A Wolf's Heart (Harlequin Nocturne) Read Free

God, you know each other? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I imagine it’s because Gabriel has put me so far out of his mind he forgets he knows me.” Elise took a sip from the liquid in the wineglass she was holding.
Gabriel wasn’t going to rise to the bait, although what she’d said wasn’t that far from the truth. “Dramatic as always, I see.”
“Of course. It’s what I get paid for.”
He set his kit down on one of the tables and opened it, trying to avoid a verbal sparring match with her. “Can we see the letter, please?” He snapped on latex gloves.
“Lily, could you, please?” Elise nodded toward the petite dynamo who had opened the door. She must be Elise’s personal assistant and guard dog.
Lily handed Gabriel an unfolded white piece of paper. He took it and laid it flat on one of the tables on thick plastic sheeting that Sophie had prepared.
Even at first glance, the letter wasn’t a typical fan letter. The letters forming the words had been cut from various magazines and periodicals and glued together so that there was no handwriting to analyze.
Then he read the words.
She is gypsy, will not speak to those
Who have not learnt to be content without her;
A jilt, whose ear was never whispered close,
Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her
He looked up at Elise. “Do you recognize this?”
She shook her head.
“Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. We’ll just plug the verse into Google, and we should find it, no problem, if it’s from a literary source.”
“Maybe it’s original,” Sophie suggested, reading over Gabriel’s shoulder.
“It might be, but I highly doubt it. These types of people are rarely original.” He peered down at the red spots near the bottom of the page. It could’ve been dark red paint or ink, but it wasn’t. The odor was unmistakable.
He reached into his kit, took out a large Q-tips and rubbed it over one of the spots, the largest one. Then he retrieved a small plastic bottle of alcohol, the chemical phenolphthalein, and hydrogen peroxide. He dripped two drops of alcohol on the swab, then the phenol and finally the peroxide. The tip turned a purplish-pink.
“Definitely blood present,” he said as he held the swab up for Elise to see.
She paled visibly.
“Could be animal blood. We won’t know more until we analyze it at the lab.” He put the swab into a plastic tube, capped it and labeled the side. He set that into his kit, then took out a plastic bag and slid the letter into it. “We’ll fingerprint it at the lab. We’ll need the envelope, as well.”
Lily handed the plain white envelope to Gabriel. On the front Elise Leroy was printed in printer ink in small capital letters. They might be able to determine what kind of printer had been used.
After putting all the evidence in his kit, he peeled off the latex gloves. “How many people have handled it?”
Lily put her hand up. “I did, as well as Elise obviously.”
“Who else? Where did you get it?”
“From Chuck, who’s one of the studio guards at the front gate. He said it came for Elise by a courier.”
He glanced at Sophie. “Okay, print Ms. Leroy and Lily, then go with her to the front and talk to this Chuck. Print him and get his statement. We’ll need to know the name of the courier company. Call them and get the courier to come down to the station for printing and a statement.”
The lycan nodded, and took out her fingerprinting kit and got to work. As she rolled ink onto Elise’s fingers, Gabriel tried not to watch. He looked around the trailer instead, trying to get a sense of the woman he had known over fifteen years ago.
She looked much the same. She’d always been devastatingly beautiful. The type of beauty that sometimes is difficult to look at. Because of her vampiric genes, she aged slower, as he did. They were of the same species; both sangloups. They had known each other as children. Grown up together in a sense. But their respective families had been in conflict. For as