When nightclub hostess Vee Pelletier stumbles across singer Serenity Strange’s body in a storeroom at Club Dead, the search begins to find her killer…but it won’t be easy. The list of suspects is longer than the line of beautiful people waiting to get in.
Detective Jack Callahan has earned a reputation for solving the unsolvable, but this case may be beyond even his formidable skills. The deeper he digs, the darker the trail gets. And Serenity’s killer isn’t the only person with secrets. Vee’s keeping a devilish one of her own…
A Vampire in Vegas is the first novel in the Planes Series but can be read as a standalone.
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Excerpt – Vee – The Beginning…
I threaded my way across the dance floor. A cowboy trod on my foot and quickly apologised, so I forced a smile even though my toes hurt like hell. Occupational hazard. The storeroom was right at the end of the hallway behind the stage, and a chill breeze hit me as I headed in that direction. The rush of cool air was pleasant after the heat of the club, but the fire door wasn’t meant to be open like that. Anyone could get in. I slammed it shut, then went to find Cecily Shepherd’s organic chips. So many ways to die in this world, and she was worried about pesticides?
The door to the storeroom wouldn’t budge when I pushed it, and I swallowed a groan. Had somebody locked it? I shoved it harder, and the bang as it hit the wall almost eclipsed my scream.
Almost, but not quite.
Serenity lay on the floor, unmoving, her sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling. A trickle of blood ran across the bare concrete, glistening red under the harsh glare of the strip lights above. Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell. I dropped to my knees, checking for a pulse, although I already knew I wouldn’t find one. I’d seen enough bodies to know when a person was dead, and Serenity’s soul had well and truly departed.
Fuck.
Another scream sounded behind me, followed by several gasps and a man muttering, “I’ll call the police.”
Double fuck.
What should I do? My friend was dead, and I was right there next to the body. Should I run? Or brazen it out? On the one hand, I knew I hadn’t killed Serenity, but on the other, she had two puncture wounds on her neck that looked for all the world as if a vampire had been snacking on the sweet blood within.
And that gave me a problem.
Why?
Because I was the only vampire in Club Dead. And if anyone found out, my life was over.
Excerpt – Jack – The Beginning…
“I’ll need your prints for elimination purposes, and I’ll also need to take a formal statement. Could you swing by the station tomorrow morning? Say, ten o’clock?”
“I… Uh… Tomorrow morning isn’t good for me. I work nights, and I’ll be asleep.”
“I appreciate it’s inconvenient, but I’ll try to make it quick. We really do need your prints, Ms. Pelletier.”
Vee seemed more unsettled at the thought of going to the station than she did at discovering a corpse. Strange.
“How about I come right now?” she suggested.
“I’m afraid I need to stay here and process the scene, and that’ll take several hours.”
“Then what if I come tomorrow evening?”
“It’s crucial for us to work fast if we want to solve this case.”
What was wrong with the morning? Surely anyone would lose an hour’s sleep to help solve a friend’s murder? The only difference between morning and night was that the station would be busier, and that made me even more suspicious. Was Vee trying to hide something? There was an odd vibe about Ms. Pelletier, and I couldn’t put my finger on what. Should I force the issue? As a cop, I could pretty much insist she attend at the time requested, and Shep would back me up. Maybe a clue would shake loose? Then again, if it didn’t, I also risked alienating a witness.
Dammit, all I’d wanted was a quiet night off, and now I’d landed in the middle of a case that every instinct told me would be tricky.
What’s your problem, Vee Pelletier?
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