He raised his head, slowly, but he looked awful. "I told them that he was crazy. I told them not to include him."
"Told who?" I asked.
He sat up a little straighter. "I agreed to come here against my better judgment. I knew the team was assembled too quickly. When you rush such a task, it ends badly."
"What task?" I asked.
"To recruit you for a mission."
"What mission?" I asked.
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. Some of our people got you on tape raising a man in a local cemetery. He did not look alive enough for what my employers wished. He looked like a zombie, and that is not good enough."
"Good enough for what?" I asked.
"To fool people in the country that their leader is still alive."
"What country?" I asked.
He shook his head, and a ghost of a smile crossed his lips. "I will not be here long, Ms. Blake. Those that employ me will see to it. They will either work to free me soon, with no charges, or they will have me killed."
"You seem calm about that," I said.
"I believe I will go free."
"But you're not sure," I said.
"Few things in life are certain."
"I know one thing that's certain," I said.
He just looked at me. I think he'd said more than he'd planned to say. So he was going to try not to say anything.
"Van Anders will kill someone else tonight."
His eyes were bleak when he said, "I had worked with him years ago, before I knew what he was. I should not have believed him that he was in control of his rage. I should have known."
"Are your employers just going to leave Van Anders here to butcher more women?"
He looked at me then. Again, I couldn't quite read his expression. Determination, guilt, something.
"I know where Van Anders is staying. I will give you that address. I know that my employers would wish him dead now. He has become a liability."
We got the address from him. I didn't hurry out after it, because unlike the movies, I knew I wouldn't be allowed in at the capture. Mobile Reserve, St. Louis's answer to SWAT, would be the ones running the show. When you have people that can go in with body armor and fully automatic weapons, the rest of us are just outclassed.
I opened one last file and showed him the man they'd crucified against the wall. "Why did you need Van Anders to do this? Not his kind of kill."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
He was going to deny it, fine. Even if we could have pinned it on him, I doubt we could have kept him long enough for a trial. "We know you and your team did this. We even know why." If Bradley was telling the truth, I did know.
"You know nothing." He sounded very sure of that.
"You were ordered to kill him because he ran. Ran away from people like you, and people like Van Anders."
He looked at me then, and he was worried. He was wondering how much I knew. Not much. But maybe it was enough. "Whose idea was it to crucify him?"
"Van Anders's." He looked like he'd swallowed something sour. Then he gave a small smile. "It won't matter, Ms. Blake, I'll never see trial."
"Maybe not, but I always like to know where the blame goes."
He nodded, then said, "Van Anders was so angry when we shot him first. He said what good is a crucifixion if the person isn't struggling." He looked at me with haunted eyes. "I should have known then what he meant to do."
"Whose idea were the runes?" I asked.
He shook his head. "You've gotten the last startled confession you shall get from me."
"There's still one thing I don't understand." Actually, there were lots of things I didn't understand, but it's never good to appear confused in front of the bad guys.
"I will not incriminate myself, Ms. Blake."
"If you knew what Van Anders was capable of, then why bring him along? Why make him part of the team, at all?"
"He is a werewolf, as you have learned from what he does to his victims. There were those who believed you were a shape-shifter, as well. We wanted someone that could manage you without risk of infection, if you fought us."
"You were planning on kidnapping me?"
"As a last resort," he said.
"But because Balfour and Canducci didn't like my zombie, the plan is off?"
"Those names will do for them, but yes. We had reports that you could raise zombies that thought they were still alive and could pass as human. My employers were very disappointed when they saw the tape."
I owed Marianne and her coven a thank-you note. If they hadn't gotten all witchier-than-thou on me, I'd have raised a fine, alive-looking zombie, and I might even now be kidnapped, and at the mercy of Van Anders. Maybe I should send Marianne flowers, a card just didn't seem to be enough.