“How is revenge murder sexist?” I shot him a look.
“You automatically assumed her murderer is a guy,” he said. “It could be a girl.” I thought of Violet again, but I pushed her from my mind.
“Serial killers aren’t usually women, but alright, whatever,” I shrugged. “I’m going to kill whoever killed Jane.”
“Do you think a human killed her?” Bobby asked.
I was pleasantly surprised that he hadn’t tried talking me out of it. He didn’t even question it, as if going after a serial killer was the most logical thing in the world. It was stuff like that that made me dig Bobby.
“I don’t know what to think.” I clicked a link and leaned into the screen, devouring as much information about the whole thing as I could. “I mean, at first, I thought it was a vampire. For sure. But now... all these articles are saying there wasn’t a mark on the girls.
”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Bobby said, and I looked over at him.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s always one detail the police hold back,” he explained. “That’s how they can verify people’s claims when they say they killed her or they saw it happen or whatever.
There’s always one thing they keep out of the press that only the killer would know.”
“And that one thing could be bite marks?” I asked, and my heart thudded in my chest.
“Right,” Bobby nodded. “And I’ve always wondered what kind of relationship vampires had with city officials anyway.”
“What kind of relationship?” I wrinkled my nose.
“Well, remember in the fall, when the lycan killed that guy in the park and Ezra’s car was right there?” Bobby asked. “Ezra got the Lexus out of impound without any problems.
He was never questioned in the homicide, and I’m pretty sure that guy’s murder was written up as mugging related.”
“That could never pass for a mugging,” I said incredulously. “He had his throat ripped out.”
“Exactly,” he nodded. “And V is open until seven in the morning. How could they possibly get licensing for that? And they don’t card anyone that goes in there, ever. It’s easier to get into a vampire club than it is any other club in the city.”
“You think that the city officials are on a vampire payroll or something?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Probably not a payroll, but some of them have to be involved with the vampires in some way to cover this all up.”
“And if they are, and these murders are vampire related, they’d probably cover that up too,” I said.
“You guys try really hard not to kill humans, and I’m grateful for that, but sometimes, some people have to die,” Bobby said. “And you never hear of people dying with all the blood drained from their body.”
“Oh my gosh.” I exhaled and leaned back. “They had to have covered up vampire deaths before. And if Jane and these other girls were killed by vampires, they would’ve covered them up too, except they were out in the open. People saw the body before they could fix it.”
“But whoever is doing this wants to get caught.” Bobby sounded excited, not about the death, but about solving a crime. He sat on his knees and faced me. “I don’t think it’s the normal serial killer like Hannibal Lecter doing it for attention. Maybe he’s trying to expose vampires.”
“You said ‘he’ too,” I pointed out.
“Sorry, he or she,” he corrected himself.
“But why would anybody want to expose vampires?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “But why else would he leave the bodies for everyone to find?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed and looked back at the screen. “But this is based on a lot of conjecture. It’s more likely that it’s just some twisted human.”
“They found Jane a block from V. You think that’s coincidence?” He tilted his head skeptically.
“Yeah, and that happens to be within a few blocks of like 10 other clubs. Maybe it’s an angry bartender sick of getting stiffed on tips.”
“You really think that?” Bobby asked.
“I don’t know what to think.” I rested my head back on the couch and stared up on the ceiling.
“The patio is officially cleared off!” Jack announced and walked into the living room.
His jeans and hoodie were covered in packed snow, and some of it fell off and dripped onto the floor.
“Good job.” I wanted to smile up at him, but I didn’t feel like smiling. “You’re dripping snow all over.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna go change and hop in the shower.” Jack brushed chunks of melting snow from his hair. “I just thought I’d let you know.” He stood there for a minute, eyeing up Bobby and me. “Is something wrong? It seems pretty somber in here.”
“Nah, me and Bobby were just talking. Everything’s fine.” This time I did force a smile.
“Alright.” Jack looked hesitant, but he shrugged and decided to believe me. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”
I didn’t have any real reason not to tell him that Bobby and I were talking about Jane, but I didn’t really want him to know. It’d make him worry or stop me.
I didn’t have the energy for arguing about whether or not I should do what I’m doing, or feel what I’m feeling. I knew what I had to do and I wouldn’t let anyone stand in my way.
“We need somebody in the know,” Bobby said, picking up on where our conversation left off before Jack came in. “That’s how we’ll find out what really happened to Jane.”
“Well, yeah, duh,” I said. “That’d be nice if we-” I hadn’t even finished my sentence when it occurred to me. “We do know somebody.”
“Who?” Bobby asked.
Without telling him, I shut his laptop and got off the couch. Bobby followed me, and I think he figured it out when we turned down the hall and walked toward the den. We knew Ezra.
“You have got to stop moping,” I said. I pushed open the door and flicked on the lights without waiting for Ezra to respond.
Ezra stood in front of the large windows that faced the frozen lake behind the house.
He had his back to us, and he didn’t turn around. The speakers on his computer played out the same classical music it had over the past few months.
“I don’t know how you can listen to this all the time,” I said, walking around the desk. I clicked off the computer, noting the name of the composer Joseph Haydn before closing Ezra’s iTunes. “I’d get sick of listening to the same piece over and over.”