“So I thought you two would like to know we got an ID on your victim.”
Captain Perkins’ voice cut through her thoughts and recalled Cassie to the business at hand.
“Oh yeah?” she asked, attempting to look alert. “How?”
“An abandoned car was found down one of the side streets off of Bayshore,” Captain Perkins said. “One of the residents living in the neighborhood reported it—said it was ‘unsightly’.” She made a face.
“By which they meant it wasn’t a Lexus or a Tesla,” Cassie said dryly.
“Something like that. Anyway, there was a purse in the trunk with a driver’s license and some pictures on the phone that matched the picture of the victim we put out. Turns out her name was Brittany Harkins and she was a student at the University of Tampa.”
“Was there any trace of The Beast?” Stone asked, frowning.
“No trace of him in the car, no. We’re still waiting for the lab report on the DNA he left pretty much all over the scene,” The Captain said.
“We have evidence to prove that he is not actually a Kindred. Or at least, not a Beast Kindred, Captain,” Stone said. He explained about the lack of the “Mating Fist” and Captain Perkins nodded shortly.
“All right, that certainly puts a twist on things. I’ll let you know when we get the DNA analysis—it’s going to be interesting to find out exactly what the hell this bastard actually is, if he’s not Kindred.”
“We need to be looking for the toxicology report too,” Cassie put in. “To find out what exactly he shot the victim up with before he killed her.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for that too.” Captain Perkins nodded. “For right now, I want you two to talk to the victim’s roommate and then track down the other girls this “Beast” worked with. Somebody has got to know where he went—he couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air!”
“Somebody breathing down the back of your neck on this one, Captain?” Cassie asked her.
Perkins nodded shortly.
“Several somebodies, as a matter of fact.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “I have the press wanting to know if this guy is some kind of Satanist serial killer because somebody leaked the dirty details of the murder. Then I have the Mayor wanting me to catch the bastard as soon as possible because having a grizzly murder in town is bad for tourism.”
“Doesn’t the Mayor have a house on Bayshore herself?” Cassie asked.
Captain Perkins nodded.
“Exactly. She said, and I quote, ‘Catch him because I’m not going to be able to sleep at night until you do.’ And of course, the Kindred at the HKR building have been calling and wanting to know what they can do to help. The whole idea of a Kindred torturing a human female to death is extremely bad press for them.”
“You’re not kidding,” Cassie said. “They’re supposed to be the good guys.”
“We are the ‘good guys’ as you say, Cassandra. A true Kindred would never hurt a female. What did you tell them, Captain?” Stone asked, frowning. “I already asked that extra samples of everything be taken and sent to the Mother Ship for more in-depth analysis than you can manage here on Earth.”
“I told them I had my best detectives on it.” Captain Perkins gave them a piercing stare. “So prove me right, you two—catch this bastard.”
“No one wants to catch him more than we do,” Stone growled, looking menacing.
“Catch him and bring him in,” the Captain emphasized, giving him a hard stare. “I mean it, Stone.”
“That’s exactly what we’re planning to do, Captain,” Cassie assured her quickly. “Come on, Stone—let’s start with the roommate and then track down The Beast’s co-stars. One of them must know something.”
“I certainly hope you’re right,” Stone growled as they rose and nodded at the Captain. “Because he needs to pay for what he’s done. Especially since he pretended to be a Kindred while he was committing such atrocities.”
Fifteen
But it seemed like no one had any idea of The Beast’s whereabouts.
They visited their victim’s roommate first, but all she knew was that Brittany hadn’t come home the night before, though she had called and promised to pay her half of the rent with money she was getting from a “new job.”
“But she never said what the job was,” the roommate’s eyes were red from crying. “I could have covered her half of the rent! I wish I would have told her so!”
“This is not your fault,” Cassandra told the girl firmly. “Don’t blame yourself. And please let me know if you think of anything else,” she added, giving the girl her card.
Methodically, they went down the list, speaking to the females who had “worked” with The Beast in the pornographic scenes they had viewed. Many of them seemed frightened when his name was mentioned, Stone thought. And none of them had worked with him twice.