Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)(66)

Burnett turned back to Shawn. “Play the last video.”

They all watched another video taken by a tourist who never knew his vacation images would be used in an investigation. This one, however, had a different angle, and showed something the others hadn’t.

The poop attack.

Miranda fell back into the leather cushions wishing she could disappear.

“What the hell was that?” Burnett said and replayed it again.

The camera caught the vamp being hit with four or five piles of excrement.

“I never saw that,” Shawn said. “I was too busy fighting.”

“Me neither,” Kylie added, and then she must have picked up on Miranda’s emotion because she looked at her.

Miranda nodded ever so slightly.

Burnett looked at Miranda. She wanted so badly to lie—admitting she goobered a spell in front of Shawn, not to mention Tabitha and Sienna, sucked—but her conscience wouldn’t let her.

“I saw Shawn had his hands full, and I wanted to help.”

“By slinging shit at the vampire?” Sienna asked.

“It worked,” Shawn added before Miranda started to explain her screwup. His blue eyes shifted from Sienna to Miranda, and he smiled. Tenderly. Sweetly. “Thank you.”

Oh, hell! As nuts as it sounded, it almost felt as if he knew she’d screwed up and was trying to save her from the embarrassment.

Burnett ran a hand through his hair as if worried. “Did you cancel the spell?”

“No, he was trying to kill us.”

Burnett chuckled. “Hell, I guess he deserves it.” He looked back down at the computer and projector. “Let’s go through all of this again and look for anything else unusual. Remember, chances are, the person who sent the fireball is somewhere on one of these cameras.”

Watching them all again brought on some flashes of memory for Miranda. When the show ended, she closed her eyes and let her own mental video play on the backs of her eyelids. And it brought on an insight. “You know who I saw there, and I haven’t seen in any of the video or photos?”

“Who?” Burnett and Shawn asked at the same time.

“The twins, Candy and Sandy. I saw them in the mix of the crowd.”

Burnett turned to Shawn. “I thought you said they were at the hotel?”

“I spoke with Candy when we got back and she said they hadn’t left.”

Burnett looked back at Miranda. “Are you sure?”

Miranda saw the images again in her mind then she refocused on Burnett. “Yeah. I’m positive.”

“You’re accusing Sandy and Candy of doing this?” Tabitha asked, her tone jam-packed with sarcasm.

“I didn’t accuse them of anything. I said I saw them there.”

“Well, I didn’t see them.” Sienna dropped back on the love seat and crossed her arms over her chest. A tiny smile appeared in her eyes as if she got pleasure from disagreeing with Miranda.

“Did you see them?” Sienna asked Tabitha.

“No,” Tabitha said, but with a lot less animosity. Who knew Sienna was a bigger bitch than Tabitha?

“You?” Sienna pointed the question to Kylie. “Did you see the twins?”

“No, but I wasn’t looking for them.” Anger flashed in Kylie’s eyes. “But if Miranda says she saw them, she did.” There was something deep and protective in her friend’s voice. Sienna ignored it.

Tabitha looked at Shawn. “I suppose you were too busy admiring Miranda to have seen them.”

Shawn’s frown came on fast. “I was sent to watch out for her.”

“Like you don’t have a thing for her,” Tabitha said. “I saw how you stared at her at the competition, and how you fawned over her when she passed out. Even tonight, you’re looking at her like she’s a piece of candy and you’re a diabetic.”

“My feelings for Ms. Kane outside of this case are none of your business.” His tone demanded her respect.

“And I’m not candy,” Miranda spit out without thinking. Then she wanted to shrink into the sofa cushions. Were Shawn’s feelings for her that noticeable? As crazy as it sounded, it made her both uncomfortable and … happy. Then, in a twitch of a pinky, she realized she hadn’t thought about Perry in the last few hours. Did that mean anything? Had she come all the way to Paris to finally accept his decision—to give their relationship space? Oh, that sucked on so many levels.

And that insight brought on a couple of even more contradicting emotions: relief and guilt.

Relief that she was finally moving in the right direction—meaning emotionally moving away from Perry—and guilt because … because she was emotionally moving away from Perry. How could she shift away from him when she loved him? Was it because down deep she still held a thing for Shawn?

Burnett stood up and looked at Shawn and Kylie. “You two hold down the fort here. I think I’ll have a little chat with the twins.” He started out, but turned and looked back, his gaze shifting to Miranda and then to Sienna and Tabitha. “I hope I don’t have to remind you three that you can’t leave here. We escaped this incident without having to ship anyone’s body back to the U.S., let’s not give whoever is doing this another shot at it.”

“But you just said that Tabitha was the intended victim,” Sienna said.