"We found something."
"What exactly?"
"I'd rather you just come and see it for yourself."
"Don't do this to me, Dolph. Just tell me what the fuck it is."
Another silence. If he was waiting for me to apologize, he was in for a long wait. Finally. "We found a skin."
"What kind of skin?"
"If we knew what the hell it was, would I be calling you at one o'clock in the freaking morning?" He sounded angry. I guess I couldn't blame him.
"I'm sorry, Dolph. I'm sorry I snapped at you."
"Fine."
He hadn't exactly accepted my apology. Fine. "Is it connected to the murder?"
"I don't think so, but I'm not some hotshot preternatural expert." He still sounded pissed. Maybe he wasn't getting much sleep, either. Of course, I bet no one had smashed his head into a sidewalk.
"Where are you?"
He gave me the address. It was down in Jefferson County, far away from the murder scene.
"When can you be here?"
"I can't drive," I said.
"What?"
"Doctor's orders, I'm not to get behind the wheel of a car tonight."
"How bad are you hurt?"
"Not too bad, but the doctor wanted me woken up every hour, and no driving."
"That's why Mr. Zeeman is there."
"Yeah."
"If you're too hurt to come tonight, it can wait."
"Is the skin where it was found? Nothing disturbed?"
"Yeah."
"I'll come. Who knows? There might be a clue."
He let that go. "How are you going to get here?"
I glanced at Richard. He could drive me, but somehow I didn't think it was a good idea. He was a civvie, for one thing. He was a lycanthrope, for another. He answered to Marcus, and to a degree to Jean-Claude. Not a good person to bring into a preternatural murder investigation. Besides, if he'd been human, the answer would have been the same. No deal.
"Unless you can send a squad car, I guess I'll take a taxi."
"Zerbrowski didn't answer his first page. He lives in St. Peters. He'll have to come right by you. He can pick you up."
"Is that okay with him?"
"It will be," Dolph said.
Great. Trapped in a car with Zerbrowski. "Fine, I'll be dressed and waiting."
"Dressed?"
"Don't even start, Dolph."
"Touchy, very touchy."
"Stop it."
He laughed. It was good to hear him laugh. It meant not many people had died this time. Dolph didn't laugh much during serial-killer cases.
He hung up. So did I.
"You have to go out?" Richard asked.
"Yeah."
"Do you feel well enough to go?"
"Yes."
"Anita ... "
I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. "Don't, Richard. I'm going."
"No debate allowed?"
"No debate," I said. I opened my eyes and looked at him.
He was staring down at me, arms crossed.
"What?" I said.
He shook his head. "If I told you that I was going to do something, no debate, you'd be mad."
"No, I wouldn't."
"Anita." He said my name the way my father use to say it.
"I wouldn't, not if your reasons were valid."
"Anita, you'd be pissed, and you know it."
I wanted to deny it but couldn't. "All right, you're right. I wouldn't like it." I stared up at him. I was going to have to give him reasons why I was going to go out and do my job. It wasn't a pretty sight.
I stood. I wanted to say I didn't have to explain myself to anyone, but if I meant this marriage thing, it wasn't true anymore. I didn't like that much. His being a werewolf was not the only hurdle to domestic bliss.
"This is police business, Richard. People die when I don't do my job."
"I thought your job was raising zombies and executing vampires."
"You sound like Bert."
"You've told me enough about Bert that I know that is an insult."
"If you don't want to be compared, then stop saying one of his favorite things." I walked past him towards the bedroom. "I've got to get dressed."
He followed me. "I know that helping the police is very important to you."
I turned on him. "I don't just help the police, Richard. The spook squad is just over two years old. The cops on it didn't know shit about preternatural creatures. It was a garbage detail. Do something to piss off your superiors and you get transferred."
"The newspapers and TV said it was an independent task force like the major task force. That's an honor."
"Oh, yeah, right. The squad gets almost no extra funding. No special training in preternatural creatures or events. Dolph, Sergeant Storr, saw me in the paper and contacted Bert. There was no training in preternatural crime for law officers in this country. Dolph thought I could be an adviser."