Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series #2) Read Online Free Page A

recruits had given up on me, Sparky had stayed in touch. He had been my lifeline back to the police, just updating me with gossip really, but it helped me maintain some kind of contact with the job that I longed to go back to. Sparky had never asked me about the ‘vampire thing’ which had caused so many raised eyebrows, sniggers, and condemnation amongst my peers. In fact, John had been pretty cool, and on the odd occasion that I had needed some information regarding my own enquiries, he had put his job on the line and run checks on the police computers for me. I knew that John wanted more than friendship, but I didn’t have those kinds of feelings for him. The only feelings that I had for anyone like that was Luke, and I couldn’t even be sure what they were anymore. But in return for the odd piece of information that John gave me to assist in one of my cases, I would sometimes cook him dinner or take him to the movies. John was awkward-looking, gangly, and shy and there was a part of me that I hated because I knew deep down I kind of used him. But knowing this didn’t stop me from calling him up and asking him for his help - again.
    John was on a day off from work, and joined me in the coffee shop within half an hour of my phone call to him. Nervously kissing me on my cheek, he pulled up a chair and sat opposite me. For someone who was in their mid-twenties he still had a sprinkling of spots on his forehead and cheeks – giving him a constant flushed look. His eyes were a dull grey and his glasses always perched lopsided on the bridge of his nose, giving his whole head a slanted look.
    “What is it this time?” he asked, almost sounding excited that I was including him on one of my cases.
    “I need you to flash your badge for me,” I told him, with a smile, knowing that I wouldn’t have to work hard at getting him to help me out. I then told him about Mrs. Lovelace’s missing ring and how I’d found it sitting in the front window of the pawnbrokers across the street. I explained to him that without a badge, I would never be able to convince the owner to hand it over and get a look at the CCTV to see who it was that had brought the ring into the shop.
    After finishing our coffees, I followed John across the street and into the pawnbrokers. Flipping his badge from his pocket, John spoke coolly to the owner and said, “I’m Constable Miles and this is Constable Hudson from Havensfield Police.” Without giving the owner the opportunity to ask to see my identification John had started to talk again. I was impressed.
    “The ring in the window, the one with the yellow stone, we suspect has come from a burglary,” John said.
    The owner, a smartly dressed man in his fifties with combed- back greying hair, looked back at John and said, “How can you be so sure?”
    Producing the photograph given to me by Mrs. Lovelace, I waved it under the man’s nose and said, “This is how we know.”
    Pulling a pair of spectacles from his suit pocket, he put them on and studied the picture.
    “Take a look at the victim,” I said. “That could easily be your mother sitting in that picture. Is your mother still alive?” I asked him.
    “Well, yes…” he started.
    “Lucky you,” I cut in. “So she’s not alone then, like this poor woman. See the guy in the picture?”
    The owner nodded.
    “Well that was her husband. Married for best part of sixty years,” I told him. “But he died just six months ago and someone steals the wedding ring that he gave her. Now who would do a thing like that?”
    “I don’t -” the owner said, but this time it was Sparky who cut in.
    “So you don’t keep records of who you buy from?” and without waiting for the man’s reply, Sparky said, “That’s very remiss of you.”
    Then looking around the shop at all the other display cabinets, I said, “So, if you don’t keep records or receipts, how can you be sure that none of this other stuff hasn’t be stolen? I guess we had