Marcus stands up, a thoughtful look on his face. “I knew there was something to it. With Briar it wasn’t as surprising, she’s younger, even DeGray, but I haven’t felt like that since I was young.”
“This is bad,” Karsyn says, speaking up for the first time. I would’ve forgotten he was there if it weren’t for his brooding.
“That’s an understatement,” Brooks says.
“Should we pass Peterson’s death off to someone else? A human team would probably be able to handle it,” Marcus says.
“I think they’re connected, though,” I say. “No, we don’t have anything that actually connects them at the moment. But on one side we have a huge advocate for equality who has been murdered for, presumedly, educating people on equality. And then we have someone trying to get vampires to attack humans. What better way to drive the humans and vampires apart?”
Brooks nods. “For now, let’s have Church and Hayes head over to the university. See if we can get something on Grady. Karsyn, I want you to continue looking into the students who might have been involved. DeGray and Briar, shift your attention over to the café. See if there are any connections between the two. Take the class roster to the woman who found the bodies and see if she recognizes any of the students. Be safe and careful.”
And with that, we’re dismissed. I head out to Marcus’s car and get into the passenger seat before turning to him.
“Good job not locking your keys in your car today,” I say with a “you did it!” smile.
He scowls at me. “I actually have a special seat for you. See that lever on the back seat?”
I look back and see that he’s talking about the one that allows the seats to fold down. “I do!”
“If you pull that, a magical hole will open up.”
“I love magical holes!” I exclaim.
“And then, when it gets really dark, you know you’ve finally found it.”
“Wait a minute… are you wanting to role play with me?” I grab my chest. “My! I’m so flattered. I kind of mistook you for a vanilla boy, but I now see I’m wrong.”
“Why is it that everything I say backfires and makes me either into a horrible person or a pervert?” he asks as he begins to drive.
I grin. “Maybe that’s just your true nature trying to squeeze its way out, and you’ve never noticed it before?”
“I have my doubts,” he says. “How have you not been eaten?”
“I don’t know, really. Luck, I guess?” Which is the biggest joke I’ve ever told. He doesn’t laugh, though, because he doesn’t get it.
He pulls into the university parking lot and we get out before trying to orient ourselves.
“Did you go to university? Like what do they do with you guys who’ve been around longer than regulations for certain testing?” I ask.
“Condensed classes or tests. In some cases, we’re permitted to take a test. If we pass, we don’t have to take the class. If we don’t, we have to take the new regulated class.”
“Let me guess, you passed with flying colors.”
“Most of them. I did… fail one.”
“Which was?” I ask, dying to know.
“A course over social interactions.”
I start laughing. “You? My little social butterfly?”
“I guess you can’t intimidate everyone to get them to answer you. First time I’d ever heard of it,” he says.
“I wish I could have seen it. Did you at least pass the course then?”
“Barely. Clearly, my expertise is not in interacting with the public.”
“I’d never have imagined after you made the guy you were interrogating piss his pants.”
“He didn’t piss them… completely.”
I grin at him. “You are surprisingly hilarious, Church.”
“Thanks,” he says sarcastically.
We head into the dorm and go up to the front desk before asking for the RA. She isn’t far away and takes us up to the fourth floor and over to the door.
“I asked his roommate to hang around this morning in case you guys had questions for him,” she says.
“Thank you,” I say as she knocks.
The door swings open and a young man looks at us.
I step forward to introduce myself. “Good morning, I’m Detective Finn Hayes and this is my partner, Detective Marcus Church.”
“Um… I’m Reggie Wicker.”
I give him a warm smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Reggie. Would you want to step out into the hall with me and answer a few questions while my partner looks around?”
“No, go ahead. This side is mine, the other side is Patrick’s.”
Marcus heads inside as I take Reggie into the hallway.
“When’s the last time you saw Grady?”
He shifts on his feet, clearly uncomfortable, but most people are when talking to law enforcement. “Yesterday before class. He was acting normal. I mean, we’re not like friend friends but we get along well enough. Sometimes we grab supper together, but it’s more of a convenience thing. We didn’t have a ton in common.”
“Did he share any opinions on vampires with you?”
He shakes his head as he nervously picks at his sleeve. “No, we really didn’t talk about that stuff. Are you sure he’s your guy? He usually just sat at his desk and worked on his computer or attended his groups.”
“What groups did he belong to?”
“That alliance group and then he did some type of chemistry group or something… I don’t know. It had to do with his major, I think.”
I talk to him some more, but I get nothing of interest out of him before heading into the room to meet up with Marcus. “Find anything?” I ask as I walk in.
“Nope. He has a lot of chemistry type books, but to my understanding, he was in multiple chemistry classes.”
“You’re thinking in correlation to whatever was found in the blood?” I ask. “His roommate said he was in some type of chemistry club or something too.”
“We’ll look into it. If he was creating the drugs, it’s likely he was creating them here since they have all the resources,” Marcus says.
I pick up a hoodie and hold it out to him.
“What?”
“Why don’t you sniff it like a tracking dog? You’re always telling me how superior your senses are. Maybe we can track him that way. I’ll even give you a biscuit when you’re done.”
His eyes narrow as I grin, proud of myself. I go to put the hoodie back but my hand crunches something. I open the pocket and pull out a note with some handwritten hours on it. Maybe hours he worked at a job?
“I didn’t know he had a job,” I say as I look it over.
“It didn’t show up in his file. Are you sure it’s his?”
My eyes run over it, but it’s just times jotted down on a sticky note advertising a bar. “I’m not sure. I’m guessing it’s his hours.”
Marcus takes it from me and types the company name printed on the top into his phone. “Looks like a club downtown. They open at seven.”
“Looks like you and I are going clubbing.”