Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [716]
“Any ideas what it’s doing and where?” Ramirez asked.
I shook my head. “Not really.”
He turned to the doctor. “Tell the men they can come outside.”
Ben the nurse looked to Doctor Evans for confirmation. Evans nodded. The nurse ducked back inside, the door closing slowly behind him.
Evans turned to me. “Well, Ms. Blake, looks like you hurried over here for nothing.”
I shrugged. “I thought we’d be ass deep in man-eating corpses by now.” I smiled. “It’s nice to be wrong once in a while.”
We all smiled at each other. The tension spilled out of all of us. Bernardo gave that nervous laugh you sometimes give when the emergency is over, or the bullet passed you by.
“I’m very glad you were wrong, this time, Ms. Blake,” Evans said.
“Me, too,” I said.
“Me, three,” Bernardo said.
“I’m happy, too,” Ramirez said, “but it is disappointing to find out you’re not perfect.”
“If you don’t know I’m not perfect after forty-eight hours of working with me on a police investigation, then you are not paying attention.”
“I’m paying attention,” Ramirez said, “close attention.” There was a weight to his gaze, an intensity to his words that made me want to squirm. In trying not to squirm I caught Bernardo’s eyes. He was smiling at me, enjoying my discomfort. Glad someone was.
“If you were wrong about this, you may be wrong about them being dead,” Evans said.
I nodded. “Maybe.”
“You admit you may be wrong, just like that?” Evans seemed surprised.
“This is magic, not math, Doctor Evans. There are very few hard and fast rules. There are even fewer rules the way I do it. Sometimes I think two and two is going to add up to five, and I’m right. Sometimes all you get is four. If it lowers the body count, I don’t mind being wrong.”
The door opened, and two men came out dressed in Albuquerque uniforms. They’d headed for the door as soon as Ben the nurse told them they could go. I didn’t blame them one bit.
Their eyes looked haunted. The tallest one was blond and built all of squares. Broad shoulders, thick waist, heavy legs, not fat, just solid, strong. His partner was shorter and almost completely bald except for a ring of brown curls low on his head. Apparently, it was his hat sitting on the chair by the door.
Doctor Evans said, “Excuse me.” He moved past them into the room.
The short one said, “He can have it.”
The blond looked at me, eyes narrowing, not friendly. “Well, if it isn’t the wicked witch of the Midwest. I hear we have you to thank for us sitting in there for the last hour.”
I didn’t recognize him, but apparently he knew me on sight. “I suggested it, yes.”
The blond moved closer, using his size to intimidate me, or he tried. Size just isn’t as impressive as most men think it is. “Maybe Marks was right about you.”
Ah hah. He must have been one of the officers on site when Marks kicked me out. I felt Ramirez start to move up, probably to step between us. I put my hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right.”
Ramirez didn’t move back the step he’d taken, but at least he didn’t move forward. It was probably the best I would get out of him. But it meant that I was sandwiched between the two men. The blond’s eyes flicked to Ramirez behind me. The look on his face was enough. He wanted a fight and didn’t really care who it was with.
He was glaring at Ramirez now, and I could almost feel the testosterone rising on every side. Enough testosterone to get the officer in trouble, maybe suspended when all he needed was to blow off some steam. He was trying to cleanse himself of the horrors in that room.
Both his partner and Bernardo were staying back. I didn’t know what the partner was doing, but Bernardo was enjoying the show.
“You must have been one of the officers that helped Marks throw me out,” I said. I was looking way up at the man, and he was looking over me at Ramirez.
It took him a second to blink and look