She crouched down next to it and had a careful look. “Yep, he’s dead,” she deadpanned.
“Can you give us an approximate time of death?” Jack asked, and Willow nodded.
“Sure.” She pulled out her wand, pointed it at Raoul Lupo, and muttered a spell. Then, she pointed her wand at the air and muttered another one. “Because this factory is pretty badly insulated, it’s not going to be perfect,” she warned.
“That’s okay, even just a day would be helpful,” Andy replied.
“He was killed sometime yesterday,” Willow said. “Probably in the morning, given as it was cold last night, but I can’t say for sure.”
“You can’t narrow it down further than that?” Jack asked, and Willow shook her head.
“Sorry. If this place had a thermostat and I could reasonably guess what the temperature in this place had been over the last thirty-six hours or so, sure. But I’m afraid not.”
“Alright, thanks,” Jack said. “Anything else you can tell us about the body?”
“Give me a few minutes,” Willow said, and she went back to her examination.
“What about the murder weapon?” I asked Jack. “Do you have any reports of anything like that being stolen recently?”
“No,” Andy replied, shaking his head. “To be honest, they don’t look super valuable. It was probably just a spur-of-the-moment thing. I can’t imagine he’d be able to sell them for a lot of money. But then, when you’re living off scraps, any amount helps. It’s possible whoever he stole them from either didn’t notice or didn’t care enough to report it.”
“Hmm,” Jack said, obviously deep in thought.
“What about Andrei?” I suggested. “It should be pretty easy to find out if he slipped away yesterday morning. His crew is doing construction over there all the time, and I’m sure if he left for an hour or so to go commit a murder, they’d be happy to tattle on him. He didn’t seem like the world’s best boss.”
“Plus, I have some good evidence that he’s actually your guy,” Willow said, and the three of us turned towards her. She held up a single strand of black hair. “This belongs to a vampire.”
“Are you sure?” Jack asked, and Willow nodded.
“Yup. Just did a strand test. This came from a vampire. It was on the body.”
“Do you know it’s from the killer?” Jack asked. “Maybe he just ran into a vampire some other time.”
“Sure,” Willow replied. “That’s possible, but given as I found the hair trapped in a bit of blood, it’s unlikely. Besides, look at how he lived. Do you really think he was going around socializing?”
“She’s got a point,” I said. “Can you test it to see if it’s Andrei’s?”
Andy went over to Willow and took the hair from her, pointed his wand at it, and muttered a spell. Instead of a photo appearing above like it had when he had done the same thing to check for fingerprints, this time a question mark appeared above the hair.
“Sorry,” Andy said, shaking his head. “Whoever’s hair this is has never been arrested and had their pDNA entered into the system.”
Paranormal DNA – or pDNA – was unique to magical species. Only witches, wizards, and shifters had regular human DNA – although in the shifters’ case they also had a set of animal DNA – but the paranormal strand was common to all paranormals and allowed for their identification.
“Was Andrei ever arrested back when he lived in England?” I asked, but Jack shook his head.
“No. We looked into his background, but he was never in trouble with the law. His pDNA isn’t in the system.”
“So that hair could very well be his,” I said.
“Yes,” Jack replied, right as Chief Enforcer Loeb walked through the door.
“Another body?” she asked, and Jack nodded.
“Yes. Raoul Lupo. Ali figured out where he was staying and found him.”
“Do we have any leads?”
“The killer was likely a vampire,” Andy replied. “Killed yesterday, possibly in the morning.”
Chief Enforcer Loeb pursed her lips. “That’s a long time range.”
“Unfortunately the body was left in this unregulated building for too long to be more certain,” Willow called out, and Chief Enforcer Loeb nodded.
“Understood. It is what it is. The two of you have this in hand?”
Andy and Jack both nodded.
“Good. I don’t like having another death here in our jurisdiction.”
“We’re certain it’s linked to Rudoldir’s death,” Jack replied. “We’re not one hundred percent sure how, but we feel we’re getting close.”
“Keep me in the loop,” Chief Enforcer Loeb said. “I’m going to go see the Mayor right now and let him know what’s going on.”
She nodded to me and to Willow, and then Chief Enforcer Loeb turned on her heel and strode right out of the room.
“Ok,” Jack said. “Ali, I think you should go talk to Andrei and his workers.”
“Why do I have to do it?”
“Seriously? You’re going to whine about this?”
“I was already going to go do that anyway. I just wanted to make sure you know you’re not in charge of me,” I said.
“Let us know what you find out,” Jack replied.
“I will. Bye, Willow. Bye, Andy.”
“See you,” Willow said. “I’ll text you if I find anything else.”
Andy waved at me and I headed out into the day, my mind filled with questions.
Had Andrei really killed Raoul Lupo? And if so, why? After all, Andrei had a motive to kill Rudoldir, but why would he also kill Raoul? How did he even know the shifter?
There had to be something I was missing. I had to find the link between Raoul and Andrei. But for now, I also had to make sure Andrei didn’t have an alibi for the time of Raoul’s murder.
Work was heavily underway by the time I got to Nueva Trattoria. Two shifters were carrying in tables and chairs while I could see Andrei through the window, yelling at someone, throwing his arms up in the air.
I decided to see if I could get the inside scoop from his employees before speaking with the vampire himself. Heading down the alley at the side, I was
