Free Raven Mask by Winter Pennington Page B

themselves as Futhark had. As I watched from my seat beside Lenorre, I remembered Stanley, a vampire I’d met during my first visit to the club. It was hard to miss his eyes, which were as blue as any Siamese cat’s. It was equally difficult to miss the labret piercing beneath his lower lip. I’d thought he was a younger vampire, but apparently I was mistaken. He stood in one corner of the room, wearing a knee-length velvet jacket the color of a green apple with a pair of tight black pants. I watched his slight nod in profile, the chin-length black hair swaying as he listened to a gothic-looking doll-like woman I didn’t recognize. As if he sensed my gaze, he turned, offering a wink.
    Lenorre advised them to find out what they could and report back to her. The vampires were taking their leave when I caught Eris staring at me. I was standing with Lenorre, waiting to leave, when she visually dissected me as if I stood naked in front of her. I fought my own discomfort and forced myself to look away, sensing the wolf’s agitation at my refusal to rise to the challenge. But I knew better than to take on a vampire in Lenorre’s club just because she was staring at me.
    I sensed more than saw Eris turn her attention back to Isabella. Isabella was the girlfriend of a guy named Trevor, and I had met them both at Lenorre’s when I was working my last case. Isabella lived in Lenorre’s house, but I hadn’t known she was one of the older vampires, though I remembered seeing her wearing a frilly, old-fashioned nightgown. That should’ve hinted at her age, but the first time I’d met her she’d worn a miniskirt.
    Once the room was near empty, we left. Zaphara sat in the backseat as I drove back to Lenorre’s. On the way home, she even managed to keep her mouth shut. I was tempted to swing by a gas station and buy her a damn cookie.
     
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Chapter Twelve
    I had just stepped into the house when the cell phone rang from my back pocket. Zaphara hadn’t said a word to me as she left the room, and for that, I was thankful. I answered on the third ring. It was Arthur.
    “Talk to me,” I said.
    “Dirty or—”
    “Arthur, just tell me why you’re calling me at almost one in the morning. Did a medical examiner take a look at the body?” How the hell did he get any sleep? He seemed to be up most hours of the night, though he usually didn’t phone unless it was something important. That thought worried me.
    “She didn’t get the chance.” Arthur was talking in a low voice, as if he didn’t want to be overheard.
    “What do you mean she didn’t get the chance?”
    “The body went missing.”
    Distantly, I heard Rosalin coming down the stairs. I turned my back on both Lenorre and Rosalin and walked into the parlor.
    “When?” I asked.
    “No one can calculate the exact time of the body’s disappearance. We’re not sure if it went missing before or after it got to the morgue. We do know that it happened somewhere between eleven and one yesterday morning.”
    That made sense. They were still trying to wrap things up when I’d left the crime scene.
    “Where was the ME?” I asked.
    “On break. She didn’t get the chance to look at the body. We’re thinking they snatched it then, when it had just arrived.”
    “Which means it was never even signed in? Have you questioned the carriers?” My mind was racing.
    “Yes. The two of them don’t remember anything. When we asked them what time they got to the morgue, they couldn’t even recall arriving there or that they had a body to transport.”
    “Shit.”
    “You’re telling me. Kass, I need to ask you a question and I want you to answer honestly.”
    “If you plan to accuse me or anyone I know, I will fucking hang up on you.”
    “I won’t accuse you or your girlfriend. I know you didn’t do it. You’re probably too busy doing one another.” He chuckled.
    I shook my head again. “Get to the point, Kingfisher. What?”
    “You said you were pretty sure it was