Watson looked at Aaron, surprised, wondering how he knew there was something she wasn’t telling them. She swallowed hard. She really didn’t want to talk about it. But when she looked into those blue eyes, she felt like she could, like she could finally unleash the secret she’d been holding for so long. With another deep breath, she slowly began to tell her story. “About three years ago, I lived in an apartment across town with my sister, Rayna. She was a kindergarten teacher, the sweetest, kindest, most innocent person you’d ever meet.” She glanced up to see if they were still with her, and they were looking at her intently, so she found a way to continue. “One night, I came home from my shift late. I was dead tired. She was still up, working on some project for her class. I’ve gone over the events of that night a thousand times in my mind, but for the life of me, I cannot remember whether or not I locked the front door. Anyway, a few hours after I went to bed, I heard a strange noise. It was a scuffle of some sort. I thought I was dreaming at first, but then I realized it was real, and it was coming from the living room. I grabbed my revolver and rushed out the bedroom door, but as soon as I turned the corner, I froze. My sister was laying sprawled on the floor, pieces of the art project fluttering down around her, and on top of her was this… this woman. She had long blond, scraggily hair, pale skin—almost snow white—and these blood red fingernails. I pointed my gun at her, but just as I was about to fire, she pulled her head back, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Her face was contorted—her jaw was pulled open so wide, it was like the top of her head could flip open. She had razor sharp teeth—rows and rows of them. And her eyes were almost black. I’ve never been so terrified in my entire life.”
Watson paused to take another breath before she continued. “I wanted to help my sister—I really did—but I couldn’t move. And then, when I realized this creature was looking around the room, I ducked behind the wall. I crawled behind a piece of furniture and held my breath, just waiting for her to come for me.
“But she didn’t. And after a few moments, I found the courage to go and see if my sister was alive. The monster was gone—she had somehow escaped through our living room window, twenty stories up with no fire escape—and my sister was gone, too. Her body was still there, but she was gone. And her throat had been slashed.
“When the police came, I didn’t know what to tell them. I just said I didn’t see who had done it, that I just heard my sister scream and came out to find her that way. At first, I was a suspect. They didn’t believe anyone could escape through that window. But I took a lie detector test, and there had been some other similar murders in the area, so I was ruled out. This whole time, I’ve been trying to decide if what I saw was real, or if it was just my imagination. When I rounded that corner last night and saw that beast on Dixon, I knew for sure that what I had seen before was real—and it was happening again. I’ve never told this to anyone before,” Watson explained. “And I don’t know that it helps you. But it helps me. It helps me to finally say it and to have you say that what I saw that night was real—wasn’t it? That thing that killed my sister was also a Vampire, right?”
“Yes,” Aaron assured her. “The monster who claimed your sister’s life was also a Vampire.”
Unable to hold back her tears anymore, Watson began to sob, covering her face with her hands in an attempt to keep up her unbreakable façade. Andrew plucked some tissues from a box on the end table and handed them to her, sitting next to her on the couch and patting her on the back as he said, “It’ll be all right, detective. We’ll get the guys who did this to your partner.”
After a moment, Watson pulled herself together and said, “I’m so sorry. I’m not usually so emotional.”
“It’s fine,” Andrew assured her.
“You’re allowed to be human sometimes, detective,” Aaron reminded her.
“Right,” she said, the tears finally subsiding. She wiped her eyes again before saying, “Well, if there’s anything else I can do to be of assistance, please let me know.”
“We will,” Aaron assured her, standing. “And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that it’s better if you keep this information to yourself.”
“Of course,” Watson replied. “No one would believe me anyway.”
“Likely not,” Andrew agreed as he patted her on the back one more time and stood.
Watson began to usher them to the door. “Thanks again for coming,” she said once they’d reached the threshold.
“Thank you for your assistance,” Aaron replied. “Your information will be very helpful to our investigation.”
“That’s good to hear,” Watson smiled. “And… I’m not sure what your recruiting process is, but if you ever need an experienced detective to join your team….”
“We’ll keep you in mind,” Aaron smiled. “It was nice to meet you, Detective Watson,” he said shaking her hand. “We will be in touch.”
Andrew shook her hand as well before she disappeared back inside the apartment and they made their way down the hall toward the elevator. “Wow,” Andrew muttered. “That was really interesting.”
“What’s that?” Aaron asked, pressing the down arrow.
“Listening to you talk to her. How did you get her to feel so comfortable? She was willing to tell us stuff she hasn’t been willing to tell anyone else, not even her best friend, for years,” Andrew exclaimed.
They stepped onto the elevator, and as Aaron selected the ground floor, he shrugged and said, “I don’t know. It’s just something you learn over the years, I guess. I mean, she didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, but we were able to help her, so it wasn’t a waste of time to go talk to her.”
“Yeah, I was hoping there would be something she would say that might be a clue as to what Giovani is planning,” Andrew agreed.
“You never know, though. She might end up being useful at some point.”
“And you’re not worried about her saying anything to anyone?” Andrew asked as the elevator reached the bottom floor.
“No,” Aaron assured him. “I’m sure she won’t say anything. She’s kept this secret for so long, she’s not going to start talking now. The best thing about keeping a secret that is so unbelievable is that no one dare speak about it aloud for fear of sounding like a lunatic.”
“Very true,” Andrew agreed, following him off of the elevator.
“When this is all over, I’d like to bring you in to KC and do some recurrent training. There’s nothing I did in there that you wouldn’t be able to do as well.”
Andrew looked surprised. “That would be great!” he said.
“All right, let’s go meet Cadence and Christian at your headquarters, and you can show us where Giovani disappeared.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Andrew nodded, leading the way to the vehicle. With any luck, they would find some sort of sign as to where Giovani was hiding. They needed to find him before Gibbon was completely loyal or else he may be impossible to stop.
