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“I apologize for the assumption, but you got to admit a lot of people are going to assume the same thing.”

“I know.”

The door opened, and Greeley came back inside. His eyes took in the handcuffs being gone, the coffee. “You have a nice chat?”

“How’d your statement to the press go?” Dolph asked.

He shrugged. “I told them Ms. Blake was being questioned in connection with a death on the premises. Told ’em that no vamps were involved. Not sure they believed me. They kept wanting to speak to the Executioner. Though most of them were calling her the Master’s girlfriend.”

That made me flinch. Even with a career of my own, I was going to end up being Mrs. Jean-Claude in the press. He was more photogenic than I was.

Dolph stood. “I want to take Anita out of here.”

Greeley stared at him. “I don’t think so.”

Dolph set his coffee on the desk and went to stand next to the other detective. He lowered his voice, and there was a lot of harsh whispering. Greeley shook his head. “No.”

More whispering. Greeley glared at me. “All right, but she comes down to the station before the night is over or it’s your ass, Sergeant.”

“She’ll be there,” Dolph said.

Rizzo was staring at all of us. “You’re taking her out of here, but not to the station house?” It sounded accusatory even to me.

“That’s my decision, Rizzo,” Greeley said. “You got that?” His voice growled the words. Somehow Dolph had pulled rank, and Greeley didn’t like it. If Rizzo wanted to make himself a convenient target for that anger, fine.

Rizzo faded back against the wall, but he wasn’t happy about it. “I got that.”

“Get her out of here,” Greeley said. “Try the back. But I don’t know how you’ll get past the cameras.”

“We’ll walk through,” Dolph said. “Let’s go, Anita.”

I set my mug on the desk. “What’s up, Dolph?”

“I got a body for you to look at.”

“A murder suspect helping with another case. Won’t the brass get mad?”

“I cleared it,” Dolph said.

I looked at him, eyes wide. “How?” I asked.

“You don’t want to know,” he said.

I looked at him. He stared back. I finally looked away first. Most of the time, when people said I didn’t want to know, it meant just the opposite. It meant I probably needed to know. But from a handful of people, I’d take their word for it. Dolph was one of those people. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Dolph let me wash the dried blood off my hands, and we went.

18

* * *

I’M NOT a big one for idle chatter, but Dolph makes me seem loquacious. We drove down 270 in silence, the hiss of the wheels on the road and the thrum of the engine the only sounds. Either he’d turned off his radio or nobody was committing crimes in Saint Louis tonight. I was betting the radio was off. One of the good things about being a detective on a task force is you don’t have to listen to the radio all the time, because most of the calls aren’t your problem. If Dolph was needed somewhere, they could always beep him.

I tried to hold out. I tried to make Dolph talk first, but after nearly fifteen minutes, I broke. “Where are we going?”

“Creve Coeur.”

My eyebrows raised. “That’s a little upscale for a monster kill.”

“Yeah,” he said.

I waited for more; there wasn’t any more. “Well, thanks for enlightening me, Dolph.”

He glanced at me, then back to the road. “We’ll be there in a few minutes, Anita.”

“Patience has never been my strong suit, Dolph.”

His lips twitched, then he smiled. Finally, he laughed, a short, abrupt sound. “I guess not.”

“Glad I could lighten the mood,” I said.

“You’re always good for a laugh when you’re not killing people, Anita.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. Too close to the truth, maybe. Silence settled over the car, and I left it alone. It was an easy, friendly quiet this time, tinged with laughter. Dolph wasn’t mad at me anymore. I could stand a little silence.

Creve Coeur was an older neighborhood , but it didn’t look it. The age showed in the large houses set in long, sloping yards. Some of the houses had circular drives and servants’ quarters. The few housing