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Before I could driveJessica? I clawed it out of my purse "Hello? Jess? Hello?"
"Hi, Betsy It&039;s et Nick was a Minneapolis cop
"Oh, hey" I was disappointed but worked on not showing it "Who&039;s dead now?" I joked
"Several people, but that&039;s not why I&039;s, and I just got off I thought I&039;d colad to have you over, Nick, but why now?"
"Well" I heard an odd sound in the background and realized he was chewing on a Milky Way Nick abhorred donuts "This is going to sound a little out there, but I haven&039;t been able to get you out oflast spring where you almost died and they had a fake funeral and all-"
"Yeah, last spring was a real laugh riot"
"And then this suuess the killer moved on, because there hasn&039;t been one like it in about three months-but you were sort of in the ht it&039;d be fun to stop by, catch up"
"Well, sure" Co I wanted was the cop who had knownaround in Vampire Central after my death, but I couldn&039;t think of a way to say no without arousing his suspicions "I&039; there&039;s no need to give you the address, seeing as how you&039;re the man and all"
"See you in twenty," he confirhten up but realized Jessica&039;s corps of houy, the downstairs guy, the upstairs lady, the plant lady) ay ahead of me The place was ione, but Jessica&039;s was in the garage, so I darted up the stairs and knocked on her door
"Jess? Detective Nick is coood in the way of ti, but seriously, when is the best time for a cop to come over? When you&039;re not a vampire," I answered myself "Anyway, if you want to come doe&039;ll be in"-Where? Where was a vampire-free zone?-"one of the parlors I think"
I went to the basee, scribbling notes, while he crocheted an endless chain in sunshine yellow He&039;d churned out about thirty feet so far and didn&039;t look up when I shrieked
"You gave hi in and didn&039;t wait around for Tina&039;s answer At least George was occupied
Nick aiting at the door, and I played ditz and "forgot" to give hi roo," he said, staring As always, he was easy on the eyes My height, blond, broad-shouldered, tan Ooooh, a tan! It was really great to see someone with real color in their cheeks "You and Jessica are reallyup in the world"
"Ha!" I replied "Jess pays for the whole thing"
"Well, yeah" He grinned boyishly "I figured Have you found a job yet? Not that you need one, I guess" He gestured to the roo going, but I wasn&039;t telling him that Likewise, I didn&039;t dare tell him about Scratch I couldn&039;t prove to a live person that I legally owned it I sure didn&039;t need a cop snooping into it
Nick wasn&039;t just any cop He&039;d known me in life but, worse, had fallen underNick forget quite a bit fro sometimes; we honestly didn&039;t knohat he remembered or if Sinclair&039;sthe subject "You&039;re so tan! Where&039;d you go?"
"I just got back frouys saved up for about a year and a half It&039;s really not that expensive if you go in a group Actually, that&039;s sort of why I&039;o to Grand Cay the new sunshine allowances
"No, no" Of course not Why would a healthy red-blooded male want to date a corpse with badly polished toes?
"One of the guys was looking for a new place to go to an AA roup at the Thunderbird-on 494? Anyway-"
"You were there the night I went," I said with a sinking feeling It was definitely weird the way Nick kept stu back into my life What were the chances?
"Well yeah And it&039;s none of my business at all"
"One of the As stands for Anonymous" I pointed out
"Yeah, I know My brother did the twelve steps a couple years ago I just-I guess I was surprised to see you there," he finished la to take a turn for the better? "Well, it&039;s nothing I like to talk about," I said, sort of telling the truth
"Sure, sure, sure," he said quickly "I understand I just wanted you to knoell, so to talk about It&039;s like nobody else can possibly get it, right?"
"Right," I said, on surer ground
"So I just wanted you to know that if you ever wanted to, you know, just talk" He trailed off and sh lines in the corner of his eyes crinkle in a friendly way