Her father nodded. “Łucja Nowak.” He pulled a pencil from his pocket, took her notebook and wrote the name out. “Not spelled the way it’s pronounced, obviously. Not by our alphabet. It’s Polish. She’s Polish. Visited Barcelona on vacation and never went back. She’s been here seven years now. We were looking for a full-time medical doctor, and she was looking for a job. So we met a few times, and she’s worked out great. Treats everyone from abuelas to newborn babies. She works with the vamps, too, though they don’t need much from her.”
“Guess I’ll be meeting her this morning. But I’d like to do another circuit before we go look at dead people. Is that okay?”
“Only one dead person, mija. Don’t tempt the gods.”
She gave a smiling wave to Danilo as they set off down the broad top of the wall. The wall itself was four feet wide and constructed of solid stone. The floor of the walkway was the top of the main wall, though additional, narrow walls had been built up on the sides and served as both a safety against falling, and more importantly, as a barrier for defenders to shelter behind. In addition to the barrier wall, stone battlements occurred at regular intervals, jutting out a full foot over the front of the wall, and narrowing the walkway by half, so that the walkway was briefly two feet wide, and the battlement enclosure itself had a full three feet of maneuvering space inside. At the time it had been built, and later when Xavier was refurbishing and rebuilding, fortress designs took into account the need to prevent attackers from breaching the walls with ladders. That obviously was no longer the case, since an enemy could simply lob explosive charges over the wall from a safe distance, or blow a hole in the wall with a mortar charge.
But Xavier liked his walls, liked the privacy and separation they afforded from the human world. So, he’d reinforced and repaired them over the years and made them even stronger. His communication and surveillance gear was cutting edge technology, but when it came to walls, he was still an eighteenth century man. Not that Layla was knocking it. She’d wished more than once for a good, solid wall when she’d been fighting. The thought had her wondering idly whether Xavier had been in the military as a human. He was well-versed in military history, she knew that. And in retrospect, she knew he had a strong sense of strategy. Fortunately, that was a question she didn’t need an answer to.
Pulling out her cell, while her father talked to one of the guards, she punched Brian’s speed dial number.
“You must be really bored,” he answered this time. “Either that or you’ve forgotten how little action we see here in the vineyards.”
“No, just checking in.”
“Ah, you’re homesick, then. You miss us!” he added cheerfully.
“Don’t flatter yourself. Nothing on the horizon?”
“Nada. I’ve checked all four directions, and not a grape thief in sight. What about there?”
“They’re understaffed, though not as bad as I thought. The problem is more one of experience, and maybe a little complacence. To hear everyone tell it, they’ve barely fired their weapons except on the practice range. On the other hand, we’ve had a bit of excitement this morning. They found a dead body not far from the Fortalesa.”
“Who?” Brian’s tone was all business.
“No one from here, I don’t think. Whoever found the DB couldn’t do an ID, and this place is like a small town. Everyone knows everyone else.”
“They have a coroner, medical examiner? Anyone who can do a post-mortem?”
“A medical doctor who’s a jack-of-all-trades, apparently. I don’t think they have much need for a full-fledged coroner. We’ll be dropping by there in a bit, to see what she found out.”
“Christ, we lead boring lives, don’t we? Was this what we had in mind when we enlisted in the army, all bright-eyed and eager after graduating UCLA? The excitement of finding dead bodies?”
“No, I think our eagerness had mostly to do with them paying off our student loans.”
“Oh, right. So, how long will you be there?”
“I already told you. A few weeks.”
“Ah, but some of the boys and girls are threatening to visit you. They want to get there before it’s too late.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know, it’s warm and sunny?”
“It’s warm there, too. Besides it’s hot as hell today, and I forgot my hat.”
Brian laughed. “That’ll be ten demerits, Captain.”
“Don’t remind me. I was in a hurry. My dad was up and back down from the wall before I even woke up.”
“Wow. You’re really slacking off on your vacation.”
“Fuck you. I have to go see a dead person. Talk to you later.”
THE DEAD PERSON turned out to be a very young woman, barely more than a teenager, with black hair to her waist, coffee brown skin, and what would have been lovely and delicate hands if the fingertips hadn’t been chewed off. Her eyes were also missing, along with her lips, which made identification nearly impossible without DNA. Although maybe the doc could salvage enough of a fingertip or three to assist an ID. She had nothing in her pockets—no wallet, no money, no ID—but was dressed in stylishly distressed blue jeans and expensive athletic shoes. Her teeth were intact, and she’d benefited from excellent dental care during her short life, with no cavities, and evidence that orthodontic work had probably given her a pretty smile. She wouldn’t be smiling ever again, unfortunately. They’d be lucky if they even managed to identify her.
“I’ll have to call the authorities on this,” Dr. Nowak said, pulling the sheet back over the young woman’s ruined face. “She definitely has dental records somewhere, and she’s been taken care of, but even if there’s a missing person report, it could be from anywhere in Europe. Hell, we don’t know for sure that she’s even European.”
“Cause of death?” Layla asked.
“Gunshot chewed up her heart and lungs—9mm, which I believe is what we use.”
“So does everyone else, so that doesn’t mean much. Could be someone just wanted to dispose of a body and decided to lay it at our feet.” She turned to her father. “Have we had any fighting in the rear quadrant lately?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s been a straight up frontal strategy.”
“She could have been shot and crawled away, I guess. Or someone dragged her there to get her away from the fight, but she died first. It sure doesn’t help us figure out who’s behind this. Not without ID.”