"You don't sound happy about that."
"Leave it alone, Anita."
"Sorry. What do you want me to do?"
"The detective in charge is Padgett. He's a good cop."
"No small praise coming from you," I said. "Why do I hear a 'but' coming?"
"But," Dolph said, "he gets freaked around the monsters. Someone needs to go down there and hold his hand so he doesn't get carried away with the murderous shapeshifters."
"So I'm a babysitter?"
"It's your party, Anita. I can send someone else. I thought you'd want this one."
"I do, and thanks."
"Don't stay all day, Anita. Make it as quick as you can. Pete McKinnon just called me to ask if he could borrow you."
"Was there another arson?"
"Yes, but it wasn't his firebug. I told you they bombed the Church of Eternal Life."
"Yeah."
"Malcolm is in there," he said.
"Shit," I said. Malcolm was the undead Billy Graham, founder of the fastest-growing denomination in the country. It was the vampire church, but humans could join. In fact, they were encouraged. Though how long they stayed human was debatable.
"I'm surprised his daytime retreat was that obvious."
"What do you mean?"
"Most master vamps spend a lot of time and energy hiding their daytime address so that shit like this doesn't happen to them. Is he dead?"
"You are amusing as hell today, Anita."
"You know what I mean," I said.
"No one knows. McKinnon's going to call you with more details. Hospital first, then his scene. When you get done there call me. I'll figure out where to send you next."
"Have you called Larry?"
"You think he's up to this much solo action?"
I thought about that for a second. "He knows his preternatural stuff."
Dolph said, "I hear a 'but' coming."
I laughed. "We have worked together too damn long. Yeah, but he's not a shooter. And I don't think that's going to change."
"A lot of good cops aren't shooters, Anita."
"Cops can go twenty-five years and never clear leather. Vampire executioners don't have that luxury. We go in planning to kill things. The things we're planning to kill know that."
"If all you have is a hammer, Anita, every problem begins to look like a nail."
"I read Massad Ayoob, too, Dolph. I don't use my gun as the only solution."