Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [586]
I forced myself not to glance at Edward, but it was an effort. “Let me test my understanding, Doctor. Have any people that have been skinned like the six in that room died?”
He blinked and again looked into the distance as if remembering, then he looked at me. “No, the only deaths have been those people torn apart.”
“Then I ask again, why are they all alive? Why didn’t at least one of them die from shock, blood loss, or a bad heart, or hell, the pure terror of it.”
“People don’t die from terror,” Marks said.
I glanced at him. “Are you absolutely sure of that, Lieutenant?”
His handsome face looked petulant, stubborn. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
I waved the comment away. I’d argue with Marks later. Right now I was chasing a point. “How did all six of them survive, Doctor? Not why this six, but why all of them?”
Evans nodded. “I see what you mean. How could all of them have survived it?”
I nodded. “Exactly. Some of them should have died, but they didn’t.”
“Whoever skinned them is an expert,” Marks said. “He knew how to keep them alive.”
“No,” Edward said. “No matter how good you are at torture, you can’t keep everybody alive. Even if you do exactly the same thing to each of them, some people die and some people live. You’re not always sure why some make it, and some don’t.” His voice was very quiet, but it filled the hush of the room.
Doctor Evans looked at him, nodding. “Yes, yes, even an expert can’t make people survive what was done to these six. You should lose some of them. For that matter I don’t know why they’re all still alive. Why hasn’t one of them contracted some secondary infection? They are all remarkably healthy.”
Marks stood so abruptly, he spilled coffee over his hand. He cursed, striding to the sink and throwing the cup and all in the sink. “How can you say they’re healthy?” He looked over his shoulder at the doctor while he ran his hands under the water.
“They are still alive, Lieutenant, and for their condition that is very healthy indeed.”
“Magic would do it,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“There are spells that can keep a person alive during torture so that the torture can be prolonged.”
Marks tore too much paper towel off the roll and turned on me, wiping his hands with small abrupt movements. “How can you say you don’t do black magic?”
“I said there are spells that will do it, not that I did the spells,” I said.
It took him three tries to get the paper towel in the waste basket. “Just knowing about such things is evil.”
“Think what you like, Marks, but maybe one of the reasons you had to call me in is that you’ve kept yourself so lily white that you don’t know enough to help these people. Maybe if you were more interested in solving crime than in saving your own soul you’d have wrapped this up by now.”
“Saving a soul is more important than solving crime,” he said. He was striding towards me now.
I stood up, coffee cup in my hand. “If you’re more interested in souls than crime then become a minister, Marks. What we need right now is a cop.”
He stalked towards me, and I think would have come close enough to exchange blows, but I watched him remember what I’d done out in the hall. I watched him remember caution, and he walked far around me to get to the door.
Doctor Evans glanced from one to the other of us, as if wondering what he’d missed.
Marks turned at the door, pointing a finger at me. “If I have my way, you are going to be back on a plane tonight. You can’t ask the devil to help you catch the devil.” With that he closed the door behind him.
Evans spoke into the silence. “There must be more in you, Ms. Blake, than mere toughness, something I haven’t seen yet.”
I looked at him and took a drink of the cooling coffee. “What would make you say that, doctor?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say Lieutenant