"What's wrong?" Dolph asked.
"Shapeshifters get killed, and its poaching. Normal people get killed, and it's murder."
"You sympathizing with the monsters now, Anita?" he asked. His voice was even quieter, so still you might have mistaken it for calm, but it wasn't. He was pissed.
"You're mad about something other than the body count," I said.
"You're involved with the Master of the City. Is that how you keep getting all that inside info on the monsters?"
I took a deep breath and let it out. "Sometimes."
"You should have told me, Anita."
"Since when is my personal life police business?"
He just looked at me.
I looked down into my coffee mug, staring at my hands. I finally looked back up. It was hard meeting his eyes, harder than I wanted it to be. "What do you want me to say, Dolph? That I find it embarrassing that one of the monsters is my boyfriend? I do."
"Then drop him."
"If it were that easy, trust me, I'd do it."
"How can I trust you to do your job, Anita? You're sleeping with the enemy."
"Why does everyone assume I'm sleeping with him? Doesn't anybody but me date people and not have sex?"
"I apologize for the assumption, but you got to admit a lot of people are going to assume the same thing."
"I know."
The door opened, and Greeley came back inside. His eyes took in the handcuffs being gone, the coffee. "You have a nice chat?"
"How'd your statement to the press go?" Dolph asked.
He shrugged. "I told them Ms. Blake was being questioned in connection with a death on the premises. Told 'em that no vamps were involved. Not sure they believed me. They kept wanting to speak to the Executioner. Though most of them were calling her the Master's girlfriend."
That made me flinch. Even with a career of my own, I was going to end up being Mrs. Jean-Claude in the press. He was more photogenic than I was.
Dolph stood. "I want to take Anita out of here."
Greeley stared at him. "I don't think so."
Dolph set his coffee on the desk and went to stand next to the other detective. He lowered his voice, and there was a lot of harsh whispering. Greeley shook his head. "No."
More whispering. Greeley glared at me. "All right, but she comes down to the station before the night is over or it's your ass, Sergeant."
"She'll be there," Dolph said.
Rizzo was staring at all of us. "You're taking her out of here, but not to the station house?" It sounded accusatory even to me.
"That's my decision, Rizzo," Greeley said. "You got that?" His voice growled the words. Somehow Dolph had pulled rank, and Greeley didn't like it. If Rizzo wanted to make himself a convenient target for that anger, fine.
Rizzo faded back against the wall, but he wasn't happy about it. "I got that."
"Get her out of here," Greeley said. "Try the back. But I don't know how you'll get past the cameras."
"We'll walk through," Dolph said. "Let's go, Anita."