Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,129

movement in the doorway. Then Newman poked his head in and said, “But he’s not your prisoner, Duke. He’s mine. You’ve made it clear that he’s my problem to solve.”

“He’s yours to execute, but he’s my prisoner as long as he’s in my jail.”

“You’ve got an interrogation room here.”

“Not one that will hold a shapeshifter.”

“You let us guard him in the bathroom,” I said.

“That was different. If you’re not going to kill him, then making him sit around covered in God knows what probably goes under cruel and unusual or something,” Duke said.

“If he starts trying to change form and escape, I’ll shoot him, just like you want me to do,” Newman said.

“And how many more people will be hurt or dead or contaminated before you shoot him?”

It was interesting that Leduc listed death as preferable to catching lycanthropy. I’d almost died more than once and finally popped positive for lycanthropy. It wasn’t worse than dying.

“I’m already contaminated, so don’t sweat my purity of blood,” I said.

“I, too, am contaminated,” Olaf said.

“If I was a betting man, Duke, I’d put my money on Marshal Jeffries if Bobby gets frisky,” Edward said, back in smiling-Ted mode. He pushed Newman ahead of him through the doorway so there really wasn’t room for all of us to be comfortable in the small hallway. He’d done it on purpose to make a point, I think.

“Not betting on your girlfriend?” Leduc said.

The smiling-Ted mask slipped a little through the eyes as Edward said, “If you mean Marshal Blake, then she and I always let Otto do the hand-to-hand with the other supernaturals first. He takes a lot of the fight out of them, and then Anita and I just come in and mop up.”

“You never let me kill them with my bare hands,” Olaf said, and I swear he sounded pouty. He was playing along, because we’d never let him wrestle a suspect.

“I know. We ruin all your fun,” Edward drawled, or maybe Ted drawled. Even I got a little confused after a while.

“I’ve got three of the best preternatural marshals in the service as my backup, Duke. I think we can handle Bobby in the interrogation room,” Newman said.

He hadn’t batted an eyelash at the talk of letting Olaf go hand-to-hand with Bobby. It made me think that Edward had done more than just give Newman a pep talk outside; they’d made a plan. Since I didn’t have a plan, I was just relieved that someone else did, especially if that someone was Edward.

Leduc tried to protest a little more, but Newman stood firm. Edward got to hold a gun on Bobby while Newman and I put the new supernatural strength shackles on him, which meant metal around his wrists and ankles with a chain going between them all so movement was limited. Then we shuffled Bobby out of the cellblock, though that seemed to imply more than two cells, and led him to the door that I’d thought was a closet. The room wasn’t much bigger than one, but it was the only interrogation room we had, so we all squeezed in and shut the door. I was immediately claustrophobic. Yeah, it was that small.

43

THE TABLE IN the middle of the room took up most of the floor space. There were two chairs. We put Bobby in one, and then there was barely room to walk behind the chair. I could squeeze my hips between the chair back and the wall, but barely. Newman took the chair opposite Bobby, and that left the rest of us to figure out where to stand. There weren’t a lot of choices.

Edward took up a corner behind Newman so he could watch Bobby’s face, and then Olaf and I had one of those comedic moments of both trying for the other corner that would let us watch Bobby. Under other circumstances I’d have accused him of trying to rub up against me, but we both genuinely wanted the same spot. Edward solved it like we were kids to his adult.

“Anita gets shotgun,” he said, and that meant I was beside him. Olaf took it gracefully enough, but even he couldn’t ease behind Bobby’s chair gracefully. He managed it, but it was one of the most physically awkward things I’d ever seen Olaf do. He finally ended up in the corner closest to the door so that he and I mirrored each other.

Newman smiled at Bobby like he meant it and said, “Bobby, I need to know everything