Blood Secrets by Jeannie Holmes Read Free Book Online Page A

Freddy and Reyes were processing the car on-scene.
    While she suspected someone might be on hand to guard the lab, it was an opportunity to retrieve the journal she couldn’t let pass. The Johnsons lived only a few blocks from the Nassau County Municipal Center, where the mobile lab was parked. She could easily stop at the lab, grab the journal, and be on her way with no one being the wiser.
    In theory. She just hoped her suspicions about guards and security systems were wrong.
    As she drew closer, the RV remained a silent fixture in a little-used corner of the Center’s parking lot.
    She reached the door and glanced around, expecting someone to appear and question her presence. When no one confronted her, she pulled on the flipper-style door handle.
    The lock clicked and the door quietly swung open.
    “This is too fucking easy,” Tasha muttered and mounted the steps.
    The lab’s interior was cool and eerily still. Again, no one confronted her or challenged her right to be there. Her heart raced inside its bony cage as she moved around the various equipment and stations to the back.
    Dozens of bins filled with evidence bags of different sizes and shapes had been crammed into the small lounge area at the rear of the RV. Looking over the ordered chaos, she discovered a small binder cataloging the contents of each bin. She flipped through the pages, scanning for the one item she sought.
    Once she located the correct bin, Tasha rifled through the various containers until she found a small brown paper bag sealed with red tape with blocky letters reading EVIDENCE printed diagonally across the tape’s surface. She checked the chain of possession grid printed on the front of the bag.
    CASE NO. 200911-23-NC     ITEM NO. 14
    DATE COLLECTED: 11-14-2009    TIME COLLECTED: 13:24
    COLLECTED BY: F. HAVER     BADGE NO. 9851
    DESCRIPTION OF ITEM: small journal, embossed pink leather
    LOCATION WHERE FOUND: right bedside table, Mindy Johnson’s dormitory room, RM# 2-16
    This was the journal she’d been instructed to retrieve. However, now that she had it, what was she to dowith it? For that matter, why did her mystery caller want it?
    She hesitated to pick it up. If she took the journal, she would be starting down a path she knew could end her career. If she didn’t, she risked losing something even more precious.
    “It’s for Maya,” she whispered. “Think of Maya.”
    Her hands closed around the brown bag and freed it from the bin. Stuffing it in an inner pocket of her jacket, she replaced the boxes and catalog and hurried outside, making sure to close the lab’s door behind her.
    As she turned to leave, she thought she heard a soft double click. She frowned, fearing she’d triggered some hidden security system, and pulled on the door’s handle.
    The door refused to open. She tried again and realized the door was now locked.
    “What the hell?”
    Her cell phone clipped to her belt beeped with an incoming text message.
    EXCELLENT WORK. WE’LL BE IN TOUCH .
    Fear lanced her spine. She scanned the lab’s exterior, searching for hidden cameras, but found none. How could anyone know what she’d done, so quickly?
    Did it matter as long as the deed kept her from losing Maya?
    Her thoughts leapt to the Johnsons, tucked in their home, jumping whenever the phone or doorbell rang, anxious to learn of their daughter’s fate. For ten years, she’d experienced a milder form of their anxiety, separated from Maya by her own inability to stand up to Caleb.
    She wouldn’t allow Maya to completely slip away.
    Tasha returned her phone to its holder and inhaled the damp and chill November air. Squaring her shoulders, she marched across the parking lot to her car.
    If the cost of keeping her daughter in her life was betraying a few vampires, then so be it.

four
    KIRK BELJEAN GREEDILY LAPPED AT THE BLOOD SEEPING from the girl’s neck. She moaned as he rhythmically thrust his hips. He loved entering her from behind. The position