Bite of Envy (Just One Bite #4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Perhaps he'd been the man to supply Andrew's dad with the drugs, she
considered. Slouching in her chair, she propped her feet up on her desk as she
thought it over. Carson, to date, had not done the slightest thing that might
directly lead back to him. It stood to reason that someone else had pretended
to be him. It was the only thing that made sense, as she couldn't picture
Carson dropping drugs to one dealer but letting Allsgood drop the rest of it
off to the others.
    She had no actual physical proof that Carson had even been
in on this to begin with, but she knew he had. He'd admitted it to her, and a
couple of weeks after Allsgood had gone to court, the man had been found dead
in his cell. The guards didn't hear a thing; no one saw anything and his death
went down as natural causes on the death certificate. Perfect for a vampire
with shifting skills good enough to get himself into places he couldn't
possibly go. Lizbeth was certain that after the former doctor had taken the
fall for Carson, his services were no longer needed. And after all, a witness
couldn't be left alive, right?
    She pulled her case files closer, searching for the name of
the man Allsgood had actually spoken to and smiled as the connection was made.
"Lester Wilcox," she whispered, her feet hitting the carpeted floor
with a muffled thud as she scooted closer to her computer and searched for a
death certificate. There, two days before she and Alexar had arrested Allsgood,
Wilcox had been murdered. As she read over the medical examiner's report, she
understood why the death wasn't investigated by her department.
    The body of Lester Wilcox had washed ashore the same day she
made the arrest- he wasn't identified for an additional week as dental records
had been the only way left to do so. The bottom portion of his head, from the
nose down, was still attached to the torso, but his legs and arms were gone
when he'd washed up on the beach that day, terrifying the five-year-old boy
that had the misfortune of stumbling over the body- almost literally, she saw
with a wave of pity. Cause of death had been the removal of his limbs while he
was still alive- the top of his head was removed perimortem: as he was bleeding
out from losing his arms and legs. It'd been deemed a homicide, of course, as
there was no way he'd done it to his own body, she thought cynically. He'd then
been dumped somewhere out on the ocean, and that was all she wrote.
    Sinking back into her chair, she shifted her focus from
Lester to his son. There was no shame in his eyes as he spoke of his father's
habits, and there was certainly no pride. The boy either had a great poker
face, he was numb to the loss, or he just didn't know what to feel. He had her
sympathy, whether he wanted it or not, but she'd not tell him that. He was just
stating the facts, and she admired that. He didn't try to lie, prevaricate or
justify what his dad had done. She laughed as she thought to herself that the
kid would make one Hell of a cop. Somehow, she figured he'd probably take that
as an insult.
    She fully intended to spend another night at the precinct-
she had some thinking to do, after all. She was preparing to settle down with
her case files and work for a bit before crashing on the sofa in her office
again when a pang hit her. She grabbed her coffee, parched beyond belief. It
wasn't until she picked up her mug and she glanced down, catching sight of her
pulse pounding in her wrist, that she realized she wasn't thirsty for her usual
drink of choice. She stared, transfixed, watching the pulsing of her blood
through her veins as her fangs sprang forth. Shit , she thought frantically, I
knew there was something I was forgetting . She glanced out of her office
and the panic turned to fear- there had to be over a dozen people on her way to
the door, and she didn't know how far her willpower would take her. Sucking in
a deep breath, she closed her office door and pulled the blinds before dimming
the lights. She knew