met. Katie, his petite and lovely wife, had told me once at a barbecue at their house that she thought his outrageous flirting was an outlet he needed. Apparently, he'd flirted like that when they first met, and she'd thought he didn't like her because she was the only girl he didn't flirt with; go figure.
Dolph sent two uniforms into the room ahead of us. They took up posts at corners of the room. Dolph said, "Mr. Weiskopf, this is Marshal Blake."
Weiskopf smiled, and it seemed genuine, as if he were really glad to see me. "Marshal Blake, Anita, I didn't expect to see you like this in an interrogation room. My master and I are very disappointed that it's come to this."
I offered him a hand across the table before I sat down. He hesitated, and then took it sort of automatically; most people will, even vampires, but he wasn't a vampire. His hand was just a hand in mine, warm, alive... human. I could have put some power into the touch, but he might take that as an insult so I minded my manners.
"What exactly has it come to, Mr. Weiskopf?" I said, as I sat down. Dolph actually pushed my chair in for me, which I'd have preferred he not do, because I still hadn't figured out the timing on that. I sat down too early, as usual, and got the chair shoved into the back of my knees, which sort of hurt. At least Dolph, like most of the men who insisted on the chair thing in my life, was strong enough to push me into place at the table.
Dolph stayed standing at my side, looming over both me and the man at the table. He was trying to be intimidating, and if you weren't used to someone his height, it usually worked.
Weiskopf rolled his eyes upward as if looking all the way to the top of Dolph's head, then back to me. He smiled, hands still clasped on top of the table. "My master does not approve of the violence done in the name of our cause."
"And what cause is that?" I asked. I couldn't think how a crackpot human could have gotten the name Benjamin from our interrogation of Barney the vampire, but I'd learned to never underestimate the crazy. Crazy didn't mean dumb; some insane people were incredibly smart. Sometimes I wondered if you had to be a certain level of intelligent just to go crazy in style.
He smiled at me, his brown eyes filled with a gentle chiding. "Now, Anita, may I call you Anita?"
"If I have a first name to call you?" I smiled back at him. I even made it fill my eyes. The days when I couldn't lie with the best of them were long past.
His smile broadened. "I've been Mr. Weiskopf, or just Weiskopf, for so long that it will do."
"Weiskopf, just that?" I asked.
He nodded, smiling.
"Then you can call me Blake. Last name for last name."
"You think if I give you a first name that you will be able to trace it, and by finding me, you may find my master."
I shrugged. "It's my job to figure things out."
"No," he said, and the smile slipped, "it's your job to kill vampires."
"If they've broken the law, yes."
He shook his head, and he wasn't smiling now. "No, Anita, I mean, Blake, you've killed vampires for petty crimes. Things that humans would never have been executed for."
I nodded. "Three-strikes rules for vampires were very harsh."
He gave a bitter laugh. "Harsh, is that the best you can say?"
"Unfair, inhuman, monstrous, barbaric; stop when you like one of them."
"All of those, and more, but monstrous, I like that one. The human laws against vampires were monstrous; they made the humans into monsters. You became the bogeyman of all little vampires everywhere, Ms. Blake."
"Marshal Blake," I said.
He nodded. "Then I am Mr. Weiskopf."
"I didn't use your name, or title, Mr. Weiskopf."
"No, I suppose you didn't." He seemed to get a handle on himself, smoothing the lapels of his black suit; I could see that it was black, not navy, now. He tried to go back to smiling at me, but it didn't quite fill his eyes now. He was angry, and he didn't like me, or my job.
"My master and I do not believe in an eye for an eye. We advocated nonviolence, though you offered only violence."
"I helped get the three-strikes rule for vamps changed. Petty crimes don't add to the three