"What sort of murder?"
I hesitated. I didn't discuss ongoing police investigations with the monsters.
"I know you do not trust me, ma petite, but it is important. Tell me of these deaths, please."
He didn't say please very often. I told him. Not in great detail, but enough.
"Were they violated?"
"What do you mean, violated?" I asked.
"Violated, ma petite, violated. There are other words for it, but none better for children."
"Oh," I said. "I don't know if they were sexually assaulted. They were still clothed."
"There are things that can be done without removing clothing, ma petite. But the abuse would have happened before the killings. Systematic abuse over a period of weeks or months."
"I'll find out if they were assaulted." An idea occurred to me. "Would this vamp ever do a girl?"
"By 'do,' you mean sex?"
"Yeah."
"If pressed for company, he would take a young girl, prepubescent, but only if he could find nothing else."
I swallowed hard. We were talking about children like they were things, objects. "No, this girl looked like a woman. She didn't look young."
"Then, no, he would not willingly touch her."
"What do you mean, willingly? What other choice would there be?"
"His master could order him to do it, and he might, if he feared the master enough. Though I cannot think of many people that he would fear enough to do something he found repugnant."
"You know this vampire. Who is he? Give me a name."
"When I arrive, ma petite."
"Just give me the name."
"So you can give it to the police?"
"That is their job."
"No, ma petite. If it is who I think it is, it will not be a matter for the police."
"Why not?"
"Put simply, he is too dangerous and too exotic to be revealed to the general public. If mortals found out we could have among us such things, they might turn on us all together. You must be aware of that nasty law floating around the Senate."
"I'm aware."
"Then you must understand my caution."
"Maybe, but if more people die because of your caution, it's going to help Brewster's law get passed. You think about that."
"Oh, I am, ma petite. Trust that I am. Now farewell. I have much to do." He hung up.
I sat there staring at the phone. Damn him. What did he mean by exotic? What could this new vampire do that others couldn't? He could slim himself down enough to fit through a doggie door. Maybe it made Houdini jealous, but it was hardly a crime. But I remembered its face. Not human. Not even just a corpse's face. It had been something else altogether. Something different. And I remembered those few seconds I lost, twice. Me, the great vampire hunter, helpless as any civilian for just a heartbeat. With vampires, a heartbeat was enough.