Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [217]
His face got a little darker, his eyes went from unfriendly to hostile. “You think you’re funny?”
“No,” I said, and I took a deep breath in and let it out slow. “Look, you stop calling me a stripper, and I’ll stop making cute remarks at you. Let’s both pretend we’re here to solve a crime, and just do our jobs.”
“We don’t need federal help here.”
I sighed. I looked around the room and didn’t see anyone I knew. “Fine, you want to do it this way, we can do it this way. If you prevent me from questioning all the vampires before dawn comes, I will charge you with obstructing a federal officer in the performance of her duties.”
“Some of them your friends, that it? I heard you were coffin bait.”
I shook my head and walked wide around Douglas, which put me out of reach for the sheriff.
“Where the hell are you going?”
“To question the witnesses,” I said, and I kept a little bit of an eye on the sheriff, because I wasn’t sure what he would do.
“How do you know where they are?”
“They aren’t out here, or out in the parking lot, so they’ve got to be in the Sapphire Room.” I was almost to the little raised platform in front of a pair of nice wooden doors. There was another uniformed officer in front of the doors. I had been in there before, so I knew the sound was muffled inside the room. That’s why I hadn’t yelled for Zerbrowski already.
I unzipped the leather jacket as I went up the steps. I had my badge in my left hand, held where the uniform on the door could see it clearly. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do if the sheriff told his man not to let me in. I’d learned that just because I had the legal right to be somewhere, didn’t mean the local police would make it easy. They wouldn’t actually lay hands on me, or boot my ass out, but if they wanted to be uncooperative, they could be.
“Please move aside, Officer.”
He actually started to step to the side, but the sheriff said, “You don’t work for her. You move when I say you move.”
I sighed and thought, Well, shit. Then I had an idea. I reached into the pocket of the leather coat.
“Be careful what you reach for,” the sheriff said from far too close behind me.
I turned so I could see him and the other officer. I held up my cell phone. “No need to get excited, Sheriff. Just going to make a phone call.”
He had his hands on his hips above his Sam Brown belt. He hadn’t unsnapped his gun, so he wasn’t serious. He was just trying to see if I’d spook. If he thought this kind of shit could intimidate me, he’d been playing in the shallow end of the pool for too fucking long.
I hit the buttons, keeping an eye on the officers in the room. A lot of them had stopped questioning or guarding or whatever they were doing, to watch our little show. Zerbrowski answered on the second ring. “I’m in the club, just outside the doors.”
“And why aren’t you inside the doors?” he asked, sounding puzzled.
“The sheriff has ordered his man not to move away from the doors.”
“Not true,” the sheriff yelled, “but you sure as hell can’t order my man to do shit.”
I sighed loud enough so Zerbrowski could hear it. “A little help here.”
Zerbrowski opened the door with the phone still in his hand. “Thanks, Sheriff Christopher, I think Marshal Blake and I have it from here.” He clicked the phone shut, smiled at everybody, and moved aside enough for me to pass through, but not enough for the sheriff, who stood at the bottom of the steps glaring at him. I finally realized that the pissing contest had started before I got there, and I’d just gotten caught in it.
Zerbrowski shut the door behind us, and leaned against it shaking his head. He’s 5' 9", with short black hair going more and more gray every year. When his wife makes him get it cut, the hair is short and neat. When he forgets, or she’s busy, it’s curly and wavy, and as untidy as the rest of him. His suit was brown, his tie was pale yellow, and so was his shirt. I think it was the first time I’d seen all