I stared up at him and knew he meant it.
I nodded. "We're history."
Wilkes turned to Richard. "What about you, Boy Scout? You agree? Is this enough? Or does it have to get worse?"
I looked across the room at Richard and urged him to lie. Maiden still had a baton stretched across his throat. The towel had slipped down, and he was naked, with his wrists still in cuffs behind his back.
Richard swallowed, then said, "It's enough."
"You're out by dark?" Wilkes made it a question.
"Yes," Richard said.
Wilkes nodded. "I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that, Mr. Zeeman. Come on, boys."
Maiden very slowly took his baton away from Richard's throat and stepped back. "I'll take the cuffs off if you promise to behave yourself."
"It's over, right, Richard?" Wilkes said. "Take the cuffs off. They won't give us any more trouble."
Maiden didn't look as convinced as Wilkes seemed to be, but he did what he was told. He took the cuffs off.
Richard rubbed his wrists but didn't bother grabbing at the fallen towel. Without clothes, Richard was nude, not naked. He was comfortable. Most lycanthropes were.
Maiden followed Wilkes to the door, but he kept an eye on both of us, as if still expecting trouble. A good cop never turns his back completely.
Thompson was the last to move towards the door. He said, "Lover's thing is almost as big as you are."
Nothing else he'd done had made me blush, but that did. I hated it but couldn't stop it.
He laughed. "I hope you don't leave town. I hope you stay, because I really do want another chance to be alone together."
"My new goal in life, Thompson, is to never be alone with you."
He laughed again. He laughed while he walked out the door. The deputy that kept complaining about the crowd left. Only Maiden waited in the door for Wilkes.
The sheriff said, "I hope we never meet again, Blake."
"Ditto, Sheriff," I said.
"Mr. Zeeman." He gave a nod as if he'd just pulled us over for a traffic stop and let us go with a warning. His entire body language changed as he moved through the door. Just a good ol' boy talking to some strangers about that disturbance last night.
When the door closed behind them, Richard crawled to me. He started to touch my face, then stopped, fingers hovering helplessly around my face. "Are you hurt?"
"A little."
He hugged me, pulling me gently in against his body. "Go home, Anita. Go back to Saint Louis."
I pulled away enough to meet his eyes. "Oh, no. If you stay, I stay."
He cradled my face in his hands. "They'll hurt you."
"Not if they think we really left. Can Verne's people hide us?"
"Who do you think is outside in the crowd?"
I looked up into his open face. "Did they kill the other man? Did Verne's people kill Terry after they left?"
"I don't know, Anita." He hugged me again. "I don't know."