“What about Tina.”
“She’s still here, but if I were you I would watch my back. She looks like she could blow any day.”
“Thanks Cheryl. You always know the scoop. I will watch my back.”
She turned and walked towards her office. She had her two suspects. She was simply left to wonder if the created had gotten to anyone else.
She walked in and people jumped before they realized it was her.
“Dee, so glad you’re back. We were worried about you.” Angie greeted her. She even gave her a quick hug.
Things had gotten bad in the office since she had been gone. She glanced over at Vance’s door, only to find it shut.
“Who’s in the office with him?”
“No one. He’s not here. He didn’t come in yesterday or today.”
“Anyone check his office?” She had a bad feeling about this.
“No. The door’s locked.”
“Did he call off?”
“No.”
Dee walked over to her desk and picked up the phone. “Ash, its Dee. I need to get into Vance’s office. Yeah, I will be waiting, thanks.”
Ash came in minutes later, followed by Niko.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a bad feeling, Niko. Vance didn’t come in yesterday and he’s not here today. His office is locked, something he never really did. He would say I trust all of you. He always called if he was not going to come in.”
“Open it Ash.”
He took out the master key and went to the door. Niko had cleared the room since they did not know what they would find.
The smell hit them immediately as the door opened.
The room was covered in blood.
Chapter Twenty-four
“Is Vance in there?” Dee had her hand over her nose and mouth. She didn’t want to accidently lose any food she may have eaten.
Niko walked in and checked everywhere. “No Vance.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Not necessarily.” Aran said, stepping into the room. “Something happened here and until we know more, we will assume Vance was here when it happened. We will also assume he is alive, but if a created was involved, he is likely dead.”
“What do we do next?”
“We clear the building and call the police.” Niko answered her, as he left the room. “Don’t go in. I don’t want the scene contaminated any more than it has already been.”
“Why did you and Niko go into the room?”
“We had to make sure Vance was not in there. If he was, we needed to see the condition of the body before the police were called.”
“Would it have given you clues to who the created was?”
“There is a good possibility that if we can identify one of his kills, we will be able to start pinpointing who it may be.”
“What makes you think he had killed, besides this room of course? He left Mr. Cohen alive.”
Aran stopped to study the room. The blood on the wall had been splashed there, by the cutting of the neck maybe. Every splatter looked staged to him, as if someone knew exactly what they were doing and was putting on a show.
Created did not kill that way. They were efficient and clean. If he had been assigned to take out Vance, he may have walked up behind him and snapped his neck, never letting him fall to the ground. He had spent years perfecting his craft.
He may have chosen to suffocate him and let his body twitch as he fought for freedom. Even that was too messy. The crime scene would have been tampered with by his legs.
In the end, he would have gone with a clean and easy kill, removing the body quietly. No one would have ever found Vance, like no one will ever find certain other bodies that had disappeared.
“Something is wrong with this created. Maybe he was made before the scientists perfected the method. He is angry. Look around you. This speaks of anger and madness. He wanted us to know he was here and he wanted to get the human police involved. So far, we have tried to fly under the radar and keep them out. Now, he has made that impossible.”
“Why do you assume it is a he?”
“The created are all males.”
“How’s that possible? Never mind. Forget I even asked that question.”
Aran smiled at her. He had always liked her and he liked her with Niko. They made a good pair. She was an excellent addition to the family.
Coming to this world had been a risk, one he had not been sure he wanted to take at first. This world was far away from the so called civilized galaxies. They had not been conquered, because they had nothing of value.
That was one of the reasons he and his brethren had chosen earth. The people of earth had nothing the other warring planets wanted, but they did have something the brothers wanted.