BLOODLINE ZERO: THE DETECTIVE WHO HUNTS VAMPIRES

The Detective Becomes the Suspect

Daniel's hand moved toward his waist.

Adrian noticed.

Four years of working together had taught him to recognize Daniel's habits. The slight tightening of his jaw. The way his right shoulder shifted before he reached for his weapon. The instinctive glance toward an exit when he felt cornered.

Daniel was doing all three.

"Keep your hands where I can see them," Adrian said.

Daniel stopped.

For a moment, neither man moved.

Then Daniel slowly raised his empty hand.

"Relax. I'm reaching for my radio."

"Your radio is on your left shoulder."

Daniel's eyes flickered toward the device clipped to his uniform.

Adrian didn't blink.

"What's happening, Daniel?"

His partner exhaled sharply. "You need to come with me."

"Why?"

"Because you're being investigated for three murders."

"You saw the footage. You know I wasn't there."

"I saw a man who looks exactly like you entering an apartment."

"Then you also know the footage doesn't prove I killed anyone."

"Adrian, stop making this difficult."

Adrian glanced at the computer terminal.

The recovered footage was still open. Beneath it, Felix had left the verification report displayed on the screen.

Adrian needed a copy before anyone could erase it.

He stepped toward the terminal.

Daniel immediately blocked his path.

"Don't touch that."

Adrian stopped.

There it was again.

Not concern. Not confusion.

Fear.

"You don't want me looking at the evidence," Adrian said quietly.

Daniel's expression hardened. "I want you to stop acting like you're the only intelligent person in the room."

"Then give me a reason to believe you."

Daniel opened his mouth.

Before he could answer, his phone vibrated.

He checked the message.

Whatever he read drained the color from his face.

He slipped the phone into his pocket and looked at Adrian.

"Officers are coming."

"For me?"

Daniel didn't respond.

Adrian understood.

Someone had been waiting for this moment.

He turned back to the terminal, connected his encrypted storage device, and began copying the recovered footage.

Daniel lunged forward.

"Stop!"

Adrian shoved his hand aside.

The transfer reached sixty-three percent.

Then the door opened.

"Detective Cross! Step away from the computer!"

Three armed officers entered the room.

Adrian recognized one of them from the homicide division. The other two belonged to patrol. All three had their weapons drawn.

"Put your hands where we can see them!" the lead officer ordered.

Adrian slowly raised his hands.

The transfer continued behind him.

"What's the charge?" he asked.

"You're a person of interest in a triple homicide. We have reason to believe you may be armed and dangerous."

"I'm a detective with this department."

"Not anymore. Your badge and firearm have been flagged as evidence."

Adrian glanced at Daniel.

His partner stood beside the doorway, silent.

The transfer reached eighty-seven percent.

"Who authorized this operation?" Adrian asked.

"Captain's orders."

"Then call the captain."

"Hands higher!"

Adrian obeyed.

He wasn't stupid enough to start a gunfight in a room filled with armed officers. He had spent years teaching junior detectives that survival mattered more than pride.

But he also knew that surrendering without protecting the evidence would leave him helpless.

The transfer reached ninety-six percent.

The lead officer approached.

"Turn around. Hands behind your back."

Adrian shifted his weight.

The officer noticed.

"Don't move!"

The terminal emitted a soft beep.

TRANSFER COMPLETE.

Adrian moved.

He struck the nearest officer's wrist, knocking the gun toward the floor, then drove his shoulder into the man's chest. The second officer grabbed Adrian's coat, but Adrian twisted free and slammed the door against the man's arm.

A gunshot cracked behind him.

The bullet struck the wall.

Adrian didn't stop to look.

He ran.

The service corridor led toward the building's underground parking garage.

Adrian knew the layout from the initial investigation. The main elevators opened near the security desk, but a maintenance passage connected the lower corridor to the garage's pedestrian entrance.

He took the passage.

Behind him, boots thundered against the concrete.

"Cross! Stop!"

He ignored them.

His phone vibrated against his chest.

He pulled it out while running.

An internal department alert filled the screen.

SUBJECT: ADRIAN CROSS

STATUS: PERSON OF INTEREST — TRIPLE HOMICIDE

INSTRUCTIONS: LOCATE AND DETAIN. USE CAUTION. SUBJECT MAY BE ARMED.

Beneath the alert sat a second notification.

His service weapon had been registered as evidence recovered from the crime scene.

Adrian nearly stopped running.

His gun had never left his holster until the officers confronted him.

Someone had already written the story.

Now they were making the evidence fit it.

He reached the garage entrance and shoved through the fire door.

Rows of parked vehicles stretched beneath fluorescent lights. Water dripped from the ceiling near a drainage channel. Beyond the concrete pillars, police lights flashed against the entrance ramp.

Adrian scanned the area.

Two officers were approaching from the main entrance.

He turned toward a side passage.

A voice called behind him.

"Adrian!"

Daniel.

Of course.

Adrian sprinted between two parked cars, crossed the next lane, and ducked behind a concrete pillar as a flashlight swept across the floor.

Daniel emerged from the stairwell alone.

"Stop running!" he shouted.

Adrian watched him approach.

His partner wasn't pointing a weapon yet.

That was something.

"Tell them to stand down," Adrian called.

Daniel shook his head.

"You can't keep doing this."

"Doing what? Asking questions?"

"Running from the police!"

"You brought armed officers into a security room before anyone had established what happened. You knew they were coming before they arrived."

"I was following orders."

"Whose orders?"

Daniel looked toward the garage entrance.

Adrian stepped out from behind the pillar.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you."

Daniel finally met his eyes.

For a brief moment, Adrian saw the man he'd worked beside for four years.

Then it disappeared.

"You're making everything worse," Daniel said.

"Everything was already wrong before I entered that room."

Adrian took another step.

"Tell me who is behind this."

Daniel's jaw tightened.

"I can't."

The answer landed harder than a denial.

Adrian felt his stomach turn.

"You can't, or you won't?"

Daniel looked away.

"There's no version of this where you walk out clean."

"Then why are you here?"

"To bring you in."

"Alive?"

Daniel said nothing.

Adrian studied his partner's face.

He had seen men lie under interrogation. He had watched suspects invent elaborate stories to hide simple crimes. He knew the difference between guilt and fear.

Daniel was afraid.

Not of Adrian.

Of someone Adrian couldn't see.

For several seconds, neither man spoke.

The fluorescent lights hummed overhead. Somewhere outside, a siren wailed through the rain.

Adrian lowered his voice.

"Four years, Daniel."

Daniel swallowed.

"Don't."

"We solved the Harrow Street murders together. You remember that? Three suspects, two false confessions, and a witness nobody believed."

"Adrian—"

"You spent two nights in a hospital after that warehouse raid because you went back for me."

Daniel's eyes glistened.

"Stop."

"Was any of it real?"

Daniel's expression crumpled for half a second.

Then he reached inside his coat.

Adrian immediately tensed.

Daniel pulled out his phone.

"Look."

He held the screen toward Adrian.

A photograph showed a woman standing beside a young boy outside a residential building.

Daniel's wife and son.

Beneath the photograph was a message.

COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT. YOUR FAMILY REMAINS SAFE.

Adrian stared at it.

"Who sent this?"

"I don't know."

"Daniel."

"I don't know!"

His voice echoed through the garage.

Daniel lowered the phone, breathing hard.

"They contacted me three weeks ago. They knew where my family lived. They knew my son's school. They knew things nobody outside my house should know."

"And you never reported it?"

"To whom? The captain? Internal Affairs? Half the department could be involved."

"So you decided to help them frame me?"

Daniel flinched.

"They told me you'd be questioned. That was all. I was supposed to bring you in, and they'd make the charges disappear."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No." Daniel's voice broke. "I expect you to understand that I was trying to keep my family alive."

Adrian felt anger rise in his chest.

He forced it down.

"What do they want from me?"

Daniel shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Why the murders?"

"I don't know!"

"Why does the footage show me entering an apartment I've never visited?"

"I don't know!"

Adrian stepped closer.

"Then what exactly have you been helping them do?"

Daniel's eyes filled with helpless fury.

"Survive."

The word hung between them.

For the first time that night, Adrian had no immediate response.

He understood fear. He understood coercion. He had seen good officers compromise themselves under threats they couldn't bear.

But understanding Daniel's motive didn't erase what he'd done.

Three people were dead.

Adrian was being framed for their murders.

And his partner had helped make it happen.

"Give me the name of whoever contacted you," Adrian said.

Daniel shook his head.

"I never met them. Everything came through encrypted messages. They knew every move I made before I made it."

"Then give me your phone."

Daniel hesitated.

That hesitation told Adrian everything.

There was something else on the device.

Something Daniel was afraid to reveal.

Adrian reached for it.

Daniel stepped backward.

"Don't."

"Give it to me."

"You don't understand what you're dealing with."

"Then explain it!"

Daniel's hand trembled.

"They said you were never supposed to see the footage."

Adrian froze.

"What?"

"The apartment. The recording. Everything. You were supposed to accept the initial report, hand the case over, and move on."

"Who said that?"

Daniel looked directly at him.

"People who knew you'd investigate."

Adrian's thoughts raced.

The crime scene had been prepared before his arrival. The security system had been manipulated. The arrest order had appeared with impossible speed.

And someone had predicted exactly how he would respond.

They hadn't merely framed him.

They had built the trap around his personality.

His determination to find the truth had become the weapon used against him.

A distant engine roared as a vehicle entered the garage.

Daniel glanced toward the sound.

Adrian seized the opportunity.

He snatched the phone from Daniel's hand and stepped away.

Daniel lunged for it.

Adrian blocked him with his forearm.

"Don't make me hurt you," Adrian warned.

Daniel stopped.

Adrian checked the screen.

The message thread was almost empty. Most of the conversations had been deleted, but a notification remained from an unknown sender.

PHASE ONE COMPLETE. DO NOT LET CROSS LEAVE THE GARAGE.

Adrian looked up.

Daniel's face had gone white.

"You knew," Adrian whispered.

Daniel shook his head.

"I didn't know they'd do this."

"You knew they wanted me dead?"

"No!"

"Then why does this message say I can't leave?"

Daniel's eyes darted toward the garage entrance.

Adrian followed his gaze.

Two more officers had appeared near the ramp.

They were carrying rifles.

This wasn't an arrest anymore.

Adrian slowly backed away.

"Tell them to lower their weapons."

Daniel didn't move.

"Daniel."

"I'm sorry."

Adrian felt something cold settle inside him.

His partner was no longer trying to convince him to surrender.

He was preparing to finish the job.

Adrian slipped the phone into his pocket and raised his hands slightly.

"Listen to me. We can still expose them. Give me ten minutes. We'll get your family somewhere safe, preserve the evidence, and find out who's controlling this."

Daniel's eyes filled with tears.

"They said you'd say something like that."

Adrian stared at him.

"What?"

"They told me you'd try to make me remember who I was."

For one brief moment, Daniel looked like the friend Adrian had known.

Then he drew his gun.

Adrian reacted instantly, shifting sideways as Daniel raised the weapon.

"Daniel, don't!"

His partner's hand shook.

The muzzle remained trained on Adrian's chest.

"I'm sorry," Daniel whispered.

The gunshot shattered the silence.

Adrian felt a violent impact slam into his chest.

His breath vanished.

He stumbled backward, struck the side of a parked vehicle, and collapsed onto the wet concrete.

For a moment, he couldn't understand what had happened.

He looked down.

Blood spread across his shirt.

Daniel stood several meters away, gun still raised.

Their eyes met.

Adrian tried to speak, but only a broken breath escaped his lips.

His partner lowered the weapon.

"I'm sorry," Daniel repeated.

Adrian's fingers clawed against the concrete.

The fluorescent lights blurred above him.

Somewhere in the distance, an officer shouted for an ambulance.

Adrian tried to move.

His body refused.

The last thing he saw was Daniel turning away as the darkness closed over his vision.