Chapter 25
Damon didn't like what he was thinking, but he'd been around too long to write off Bella's concern as overreacting. An irate boyfriend - one with a wounded ego, at that, over that damn List - and a missing woman were ingredients in far too many incidents of violence especially the inbred animosity between species. Maybe Rebekah met someone and felt like blowing off work, but maybe not. Bella wasn't the type to panic over nothing, and she had definitely been afraid.
He would have liked to scoff at the concern but ever since the former anti-vampire council had been reborn to an underground corp. handling the affairs of humans and supernatural in the town and making one vampire coming from a family with pull disappear did sound like something the council could be behind.
Of course like Bella said, it could also have been about that List thing. In any event, he'd be the one to find out what happened. Ever since he returned to town, Mayor Carol Lockwood had looped him in and had asked, actually order, him to create a supernatural only sub police division. His team would protect the humans from the various supernaturals while the real police would handle human affairs. So far that plan had worked
Not only it had worked, it had given him time to get involved with Bella. He repressed a sigh that would sound too dreamy for the seriousness of the office.
Throwing a look at the people around him, he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the desk. His mind went back to his brief absence from the town and his return to find a teenager having laid claim to his house, his name, his everything. Only Stefan's urges to stay calm had stopped him from ripping Bella's throat open and draining her.
Now he wanted to rip off her clothes. It was progress.
Pouring a cup of blood to snack on, he placed two calls. One to a patrol car to check Rebekah's apartment and the second in New Orleans to see if anyone had heard from her. The number in New Orleans went to voice mail and he left a message.
At ten-fifteen, the patrol unit responded.
"You called it, boss"
"She's dead?"
"Yeah. It's pretty brutal. It has to be one of us. Want us to try and find the boyfriend?"
"Yes. Give me the details"
"There's a bloody hammer at the scene. We might get some prints off it, might not."
Damon winced. A hammer did a god-awful amount of damage but it wouldn't kill an original.
"What else?"
"Not much of her face is left. She was stabbed multiple times and an ugly knife is sticking from her. She's covered in some sort of dust too. She was sexually attacked"
"Semen?"
"You'll see when you get here boss"
Damon sat motionless for a minute after they hung up. He didn't have to imagine the gory details; he had seen too many deaths in all their bloody reality. He knew enough about murder to know that this murder had been perpetrated by someone who knew the victim because the attack had been personal; the face had been attacked. The multiple stab wounds were indicative of rage. And since most female murder victims were killed by someone they knew, usually the husband or boyfriend, or the ex-whatever, the odds were overwhelming that Rebekah's boyfriend was the killer.
He took a deep breath and dialed Bella's number again. When she answered, he said,
"Do you know Rebekah's boyfriend's name?"
She audibly inhaled.
"Is she all right?"
"I don't know anything yet,"
He lied.
"Her boyfriend -"
"Oh. His name is Brick Geurin."
She spelled the last name for him.
"Is `Brick' his real name or a nickname?"
"I don't know. `Brick' is all I ever heard her call him."
"Okay, that's enough. I'll get back with you when I hear something. Oh - want to meet me for lunch?"
"Sure. Where?"
She still sounded scared, but she was holding together the way he had known she would.
"I'll pick you up, if you can get me through the gate."
"No problem. Twelve?"
He checked his watch. Ten-thirty-five.
"Can you make it earlier; say eleven-fifteen or so?"
That would just give him time to pick her up. Maybe she knew, maybe she caught on then.
"I'll meet you downstairs"
She was waiting for him at the front of the building when the guard let him through the gate. She was wearing another of those vests that made her clean, pale skin look like cream. Her right hand was fisted around her pendant.
He got out and walked around to open the door for her.
Her dark eyes were anxious as she studied his expression. He knew he was wearing his cop face, as emotionless as a mask, but she went white.
He put his hands around her slender waist and placed her into the convertible then walked back around to get behind the wheel.
A tear slid down Bella's cheek.
"Tell me"
She said, her voice choked. He sighed, then reached out and drew her into his arms.
"I'm so sorry,"
He said against her hair. She clutched his shirt. He could feel her shaking, and held her even tighter.
"She's dead, isn't she"
She said in a trembling whisper, and it wasn't a question.
She knew.