Free Blood Hunt by Lee Killough

tigress bit, too.”
    “ Tigress bit?” You’re doing great, honey; don’t stop .
    “ Yeah. If they come back for another try, the guys she’s gone with always have this huge hickey on their necks. I’ve never — ”
    The whole world screamed to a halt for Garreth. He felt electricity lift the hair all over his body.
    “ Hickey?” he asked breathlessly. “About this size and located here?” He demonstrated with a circle of thumb and finger.
    The barmaid nodded.
    She’s dirty ! But for a moment Garreth could not be sure whether he felt satisfaction or disappointment at proof of her involvement. Perhaps both. Wanted or unwanted, this gave him a legitimate excuse to ask all the questions of her he liked.
    He gave Samantha a five-dollar bill. “For you, honey. Thanks.”
    He made his way to the table where Lane sat. Nodding to the three men with her, he said, “Sorry to interrupt, gentlemen, but I need to speak with the lady for a minute.”
    Lane smiled. “I said, later, perhaps.”
    “ It can’t wait.”
    One of the men frowned. “The lady said later. Bug off.”
    Ignoring him, Garreth leaned down to Lane’s ear. “I can use my badge and make it official.”
    She glanced up sharply at him. Her eyes flared red in the candlelight again.
    Why did her eyes reflect when most people’s did not?
    Lane stood, smiling at the men, cool and gracious. “He’s right; it can’t wait. I won’t be a minute.” As they walked away from the table, though, the tone of her voice became chiding. “So you’re on duty after all. You lied, Inspector.”
    “ So did you. You said you didn’t see Mossman after he left the club on Tuesday, but we found him with a bruise on his neck just like the ones the girls here tell me you put on all your men.”
    She glanced around. “May we talk outside?”
    They left the club. Outside, the street stretched away from them in both directions, glittering with the lights of signs and car headlights, smelling of exhaust fumes and the warmth of massed humanity. Like accents and grace notes, whiffs of perfume and male cologne reached them, too. Voices and cars blended into a vibrant roar. My city, Garreth thought.
    Lane breathed deeply. “I do so love the vitality of this place.”
    Garreth nodded agreement. “Now, about Mossman...”
    “ Yes, I saw him.” She strolled down the street with him following. “What else could I do? He would have waked all the neighbors, pounding on my door that way. He got the address from the phone book.”
    “ So you invited him in?”
    She nodded. “Then...well, he was a charming man so...we ended up in bed. He left about three, alive, I swear. But he insisted on walking, even though I warned him not to and offered to call a cab.”
    Garreth counted two possible flaws in the story. Three o’clock lay on the edge of the limits given by the ME for Mossman’s time of death. He would have had to die very soon after leaving Lane’s apartment. And would a man careful enough to leave his keys and extra money and credit cards hidden in his hotel room ignore the offer of a cab and walk down a street alone in the middle of the night?
    They turned the corner. Once around it, the traffic thinned and the noise level dropped dramatically.
    Garreth asked, “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
    She sighed sheepishly. “The usual reason: I didn’t want to be involved.”
    “ The autopsy found puncture wounds in the middle of the bruise on Mossman’s neck. How did they get there?”
    “ Punctures?” She stared down at him. “I don’t have the slightest idea. They weren’t there when he left me.”
    Garreth said nothing in response to that. Instead, he waited, curious to see what more she might say. But unlike most people, who felt uncomfortable with silence and would say anything, often incriminating things, to fill the void, she did not rise to the bait. She said nothing as they turned another corner.
    Now almost no traffic passed. Garreth found