“So you’re sure that none of your vamps is doing this?” I said.
“They would not risk the punishment.”
“So you can’t help me. Damn it, Jean-Claude, you could have told me that over the phone.”
“I called Malcolm while you were en route,” he said.
Malcolm was the head of the Church of Eternal Life, the vampire church. It was the only church I’d ever been in that had no holy objects displayed whatsoever, even the stain glass was abstract art. “Because if it’s not one of your vamps, then it’s one of his,” I said.
“Oui.”
Truthfully, I had just assumed it was one of Jean-Claude’s vampires because the church was very strict on when you brought your human followers over to the dead side, and the church also checked backgrounds thoroughly. “The girl’s friend said she’d met the vampire at a club.”
“Can you not go to church and go to a club on the weekends?”
I nodded. “Okay, you’ve made your point. What did Malcolm say?”
“That he would contact all his followers and give strict orders that this vampire and the girl are to be found.”
“They’ll need the picture,” I said. My beeper went off, and I jumped. Shit. I checked the number and it was Ronnie’s cell phone.
“Can I use your phone?”
“Whatever I have is yours, ma petite.” He looked at the black phone sitting on the black desk and stood to one side so I could walk around the desk without him leaning over me. Considerate of him, which probably meant he was going to do something else even more irritating.
Ronnie answered on the first ring. “Anita?”
“It’s me, what’s up?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Your detective friend convinced Barbara that if Amy got herself killed she’d be charged with conspiracy to commit murder.”
“I don’t think Zerbrowski could make that stick.”
“Barbara thinks he can.”
“What did she tell you?”
“The vampire’s name is Bill Stucker.” She spelled the last name for me.
“A vamp with a last name. He has to be really new,” I said. The only other vamp I’d ever met with a last name had been dead less than a month.
“Don’t know if he’s old or new, just his name.”
“She have an address for him?”
“No, and Zerbrowski pushed her pretty hard. She says she’s never been there and I believe her.”
“Okay, tell Zerbrowski thanks, I’ll see you Saturday at the gym.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” she said.
“Oh, and thanks to you, too, Ronnie.”
“Always happy to save someone from the monsters, which reminds me, are you with you know who?”
“If you mean Jean-Claude, yes, I am.”
“Get out of there as soon as you can,” she said.