Page 7 (1/2)

"You’ve been here about six hours It’s around ten AM And a month didn’t work perfectly No"

He didn’t elaborate, and his tone was absolutely neutral Too neutral So tells uess would be that theto went very bad, very quickly Iton his neck Or not I wouldn’t ask It was rude Yes, since I apparently was an abomination I should probably find out as ht now I needed to find out what had happened in the hours I’d lost Because I hadn’t just lost six hours The last I re ready to visit Vicki

"Can you sense your sire?" Jones’s words brought ht about it Nothing There was no sorrow or rage or even happiness connected to the lack of a connection Just bland neutralness "No Is there a trick to doing it?"

"No Generally the connection’s just there" He seeenuinely puzzled and not particularly pleased

"That’s not terribly helpful, you know," E at hi and putting away every bit of equipment they’d used Inbeen here at all Except, of course, for the video caht in"

"Why?" Emma sounded surprised

I wanted to look at it, to see if the video prompted any memories But that’s not what I said "The police may want proof that I didn’t leave the crime scene under h he were scolding a particularly dim-witted child

"Look, it’s fairly obvious I was attacked, and I wouldn’t have gone doithout at least a few shots having been fired That gun on top isn’t even mine, so weapons were used The police have ballistics on most ofto h the scene They knohat I do for a living, so it isn’t usually an issue It isn’t a crienerally supposed to report that sort of thing"

Jones shrugged "Ah A good, law-abiding citizen" There was a hint of condescending amusement

To my surprise, his tone didn’t irritatetoo hard I do have a short fuse, but I don’t like playing into people’s expectations So I smiled and spoke sweetly "It ave h to have expected ht I saw her open her htly

I looked from one of them to the other "Here’s what I propose I call the police, arrange to come in and make my statement" Not that I could say ht be able to get soht even do awas only used as a last resort--too traumatic to the witness Besides, the courts were split on whether or not the evidence obtained that way could be used because of proven cases of o to Vicki, see what she knows, maybe see if she can help me track o back to wherever you foundto be stalking et the juht with as ht vamps I’ve killed thea huic, e I could get to get close enough to kill the bastard, before he killed me Vicki has a better than 99 percent accuracy rate Odds are she either kneas going on or could find out And it certainly wouldn’t hurt to try

Emma nodded, which I expected since she knows Vicki nearly as well as I do But I hadn’t expected Jones to speak

"I’d recoest you see Vicki first The police are open twenty-four/seven Birchwoods isn’t" That was interesting How did Jones know about Vicki? While it was possible Emma or Kevin had told hi that Jones had found out the infor all of us Maybe he’d done it after Kevin had called hily good Because Birchwoods takes confidentiality very, very seriously If a starlet or executive wants sympathy, they check into one of the other rehab facilities If they want secrecy to the grave and beyond, they choose Birchwoods It’s pricey as hell, but for folks who value their privacy Birchwoods is worth every penny And there was no way Vicki’s parents would leak she was there It would be too da to their lily-white reputations Hell, they’re so worried about their ie that they hire a double to impersonate her for the press So how had Jones known?

I turned toward him, my expression studiously blank "Are you in this for the duration?"

He shrugged "I owe Kevin Landingha you will repay that"

"Fair enough"

I turned, giving Euaranteed to annoy her, but it was necessary If she caet in the way Besides, I didn’t want to wait for Kevin, but I wanted hiun as soon as possible Call me paranoid, but I didn’t trust Jones with h "When your brother gets back--"