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Chapter 1

Willie McCoy had been a jerk before he died His being dead didn't change that He sat across fro a loud plaid sport jacket The polyester pants were prireen His short, black hair was slicked back froular face He had always rester movie The kind that sells information, runs errands, and is expendable

Of course now that Willie was a vampire, the expendable part didn't count any errands No, death hadn't changed hi directly into his eyes It was standard policy for dealing with vampires He was a slime bucket, but noas an undead sliory for me

We sat in the quiet air-conditioned hush of ht would be soothing, made the room feel cold

"Mind if I smoke?" he asked

"Yes," I said, "I do"

"Daonna make this easy, are you?"

I looked directly at hiht , and I looked down at my desk

Willie laughed, a wheezing snicker of a sound The laugh hadn't changed "Geez, I love it You're afraid of me"

"Not afraid, just cautious"

"You don't have to admit it I can s my face, my brain You're afraid of me, 'cause I'm a vampire"

I shrugged; what could I say? How do you lie to someone who can smell your fear? "Why are you here, Willie?"

"Geez, I wish I had a san to jump at the corner of his mouth

"I didn't think vampires had nervous twitches"

His hand went up, als don't change"

I wanted to ask hie? How does it feel to be dead? I knew other vampires, but Willie was the first I had known before and after death It was a peculiar feeling "What do you want?"

"Hey, I'ive you money To become a client"

I glanced up at hihts Real gold Willie had never had anything like that before He was doing all right for a dead , no pun intended Why would a vampire need a zombie raised?"

He shook his head, two quick jerks to either side "No, no voodoo stuff I wanna hire you to investigate some murderers"

"I aator"

"But you got one of 'em on retainer to your outfit"

I nodded "You could just hire Ms Sih me for that"

Again that jerky head shake "But she don't know about vampires the way you do"

I sighed "Can we cut to the chase here, Willie? I have to leave" - I glanced at the wall clock - "in fifteenalone in a ceet jumpy"

He laughed I found the snickery laugh cos Surely vahs "I'll bet they do I'll just bet they do" His face sobered suddenly, as if a hand had wiped his laughter away

I felt fear like a jerk in the pit ofa switch If he could do that, what else could he do?

"You know about the va wasted over in the District?"

He made it a question, so I answered "I'htered in the new vampire club district Their hearts had been torn out, their heads cut off

"You still working with the cops?"

"I am still on retainer with the new task force"

He laughed again "Yeah, the spook squad Underbudgeted and underht"

"You've described most of the police work in this town"

"Maybe, but the cops feel like you do, Anita What's one e that"