Free Wicked And Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 4 by Jenn Stark Page B

something happen in the community?”
    “Why else would you want to come to the station? And don’t tell me it’s because of that bullshit Nikki was trying to spin. You don’t give a shit about the evidence from the Rarity Show. That’s old news.”
    “Well…maybe it could help with whatever is going on, actually.”
    Brody snorted. “That’d not exactly match up with the kind of luck I’ve been having, sorry to say.” He stared at me again. “You really have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
    “I—”
    Brody cut me off. “Last week’s search and rescue has yielded some unexpected complications,” he said. “I got cops all over the country with missing-kid cold cases emailing me. I got parents of said missing kids calling me night and day. And the case I caught today…”
    He shook his head as his phone buzzed, and took the call, biting off terse commands as he navigated the streets of Vegas to the police station. Throwing the car in Park, he cut the engine and exited, still on the phone. Nikki and I piled out after him, following dutifully all the way into the building, down the hall, and into the evidence room. The sleepy-eyed attendant frowned at Brody as he finally clicked off his phone, but the detective’s snarl was convincing enough as he bit off the case number that apparently was attached to the Gold Show. “Specific item?” Brody snapped at me.
    “Gold key, fancy. Baroque era most likely, about as long as my hand.” The hand that even now was slung into my hoodie pocket, palming Soo’s fake key.
    The attendant nodded, then vanished through the storage room door. “Eyes only,” Brody ordered as his phone pinged again.
    I winced, then gave him my most innocent look. “I will, um, need to touch it,” I said, glancing at the door where the attendant had disappeared. “Just to, you know.”
    “Oh for Chrissakes.” Brody rolled his eyes. “You can not steal it, Sara.”
    “I won’t! Jeez!”
    The evidence clerk, now looking much more harried, emerged from the back with a baggie in a bin and slid them through the slot. I took them as Nikki leaned forward on the man’s ledge. “Honey, where did you get those horn-rims?” she cooed as I slid the bin along the table, eyeing the key. It was exactly as Soo had shown me, and as Brody watched, glowering, I slid it out of its baggie.
    Brody’s phone jangled again as I touched the artifact.
    The shock of connection lifted me off my toes, every hair on my skin standing straight up. I shook my head hard as Brody swung back to me. I tucked the fake key into the baggie and offered him a smile as I pocketed the real McCoy.
    “Well?” he growled.
    “False alarm,” I said, my tongue feeling singed. “Not Connected.” My gaze dropped from his face to his phone…and I froze. “What is that?”
    He stiffened. “None of your—”
    “Seriously. Stop.” I pulled the phone out of Brody’s hand before he could protest, my blood icing in my veins. The image on his phone displayed a section of a human arm lying on a grungy stretch of asphalt, the stump cut just below the elbow. But what I could still see… “Whose arm is that?”
    Something in my voice made Brody go still as well.
    “Part of the remains of some John Does left in a Dumpster over on Fifth. Call came in just before Nikki texted me.” He stared hard at me. “John Does who were kids, some of them. No heads or hands. What do you know?”
    “Something. Maybe nothing.” I swallowed. “Can we…can we go look?”
    Brody didn’t hesitate. “We can. There’s only one site so far. I hope it’s the last, but I’m not counting on it.”
    And back we went through the station to Brody’s car, while Soo’s key made a quick change of residence from my hoodie pocket to Nikki’s bra. Her glance told me she could feel the power of the thing too, but hopefully not as strongly as I did.
    The three of us remained silent on the short drive, but when Brody parked the car at the