He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Don’t look at me,” Bernardo said.
I bit back the first reply, which was, We weren’t. It would have been mean and not entirely true. He’d found out information from the deputy for us. “Okay, we’ll see if there’s anyone in town who knows more than we do, or even at some university. There’s an expert out there somewhere.”
“Academics aren’t always good with real-world information,” Edward said.
“Right now, we have zero to go on, which means any info is better than where we are.” I shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt to ask.”
The homicide detectives called Marshal Ted Forrester over to talk. Edward went, turning to the more open face of his alter ego. I knew that his “Ted” face actually hid more. It was interesting that none of the rest of us was invited to talk to the detectives.
I turned back to Olaf and Bernardo. “Okay, we’ll check into the Persian angle later, but right now I have another question. Why would they kill them in such a way as to destroy the chance to feed on their blood?”
“Maybe their master didn’t like the taste of men,” Olaf said.
“What?” I asked.
“Their master’s victim of preference is strippers, mostly female, correct?” Olaf said.
“Yeah.”
He leaned in and whispered so that only I and Bernardo could hear. “I have simply killed men, cleanly, so that I could take my time with the women. Maybe it is the same for this master vampire. He takes no pleasure from feeding on men.”
“He killed a male stripper in St. Louis,” I said.
“But was he like these men, trained, a soldier?”
I pictured the body in my mind, and because it had been the only male victim, I could see him fairly clearly. “He was tall, but thin, not that muscular, more… effeminate, I guess.”
“He likes his victims to be soft; the men killed here were not soft.”
“Okay,” Bernardo said, “didn’t it just creep you out that he talked about killing men so he could take his time with the women? Am I the only one who found that disturbing?”
I looked at Olaf, and we had a moment of a look between us, then we both looked at Bernardo. I said, “I know what Otto is and what he does. Frankly, comments like he just made are one of the few reasons I’m glad he’s here. I mean, you have to admit he’s got a unique insight into the whole serial killer mentality.”
“And you’re calm about it?” Bernardo asked.
I shrugged and looked back at Olaf, who looked at me, so calm he looked bored. “We’re doing our jobs.”
Bernardo shook his head. “You are both weird as hell, you do know that, right?”
“You know, you might want to keep your voice down, Bernardo,” Edward said. He was back from talking to the detectives and Sheriff Shaw, who had finally joined us. They were still ignoring the rest of us. Somehow I wasn’t hurt that Shaw didn’t want to talk to me.
“Sorry,” Bernardo said.
“They’re going to give us access to the forensics: pictures, video, the stuff they bagged and labeled.”
“I might learn more from the photos and film,” Olaf said.
“They’re hoping we all will,” Edward said.
“Just let me see the pictures and video,” I said.
“I just want something to shoot,” Bernardo said.
“You know, life must be simpler for you,” I said.
Bernardo gave me a dirty look. “You’re just cranky because we’ve been here for hours and we don’t know anything that will help us find this bastard.”
“We know it is similar to the Persian sorcerer I met in the Sandbox,” Olaf said.
“I know it would be weird, and too coincidental for real life, but could it be the same sorcerer with a slightly different spell, or whatever?” I asked.
“Not possible,” Olaf said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“The sorcerer was not bulletproof.”
“So he’s dead,” I said.
Olaf nodded.
“Well, if we can trace someone in this country who plays with Persian magic, then we need to find someone who went missing from his life.”
“What do you mean?” Bernardo asked.
“Someone who knows this type of magic and has suddenly vanished. Someone from work, a wife or family member, whatever, someone who’s been reported missing. Then we might be looking for someone who was recently made into a vampire,” I asked.
“Why?” Olaf asked.
“Because if they’d had this kind of magic in St. Louis or New Orleans or Pittsburgh, they would have used it. This is a complete change in how they kill. If they didn’t have missing strippers who fit the original MO, which is what got the warrant of execution revived, then I would say it was someone signing Vittorio’s name to the note on the wall and the note that came to my office, but not him.”