The Killing Dance - By Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,76
play. It's illegal to use preternatural powers to coerce anyone into doing something they don't want to do."
"You aren't a policeman, Anita."
It was the first time he'd ever reminded me of that. Usually, Dolph treated me like one of his people. He'd even encouraged me to simply say I was with his squad so people would assume I was a detective.
"You kicking me off the squad, Dolph?" My stomach was tight as I asked. I valued working with the police. I valued Dolph and Zerbrowski and the rest of the guys. It would hurt more than I wanted to admit to lose all that.
"Two bodies in two days, Anita, both of them normal humans. That's a lot of explaining at headquarters."
"If they'd been vamps or some other creepie-crawlie, everyone would look the other way, is that it?"
"Picking a fight with me isn't your best bet right now, Anita."
We stared at each other for a second or two. I looked away first, and nodded. "Why are you here, Dolph?"
"I handle the media a lot."
"But you're letting Greeley talk to the press."
"You've got to tell me what's going on, Anita." His voice was quiet, but I knew by the tightness around his eyes, the way he held his shoulders, that he was angry. I guess I couldn't blame him.
"What do you want to hear, Dolph?" I asked.
"The truth would be nice," he said.
"I think I need a lawyer first." I wasn't going to spill my guts just because Dolph was my friend. He was still a cop, and I had killed someone.
Dolph's eyes narrowed. He turned to the uniform still leaning against the wall. "Rizzo, go get some coffee, black, for me. What do you want in yours?"
Coffee was coming. Things were looking up. "Two sugars, one cream."
"Get some for yourself, Rizzo, and take your time."
Officer Rizzo pushed away from the wall where he'd been leaning. "You sure about this, Sergeant Storr?"
Dolph looked at him, just looked at him.
Rizzo held his hands out in a sort of push away gesture. "I don't want Greeley riding my ass about leaving you two alone."
"Get the coffee, Officer Rizzo. I'll take any heat that comes down."
Rizzo left, shaking his head, probably at the stupidity of plainclothes detectives. When we were alone, Dolph said, "Turn around."
I stood up and offered him my hands. He uncuffed me, but didn't pat me down again. He probably assumed Rizzo had done it. I didn't tell him about the knife they missed, which would piss him off if he found it later, but hey, I couldn't let the cops confiscate all my weapons. Besides, I didn't want to be unarmed tonight.
I sat back down, resisting the urge to rub my wrists. I was heap-big-vampire-slayer. Nothing could hurt me. Yeah, right.
"Talk to me, Anita."
"Off the record?" I asked.
He stared at me, eyes flat and unreadable, good cop eyes. "I should say no."
"But," I said.
"Off the record, tell me."
I told him. I changed only one thing: that an anonymous call had alerted me to the contract on me. Other than that, it was the absolute truth. I thought Dolph would be happy, but he wasn't.
"And you don't know why someone would put a contract out on you?"
"For that kind of money, with a time limit on it, no."
He stared at me, as if trying to decide how much truth I was telling him. "Why didn't you tell us about the anonymous phone call earlier?" He put a lot of stress on the word anonymous.
I shrugged. "Habit, I guess."
"No, you wanted to hotdog it. Instead of hiding out, you came here and played bait. If the hitter had used a bomb, you could have gotten a lot of people hurt."
"But she didn't use a bomb, did she."
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said he was counting to ten.
"You got lucky," he said.
"I know."
Dolph stared at me. "She nearly did you."
"If those women hadn't come in when they did, I wouldn't be talking to you now."
"You don't seem worried."
"She's dead. I'm not. What's to worry about?"
"For that kind of money, Anita, there'll be someone else tomorrow."
"It's after midnight, and I'm still alive. Maybe the contract will be canceled."
"Why the time limit?"
I shook my head. "If I knew that, I might know who put the hit out on me."
"And if you find out who put the money up, what will you do?" he asked.