"Talk to me, you son of a bitch."
The breathing got heavy.
"If you hurt him, Aikensen, I will feed you your dick on knife point."
He laughed and hung up. And I'd never be able to testify in court who was on the other end of that phone.
"Dammit, damn it, damn it."
"What's wrong?"
I called information to get the number for the Willoton Police Department. I pressed the button that dialed it automatically for a small fee.
"Anita, what is it?"
I held up a hand, telling him to wait. A woman answered. "Is this Deputy Holmes?"
It wasn't. I got Chief Garroway after impressing on the dispatcher that this was a matter of life and death. I did not scream at her. I deserved mucho brownie points for that.
I gave Garroway the Reader's Digestversion. "I can't believe even Aikensen would be involved in something like this, but I'll send a car."
"Thanks."
"Why didn't you just call 911?" Richard asked.
"They'd call the county police. Aikensen might even be assigned the call."
I was struggling out of my butchered jacket. Richard eased it off my left shoulder or I might never have gotten it off. When it was off, I realized I was out of coats. I'd ruined two in as many days. I grabbed the only coat I had left. It was crimson, long and full. I'd worn it twice. The last time was Christmas. The red coat would show up even at night. If I needed to sneak up on anybody, I could take it off.
Richard had to help me get my left arm in the sleeve. It still hurt.
"Let's go get Jason," he said.
I looked at him. "You're not going anywhere but wherever lycanthropes go when there's a full moon."
"You can't even put your own coat on. How are you going to drive?"
He had a point.
"This may put you in danger."
"I'm a full-grown werewolf and tonight is the full moon. I think I can handle it." He had a faraway look in his eyes as if he were hearing voices I would never know.
"All right. Let's go, but we're going to save Williams. I think the weres are close to his place, but I don't know exactly where."
He was standing there with his long duster coat on. He was wearing a white T-shirt, a pair of jeans with one knee gone, and a pair of less than reputable shoes.
"Why the scuffy clothes?"
"If I shift in my clothes, they're always torn apart. Precaution. You ready?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go," he said. There was something about him that was different. A waiting tension like water just before it spills over the edge. When I looked into his brown eyes, something slid behind them. Some furred shape was inside there, waiting to get out.
I realized what I was sensing from him. Eagerness. Richard's beast was looking out of his true brown eyes, and it was eager to be about its business.
What could I say? We went.
38
Edward was leaning against my Jeep, arms crossed, breath fogging in the air. The temperature had dropped by twenty degrees with the dark. The freeze was back on. All the meltwater had turned to ice. The snow crunched underfoot.
"What are you doing here, Edward?"
"I was about to come up to your apartment when I saw you coming down."
"What do you want?"
"I want to play," he said.
I stared at him. "Just like that. You don't know what I'm involved in, but you want a piece of it."
"Following you around lets me kill a lot of people."
Sad, but true. "I don't have time to argue. Get in."
He slid in the backseat. "Who exactly are we going to kill tonight?"
Richard started the engine. I buckled up. "Let's see. There's a renegade policeman, and whoever's kidnapped seven shapeshifters."
"The witches didn't do it?"
"Not all of it."
"You think I'll get to kill any lycanthropes tonight?" He was teasing Richard, I think.
Richard wasn't offended. "I've been thinking about who could have taken them all without a struggle. It had to be someone they trusted."
"Who would they trust?" I asked.
"One of us," he said.
"Oh, boy," Edward said, "lycanthrope on the menu for tonight."
Richard didn't correct him. If it was all right with him, it was all right with me.
39
Williams lay crumpled on his side. He'd been shot at close range through the heart. Two shots. So much for the doctorate.
One hand was wrapped around a .357 Magnum. I was even betting that there would be powder on his skin, as though he'd really fired the gun.
Deputy Holmes and her partner, whose name I couldn't remember, were lying in the snow dead. The Magnum had taken most of her chest. Her pixielike features were slack and not half so pretty. With her eyes staring straight up she didn't look asleep. She just looked dead.
Her partner was missing most of his face. He was collapsed in the snow, blood and brains melting through the frozen snow. His gun was still gripped in his hand.
Holmes had gotten her gun out, too. For what good it did her. I doubted either one of them had shot Williams, but I'd have bet a month's pay that one of their guns had.
I knelt in the snow and said, "Shit."
Richard stood by Williams. He was staring at him as if he'd memorize him. "Samuel didn't own a gun. He didn't even believe in hunting."
"You knew him?"
"I'm in Audubon, remember."
I nodded. None of it seemed real. It looked staged. Would he get away with it? No. "He's dead," I said, softly.
Edward came to stand beside me. "Who's dead?"
"Aikensen. He's still walking and talking but he's dead. He just doesn't know it yet."
"Where do we find him?" Edward asked.
Good question. I didn't have a good answer. My beeper went off, and I screamed. One of those little yip screams that are always so embarrassing. I checked the number with my heart thundering in my chest.
I didn't recognize the number. Who could it be, and could it possibly be important enough to call back tonight? I'd left my beeper number with the hospital. I didn't know their number, either. I had to answer it. Hell, I needed to call Chief Garroway and tell him his people had walked into an ambush. I could make both calls from Williams's house.
I trudged towards the house. Edward followed. We were on the porch before I realized that Richard wasn't with us. I turned back. He had knelt down beside Williams. I thought at first he was praying, then realized he was touching the bloody snow. Did I really want to know? Yeah.
I walked back over. Edward stayed on the porch without being asked. Point for him. "Richard, are you all right?" It was a stupid question with a man he knew dead at his feet. But what else was I supposed to ask?
His hand closed over the bloody snow, crushing it. He shook his head. I thought he was just angry, or grief stricken, until I saw the sweat on his face.
He turned his face upward, eyes closed. The moon rode full and bright, heavy and silver white. The light was almost daylight bright this far away from the city. Wisps of cloud rode the sky, made luminous with moonshine.
"Richard?"
"I knew him, Anita. We've gone birding together. We talked about his doctorate thesis. I knew him, and now all I can think of is the smell of blood and how warm he still is."
He opened his eyes and looked at me. There was sorrow in his eyes, but mostly there was darkness. His beast was looking out through his eyes.
I turned away. I couldn't hold his gaze. "I've got to make this phone call. Don't eat any of the evidence." I walked away across the snow. It had been too long a night.
I called from the phone in Williams's kitchen. I called Garroway first, told him what we'd found. Once he could breathe, he cursed a bit and said he'd come himself. Probably wondering if things would have turned out differently if he'd come in the first place. Command decisions are always hard.
I hung up and dialed the number on my beeper. "Hello."
"This is Anita Blake. This number was left on my beeper."
"Anita, this is Kaspar Gunderson."
The swan man. "Yes, Kaspar, what is it?"
"You sound awful. Has something happened?"
"Lots, but why did you beep me?"
"I found Jason."
I stood a little straighter. "You're kidding."
"No, I found him. I've got him at my house now. I've been trying to contact Richard. Do you know where he is?"