Avriel Kaplan: Well dressed, well groomed, beautifully handsome, quiet and brooding and exactly the kind of man Ariel Declan doesn't need to know. But, that is not for her to decide.
Alexander Kirk: wickedly handsome, well known and well liked, egot...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dr. Maldonado looked carefully at the body on her table. The young woman died in a car accident. She had premortem lacerations on her head, face, neck, arms and right wrist from the broken glass, as well as bruises and scrapes from her airbags deploying. Not a single bone was broken. Her blood alcohol levels were through the roof. Kirstin clicked her tongue, "Another life taken too soon, held tight in the clutches of Death herself, all because she didn't want to get in a cab." She shook her head as she carefully removed and cataloged each fragment of glass and their respective wounds. Once she removed all the bits and pieces of glass from the blown-out car window. She inspected the wounds and took notes. All her wounds were consistent with a car accident except for the two on her right wrist. Those were significantly out of place. The glass had already been removed from the wounds. She noted it as an unusual finding and went on about her examination.
"Exsanguination?" The detective looked at Kirstin as he questioned the cause of death she had just given him, "That's the cause of Death?"
"Yes. Detective it is." Kirstin said coolly.
"Isn't that loss of blood?"
"Yes."
"But there was no blood at the scene. I mean very little."
"I'm telling you, something is amiss here." Kirstin looked at the detective and continued. "If there was little to no blood at the scene then can you explain how she ended up missing over half her blood volume? It had to go somewhere. Blood doesn't just disappear into thin air."
"No. It doesn't." The detective hung his head for the briefest of moments before he looked at Kirstin. "We had better get to finding out." He held up the file Kirstin had given him and headed for the door. "Thank you, doctor." He called over his shoulder.
Back at the club, the night finished much as it started only smoother. Alex didn't return to her bar after the incident with Avriel. Darius watched Ariel check the clock for perhaps the fifth time in about twenty minutes, the glass in her hand she was washing wasn't going to get any cleaner. She zipped about cleaning anything and everything in sight whenever there was a lull in business. She wrung the bar towels until they had permanent wrinkles in them. He laughed to himself. He'd never seen her like that, never. She was so damn cute when she was nervous. He hoped that her nervous energy had something to do with the man that sat at the end of the bar. He was pretty sure that it did.
Avriel hadn't taken his eyes off her for more than a few seconds at a time, which he used to scan the crowd since they returned from the back. His cheeks were rosy under his beard, his eyes like green sea glass, his lips pink and likely very warm. Darius tried not to think about those lips, but sometimes his mind strayed just a little bit. Eyes as warm and welcoming as the sun on a cold winter's day and as green as the leaves in spring turned to him. He felt their heat wash over him and he flushed a sweet scarlet. He wanted to close his mind like a trap, but the way was blocked. Gratitude and understanding filled the space in him that was always open. He smiled, nodded in Avriel's direction and returned to his musings concerning sweet, sweet Ariel. She really was something else. The night drew to a close and the patrons, including Avriel and Austin, withdrew to wherever it was that they went after the club.
