The Silent Girl

serious.
    Lucas looked at him. “If that’s what you want to call us. We’re a subspecies of human, nocturnal and hemophagic. That means we devour blood.”
    “Yeah, I got that. So whose blood do you devour?”
    “We don’t kill people, if that’s your question. We’re the pacifist branch of our subspecies. Sometimes volunteers will donate a few tubes to feed us.”
    “Volunteers?”
    “Friends. Classmates. Or someone will smuggle out a bag or two from the local blood bank. But mostly, we consume animal blood. You can buy it, you know, from any good butcher shop.” He sat up, puffing out his thin chest. “It gives us superhuman strength.”
    Jane looked at the anemically pale face, eyes sunken in hollow sockets, and thought: What he’s got is a superhuman case of the crazies. “So Kimberly Rayner was a vampire, too?”
    “Yes. A few weeks ago, she ran away from home. I invited her to crash with me, in the church.”
    “You slept together in that coffin?”
    “No! We were, like, totally platonic. I found an old shipping carton for her to sleep in. To block out the light.”
    “I thought vampires were supposed to be immortal. So what happened to her?”
    “I don’t know. I woke up, and she was screaming. She was rolling around on the floor, saying her stomach hurt. Even though it was still daylight, I went out to get her some Pepto-Bismol. When I got back, about an hour later, there was a police car parked at the church.” His head drooped. “I didn’t know she was dead.”
    “How about telling us what really happened?” Jane said.
    “I told you.”
    Jane leaned closer, her gaze hard on the boy.
    “Here’s how I think it went. You wanted sex. Or maybe you wanted a taste of her blood. Or maybesomething ticked you off, and you attacked her. And she started screaming.”
    “No, that’s not how it—”
    “She wouldn’t shut up, so you grabbed her by the throat, just to quiet her down. She kept screaming, and you pressed harder. And harder. And suddenly she wasn’t screaming anymore.” Jane paused and said quietly: “It was an accident, wasn’t it? Isn’t that how it happened?”
    “You’ll never get me to say that, because it’s
not
true.”
    There was a knock on the door, and Detective Darren Crowe stuck his head in the room. “Hey, Rizzoli, the girl’s father just arrived. I’ll have him wait in—”
    A man suddenly shoved past Detective Crowe, into the room, and stood staring at Lucas Henry. “You
freak
,” he said. And he lunged at the boy.

I F SOMEONE KILLED
YOUR
KID,” SAID TONY RAYNER , “you’d want to rip him apart, too!”
    The father of Kimberly Rayner was a powerfully built man, and it had taken the efforts of all three detectives to pull him off the boy, who was now cowering in the corner.
    “Mr. Rayner, we haven’t established that this boy did it,” said Jane.
    “Look at him!” said Rayner, glaring at Lucas. “Of course he did it!”
    Jane turned to Frost. “Could you get Lucas out of here? Have him wait in the other room.”
    “I should’ve beaten the hell out of you months ago,” said Rayner. “Back when you were sniffing around her. Maybe she’d still be alive now.”
    “You’re the reason she ran away,” Lucas shot back. “To get away from
you
.”
    “Oh, I had you spotted months ago, you sick—”
    “I was her only friend!”
    “Freak.”
    “She hated you!” Lucas yelled as Frost pulled him toward the door. “Her mom hated you, too!”
    Jane took one look at Rayner’s face and thought:
Uh-oh
. Lunging protectively between Rayner and the boy, she felt her blouse rip, heard the boy give a yelp of terror as Frost hustled him out of the room. Jane and Crowe shoved Rayner back against the table, pinning him there until Jane could snap on the handcuffs.
    “Well,
that
was fun,” said Crowe as he pushed Rayner into a chair. “Not cool, man. And look what you did to Detective Rizzoli’s shirt.”
    Jane looked down at the gaping rip that exposed the top of her bra. In cold fury, she grabbed her blazer from the chair where she’d draped it. As she buttoned up, she saw Crowe smirk as he pointedly turned away.
    “You are in trouble,” she said to Rayner through clenched teeth.
    “I’m the one who’s grieving, and you handcuff me? That freak’s the one who belongs in jail!”
    “We haven’t proved he’s guilty.”
    “For God’s sake, he believes he’s a
vampire
.”
    “It doesn’t mean he killed her.”
    Rayner heaved out a