Some Gave All Read Online Free PDF Page B

which jibes with that note. But with the soot, and the blood…
    “After that, I ran into the barracks and saw your mother, and I was going to tell her about him. So she could help him. Then Colonel Johnson pulled out his gun to shoot her and I beasted out again. By the time I pulled myself back together, the soldier was gone.”
    He didn’t add that he had risked capture and execution by retracing his steps to find the distressed man. And to look for Lafferty’s burned body, if it had indeed been Lafferty’s. No one could have survived being engulfed in flames like that.
    He blinked.
    Except… he
had
encountered a beast who could have survived. The psychotic arsonist Eddie Long had been made not only fire-resistant, but also somehow able to create fires and direct them at his enemies. Long had nearly killed Vincent, and Vincent’s FDNY firefighter nephew Aaron as well.
    “Something’s bothering you. Something else,” she prodded, but by then they had pulled into the precinct parking lot. Catherine rolled to a stop and Tess emerged from the precinct headquarters and strode toward them, filled with purpose. Vincent noted that she was dressing more formally these days. She’d lost weight, and not just from the job—she and J.T. were having a few issues and Tess wasn’t handling it well. Since Tess and J.T. no longer had to work closely together to cover up Vincent’s existence, they were a bit at a loss to figure out what they had in common, once they came up for air from their romantic encounters. He was pulling for J.T. on this one. Tess, too.
    “So you said the little girl in the article that Mr. Riley showed you was named Aliyah Patel,” Tess said by way of greeting, as he and Catherine got out of the car. “And her aunt is Indira?”
    “Yes,” Cat said. Vincent shut his door.
    Tess grimaced. “Well, guess who’s in interview room A. Completely catatonic.”
    Catherine took a beat. “Saying feels like choosing. I don’t want it to be either one of them.”
    “Aliyah’s in the room,” Tess said. “We think Indira’s our latest vic.
Beast
vic,” she emphasized.
    Catherine shared a look with Vincent. He was sure they were thinking the same thing: that it was way too coincidental that they had just been talking about the Patels with Maurice Riley. That a picture in the
Post
of Aliyah less than a week ago had presaged an attack on them… and now the girl was at the precinct.
    “Crime scene is unbelievable,” Tess said. “I’ve got a team from CSU there, blotting up the evidence. Tissue and bone samples have been sent for testing. Vic was unrecognizable, but we’ve ascertained that Indira was home when the attack occurred.”
    “Where was Aliyah?” Vincent asked.
    Tess gave them both one of her patented you-aren’t-going-to-believe-this eye rolls. “The attacker forced entry through Aliyah’s bedroom window. Aliyah was in bed. Then it—I forgot, we’re saying ‘he’—tore her bedroom door—which was locked from the outside—off the hinges.
He
must have searched for Indira. He went into Indira’s bedroom, then moved into the living room, where Indira had apparently fallen asleep watching TV. Hard to tell from what’s left of the body. But there was an empty bottle of whiskey and plenty more crushed into the carpet.”
    “It definitely sounds like the beast was targeting the aunt,” Catherine said. “He bypassed Aliyah and had to make an effort to get to Indira.”
    “Not much of an effort,” Vincent observed. “When I’m transformed, ripping off an interior door is like tearing up a piece of cardboard.”
    “Right,” Tess said. “Which is why I already have a call in to the social worker you told me about, Angela Alcina. Turns out she’s left the job. But she wasn’t the Patels’ official social worker. She just helped Mr. Riley find Gheeta Patel’s daughter and referred his complaints about alleged abuse to the proper channels. The name of their caseworker is Julia