23 Hours: A Vengeful Vampire Tale(6)

It also meant he made sure none of his people ever got in harm’s way. Clara was one of his people, so she could appreciate that. Up to a point. It hadn’t been lost on her, however, that in the time Fetlock had been tracking Malvern, a lot of innocent people had died. A lot more than Caxton would have felt comfortable with.

“I prefer your first theory about what we’re seeing here. It’s desperation. Malvern is running scared. She knows we’re close,” Fetlock said. He bent down next to one of the victims and closed her eyelids with two fingers. Clara winced again. Now he was touching bodies that hadn’t even been documented properly. “All we need is one good clue. One mistake on her part. One lucky break.”

“All we need,” Glauer said, folding his arms across his chest, “is Caxton back on the team.”

Fetlock didn’t even look at the big cop. “Not going to happen. She’s in prison. End of story.”

Clara tried not to say anything. She knew it was futile. Fetlock had been the one who’d arrested Laura in the first place.

Worse than that. Laura had freely confessed to her crime and said nothing in her defense at her trial—she had pleaded guilty and let her lawyer go through the necessary motions. When it came time for the sentencing, the judge had asked if anyone had an opinion on what the sentence should be. Fetlock had actually stood up and asked for the maximum sentence allowed by law. After all, he claimed, Caxton had been a cop and should have known better than anyone the consequences of her actions. She had a duty not just to uphold the law, he had argued, but to epitomize it. Clara had started hating him that day, and yet… she had felt a certain grudging respect, as well. Because she knew if he was the one being sentenced, he’d still have asked for a maximum penalty. Fetlock was a by-the-book bureaucrat, but at least he had utter faith in his own convictions.

If Clara had spoken up then, and made an impassioned plea to have Laura brought back onto the team, she knew Fetlock’s first counterargument would be that Clara had been Laura’s girlfriend. That meant she couldn’t be objective about this. So there was no point in opening her mouth. And yet—

—Glauer was right. She knew it. She knew for a fact that the only person in the world who could catch Malvern at this point was Laura Caxton.

“She could consult, in a purely civilian capacity,” Glauer went on, saying it so Clara didn’t have to. “She could give us insights on this case that might crack it wide open, and—”

Fetlock frowned. “There’s no good way to set up that kind of relationship, not with her all the way up in SCI-Marcy.”

Clara couldn’t take it anymore. “You could request the court to have her transferred to SCI-Cambridge Springs,” she said. “That’s a minimum-security facility. The prisoners there are allowed real phone privileges. We could set up some kind of arrangement where she could get in on conference calls with us, tell us what we’re doing wrong.”

“She’s a criminal,” Fetlock growled. He made it sound like this conversation was about to end. “Do I have to remind you what she did? She kidnapped and tortured a federal prisoner.”

Clara sighed. “That guy was a sociopath—he’d killed his entire family just to impress a vampire. He knew where the vampire’s lair was and it was the only way Laura could get the information.”

“And that makes it okay?” Fetlock demanded. He stepped closer to Clara, picking his way through the carnage on the floor. “We’re law enforcement, Special Deputy. We swear to uphold the law. To put our faith in the law.”

Clara bit her lip. Laura had sworn that, sure. She’d also sworn to protect the innocent. How many lives had she saved that night? Lives the vampire would have taken, if she didn’t get to him first? If she’d been forced to kill the bastard for the information, Clara knew she wouldn’t have hesitated. Despite Fetlock’s attempt to have the book thrown at Laura, the judge had taken all circumstances into account before sentencing her and had thrown out most of the charges against her. Laura had still been required to plead guilty to a charge of kidnapping, and accept a sentence of five years’ imprisonment—the mandatory minimum sentence for that crime in Pennsylvania. Even with early release for good behavior it would be years before she was free.

How many people would Malvern kill before that day came?

“I know this is hard for you, Special Deputy,” Fetlock said, his voice dropping into an almost gentle pitch, “considering the relationship you had with her. But you have to accept the facts. She’s in jail because she broke the law.”