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The phone was ringing It see to it ring, wondering when the hell thefor the phone It wasfro it back in last night

I crawled out of the war rooot to it I sank to the floor with the receiver clutched to my ear "Who is it?"

"Anita?"

"Ronnie?"

"You sound awful"

"I look worse," I said

"What&039;s up?"

"Later, why are you calling at"--I glanced atThis better be good, Ronnie"

"Oh, it&039;s good, all right I thought we should catch George Soes to work"

"Why?" My face was throbbing I lay down on the carpet, cradling the phone against my ear The carpet was very soft

"Anita, Anita, are you there?"

I blinked and realized I&039;d fallen asleep I sat up and leaned against the wall "I&039; about needing to talk to Smitz before work"

"I know you&039;re not aperson, Anita, but you&039;ve never fallen asleep on ht?"

"About an hour"

"Oh, God, I am sorry But I knew you&039;d want to know I&039;ve found the sun"

"Ronnie, please, what are you talking about?"

"I have pictures of George Smitz with another woman" She let that sink in for a moment or two "Anita, are you there?"

"I&039;" The last was harder to do than I wanted it to be I a After an hour&039;s sleep I wasn&039;t even close to un?"

"Well, a lot of ti to divert suspicion"

"You think Smitz offed his wife?"

"How poetically you put it, but yes, I do"

"Why? A lot of men cheat on their wives, most of them don&039;t kill them"

"Here&039;s the clincher After I took the pictures, I talked to a few gun stores in the area He&039;d bought some silver bullets at a store near the butcher shop"

"Not very bright," I said

"Most murderers aren&039;t"

I nodded, realized she couldn&039;t see it, and didn&039;t care "Fine, looks like Mr S er he pretended to be What do you want to do about it?"

"Confront hio to the cops?"

"The store clerk isn&039;t exactly positive it was George"

I closed reat You think he&039;ll confess to us?"

"He ht He&039;s shared a bed with her for fifteen years Mother of his children There&039;s got to be a lot of guilt there"

I don&039;t think real well on an hour&039;s sleep "Cops, we should have the cops waiting in the wings, at least"

"Anita, he&039;s a client of mine I don&039;t turn clients over to the cops unless I have to If he confesses, I&039;ll bring them in If he doesn&039;t confess, I&039;ll hand over what I have But I&039;ve got to try it my way first"

"Fine, do you call hi or do you want ht you&039;d like to be there"

"Yeah, let one to work yet I&039;ll call him and be over to pick you up"

I wanted to say, "No, I have to go back to sleep," but what if he had killed her? What if he&039;d taken the others? George hadn&039;t struck h to take out shapeshifters, but then I&039;d thought he was genuinely grieving Genuinely worried about his wife What the hell did I know?

"I&039;ll be ready," I said I hung up without saying good-bye I was getting as bad as Dolph I&039;d apologize when Ronnie got here

The phone rang before I could crawl to my feet "What is it, Ronnie?"

"Anita, it&039;s Richard"

"Sorry, Richard, what&039;s up?"

"You sound awful"

"You don&039;t You didn&039;t get much more sleep than I did How come you sound soperson"

He laughed "Sorry, guilty as charged"

Furry I could forgive; aperson, I&039;d have to think about that "Richard, don&039;t take this wrong, but what do you want?"

"Jason&039;smale, blond, crawled all over you at the Lunatic Cafe"

"Ah, I re"

"Yes Jason is one of our newest packout alone today of all days His sponsor went over to his house, and he was gone"

"Sponsor like in AA?"

"Sole?"

"No"

I stood up dragging the phone in one hand I tried to think past the leaden tiredness How dare Richard sound so cheerful "Peggy Sht him with another woman A clerk may have sold him silver bullets"

There was silence on the other end of the phone I could hear his soft breathing, but that was all The breathing was a little fast

"Talk to y, then we&039;ll handle it"

"Has it occurred to you that he could be behind all the disappearances?" I asked

"I don&039;t see how"

"Why not? A silver bullet will take care of any shapeshifter No great skill involved You just need to be someone that the shapeshifter trusts"

More silence finally "Okay, what do you want to do?"