Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [507]
“I heard that about you. That you were a shooter.”
I looked at him. “Heard from whom?”
“Cops talk to one another, Ms. Blake. If she’d shown up with a bullet in her head, then I might believe you did it.”
“Why would I kill some unknown woman?”
“But she isn’t unknown, Ms. Blake.” He was watching me very closely.
I glanced back at the body. I looked down the length of it. There was nothing that I recognized. Of all the women I’d met since I came here, none were tall enough for the body. Except one.
I turned back to him and felt the blood drain from my face. “Who is it?”
“Betty Schaffer, the woman who accused your lover boy of rape.”
The world swam in stripes of color and heat. Someone was holding my elbow, and only that kept me standing. When my vision cleared, Henderson had my arm, and Wilkes was back. “Are you all right, Ms. Blake?” Wilkes asked.
I looked him right in the eyes and didn’t know what to say. Betty Schaffer had been worse than murdered. If the ritual was done right and the person was in jeopardy, not pure, like being a traitor or a liar or lecherous, then the soul could be taken with the life. I’d only seen one body that had been killed in ritual for a demon, and it had been nothing like this. The sacrifice had been killed with a knife, but the soul had been taken. And I couldn’t raise the body. If a demon was involved with the death, then the body was just so much clay. I had no power here.
Wilkes couldn’t have called a demon. None of his men had the power. Who could have done it? No one I’d met since I arrived had that kind of power and that kind of taint.
Before I could think of anything to say, Wilkes spoke first. “You’ve got a call. I think you should take it.”
He was afraid I’d talk. Trouble was, I didn’t have any proof of anything. Hell, I didn’t even know what was going on. What was on this ordinary looking land that was worth killing over? Why did the trolls have to be gotten rid of? Was it just so the land could be sold? Or was there a darker purpose? Someone had called a demon to try to make it look like a troll kill. I knew why they’d done it, but not who. I even knew why it was Betty. She’d compromised herself, put herself at risk for that kind of ceremony.
Movies try to give us shit about needing virgins and purity for sacrifice, but true evil doesn’t want to kill and send purity to heaven. True evil wants to corrupt good, and once the good are dead, they are beyond the devil’s reach. But the impure, to sacrifice them, to kill them—well, the devil gets his due.
Wilkes took my arm as if to help me.
“Don’t touch me, Wilkes. Don’t ever touch me again.”
He let his hand fall. Henderson was watching us like he was seeing more than we were telling. Cops are good about that. Give them anything suspicious, and they’ll put two and two together and make ten to twenty-five to life.
Wilkes looked at me. “Could it be werewolves?” His voice was quiet.
I couldn’t keep the shock off my face. I fought to regain my nice, blank face, but it was enough. Wilkes knew what Richard was—somehow he knew—and he’d try to blame Betty’s death on Richard. Werewolves were a good scapegoat, and a lot more fun to believe in than demons.
He pulled a cell phone from his pocket. He punched up a number. “She’s right here.” He handed the phone to me.
Henderson was watching us like we were entertaining. I took the phone. The voice on the other end was a man, and I didn’t know him.
“I am Franklin Niley, Ms. Blake. I think it is time we meet face-to-face.”
“I don’t think so,” I said.
“Wilkes told me that you have spoiled our little plan about blaming those pesky trolls for the death. But it is not too late to blame your lover. How many people will believe his innocence once they find out he is a werewolf?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
I had to turn my back on Henderson’s alert eyes. His attention was