"Meat burned to death; I remember."
"You sound like a vegetarian."
"Oh, no," he said. "I eat all sorts of things."
He walked away through the crowd before I could decide if I'd been insulted or not. Just as well. For the life of me, I couldn't think of a good comeback line.
Chapter 10
Dorcas brought our food without a word. She seemed angry--maybe not at us, but with us. Or with everything. I sympathized. Magnus went behind the bar, spreading his own special brand of magic to his customers once more. He glanced our way and smiled but didn't come back to finish our talk. Of course; we'd been finished. I was all out of questions.
I took a bite of my cheeseburger. It was almost crispy around the edges, not a smidgen of pink in the center. Perfect.
"What's wrong?" Larry asked. He was nibbling at a lettuce leaf.
I swallowed. "Why should something be wrong?"
"You're frowning," he said.
"Magnus didn't come back to the table."
"So? He answered all our questions."
"Maybe we just don't know the right questions to ask."
"You suspect him of something now?" Larry shook his head. "You have been hanging around with cops too long, Anita. You think everyone's up to something."
"They usually are." I took another bite of burger.
Larry squinched his eyes tight.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
"There's juice coming out of your burger. How can you eat that after what we just saw?"
"I guess this means you don't want me to put ketchup on my fries."
He looked at me with something near physical pain on his face. "How can you make jokes?"
My beeper went off. Had they found the vampire? I hit the button, and Dolph's number flashed at me. Now what?
"It's Dolph. Eat hearty. I'll phone from the Jeep and be back."
Larry stood up with me. He put a tip on the table and left his salad nearly untouched. "I'm done."
"Well, I'm not. Have Magnus pack my meal to go." I left him staring forlornly down at my half-eaten burger.
"You're not going to eat it in the car, are you?"
"Just have it packed up." I went for the Jeep and its fancy phone. Dolph answered on the third ring. "Anita?"
"Yeah, Dolph, it's me. What's up?"
"Vampire victim out near you."
"Shit, another one."
"What do you mean another one?"