That stopped me. "Freemont didn't call you after I talked to her?"
"Yeah, she said good things about you."
"That surprises me; she wasn't too friendly."
"How not friendly?"
"She wouldn't let me hunt vampires with her."
"Tell me," Dolph said.
I told him.
Dolph was quiet for a very long time after I finished. "You still there, Dolph?"
"I'm here. I wish I wasn't."
"What's going on, Dolph? Why would Freemont call and tell you what a good job I'm doing, but not ask for the squad's help on something this big?"
"I bet she hasn't called the Feds either," Dolph said.
"What's going on, Dolph?"
"I think Detective Freemont is pulling a Lone Ranger on us."
"The federal boys are going to want a piece of this. The first vampire serial killer in recorded history. Freemont can't keep it to herself."
"I know," Dolph said.
"What are we going to do?"
"The body on the ground this time sounds like a straightforward vampire kill. It's classic, bite marks, no other damage to the body. Could it be a different vamp?"
"Could be," I said.
"You sound doubtful."
"Two rogue vamps in this small a geographical area, this far from a city, doesn't seem likely."
"The body wasn't cut up."
"There is that," I said.
"How sure are you that the first killer is a vamp? Is there anything else it could be?"
I opened my mouth to say no, and closed it. Anybody who could cut down all those trees in one drunken brawl could certainly cut up people. Magnus had his glamor. I wasn't sure it was capable of doing what I'd seen in the clearing, but...
"Anita?"
"I might have an alternative."
"What?"
"Who," I said. I hated giving Magnus up to the cops. He'd kept his secret so long, but... what if the question I should ask was, had he killed five people? I'd felt the strength in his hands. I remembered the clean trunks of the trees, cut by just one blow, two at most. I flashed on the murder scene. The blood, the na**d bone. I couldn't rule Magnus out, and I couldn't afford to be wrong.
I gave him up to Dolph. "Can you keep the part about him being fairie out of it for a while?"
"Why?"