I got out of the car very carefully. Snow spilled in around my foot, soaking my hose, filling the leather pump. It was cold and wet, and I kept a death grip on the car door. High heels and snow do not mix. The last thing I wanted to do was fall on my ass in front of the St. Gerard County Sheriff Department. I should have just grabbed my Nikes from the back of the Jeep and put them on in the car. It was too late now. The deputy sheriff was walking very purposefully towards me. He had boots on and was having no trouble with the snow.
He stopped within reach of me. I didn't let strange men get that close to me normally but to back up I'd have to let go of the car door. Besides he was the police, I wasn't supposed to be afraid of the police. Right?
"This is police business, ma'am, I'll have to ask you to leave."
"I'm Anita Blake. I work with Sergeant Rudolf Storr."
"You're not a cop." He seemed very certain of that. I sort of resented his tone.
"No, I'm not."
"Then you're going to have to leave."
"Can you tell Sergeant Storr that I'm here... please." Never hurts to be polite.
"I've asked you real nice twice now to leave. Don't make me ask a third time."
All he had to do was reach out and grab my arm, shove me into the Jeep, and away we went. I certainly wasn't going to draw my gun on a cop with a lot of other cops within shouting distance. I didn't want to get shot tonight.
What could I do? I shut the car door very carefully and leaned against it. If I was careful and didn't move around too much, I might not fall down. If I did, maybe I could claim police brutality.
"Now, why did you do that?"
"I drove forty-five minutes and left a date to get here." Try to appeal to his better nature. "Let me talk to Sergeant Storr and if he says I need to leave, I'll leave."
"I don't care if you flew in from outta state. I say you leave. Right now."
He didn't have a better nature.
He reached for me. I stepped back, out of reach. My left foot found a patch of ice and I ended up on my ass in the snow.
The deputy looked sort of startled. He offered me a hand up without thinking about it. I climbed to my feet using the Jeep's bumper, moving farther away from Deputy Sullen at the same time. He figured this out. The frown lines on his forehead deepened.
Snow clung in wet clumps to my coat and glided in melting runnels down my legs. I was getting pissed off.
He strode around the Jeep.
I backpedaled using my hands on the car as traction. "We can play ring-around-the-Rosie if you want to, Deputy, but I'm not leaving until I've talked to Dolph."
"Your sergeant isn't in charge here." He stepped a little closer.
I backed away. "Then find someone who is."
"You don't need to talk to anyone but me," he said. He took three rapid steps towards me. I backed up faster. If we kept this up we'd be running around the car like a Marx brothers movie, or would that be the Keystone Kops?
"You're running from me."
"In these shoes, you've got to be kidding."
I was almost around the back of the Jeep, we'd be back where we started soon. Over the crackle of police radios you could hear angry voices. One of them sounded like Dolph. I wasn't the only one having trouble with the local cops. Though I seemed to be the only one being chased around a car.
"Stop, right where you are," he said.
"If I don't?"
He unclicked the flap on his holster. His hand rested on the butt of his gun. No words necessary.
This guy was crazy.