a terrible urge to say, "You can't handle the truth," but the thought helped kill some of the anger. I gave him calmer eyes and said, "The truth about what exactly?"
"Are there weretigers in Seattle?"
"I haven't been here long enough to know where to get a good cup of coffee. I don't think I should be the one you're asking. You've got a preternatural branch that is local to your area. They should know more than I do about the local wereanimals."
"They should, but somehow everywhere you go you know more monsters than the rest of us."
I shrugged, and didn't have to fight to look bored. "Maybe it's because I see them as people, not just monsters."
He motioned at the photos spread out on his desk. "Whatever did this isn't human. Nothing human could have done this."
I shrugged again. "I can't speak to that. I'm not in forensics and I've got cop friends who tell some mean stories about humans on PCP."
"PCP would make them strong enough to do it, but it also makes them crazy," Raborn said. "They could do the violent killings, maybe, but not this." He pointed at one photo. "This is precise. PCP doesn't make you precise, it makes you a fucking animal."
Since Edward and I had put that observation into our reports, I wasn't surprised to hear him repeat it back to me. "Like a wereanimal?" I asked.
"You know what I meant."
I sat up straighter in the chair because the gun at my back was digging in a little, which meant I was slumping. We were averaging three hours of sleep, and a different time zone every day was beginning to take its toil.
"I'm not sure I do, but if you called me in here to grill me about the local wereanimals, I just got here less than four hours ago. I'm good at gathering information about the local preternatural scene, but I'm not that good. No one is that good."
"What's killing the weretigers?"
"I'm not sure."
"Why are they being killed?"
"Why does any serial killer choose his victim?"
"So you know it is a he."
I sighed. "Statically speaking, over ninety percent of all serial killers are male. Using he as the pronoun is probably accurate, but, you're right, I don't know that it's a he. Though female serial killers are more likely to use poison or a gun; a blade is more typical of male serial killers. Whoever is killing these victims is sure of his skill with a blade, and that he has the strength to get the job done before the weretiger can fight back. That level of physical confidence is usually male, rather than female."
He looked at me, but there was a touch less hostility in his face. "That's true."
"You seem surprised that I knew that," I said.
He settled back in his chair and looked at me, but now it was an appraising look. "I'd been told that the only reason you have more executions than anyone else in the preternatural branch is that you're fucking the monsters, so they talk to you, but maybe that's not all of it."
I gave him an unfriendly look, and then it seemed too much trouble. I leaned forward in the chair. "Look, Raborn, if I were living with a group of men and having sex with all of them, and everyone were human, the other cops would still hate it, or they'd see me as a slut. But my live-in sweeties are vampires and shapeshifters, so the other cops really don't like my choice in boyfriends. I accept that, because there's nothing I can do about it, but I want to stop these killers. I don't want to see any more of these bodies. I want to go home to my sweeties, and stop seeing cut-up bodies in my dreams."
He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Yeah, once you start seeing the bodies in your dreams, it's a bitch."
"Trust me, Raborn, I'm motivated to solve these crimes."
He looked at me then, and let me see that he was tired, too. "I believe you want to go home, but how can I trust a marshal who's shacking up with the master vampire of her city?"
"It's illegal to discriminate against me because of who I'm dating."
"Yeah, yeah, no discriminating on basis of race, religion, or lack of being human, or something like that."
"I know that other cops say that I'm sleeping my way to all the information, and I do sleep with the monsters. I can't deny