Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [512]
I wanted to ask her if she was alright, but you don’t ask cops that, so I tried to get her talking. “How did you know she was in here?” I asked.
She jumped and turned startled eyes to me. She was seriously spooked.
“Why don’t we step outside and get some air?” I said.
She shook her head, and I knew stubborn when I saw it, so I didn’t argue. “I saw blood under the door, or what I was almost certain was blood.”
“Then what?”
“I called for backup, and we kicked the door open.”
“You and Abrahams,” I said.
She nodded.
“The door bounced into her arm, but we didn’t know it was her until we shoved the door again. I took low, and I was kneeling on the ground, so I saw her first. Saw that we were trying to shove the door through her.” Her voice shook a little at the end.
“Let’s move over there by the kitchen, okay?”
“I’m alright,” she said, and was angry suddenly. “Why is it that you think you’re the only woman that can handle this kind of shit?”
I lifted eyebrows, but didn’t say anything for a count of five. I wasn’t mad, I just wasn’t sure what to say. I finally tried the truth. “I’m not the one that’s pale and looks ready to faint.”
“I’m not going to faint,” she hissed at me. Angry whispers always sound so evil.
“Fine, then we’ll stay right here.”
“Fine,” she said, still angry.
I shrugged, strangely not angry. “Fine. You checked the woman, found she was dead, and then . . .”
“You know, I don’t have to report to you. You’re not my boss.”
That was it. “Look, Arnet, if you’ve got a personal beef with me, fine, have a personal beef with me, but not on her time.” I pointed down to the body.
“What do you mean, her time, she’s dead. She doesn’t have anymore time.”
“Bullshit. We’re on her dime right now. This is her murder, and catching the son of a bitch that did this to her is more important than anything else right now. You stonewalling me and acting like some damn rookie is just giving him more time to run. We don’t want him to run. We want him to be caught, right?”
She nodded. “I am not acting like a rookie.”
I sighed. “I apologize for that, and if you want to fight, we can fight, but later, when we’re not wasting valuable time, when we’re not wasting her time.”
Arnet looked down at the body again, mostly because I pointed again. Maybe it was overly dramatic, but I already spent time fighting with Dolph at crime scenes, I didn’t need another prima donna on my hands. Murder first, personal stuff later, that had to be the order of things, or you lost your way.
Zerbrowski was behind her. I noticed him walking up, but I don’t think Arnet did. “Go outside, Arnet, get some air,” he said, smiling, trying to take some of the sting out of it.
“I’m a detective on this team, she isn’t.” She pointed at me with her thumb.
“Outside, now,” Zerbrowski said, and his voice had lost all of its hail-fellow-well-met cheer.
Arnet stood there glaring at him.
“If I have to tell you to go outside again, Arnet, it won’t just be for air.”
“What’s that mean?” she asked, and her hands were starting to tremble. She was so angry she was shaking. What the hell had I done to make her this pissed about me? Was it about Nathaniel? Hell, she’d never dated him. She’d never met him before he was already living with me.
“Do you want to be off this case?” Zerbrowski asked, voice low and suddenly not at all like Zerbrowski’s voice.
“No,” she said, and she looked sullen, but surprised, as if she hadn’t known that he had a voice like that in him. Me, neither.
He looked at her, it was a look to match that new voice. “Then what should you be doing?”
She opened her mouth then closed it until her lips were a thin pink line. She turned on her