"Nope," I said. "You could drop a vamp in a whole tub of Saint-John's-wort and it wouldn't give a damn."
"What do you do against vampires, then?"
"Keep your cross, avoid eye contact, pray. They can do things that'll make Magnus look like an amateur."
She rubbed her eyes, smearing eye shadow on the ball of her thumb. She suddenly looked tired. "How do we protect the public against something like that?"
"You don't," I said.
"Yes, we do," she said. "We have to; it's our job."
I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't try. "So you thought it was Magnus because he ran, and he doesn't have an alibi?"
"Why else would he run?"
"I don't know," I said. "But he didn't do it. I saw the thing in the woods. It wasn't Magnus. Hell, I've only heard about vampires forming from shadows. I'd never seen it before."
She looked at me. "You've never seen it before. That's not comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be. But since it wasn't Magnus, you can call off the warrant."
She shook her head. "He used magic on police officers while committing a crime. That's a class C felony."
"What was his crime?"
"Escaping."
"But he wasn't under arrest."
"I had a warrant for his arrest," she said.
"You didn't have enough for a warrant," I said.
"Helps to know the right judge."
"He didn't kill those kids, or Coltrain."
"You pointed the finger at him," she said.
"Just an alternate possibility. With five people dead, I couldn't afford to be wrong."
She stood. "Well, you got your wish. It was vampires, and I don't know why the hell Magnus Bouvier ran from us. But just using magic on a police officer is a felony."
"Even if he was innocent of the original crime you were trying to bring him in on?" I asked.
"Felonious use of magic is a serious crime, Ms. Blake. There's a warrant for his arrest. You see him, you remember that."
"I know Magnus isn't nice people, Detective Freemont. I don't know why he ran, but if you put out the word that he used magic on cops, someone'll shoot him."
"He's dangerous, Ms. Blake."
"Yeah, but so are a lot of people, Detective. You don't hunt them down and arrest them for it."
She nodded. "We've all got prejudices, Ms. Blake; makes us all wrong once in a while. At least here we know what did it."
"Yeah," I said. "We know what did it."
"Do you know when the girl's body was taken?" she asked. She got a notebook out of her coat pocket. Down to business.