Burnt Offerings - Laurell K. Hamilton [78]
“I knew she was lying,” Dolph said, and shook his head. “But I thought she’d thrown more on him than a drink. I thought she’d come into the bar with some sort of accelerant.”
I shook my head. “Once you get a vamp burning, they burn until they’re put out or burned to ash. You may get a few bone fragments left, but vamps burn more completely than any human. Dental records won’t even help you.”
“The bartender used a fire extinguisher from behind the bar. Witnesses say he was quick.”
I nodded. “Yeah, good ol’ Harry. It’s a miracle the vamp is still alive. I know there’s some hard-core opposition to a vampire business outside the vampire district. There’s a petition and some sort of city meeting scheduled. Ms. Pierce will make a great witness to the dangers of vampires being outside the district.”
“The restaurant owner said the bad publicity could ruin him.”
I nodded. “Oh, yeah. It could also be a personal motive against the vampire. Not little Miss Blue Eyes but someone she knows that wanted him dead.”
“She could be a member of Humans First. They’d love all the vamps to burn.”
“A fanatical vampire hater wouldn’t let a vamp do their neck like that. No. Humans First might have paid her to discredit the bar. She may be a member of Humans Against Vampires, HAV, or even Humans First, but she doesn’t really believe. The bite proves that.”
“Could the vamp have captured her mind?”
“I don’t think so, but I’ve got some better questions for your other witnesses now.”
“Such as?” he asked.
“Are they sure the vampire in question even got a taste of her? Are they positive that he bit her? Ask them if she smelled of blood when she came in.”
“Explain,” Dolph said.
“If she came in with the bite, then some of them might have smelled it. Might not, the wound was pretty clean, which was probably why the vamp did it that way. If he’d just bitten her and brought the blood to the surface, the vamps would have all scented it.”
Dolph was writing it all down in his trusty notebook. “So a vamp’s involved?”
“He may not know what she was planning to do. I’d check for a vamp boyfriend, maybe, or at least one she’s dated. Boyfriend may be too strong a word for Ms. Pierce. I’d see if she has some background in acting. Check out her major in college, maybe.”
“Already done,” Dolph said. “She’s got a background in theater arts.”
I smiled. “Why did you need me? You had it all solved.”
“The bite, the fact that vampires burn that easily…” He shook his head. “None of this shit is in the literature.”
“The books aren’t designed for police work, Dolph.”
“Maybe you should do a book,” he said.
“Yeah, right. Do you have enough to get a warrant for her bank records?”
“If I’m careful what judge I ask, maybe.”
“You know, even if she is charged and convicted, the damage is done. The petition and the meeting are scheduled for next week. All they’ll have is rumors of an attack, and it will grow in the telling.”
Dolph nodded. “Nothing we can do about that.”
“You could go down there and tell them what you’ve learned about Vicki in there.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because I’m the whore of Babylon to the right-wingers. I’m boffing the head bloodsucker. They wouldn’t believe a damn thing I said.”
“I don’t have time to attend civic meetings, Anita.”
“You think the vampire businesses should be segregated?” I asked.
“Don’t go there, Anita. You won’t like the answers.”
I dropped it. Dolph thought vampires were monsters that the public needed to be protected from. I even agreed with him to an extent. But I was sleeping with one of the monsters. It made it hard to stay on the same bandwagon as Dolph. We agreed to disagree. It kept the peace and kept us working together.
“If you hate vamps so much, why didn’t you buy Ms. Pierce