellious stomach, she studied the rest of his body. A naked Jack was nothing new to her. Men and women shared the same change rooms up in State, and once she’d recovered from the initial shock, she’d become as indifferent to it as everyone else.
Yet she could never remember Jack being this white. He’d always prided himself on his tan—and he’d never cared about how out of fashion it was deemed these days. Surely death hadn’t stolen all his color.
Gabriel came back through the door and crossed over to her. He handed her a cup and studied the naked form in front of them.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Sipping the water, she let her gaze slide down Jack’s body. His left hand rested on the flat of his stomach. His wedding ring was missing, which in itself was not unusual, given that the morgue staff would have secured any possessions before they placed him in the drawer. What was unusual was the fact that his finger showed no telltale mark of ever having worn a ring.
Her gaze moved down, and she frowned. Where the hell was the knife scar? He’d received the wound in their first year as partners and had worn it as a badge of valor ever since, refusing to have skin grafts. It made no sense for it to be gone now.
But before she could open her mouth to mention it, the lights in the outer office went off. And that wouldn’t have happened unless someone had ordered it. But why would someone from State, or even the SIU, have done such a thing when it was obvious someone was in the morgue?
Gabriel touched her arm in warning and pointed to the examination tables on the far side of the room. She nodded, slid Jack’s drawer back home and followed him. The morgue lights went out as she hunkered down beside Gabriel. Someone moved in the outer office, sliding drawers open and closed. Searching for what?
Minutes dragged by. She shifted, wondering why Gabriel didn’t do something. Whoever was in that office had to be up to no good if he’d turned the lights off, so why not call in the police? Hell, they were squatting in a building filled with them.
She shifted her weight again, then stopped as the morgue door eased open. Heat prickled across her skin, and once again her senses seemed to explode outward. The two men entering the room were vampires … and yet not.
The sensation slithered away. She shuddered, not understanding what was happening, not even understanding the information the weird attack had given her.
