Chapter 15 (1/2)

THE MAIN PIECE of the body lay on the ground, on its back in the looray, but there were scuffed and paler places around the field; I think ere in standing in the middle of a softball field The "as Edward, US Marshal Ted Forrester, and me, US Marshal Anita Blake Edas his real name, the real him Forrester was his secret identity, like Clark Kent for Superood ol' boy Ted, once a bounty hunter, now a erment Act just like me I'd been a vampire executioner, not a bounty hunter But either way, there we stood with real badges; legally ere real cops Edward still took assassination jobs if the pay was high enough, or the hit interesting enough He specialized in killing only dangerous things, like wereaniun to take up most of his time Work does interfere with your hobbies

There were otherto the local police, but it was just Edward andin the otten tired of looking at theht from the airport in Tacoer Dismembered bodies did lose their charm pretty fast

I fought the urge to huddle inletters on it It was fifty freaking degrees here Whoever heard of fifty being the regular teust? It was a hundred-plus with heat index at home in St Louis The stop before this one had been Alabaly cold after all that heat and huht softened around us and I could see the body parts better It didn't make me like them any better

"Is the body lying on its back, or its ass?" I asked

"You mean because it's bisected at midchest and the parts are about ten feet away?"

"Yeah," I said

"Does it matter?" he asked He pushed his hand toward a cowboy hat that he'd left in the car that brought us from the airport Ted wore a well-loved, well-creased cowboy hat, and the fact that the hat gesture had beco as his legal alter ego He settled for running his hand through his short blond hair He was five foot eight, which seemed tall to me at five-three

"I guess not" In ht, Problems like that are what you think about when you stare down at a dis, or throw up I hadn't thrown up on a body in years, but the St Louis police had never let me live it down

"They can't find the heart," he said, voice as uneh that I could see that his eyes were blue rather than just pale He had a suold, but better than I tanned It see that the blond, blue-eyed WASP tanned darker than I did with my mother's black hair and brown eyes I was half Hispanic - shouldn't I tan darker than white-bread boy?

"Anita," he said, and he moved so I couldn't see the body "Talk to me"

I blinked at him "They won't find the heart Just like they didn't find the last three hearts The killer, or killers, is taking the heart as a trophy, or proof of the kill Like the woods the heart back to the Wicked Queen in a box, or so"

"I need you here, working this case, not lost in your head"

"I'm here" I frowned at him

He shook his head "I've seen you look at worse than this and be better about it"

"Maybe I' at shit like this Aren't you?"

"You don't mean just this case," he said

I shook my head

"Are you asking if looking at things like this bothers me?"

"I would never ask that, it's against the guy code," I said, and just saying it that way made me smile a little

He smiled back, but more like it was reflex It never reached his eyes They stayed cold and empty as a winter sky Once the other marshals joined us he'd make his eyes sparkle, or fill with some emotion; he didn't bother when it was just us We knew each other too well; there was no need to hide

"No, it doesn't bother me"

I shrugged, and finally let un at the small of my back instead of in the shoulder holster, I was able to zip it and not coun in the shoulder holster and a big-ass knife down

"It's more that I'd rather be home"

"With your ain it was totally neutral

I nodded I , and this was our fourth crime scene in a fourth city I was tired of planes, tired of other cops, tired of being away

"I' Becca in Music Man She's just in the chorus, but she's one of the youngest they've ever cast"

"She ood"

"She is" He nodded, s, and this time it reached all the way up to his eyes His face arhter He'd been living with and engaged to Donna for years, but never quite ht of him as their dad Becca had been only six when he and herEdward, whom the vampires had nicknamed "Death," had taken Becca to dance class and sat in the waiting room with the moms for years now It made me smile just to think about it

"It was o home to," I said

The smile faded and he turned cold eyes to look at where the head lay to one side of the field "I can't argue that I don't et home before the musical is over"

"How hts does it run?"

"Teeks," he said

"Teeks, starting today?"

"Yes"

"I don't want to be out here another teeks," I said

"Me, either," he said, and this time he sounded tired

The real trouble with this case for me was that I knew exactly why these victi them The trouble was I couldn't tell anyone but Edward, because if I told the police everything I knew, the killers would come after me and every policeman that I told, and everyone that they told The Harlequin were the vae, jury, and executioner They were also soreatest warriors to ever live, or unlive Some of them were vampires and so apart the bodies of the weretigers they were killing across the country The body at our feet looked like a hu-ass tiger, but it hadn't helped hiainst the Harlequin, just as it hadn't helped any of the others If two people were equally fast, equally strong, but one was better trained at fighting, the better trained one would win So far, none of the weretigers had been anything but ordinary people who just happened to turn into weretigers

"We're here to work the scene," Edward said, "so we do"

I sighed, squaredin my thin jacket "It's partly that we know so much the other police need to know"

"We settled this, Anita Theones who can't be nalared at me "I really hate that we can't even say their names out loud It feels like we're in a Harry Potter book talking about He-Who-Must-Not-B e-Name d"

"You know the deal, Edward; if you mention their name without their invitation they hunt you down and kill you for it If I told the other police, everyone who said their nahtered I don't know about you, but these guys are scary good, and they seee of modern forensics"

"They're wearing cloaks, gloves, and hoods that cover their hair, Anita The outfits that keep theuys help them not leave forensic evidence behind"

"Fair enough"

"And the Whatevers that are on your side don't know the faces of the others They wear masks when they meet, like some terrorist cells, so they can spy on each other if they need to"

"So we have no faces to give them, no names except nicknames, and those match the masks they wear"

"I don't think assassins this good wear Venetian carnival masks in don Tacoma, so the nicknames and masks don't help," he said

"So we know everything and nothing useful," I said

"If I'd taken the contract to kill the Queen vaht now"

"Or you would and I'd be talking to Peter about why he's lost a second dad"

Edward gave ood I am at my job"

I'd had years of practice aze I met it now "You don't understand, Edward She's the darkness, the night itself made alive"

"I wouldn't have just blown her body up and called the job done," he said "Soood"

"What - you would have brought a witch along?"

"No, but I would have gone to one and gotten char The mercenaries the vampire council hired to kill her treated her like just another mark and noe're all in the shit because of it"

I couldn't argue with hiht The Harlequin had been the law of the vainal job had been as bodyguards to their Dark Queen Half of the orders from the Mother of All Darkness

"They thought fire would destroy her," I said

"Would you have assumed that?"

I thought about it "No"

"What would you have done?"

"I'd have plastered myself with holy items, thrown more holy items on the body so her spirit couldn't leave the body she's in, and taken her head and heart, then I'd have burned it all separately down to ash, and put the ashes of the head, the heart, and the body in different bodies of running water"

"You really think she could come back if you put the ashes in the same body of water?"

I shrugged "She survived the total destruction by fire of her body and was able to send her spirit out to take over the body of other va past her"

"So even if we find Morte d'Amour, the Lover of Death, and destroy him, she'll just jump to another host"

"She can survive as a disembodied spirit, Edward; I'm not sure she can be killed"

"Everything dies, Anita The universe will die eventually"

"I' to shat happens five billion years from noard; the universe can take care of itself Hoe stop theer question, hoe stop her?"

"You're the necromancer, I'm just a humble killer," he said

"Which means, you don't know either," I said

"Why doesn't your boyfriend know? Jean-Claude is Master of the City of St Louis, and what's left of the European power structure is trying to make him head of a new vampire council here in the States Why aren't the va out with helping to stop this?"

"The otherwhatevers are hunting these guys They'll be traveling as they hear about the bodies, but they're behind us, Edward We've been first on the ground in the last three cities"

"For preternaturals that are supposed to be the greatest spies and assassins ever, they suck at anything useful"

"We're not doing much better," I said

"So the vampires can't help us We're cops, let's be cops," he said

"What does that mean?"

"We work the scene This is the kill site This is where we can learn new things about these bastards Things that aren't legends, but what they did only a few hours ago It can help us catch them"

"You really believe that?"

"I have to believe that, and so do you"

I took in a deep breath and wished I hadn't There was a faint bitter s near the end of the body Death isn't neat, or pretty, or clean; it's all outhouse s it can do all at once, one last time

"Fine," I said, and I squatted beside the body on the balls of my feet I made myself look at the body, really look at it