“Yeah, it just seems grossly unfair,” Declan said. He was clearly overdoing it, but at the same time, a part of Schulz wanted to scream at the chief to quit fucking around and let the A team solve this horrific problem. So anything the kid said or did to help reach that vital decision was okay in his book.

“Detective Schulz will be your liaison. He’ll accompany you to the crime scene and step you through it.”

“That’s great, Chief. We won’t disturb a thing. We know the drill well,” Chris said.

“Well, the media has caught wind of the murders and we’re supposed to hold a press conference in about an hour. Do you want to be part of that?” Park asked.

Gordon turned and looked at the vampire. She held his eyes for a moment then nodded, once. He next glanced at the kid, who had his head back, looking up at the ceiling, tapping his lip. Then the kid touched his ear where a Bluetooth unit rested. A second later, he too nodded.

“Yeah, let’s plan on myself, Nika, and probably Stacia when she gets here,” Chris said.

The chief turned a curious gaze on O’Carroll but the kid just held up both hands. “Not me. More a behind-the-scenes kind of person. Plus, I’ve got a class.”

“A class? Really? You’re just going to school while this thing hunts you and prepares to slaughter who knows how many people?” Lieutenant Weston asked, incredulous.

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“For many reasons, Declan keeps a low profile. In this case, you would expect him to be deep inside the team’s activities, so we’ll do the unexpected and instead keep his routine as normal as possible,” Chris said.

“And if she attacks him?” Weston pressed.

“Oh, that would be ideal,” Chris said. “But all we can do is hope she does, but plan for if she doesn’t.”

Both Chief Park and the lieutenant gave Schulz a look. The blonde woman slid forward a step and touched the chief lightly on his arm. “We know what we’re doing. What you’ve heard about our shaggy-haired bait over there doesn’t scratch the surface. He’s really very capable. Yes, this situation has a large, as Mr. Deckert might say, FUBAR potential, but we’re not the same team as you saw in Washington DC. Not anymore. We’ve studied what happened there, adapted our methods, added new ones, added new weapons, trained over and over again for this type of thing. Please have confidence that we know what we’re doing.”

She left her hand on his arm for a moment and Schulz could see the tension drain out of his Type A boss, like a blow-up mattress deflating. Then she stepped back one precise little pace, smoothly putting herself just behind and to the right of Gordon.

“Okay. What’s first?”