I’m pretty sure I knew the answer. “Our killer is an Arcadian female who’s only attracted to men who are the exact opposite in appearance to her kinsmen.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Occam’s razor again?”
“Brilliant deduction.” Another blast of wind pushed around us, causing tendrils of hair to momentarily shield my vision. I hooked them behind my ear. “I think she wanted Steele and the others as her kinky new sex toys, but couldn’t obtain them through legal means.”
“Let’s be honest, though. No woman is strong enough to force poison down a man this size.”
“You know better than that,” I said, patting the gun at my side, reminding him that I could force a steel pipe down his throat if I wanted. I knelt down and pulled at the bow tied to Steele’s penis. “Look at this. Is this something a man would do?”
“No.” Dallas shook his head slowly. “No, it isn’t.”
“Hey, Snow,” one of the men called just then. I recognized Ghost’s deep baritone; he was a man I enjoyed working with. He possessed a heart of honor and courage unlike anyone else I’d ever met.
“Yeah,” I answered and released the ribbon. I shoved to my feet, searching the darkness for his rich, chocolate-colored skin. He stood several feet away, his grin a beacon in the night.
“Why don’t you come over here and do that to me? I’ll enjoy it so much more than Steele there,” he teased with a wink.
Of course, Ghost also possessed a warped sense of humor. “The last breathing man who let me near his goods dropped to the floor in a fetal ball and begged for his mommy.”
He gave a good-humored chuckle. “You stay the hell away from my goods.” With barely a breath he added, “You want us to erect the force field and protect him from the weather?”
“No, not yet.” I wanted to view him exactly as he’d been left for a little longer. I returned my attention to Dallas, who was scrubbing a hand over his jaw stubble. “What are you thinking?”
“The killer went through some pretty elaborate measures to pose the body,” he said. “The intelligent thing to do is destroy all the evidence, leave nothing behind.”
“Our girl’s into showmanship, but more than that, she’s into punishment. She took her time here, labored over every detail. See how the victim’s body is perfectly aligned? See how the frost is perfectly sprinkled in his hair?”
A pause.
“I’m guessing he did something to really piss her off.”
“Damn me,” Dallas said, “but I think you’re onto something here. Punishment equals humiliation, and there’s nothing more humiliating than going down in history as the man found in a dirty, diseased field with one hand tied to his dick.” He snorted, his mouth quirking up at one corner. “Maybe we should interview a couple of my former girlfriends. Sounds like something they might do.”
Over the years, I’d met many of Dallas’s girlfriends. Some of them had needed icicles surgically removed from their veins—a sentiment I’d voiced aloud on more than one occasion. Not that he’d ever appreciated the genius of my insight.
I shook my head and said, “All we’re likely to get from your leftovers is frostbite, so we’ll forgo the pleasure of interrogating them for now.”
He shot me a teasing grin. “Oh, oh, Miss Snow. Is that jealousy in your tone?”
“Bite me, Dallas.”
“Hmmm, with pleasure, Mia.”
He was kidding, I knew. Our relationship had never been sexual. And would never become sexual. Sex destroyed more male/female partnerships than death, and God knows it would completely negate my authority, something I would not allow.
I stared down at the body for a long while, a new crop of questions running through my mind. “I want you and Jaxon to interview the victim’s family in the morning,” I said. Jaxon was another member of my unit. Whereas Dallas was all intimidation, Jaxon was a man who could ask the most private of questions and somehow convince interviewees they were happy to answer. “I want to know every sexual secret Mr. Steele possessed, every woman he ever glanced at. I even want to know the brand of underwear he preferred.”
Dallas’s handsome face twisted in a wince, his full lips pursing in feigned pain. “That should be fun.”
“If you’d prefer, I’ll assign you to PADD.” Paper and Desk Duty.
“Hey,” he said, smiling like he was about to do me a huge favor, “you want me to talk to Steele’s family in the morning, I’ll talk to Steele’s family.” Before I could comment, he added, “What’s next for tonight?”
I cast another glance around the scene. It was about to start snowing again, the night suddenly thicker than before. “Boys,” I loudly called, “go ahead and erect the force field, then call homicide. They can finish searching the area. We’ve found what we need.”
To Dallas, I said, “Let’s go to the car.” I pivoted toward our unmarked black sedan. I only set my feet in select places, using the same path I’d taken to get here. “I want to search the database.”
He fell into step behind me. When we reached our destination, I placed my index finger on the passenger ID scanner. After recognition the door popped open, and I slid inside. With a tug of my wrist, I slammed the door. Moments later, Dallas occupied the driver’s seat.
“Start,” he commanded, and the vehicle immediately roared to life. “Heat. High.” The heater kicked into action.
I glanced out the window and watched Ghost and the other men assume positions around the edges of the crime scene. Each man withdrew a small box, placed it at his feet, and pressed a button. Blue lights sparked from every box, and the air around them appeared to solidify, becoming liquid and spreading upward and out, until meeting and creating a protective dome.
“We need names,” I said, turning to Dallas. “Specifics.”
“That I can do.” Features tightening with concentration, Dallas unfolded his computer console, located where steering wheels were once positioned. Within seconds, he was plugging away at the keyboard.
Pensive, I removed my gloves and massaged the back of my neck. “Pull up a list of every Arcadian hunted, questioned, or wanted for interrogation in the last year.”
“Males, too?
“Yes.”
“Already done.” He punched a few more buttons, and twenty-six names popped onto the screen.
Ignoring the names, I scanned the crimes committed. Prostitution. Robbery. Vandalism. “Cross-reference this list with all Arcadians questioned for sex and human hate crimes. Delete those that have already been exterminated.”
His fingers again flew over the keyboard. Mere seconds passed before the names dwindled to five. I nodded in satisfaction. Very few aliens linked to violent crimes ever lived long enough to gloat. Since alien supporters had yet to push through a law stating that other-worlders were entitled to a trial, hunters were often judge, jury, and executioner.
Instead of thanking us for keeping them safe, however, the supporters continued to fight us. Didn’t they realize that if aliens weren’t controlled, if their numbers weren’t kept to a minimum, they could overrun us? That they might one day have the power to wipe us out completely? Didn’t they realize that species with extraordinary powers like weather control, levitation, and the ability to absorb energy needed to know they would be punished if they harmed a human?
When the aliens first arrived more than seventy years ago, we would have destroyed them all if we could have. From all the reports I’d read, panic had spread worldwide, and we immediately engaged them in war. Instead of causing them to flee, we came very close to destroying our own planet.
In desperation, our world leaders finally met with the commanders of each species, and it was agreed that the aliens could live here as long as they remained peaceful toward us. However, as with humans, there are those who are innately good and those who are innately evil. When several other-worlders placed humans on their dessert menu, both aliens and humans agreed something needed to be done. A.I.R. was quickly established, granting us free license to kill those who proved evil.
“We’ll question each one,” I said, “see what they know.”
Keeping his gaze on the front windshield, Dallas adjusted the pyre-gun hooked to his shoulder holster. The lines around his mouth were taut. “To be honest,” he said, his voice just as taut, as if he were embarrassed by his words, “I’m not sure I’ll be much help to you on this case. I’ve only hunted two Arcadians since joining A.I.R., and I had no luck either time.”
“Then consider tonight your lucky night. We’ll split the unit into five groups of two, and each group will hunt one Arcadian.” I shifted to my left, facing him more directly. “You’ll be with me, and I”—I winked—“always get my alien.”
“Not a bit cocky, are we?” His lips widened into a full-fledged grin, and he radioed the others and told them our plan. “Jaffe, Mandalay, you’re searching for Cragin en Srr. Ghost, Kittie, you’re searching for Lilla en Arr—”
“No,” I said, cutting off his words. The moment he’d spoken Lilla’s name, cold fingers of apprehension had crawled up my spine. “I want the woman.”
His brow furrowed. “There are two females listed.”
“I want this woman.” My instincts rarely proved wrong.
His eyes gleamed with curiosity, but he nodded, corrected Ghost and Kittie’s target, then continued his litany. When he finished, he returned the radio to its receiver and faced me. “So you think Lilla’s our girl?”
“We’ll see.” I motioned to the computer with a tilt of my chin. “Pull up her voice frequency.” When an alien was interrogated, no matter the crime, their voice was recorded and filed, and through voice recognition we were able to monitor their whereabouts for the rest of their stay on Earth. Alien voice was much like human fingerprints, and since high-frequency recorders decorated every street corner and were constantly monitored, we’d have the information we wanted in seconds.
“Her voice isn’t listed,” Dallas said, confused.
“She was questioned, so it has to be. Try again.”
Silence. Then, “I’m telling you,” he said, “it’s not here.”
No damn way. “See what else you can find on her. Every little detail.”
He positioned his fingers onto the keyboard and jumped back into work. One prolonged heartbeat of time passed. Two. “Shit, take a look at this.”
“What is it?” I straightened in my seat and eyed the screen.
“Firewall. All records for Lilla en Arr are deemed confidential, and no one, and I do mean no one, is allowed entrance.”
“Arrests and interrogations aren’t confidential.” The words rushed from me, ripe with displeasure and confusion.
He shot me a narrowed glance. What little I saw of his eyes blazed with irritation. “I’m telling you, access is denied. This is one hell of a block.”
Dark curiosity pounded through me because there was only one logical explanation. Someone on the inside didn’t want authorities poking into Lilla’s life. “Get into that file,” I commanded.
“Want me to pull a rabbit out of my ass, too?” he muttered, his tone heavy with sarcasm. But he turned back to the screen, his fingers working furiously.
“If you can show me that rabbit at the same time you get into that file, I might think you’ve got talent.”
“Shut the fuck up, Mia.”
Minute after minute dragged by, the click of the keys the only sound. I was not known for my patience, and tapped my foot against the floorboard.
Finally Dallas laughed, threw his hands in the air, and shouted, “Couldn’t block that, could you, you bastards.”
“What’d you find?” Excitement blended with my impatience, each emotion feeding off the other.
“Still no voice recording, but she’s been questioned twice. Once for soliciting sex from a human, and once for beating the shit out of a human.”
“Who arrested her?”
“For solicitation—George Hudson.”
I filed that information away. I didn’t know the agent personally, but I would. “What about the assault charges?”
“Let’s see. The arresting officer was—” He scrolled down the screen, then whistled between his teeth. “The name’s been erased.”
“This doesn’t make sense. Alien assault is punishable by death, and only death, yet Lilla was released and her record buried.”
“Why bury it?” Thoughtful, Dallas worried a hand over his shadow beard. “I mean, someone obviously wants her information to remain hidden, so why not destroy it?”
“Blackmail, maybe?” I turned my head and glanced outside. Several agents were packing their gear and loading their vehicles. Pieces of this puzzle just didn’t fit, and I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to make sense of what I was learning. I returned my attention to Dallas. “Does the database list who Lilla solicited and who she trashed?”
Another pause, then, “Shit, Mia. You’re not going to believe this. The man Lilla beat within an inch of his life was William Steele. And the man she propositioned was none other than—”
He shot me a glance, and we said in unison, “William Steele.”
“So there’s a connection,” I breathed, brushing a hand down my face.
Slowly, he nodded. “Looks like we’ve got our killer.”