Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,182

when she was on guard duty earlier. She was leaning forward and talking to either Bobby or Troy; it was hard to tell which from a glance. Angel laughed at something that one of them said; she used a very feminine laugh that usually meant the joke wasn’t nearly as funny as it was meant to be. Either a lot of women are socially conditioned to laugh at men’s jokes, or they’re flirting. I’d never been socially conditioned as a girl for much of anything, and I’d never been able to fake a laugh, and I made it a rule not to fake anything else, but I could recognize when others did.

Deputy Frankie hung up the phone and glanced back into the hallway. Maybe Angel’s flirting wasn’t really aimed at the men in the cells. Angel dated both men and women, so you never knew which way she’d swing. Maybe she had a thing for women in uniform?

“We need to ask Bobby a few more questions,” I said.

The phone rang, and Frankie waved us through the open door while she took the call. Angel stood up as we walked into the cellblock. Did two cells count as a block? She smiled at Olaf and me. Some lingering energy from the flirting seemed to cling to her, or maybe it was the extra wiggle she put into her hips as she swayed toward us in her pencil skirt.

“I know the rules: The sheriff lets us sit with Bobby, but we’re not allowed to be in on any official police business like questioning the prisoners.” Angel wiggled her eyebrows as she said the last word like it was something naughty.

Olaf and I frowned at her as she left. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I still didn’t like her and Pierette making themselves bait for him. I closed the door between us and the office for what privacy it offered. Everyone outside except for the deputy was a wereanimal. The door was thick, but I wasn’t sure it was that thick. Since I’d have let Angel stay in the room, I really wasn’t worried about it. I’d closed the door because I’d made the deal with Leduc that only the people with official badges would be involved in official businesslike interrogations.

Bobby and Troy were sitting as close as the cells would allow, visiting through the shared cell bars. They looked at Olaf and me as we walked in, and there was something in their expressions that told me they were on the same side. The whole cop-and-criminal thing didn’t seem to apply anymore. Maybe it was their shared history, or maybe they’d bonded because one of them had nearly killed the other one. Men can bond over some strange stuff. Of course, maybe they were just bored, and they didn’t have anything else to do but talk to each other, and I was just overthinking it. Yeah, probably that.

“What’s wrong?” Bobby asked. He started moving to the front of his cell.

“Why do you think anything is wrong?” I asked.

“You look grim.” He stopped moving toward us and just stood looking at us. He went pale, and his voice was a little breathy as he asked, “Are you going to kill me now?”

I shook my head.

He let out a long breath, or maybe he just breathed again. I thought for a second he was going to go to his knees, but he managed to back up and sit on his bunk. “I keep thinking every time one of you comes in here that it will be the last time.”

I had no honest comfort to offer him, because he was right. I could kill when people were trying to kill me, when I had to protect others, or even when I was sure that someone had murdered others and would do it again, but this . . . this wasn’t right.

“You’re right, Bobby. We’re running out of time, so I’m just going to ask you what I need to ask. I’m sorry that we don’t have privacy, but the interrogation room is full.”

“I understand that you want to help me, Anita, so just ask. If Troy tells anyone my secrets, I’ll tell everyone what happened at our senior prom.”

“Oh, dude, that is low,” Troy said.

Bobby smiled at him. “Just reminding you that I know where your bodies are buried, too.” Bobby frowned and looked at us. “Wow, that sounded way better in my head. Now it just sounds creepy.”

“About that kind of