He set out three cups and started pouring very dark, very rich coffee into them.
"You like coffee," Lisandro said, from just behind us.
"None for me, thanks," Nicky said.
The clerk, whose name completely escaped me, stopped in midpour, spilling a tiny bit down the side of the cup. "Sorry." He put the pot back on the coffeemaker and reached for napkins and wiped off the side of the second cup. "I'm just glad some of you are drinking it. I hate wasting good coffee."
Lisandro and I both took the cups. Nicky went back to being alert, as if someone might jump out of the walls and attack. He was right, though; he and I had to get a handle on whatever was making us be so touchy-feely, or I'd have to send him home. The real test would be if I was as bad around Domino, because he was the only other man from home who had a metaphysical tie to me. If it was both of them, then, well, that would mean something was wrong with the metaphysics, and that would be bad.
I breathed in the scent of the coffee, letting myself close my eyes for a moment and just enjoy it. I could tell by the smell alone that it wouldn't need sugar or cream, it was good just the way it was.
"How can I help you, Marshal?" the clerk said.
I opened my eyes and smiled. "Sorry, got distracted by the coffee."
He smiled back and shrugged thin shoulders. "Glad I could make your day a little better. I'm so sorry about the other marshal getting hurt."
"Thank you," I said. "We're actually here to get clothes from her room to take back to the hospital."
"So she's okay?"
I shrugged and smiled noncommittally. I doubted the marshal service wanted the media to learn about Karlton being a werewolf, and I knew Karlton didn't.
Lisandro said, "We also need rooms."
I nodded, and he was right to get me back on track. What the hell was wrong with me? I was losing focus in the middle of a case, that wasn't like me. Not to this degree anyway.
The clerk went behind the desk and said, "How many people, and are they comfortable with sharing rooms?"
I started to answer, but Bernardo and Olaf came into the office. Olaf was almost too tall for the drop ceiling. I had a moment to wonder how it would feel to be so tall that ceilings were too short. It was so not the problem I had.
"Fresh coffee," the clerk called out cheerfully as he typed on his keyboard. "How many rooms do you need?"
I counted in my head while I sipped the coffee. It was as good as it smelled; yum. "Three, with two beds apiece."
"Thanks, Ron," Bernardo called out and went toward the coffee. It made me think better of Bernardo that he knew the clerk's name. If the clerk had been female I'd have expected it, but that he remembered the man's name to be friendly made me wonder if some of the flirting from Bernardo was just a level of social enjoyment that I didn't have with strangers.
"So, room for six," Ron said, typing on the keyboard.
"Yeah."
Olaf came to stand near the desk.
Ron gave him a nervous flick of eyes that seemed to take in the top of his bald head that was ever so close to the ceiling tiles. "Coffee machine is over there."
"No, thank you," Olaf said, in that deep rumbling voice.
"He doesn't drink coffee or tea," I said.
"Good to know," Ron said, and his effort not to look all the way up to Olaf was almost painful.
"We just drink the blood of our enemies," Nicky said.
Ron stopped in his typing and looked at Nicky. "What?"
"He's teasing you," I said, and glared at Nicky. The glare said, clearly, for him to stop it.
"We have two rooms upstairs near your original rooms, and one downstairs. Is that okay?"
"We need to be close to Anita's room," Nicky said.
"Anita, oh, you mean Marshal Blake."
"Yes," Nicky said.
Ron typed some more. "I'm sorry, that's the best we have until someone checks out."
Lisandro was near the door, looking out and drinking the yummy coffee. Bernardo trailed over to join us. He seemed to be enjoying the coffee, though he'd added enough cream to make it tan, probably added sugar, too. I thought about calling him a pussy, but decided it wasn't worth it, I'd actually started adding cream and sugar to some coffee