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She looked at me again, eyes studying my face. I could almost see the wheels in her head turning. She thought she had me. God, she was young.

Her fingers tightened on my hands, a fine tremor going up her arms. “I called a friend of mine to come look at the car. I’m in college and don’t have a lot of money, so I didn’t want to call a garage right away, not until my friend had seen the car. I hoped he could fix it.”

She was volunteering too much information. Already justifying herself. Or maybe she’d just told the story too many times. Naw. “I’d have done the same thing,” I said. And I might have.

She squeezed my hands and leaned towards me, a little eager, getting into her story. “There was this man at the bar. He seemed nice. We talked, and he asked me to sit with him. I told him I was waiting for my friend. He said, fine, we’d just talk.” Again she looked down. “He said I had the most beautiful skin he’d ever seen.” She looked back at me, eyes wide. “I mean, it was so romantic.”

It was so rehearsed. “Go on.”

“I let him buy me a drink. I know I shouldn’t have.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I asked if he minded me smoking, and he said no.” There was a full ashtray at her elbow. Neither Dolph nor Zerbrowski smoked, which meant little Vicki was damn near a chain smoker.

“He had his arm around me and leaned in to kiss me, I thought.” The tears came faster, she hunched over a little, back shaking. “He bit me, on the neck. I swear until that second I didn’t realize he was a vampire.” She looked at me, from inches away vibrating with sincerity.

I patted her arm. “A lot of people can’t tell vampires from humans. Especially if they’ve fed first.”

She blinked at me. “Fed first?”

“If a vampire is full of blood, then he looks more human.”

She nodded. “Oh.”

“What did you do when he bit you?”

“I threw my drink at him and lit it with my lighter.”

“Lit it?” I said, “It, the liquor, or it, the vampire?”

“Both,” she said.

I nodded. “Vamps are very combustible. He burned real good, didn’t he?”

“I didn’t know he’d go up in flames like he did,” she said. “A person just doesn’t burn like that.”

“No,” I said, “they don’t.”

“I started to scream and run away from him. My friend came in the door then. People were shouting and screaming. It was awful.”

I stood up. “I bet it was.”

She stared up me, blue eyes sincere but not full of horror for what she’d done. There was no remorse. She gripped my arm suddenly, very tight, as if she could will me to understand. “I had to protect myself.”

I placed my hand over hers and smiled. “What made you think of lighting the liquor once you’d thrown it?”

“I remembered that vampires were afraid of fire.”

“But if you threw a drink in a human’s face and lit it, it would only burn until the liquor was gone. A whoosh and it would be all over. A human would leave you alone after that, though they’d be hurt. Weren’t you afraid that you’d just make the vampire more angry?”

“But vampires are very combustible, you said it yourself,” Vicki said.

My smile widened. “So you knew he’d go up in flames?”

“Yes,” she said, clutching me, willing me to understand her plight.

Dolph said, “I thought you didn’t know the vampire would go up in flames, Ms. Pierce.”

“I didn’t, not until he burned like that,” she said.

I patted her hand. “But, Vicki dear, you just said you knew he was combustible.”

“But you said it first.”

“Vicki, you just said you knew he’d go up in flames when you lit him up.”

“I didn’t.”

I nodded. “Yes, you did.”

She drew her hands away from me, sitting very straight in her chair. “You are trying to confuse me.”

I shook my head. “No, Vicki, you’re doing that all on your own.” I moved away from her while still maintaining eye contact.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. A little bit of anger peeked through her helpless-damsel act.

“What restaurant was it?” I asked as if I hadn’t been there twenty minutes earlier. Interrogations are so often repetitive.

“What?” she asked.

“What was the name of the bar?”

“I don’t