"You have a full time job here with Animators, Inc."
"We've had this argument before, Bert."
"Too many times," he said.
"You're my boss, Bert. Do what you think best."
"Don't tempt me."
"Hey, guys," Larry said, "I'm getting the feeling that you're using me for an excuse to fight. Don't get carried away, okay?"
We both glared at him. He didn't back down, just stared at us. Point for him.
"If you don't like the way I do my job, Bert, fire me, but stop yanking my chain."
Bert stood up, slowly, like a leviathan rising from the waves. "Anita..."
The phone rang. We all stared at it for a minute. Bert finally picked it up and growled, "Yeah, what is it?"
He listened for a minute, then glared at me. "It's for you." His voice was incredibly mild as he said it. "Detective Sergeant Storr, police business."
Bert's face was smiling, butter wouldn't have melted in his mouth.
I held out my hand for the phone without another word. He handed me the receiver. He was still smiling, his tiny grey eyes warm and sparkling. It was a bad sign.
"Hi, Dolph, what's up?"
"We're at the lawyer's office that your friend Veronica Sims gave us. Nice that she called you first and not us."
"She called you second, didn't she?"
"Yeah."
"What have you found out?" I didn't bother to keep my voice down. If you're careful, one side of a conversation isn't very enlightening.
"Reba Baker is the dead woman. They identified her from morgue photos."
"Pleasant way to end the work week," I said.
Dolph ignored that. "Both victims were clients with dying wills. If they died by vampire bite, they wanted to be staked, then cremated."
"Sounds like a pattern to me," I said.
"But how did the vampires find out that they had dying wills?"
"Is this a trick question, Dolph? Someone told them."
"I know that," he said. He sounded disgusted.
I was missing something. "What do you want from me, Dolph?"
"I've questioned everyone, and I'd swear they were all telling the truth. Could someone have been giving the information and not remember?"
"You mean could the vampire have played mind games, so that the traitor wouldn't know afterwards?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Sure," I said.