“I did not mean to make you work less efficiently.”
“You know, I believe that. But from now on you work with someone besides me. No more alone time on the case.”
“Why is being alone with me so distracting?” he asked, and his face was neutral enough.
“Because you scare me,” I said.
He smiled then, a little curl of lips, but his caveman eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
I stood up then, and Edward was smart enough not to help me. “You know, big guy, most men who really want to date a woman don’t want her afraid of them.”
His smile faltered a little, but not much. He looked puzzled for a moment, then the smile returned larger and more satisfied. “I am not most men.”
I gave a sound that might have been a laugh, if it hadn’t been so harsh. “Well, that is the fucking truth.” I started stripping off the protective gear.
“Where to?” Edward said.
“We visit the weretigers.”
“Aren’t they the animal to call of the Master Vampire of Vegas?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“So we go visit the Master of the City and his wife.”
I nodded. “Yep, Max and his wife, the queen tiger of Las Vegas. Though the actual title is Chang and her name. Chang-Bibiana, in this case.”
“Wait,” Bernardo said. “Are we walking in there and accusing one of their tigers of killing a police officer and helping massacre three more?”
I looked at Edward; he looked at me. “Something like that,” I said.
Bernardo looked unhappy. “Can you please not get me killed until after I’ve had a date with Deputy Lorenzo?”
I smiled at him. “I will do my best.”
“To get us all killed,” he said.
“Not true,” I said. “I always do my best to keep us alive.”
“After you endanger us all,” he muttered.
“You whine like a baby,” Olaf said.
“I’ll whine any way I damn well please.”
Memphis came out and asked, “Marshal, are you well?”
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
“What animal did you sense?”
Did I lie, or tell the truth? “Tiger.”
“Our Master of the City will not like that.”
“No, but truth is truth.”
“You will need a warrant to enter their home.”
“We had this talk already, Memphis. We’ll call up and have one faxed to us, but I think I’ll try just asking for a visit first.”
“You think he’ll just let you waltz in and accuse his people of murder?”
“I think Max told Sheriff Shaw to invite me to come play and that I’d sort things out.”
Memphis’s eyes went wide. “Did he now?”
“So I’m told.”
“It doesn’t sound like our master.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I said, “but if he invited me, why wouldn’t he want to help me sort things out?”
“You won’t get in without a warrant. The Master of Vegas is old-time mob; it makes him cautious,” Memphis said.
“We’ll apply for several,” Edward said.
Memphis looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“We have a lycanthrope kill confirmed. Nevada still has varmint laws on the books. We’ll be able to get a warrant of execution on the lycanthrope that did this.”
“But you don’t have a name for the lycanthrope,” Memphis said.
Edward smiled, I smiled, even Bernardo smiled. Olaf just looked sinister. “You know we don’t need a name. The warrant will read a little vague. I keep forgetting about the varmint laws in the western states; it makes it actually easier to get a vague warrant for a shapeshifter than for a vampire,” I said.
“I still believe it’s a legal excuse for murder,” Memphis said.
I stepped close to the doctor, and he held his ground. “Randall Sherman was your friend, not mine. Don’t you want his murderer caught?”
“Yes, but I want to make sure it’s the right weretiger, not just the one that pisses you all off.”
I grinned at him, but could feel it was more a snarling flash of teeth. The tigers were still a little close. “If you don’t like the way I do my job, then file a complaint. But in the dark when the big bad monsters come to get you, you always want us. You see us standing here. You know what we are, what we do, and it makes you feel uncivilized. Even with your friends on gurneys in the morgue, you flinch. Well, we don’t flinch, doctor. We do what the rest of you are afraid to do”-I leaned in close and whispered-“we’ll be your vengeance, doc, so you can keep your lily-white hands clean.”
He stepped back as if I’d struck him. “That’s not fair.”