Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

80. Looking for Muirfield

"So you lied to Cat?" JT asks the question again, looking at Vincent as they walk down the back alley of a bar. Vincent knew JT found it hard to believe but he was capable of spinning the truth around Catherine.

"I didn't lie to her," he shrugs, "I just...
I said she needs to keep as far away from anything related to Muirfield as possible."

"Good."

"However," Vincent looks at JT. "I didn't tell her that I was gonna look into this guy and try and find out where he came from." JT snorts, looking around the alley. "I'm trying to keep her safe."

"It is a slippery slope my friend." Vincent huffs, agreeing, looking up.
"Are you sure this is it?"

"Yeah," Vincent nods. "I'm sure. He bled all the way from here to the precinct," he looks over his shoulder. "Easiest scent to follow."

JT pulls his nose up. "All I can smell is rancid cooking oil and despair."

Vincent chuckles. That too...
"Go check out that car," he says, pointing to an out of place looking vehicle parked on the curb, then taking out a pair of latex gloves.
He bends down and traces the bullet hole he spotted walking up, blood spattered around it.

"The ignition's on." JT looks at Vincent, flashlight still pointed inside. Vincent gets to his feet. "Must have sat here running until it was out of gas."
JT walls back to Vincent's side, who is now bending over to look at the ground. "Why would he abandon it?"

"It wasn't him." Vincent sighs and stands again. "Different footprints. He came from that end of the alley, got cut off by the car."

"Driver jumped out, left the car running. They fought?"

"Yeah, they were both wounded." Vincent steps forward. "He ran off that way, made it to the precinct before he bled out."

"So what happened to the driver?" JT asks in confusion, looking around.
Vincent pauses all movement. He groans. "What?" JT stares at him. He hated it when Vincent got all 'statuesque'.

Vinceny looks at JT and then walks past him, having heard rats. Lots of rats, grouped in one spot. He walks to the back of the car, and then wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Ugh." JT comes up behind him. "No, you don't wanna see this," Vincent stops him but he's already looking.

"Uhhh, that's nasty," JT chokes just before he bends over and throws up.

"Told you not to look," Vincent says over his shoulder, walking up to the body being chewed on by the rats. He sighs, reaches in between the rats and lifts the man's hand. "No fingerprints."

"Like smooth or like...eaten?" JT asks, his voice gravelly from being sick. He doesn't look again.

"Like smooth." JT nods, panting. Vincent looks at him from beside the body. "This whole thing screams Muirfield." He feels for his friend, man had a squeamish stomach.
Vincent looks down and sees something black on the ground by JT's  feet under the car. He walks over. "You okay?" he checks on JT.

"Yeah," JT chokes. "I'll live."

"Hey, check this out," Vincent picks up the phone. JT takes it in a handkerchief carefully as it was already flashing on and off.

"Looks like someone was in the middle of recording a video when this happened. The...display is completely destroyed," JT shakes his head, turning the phone to try and see.

"Okay, well see if you can get anything off it. If there's a video on there we need to see it." Vincent looks behind him at the body again. "If this was Muirfield and they found Cat," JT looks at him behind his back, thinking it's the first time he's called her Cat, "it's not gonna be long before more of them come."