[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
what you can do, Jade.”
“Jade-Scarlet. One name. Only my family can refer
to me without my title.” Her gaze felt like fingertips
sliding over his face, a tinge of longing in her eyes. She
blinked it away. “I’m forbidden to reveal my gifts unless
necessary to the case.”
“You’re forbidden to be seen without your red
cloaks, too, but that didn’t stop you coming in here
50
51
without it, did it?” Pale waited for her to squirm. It didn’t
happen.
“It was an order from my Praemonere.”
“And your Praemonere can rewrite Sibile code that’s
existed for a hundred years?”
She took too long to answer, her lips making tiny
movements, but no words.
He grinned at her. “If you can break one rule, then I
don’t see the problem with breaking another.”
“Why is this so important to you?” Her eyes were
glowing slits of discontent.
Because I need to know how to get past your
defenses. “The more I know about what you can do, the
better I’ll know where to direct your attention.” First to
the killer, then to himself. “No one else will know.”
She hesitated, her gaze penetrating. Finally, she
lowered her chin in the slightest of nods.
It was enough to begin.
“The first victim was found eight days ago under a bus
stop bench, most of her remains stacked like a woodpile,
which is why the media started calling this guy the
Woodsman.”
Jade swallowed, stifling the urge to scrunch her nose
in distaste. “Most?”
His disconcertingly steady stare met hers. Palen
Rysen didn’t have her sense of queasiness about the not-
so-departed, it seemed. One probably didn’t last long in a
violent crimes unit if one couldn’t handle a simple
rundown. Then again, she was pretty sure no one in his
unit had been through many encounters with their murder
victims.
Dee Tenorio
Tempting the Enemy
“All we’ve recovered at any of the sites are arms and
legs. No heads, hands, feet or torsos have turned up yet.
It’s why we haven’t identified any of them.” He paused,
offering her space to question, but she was still processing
the grisly information. “All we know about the victims is
that each of them was frozen for some amount of time and
they each had a triangle of skin sliced off their right
biceps prior to their deaths. Incidentally, that is always the
limb on the top of the stack. The triangle is equilateral,
two inches to each side.”
Right biceps?
Pale’s gaze sharpened. “Does that mean something to
you?”
That you’re paying too close attention. She shook
her head. “Do you know the sexes?”
“Female, all of them. The second body was found
behind a liquor store on Shaw, two days later. Same stack,
same triangle cut. The third was found in front of a
fountain in Graham’s Park by a groundsman coming on
duty, just after sunrise this morning. All the victims have
been found after two-day intervals.”
Sunrise. Was that significant? “These are all such
public places.” That could make it harder to find the
killer’s signature.
“Yeah, ballsy, isn’t he?” Rysen shook his shaggy
head.
“You know the killer is a man?”
“It’s
most
likely,
given
the
nature
of
the
dismembering. According to the coroner, the cuts on the
bodies are clean, single slices from a large single-sided
blade. No hesitation marks, no sawing. Either the bodies
52
53
are cut by a machine, by a large man with an axe, or by a
gold-medal female bodybuilder.”
“If there’s one thing you should understand better
than the humans, it’s that females should never be ruled
out by virtue of strength. Some of us have ways to
equalize the equation.” She watched his handsome but
stoic face for changes in expression. What would he look
like if he truly smiled? Baring his teeth had been oddly
arousing. A smile might just make her melt right off her
chair. At least she sensed him relaxing. Murder apparently
cleared even a Wolf’s mind of mating.
“Since the body parts were frozen, there was no
excessive blood at the drop sites to mask a scent. I can
follow one farther than most wolves, but even I can only
track this guy a few feet. Then he just disappears.”
Which explained his surety of the sex, if nothing
else. The thought perked her interest. “So you’ve isolated
his scent.”
“Not exactly. Where this guy has been, there’s
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]