"How?" Dolph said.
"I could meet them, be in the same room with them. To be sure, I might have to touch them, shake hands."
"I shook Mr. Spalding's hand," Zerbrowski said. "It was like shaking anybody else's hand."
"You're a great cop, Zerbrowski, but you're almost a null. You could shake the grand high pooh-bah's hand and not get more than a twinge. Dolph's a complete null."
"What's a null?" Dolph asked.
"A magical null. Someone who has no magical or psychic ability. It's what let you cross the blood circle and kept me out."
"So you're saying Ihave some magical ability?" Zerbrowski asked.
I shook my head. "You're a tiny bit sensitive. Probably one of those people who get hunches that turn out to be right."
"I get hunches," Dolph said.
"I'll bet your hunches are based on experience, years of police work. Zerbrowski will make a leap of logic that makes no sense, but proves to be true. Am I wrong?"
They looked at each other, then at me, then both nodded. "Zerbrowski has his moments," Dolph said.
"You want to come shake the Spaldings' hands?" Zerbrowski asked.
"Detective Reynolds can do it. It's one of the reasons you brought her on board, right?"
They looked at each other again. Zerbrowski grinned. "I'll get Reynolds and go back over." He stopped at the door. "Katie's been after me to invite you over for dinner, meet the kids, a real domestic affair." He stared at me with his brown eyes guileless behind dark-rimmed glasses. "I was going to tell you to bring Richard, but if you're dating Count Dracula now, guess that'd be awkward." He stared at me, asking without asking.
"I'm still seeing Richard, you pushy son of a bitch."
He smiled. "Good. Bring him over a week from Saturday. Katie'll fix her famous mushroom chicken."
"If I was only dating Jean-Claude, would the invitation still include my boyfriend?"
"No," he said. "Katie's a little nervous. I don't think she'd be up to meeting Count Dracula."
"His name's Jean-Claude."
"I know." He shut the door behind him, and Dolph and I were alone with the body once more. The night was not looking up.
"What are we hunting for, Anita?" I was actually relieved that Dolph was talking business. I'd had enough personal chitchat to last the night.
"More than one murderer."
"Why?"
I looked up at him. "I don't know if there's enough humans in the world to pin a vampire to the floor like that. Even if it was other vampires or shapeshifters, it'd take more than one. I'd say two beings with abnormal strength to hold, and a third to put in the knives. Maybe more to hold, maybe more to do the spell. I don't know, but at least three."
"Even if they were vampires?" Dolph asked.
I nodded. "Unless one vamp was strong enough to have mind control over Robert." I looked down at the body, careful not to touch the circle. I forced myself to stare at what had been done to him. "No, once they started putting knives in him, I don't think any mind control would work. A human, yeah, they could have done this to a human and made him smile while they did it, but not another vamp. Did any of the neighbors see or hear anything? I mean the Spaldings may be involved, so they'd lie, but someone had to see or hear something. He didn't go quietly."
"They say no," Dolph said. He said it like he knew some or all of them had lied. One of the things cops learn first is that everyone lies. Some people to hide things, some people just for the hell of it, but everyone lies. Assume that everyone is hiding something, it saves time.
I stared at Robert's face, his mouth half-open, slack. There were rubbed marks at each corner of his mouth, a slight reddening. "Did you notice the marks by his mouth?"
"Yes," Dolph said.
"And you weren't going to mention them to me?"