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The phone rang I groped for it and found nothing I raised one It had even stopped ringing The radio clock was still there, glowing red It read 1:03 I stayed propped on ? Why would I dream that someone had stolen my phone?

The bedrooht beyond Ah Now I re roo to wake me every hour, I&039;d let hi an hour, even a short phone call can screw things up

"Who is it?"

"It&039;s Sergeant Rudolf Storr I asked him to wait until I had to wake you, but he was pretty insistent"

I could iht"

"Would fifteens out from under the covers "Dolph&039;s in the ation, Richard Patience isn&039;t his strong suit"

Richard crossed his arht fro shadows on his face The shadows cut huge square shapes on his orange sweater He radiated displeasure It made me smile I patted his arm as I went past I seemed to have inherited a olf

The phone was sitting just inside the front door, where the other phone jack was I sat down on the floor, putting my back to the wall, and picked up the phone "Dolph, it&039;s me What&039;s up?"

"Who&039;s this Richard Zeeht?"

I closed my eyes My head hurt My face hurt I hadn&039;t had a hell of a lot of sleep "You&039;re not my father, Dolph What&039;s up?"

A moment of silence "Defensive, aren&039;t we?"

"Yeah, want toof it?"

"No," he said

"You call just to catch up on my personal life or is there a reason you woketoo cheerful for that, which made me wonder if it couldn&039;t have waited a few hours

"We found so"

"What exactly?"

"I&039;d rather you just come and see it for yourself"

"Don&039;t do this to me, Dolph Just tell me what the fuck it is"

Another silence If he aiting forwait Finally "We found a skin"

"What kind of skin?"

"If we knehat the hell it ould I be calling you at one o&039;clock in the freaking uess I couldn&039;t blame him

"I&039;m sorry, Dolph I&039;m sorry I snapped at you"

"Fine"

He hadn&039;t exactly accepted y Fine "Is it connected to the murder?"

"I don&039;t think so, but I&039;m not some hotshot preternatural expert" He still sounded pissed Maybe he wasn&039;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&039;t drive," I said

"What?"

"Doctor&039;s orders, I&039;ht"

"How bad are you hurt?"

"Not too bad, but the doctor wanted "

"That&039;s why Mr Zeeman is there"

"Yeah"

"If you&039;re too hurt to coht, it can wait"

"Is the skin where it was found? Nothing disturbed?"

"Yeah"

"I&039;ll coht be a clue"

He let that go "How are you going to get here?"

I glanced at Richard He could drive ood 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 ation Besides, if he&039;d been human, the ansould have been the same No deal

"Unless you can send a squad car, I guess I&039;ll take a taxi"

"Zerbrowski didn&039;t answer his first page He lives in St Peters He&039;ll have to coht 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&039;ll be dressed and waiting"

"Dressed?"

"Don&039;t even start, Dolph"

"Touchy, very touchy"

"Stop it"

He laughed It was good to hear hih It meant not hup So did I

"You have to go out?" Richard asked

"Yeah"

"Do you feel well enough to go?"

"Yes"

"Anita"

I leaned ainst the wall and closed "

"No debate allowed?"

"No debate," I said I openeddown at me, arms crossed

"What?" I said

He shook his head "If I told you that I was going to do so, no debate, you&039;d be mad"

"No, I wouldn&039;t"

"Anita" He said my name the way my father use to say it

"I wouldn&039;t, not if your reasons were valid"

"Anita, you&039;d be pissed, and you know it"

I wanted to deny it but couldn&039;t "All right, you&039;re right I wouldn&039;t like it" I stared up at hi to go out and do ht

I stood I wanted to say I didn&039;t have to explain , it wasn&039;t true any a as not the only hurdle to domestic bliss

"This is police business, Richard People die when I don&039;t dozo vampires"

"You sound like Bert"

"You&039;ve told h about Bert that I know that is an insult"

"If you don&039;t want to be cos" I walked past hiet dressed"

He followedthe police is very important to you"

I turned on him "I don&039;t just help the police, Richard The spook squad is just over two years old The cops on it didn&039;t know shit about preternatural creatures It was a garbage detail Do soet transferred"

"The newspapers and TV said it was an independent task force like the major task force That&039;s an honor"

"Oh, yeah, right The squad gets al in preternatural creatures or events Dolph, Sergeant Storr, sawin preternatural criht I could be an adviser"

"You&039;re a heck of a lot more than an adviser"

"Yes, I am" I could have told hi houls in a ce couple Ghouls were cowards and didn&039;t attack able-bodied people, but exceptions to the rule and all that By the time Dolph called houls So lately Dolph had started calling ot too ot out of hand

But I couldn&039;t tell Richard that There ht have been a lower kill count if I&039;d been called in this summer, but that was no one&039;s business but Dolph&039;s and h Richard was a civvie, olf or not It wasn&039;t any of his business

"Look, I don&039;t know if I can explain this so you&039;ll understand, but I have to go It o to a murder scene later on Can you understand that?"

He looked perplexed, but what came out of his mouth wasn&039;t "Not really, butit&039;s ih"