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The apartment was so much nicer than the one we&039;d just coh to have pleased even my stepmother, Judith Well, except for the dead wo back to the bedroom Other than that, the apartment looked freshly scrubbed

I know by now that hborhoods I know for a fact that economics, or neatness, or niceness are not barriers to violence I know that, because I&039;ve seen dead bodies in some of the nicest houses Everyone wants to believe that violence only happens in horrible places, where even the rats fear to go, but it isn&039;t true I didn&039;t think I had any illusions left aboutI thought when I saw that neat-as-a-pin, well-decorated apartment with the dead woman on the carpet was, the body would have fit in Jack Benchely&039;s apartment better Hell, you could have hidden her body in the coffee table debris

The body lay so close to the door that they&039;d had to h to let Arnet and Abrahalanced at hi near the neat, sparkly kitchen He was tall and thin with dark hair and an olive complexion Brown seemed to be his favorite color, because I&039;d never seen hi to Zerbrowski, as taking notes

So far I hadn&039;t learned enough to need to take notes Maybe it was because the body was right at our feet Arnet&039;s and mine Dead bodies can be a real conversation stopper The body was on its sto out toward the door, the other arm folded back where Arnet had moved it when she opened the door

Arnet was standing besidedown at the body She looked a little pale around the edges Maybe it was only the lack ofa little eye , and her skin pale against her short dark hair Not like pale with contrast, but pale like I was ready to grab her elbow in case she started to faint on the body

I wanted to ask her if she was alright, but you don&039;t ask cops that, so I tried to get her talking "How did you know she was in here?" I asked

She jumped and turned startled eyes to me She was seriously spooked

"Why don&039;t we step outside and get some air?" I said

She shook her head, and I knew stubborn when I saw it, so I didn&039;t argue "I saw blood under the door, or what I was almost certain was blood"

"Then what?"

"I called for backup, and we kicked the door open"

"You and Abrahams," I said

She nodded

"The door bounced into her arm, but we didn&039;t knoas her until we shoved the door again I took low, and I was kneeling on the ground, so I saw her first Saw that ere trying to shove the door through her" Her voice shook a little at the end

"Let&039;s move over there by the kitchen, okay?"

"I&039;ry suddenly "Why is it that you think you&039;re the only woman that can handle this kind of shit?"

I lifted eyebrows, but didn&039;t say anything for a count of five I wasn&039;t mad, I just wasn&039;t sure what to say I finally tried the truth "I&039;m not the one that&039;s pale and looks ready to faint"

"I&039;ry whispers always sound so evil

"Fine, then we&039;ll stay right here"

"Fine," she said, still angry

I shrugged, strangely not angry "Fine You checked the woman, found she was dead, and then"

"You know, I don&039;t have to report to you You&039;re not my boss"

That was it "Look, Arnet, if you&039;ve got a personal beef with me, fine, have a personal beef with me, but not on her time" I pointed down to the body

"What do you mean, her time, she&039;s dead She doesn&039;t have any ht now This is herthe son of a bitch that did this to her ishim more time to run We don&039;t want hiht?"

She nodded "I aize for that, and if you want to fight, we can fight, but later, e&039;re not wasting valuable ti her tiain, ain Maybe it was overly dra with Dolph at crime scenes, I didn&039;t need another prima donna on my hands Murder first, personal stuff later, that had to be the order of things, or you lost your way

Zerbroas behind her I noticed hi up, but I don&039;t think Arnet did "Go outside, Arnet, get so out of it

"I&039;m a detective on this team, she isn&039;t" She pointed at me with her thumb

"Outside, now," Zerbrowski said, and his voice had lost all of its hail-felloell- at hiain, Arnet, it won&039;t just be for air"

"What&039;s thatto tre What the hell had I done to make her this pissed about me? Was it about Nathaniel? Hell, she&039;d never dated hi with me

"Do you want to be off this case?" Zerbrowski asked, voice low and suddenly not at all like Zerbrowski&039;s voice

"No," she said, and she looked sullen, but surprised, as if she hadn&039;t known that he had a voice like that in him Me, neither

He looked at her, it was a look to ?"

She opened her mouth then closed it until her lips were a thin pink line She turned on her sensible, two-inch heels and hed loudly and frowned at "

He gave me a look

"I swear, I didn&039;t do a da to her"

"Katie says Arnet was pretty pissed at so"

"How does Katie know she was pissed?"

His look got really narrow "You did say so, didn&039;t you?"

I opened lanced down at the body "We&039;re wasting time with all this personal shit," I said Okay, I also hadn&039;t wanted to discuss my boyfriend situation with Zerbrowski, but we really did have a murderer to catch

"True, but when this slon, you fix this between you and Arnet"

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you&039;re not wicked pissed at her," he said, and his face was as ue with the logic, but as far as it went, it made sense "I&039;ll do what I can What did Abrahams tell you?"

"Arnet saw the blood under the door They called backup and entered Searched the place and didn&039;t find one Avery Seabrook The bed was unmade, and the blood trail seems to start in the bed"

"Not in the bedroom, but the bed," I said

He nodded

"Do we have an ident on her?"

Funny, he didn&039;t ask who "her" referred to "Purse is beside the bed with her neatly folded clothes Sally Cook, age twenty-four, 5&039;3", and I never believe the weight on a woman&039;s driver&039;s license"

"Yeah, woht"

He grinned at h to remember how tall we are"

I se to punch him on the shoulder He can have that effect on me, even at ertip push-ups looking at the body You messed up our blood pattern"

"I wasn&039;t doing push-ups, and I touched as little as I could But I knohy she bled out, at least partly why"

"Talk," he said, he was starting to sound like Dolph Not a bad a thing, just a little unnerving

"She&039;s got a partial bite h Looks like it punctured her femoral"

"Why did you say &039;partial&039; bite mark? Either he bit her, or he didn&039;t"

I shrugged "He bit her, but it looks almost like he started, then either she jerked away, or he wasn&039;t able to finish For lack of a better analogy, it&039;s like being bitten by a snake If it&039;s not poisonous, you&039;re better off not jerking away Vas are recurved not as much as most snake teeth, but still, if you pull away abruptly, you&039;re going to tear yourself up worse than if you just let it chew on you and try to pry it off, sort of gently"

"It&039;s instinct to pull away fro you, Anita"

"I&039; that it&039;s not a good idea You will tear yourself up"

"So he bit her, and she pulled away, and that tore her fe he didn&039;tthat you can bleed out from your femoral in about twenty minutes, maybe less Most people don&039;t understand that"

"Anita, don&039;t do this to me"

"Do what?" I asked

"I saved the best for last She&039;s got a little case in there hat sure as hell looks like a stripper outfit to es and not ot one of our va me that he didn&039;t mean to kill her If that&039;s true, then he isn&039;t one of our guys I&039; you a warrant of execution for his ass I&039;d hate to have you killing the wrong guy"

I shook my head "He was responsible for her death, Zerbrowski The way the laritten, he&039;s dead either way If he&039;s part of our serial killer team, he&039;s dead If he accidentally nicked her feh to call 911, or panicked, or ht him before he could finish It doesn&039;t n The law says it&039;sits bite There is no charge of hter, if you&039;re a vampire"

Zerbrowski looked at lasses "You think it was an accident, don&039;t you?"

I shrugged again "If he meant to rip her femoral open, I think the bite would be different, more vicious I&039;ve seen a lot of vamp kills, Zerbrowski, a lot This looks like a new vamp, a really new one, that doesn&039;t kno to use its fangs yet Someone who&039;s two years dead shouldn&039;t make mistakes like this"

"So he did it on purpose"

I sighed "I&039; to wonder what kind of education the little va"

"What do yousystem was like most of the wereanimals that I know You teach the rookies how to hunt, how to kill, clean, and efficiently"

"You confessing to so for your furry friends?" he asked, and he wasn&039;t sh for the comment, not for my peace of mind

"Aniht over any new va with him, but I&039;ve seen other vamps that were around two years dead, and they aren&039;t rookies They aren&039;t experts, but this is a rookie ive the vamps victims, but they make it clean and neat, and not fun?"

"Yeah"

"What if feeding on the feh, is considered too taboo, too sexual for the church to teach its members?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know the theory that if we don&039;t tell teenagers about sex that they won&039;t think of it on their own"

"Yeah," he said and s as soe boy, and ill one day have a two teenagers on my hands, it&039;s a nice theory, but it doesn&039;t work that way"

"Yeah, I know that, but what if the church is like the right-wingers? If you don&039;t talk about it, or tell the new little vamps about the dirty stuff, they won&039;t do it, or think of it on their own"

"Feeding froh is too much like oral sex for the church," he said, and there was no teasing in his voice when he said it He orking, thinking

I nodded "Exactly"

"But Avery, our newish vampire, did think of it, and did try it, but didn&039;t knohat he was doing"

"Yes, and because he&039;d had no inforerous it could be It&039;s like the kids who cah, because they used candy bar wrappers for condo"

"My hand to God, I a that up The point is that if you don&039;t educate the newly eer, you end up with theet thenorance is not bliss when it co blood donations for vaet you killed in both"

He looked down at the body "She fits the physical profile of the first vic If you ignore the difference in height, she&039;s even blond, which fits all three vics"

"But this one&039;s not a natural blond"

Zerbrowski frowned at me

"I don&039;tI didn&039;t really check that closely, but it looks like she either shaved everything, or had very little body hair to begin with A lot of strippers shave"

"Like your new boyfriend," he said, his voice was mild, but his eyes weren&039;t

I shook my head "None of your da pretty cozy on the dance floor, but then he&039;s living with you now, isn&039;t he?"

"Somebody talks too much"

"Hey, I&039; up with a stripper who&039;s what, seven years younger than you?"

"As the detective in charge at the scene, shouldn&039;t you be solving thisyou always helps me think"

"Glad to hear I inspire you What are you thinking about?"

"I&039;ets executed If he&039;s part of the other murders, then I want the names of his friends If he did this by accident, then I think we need to know that, too If you&039;re right, and the church isn&039;t teaching basic vaot hundreds of potential accidental deaths walking around out there tonight That ain&039;t good"

"Legally, we can&039;t do anything to force the church to change its teaching methods Separation of church and state, and all that"

He nodded "I can&039;t, and Federal Marshal Blake can&039;t, but Anita Blake, sweetie to the Master of the City, e so member of the community?"

"Would I do that?"

I nodded "Yep"

"My head&039;s sore," he said, "I give up How the hell do we catch a va anyone else killed?"

"He&039;s only two years dead, Zerbrowski He&039;s not that big and bad"

He glanced down at the body "Tell that to her"

He had a point