"But you are, aren't you?" he asked. He watched my face while he asked it.
I had to force myself to meet his eyes while I answered. I wanted to dunk my head, and I couldn't stop the rush of color up my face. "Yeah, I'm jealous. Happy?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"I'm out of here." I wrote the phone number of the cabin on Belisarius's notebook and pressed the buzzer to be let out.
"I'm glad you came, Anita," Richard said.
I kept my back turned to the door, hoping Maiden would hurry. "I wish I could say the same, Richard."
The door opened. I escaped.
7
"Have fun visiting your boyfriend?" Maiden asked as he followed me down the hall.
I waited at the second locked door. "He's not my boyfriend."
"Everyone keeps saying that." Maiden unlocked the door and held it open. "Maybe it's a case of the lady protesting too much."
"Take your library card and shove it, Maiden."
"Ooh," he said, "that was nasty. Wonder if I can think of a comeback half that good."
"Let me have my gun, Maiden."
He locked the door behind us. Jason was sitting in the little row of chairs across from the desk. He looked up. "Can we go home now?"
"Wasn't Officer Maiden entertaining?" I asked.
"He wouldn't let me play with his handcuffs," Jason said.
Maiden went behind the desk and unlocked the drawer. He brought out the Browning, slipped the clip back in it, and pulled the slide back, which jacked a shell into the chamber. He checked the safety and handed it to me, butt first.
"You think Myerton's dangerous enough to need to carry one in the chamber?" I asked.
Maiden looked at me. It was a long look as if he were trying to tell me something. "You never know," he said finally.
We stood staring at each other for a few frozen moments, then I put the Browning in the holster with the bullet ready to go, though I checked the safety twice. Didn't usually go around with a live round in the chamber. Made me nervous. Made me more nervous that Maiden might be trying to warn me. Of course, he might just be yanking my chain. Some cops, especially small town ones, tended to give me grief. Being a vampire executioner made some of them want to trade macho shit with me, like getting me to carry a live round in the chamber.
"Have a nice day, Blake."
"You, too, Maiden," I said.
I had the door open, Jason at my back, when Maiden said, "Be careful out there."
His eyes were guarded. There was nothing to read on his face. I am not a subtle person, big surprise. "You got something to say, Maiden?" I asked.
"I'm going to be taking my lunch break after you leave."
I looked at him. "It's ten o'clock in the morning. Little early for lunch, don't you think?"
"Just thought you'd like to know I won't be here."
"I'll try and squelch my disappointment," I said.
He flashed a quick grin, then stood. "I gotta lock the door behind you, since I'm leaving the desk unattended."
"Locking Belasarius in with Richard?"
"I won't be gone that long," he said. He opened the door for us, waiting for us to go outside.
"I don't like games, Maiden. What the f**k is going on?"
He wasn't smiling when he said, "If the fancy lawyer gets bail for your boyfriend, I'd leave town."
"You're not suggesting he jump bail, are you, Officer?"
"His family has been here almost from the first night he was taken into custody. Before that, it was the scientists that he's been working with. A lot of nice, upstanding citizens standing around for witnesses. But the nice upstanding citizens won't be here forever."
Maiden and I looked at each other. I stood there for a minute, wondering if he'd stop hinting and just tell me what the hell was going on. He didn't.
I nodded at him. "Thanks, Maiden."
"Don't thank me," he said. He locked the door behind us.
My hand wasn't on the butt of the Browning, but it was sort of close to it. It'd be silly to draw the gun on a nice August morning in a town with a population lower than most college dorms.
"What was that all about?" Jason asked.
"If we don't get Richard out, he's going to get hurt. The only reason he hasn't been yet is that there have been too many witnesses. Too many people to ask questions."
"If the cops are in on it," Jason said, "why would Maiden warn us?"
"He's not happy about being in on it, maybe. Oh, hell, I don't know. But it means that someone wanted Richard in jail for a reason."
A pickup truck pulled across the street in front of the little grey house that Shang-Da was camped out in. Four men jumped out of the back. There was at least one more in the cab. He slid out of sight, and they formed a semicircle at the base of the porch. One of them had a baseball bat.
"Well, well," Jason said. "You think if we bang on the doors and yell for police help, we'll get it?"
I shook my head. "Maiden did help us. He warned us."
"I'm all warm and cozy with the effort," Jason said.
"Yeah," I said. I started walking across the street. Jason followed a couple of steps behind. I was thinking as hard as I could. I had a gun and they might not.
But if I killed somebody, I'd be bunking with Richard. Myerton's legal system didn't seem to take to well to strangers.
Shang-Da stood on the porch, looking down at the men. He'd taken off the billed cap. His black hair was cut very short on the sides and longer on top. The hair was shiny with gel but squashed flat from the cap. He stood balanced on his bare feet, long arms loose at his sides. He wasn't in a fighting stance yet, but I knew the signs.
His eyes flicked to us, and I knew he'd seen us. The thugs hadn't yet. Amateur thugs. Didn't mean they weren't dangerous, but it meant you might be able to bluff them. Professional muscle tended to call a bluff.
A small, elderly woman came through the screen door to stand next to Shang-Da. She leaned heavily on a cane, her back bowed. Her grey and white hair was cut very short and permed in one of those tight hairdos that elderly women seem so fond of. She wore an apron over a pink housedress. Her knee-high hose were rolled down over fuzzy slippers. Glasses perched on a small nose.
She shook a bony fist at the men. "You boys get off my property."
The man with the baseball bat said, "Now, Millie, this has got nothing to do with you."
"This is my grandson you're threatening," she said.
"He ain't her grandson," another man said. He was wearing a faded flannel shirt open like a jacket.
"Are you calling me a liar, Mel Cooper?" the woman asked.
"I didn't say that," Mel said.
If we'd been someplace more private, I'd have just wounded one of them. It would have gotten their attention and called the fight off. But I'd have bet almost any amount of money that if I shot one of them, the mysterious sheriff would ride to their rescue. Maybe the plan was to get more of us in jail. I was too new on the scene to even make an educated guess.
Jason and I walked up onto the grass. Mel was the closest to us. He turned, showing a stained undershirt and a beer gut beneath the flannel shirt. Ooh, charming.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
"Well, aren't you just Mr. Smooth."
He took a menacing step towards me. I smiled at him. He frowned at me. "Answer the f**king question, girlie. Who are you?"
"Doesn't matter who she is," the one with the baseball bat said. "This isn't any of her business. Leave it alone, or you'll get what he's going to get." He motioned with his head at Shang-Da.
"I get to the beat the crap out of you, too?" I said. "Oh, goody."
Baseball Bat frowned at me, too. I had two of them puzzled. Confusion to my enemies.
The woman shook a bony fist at them again. "You get off my property, or I will call Sheriff Wilkes."
One of the men laughed, and another said, "Wilkes will be along. When we're finished."
Baseball Bat said, "Come down off that porch, boy, or we're coming up after you."
He was ignoring me. He was ignoring Jason. They weren't just amateur muscle. They were stupid amateur muscle.
Shang-Da's voice was surprisingly deep, very calm. There was no fear in it -- big surprise -- but there was an undercurrent of eagerness, as if under that calmness he was itching to hurt them. "If I come down off this porch, you will not enjoy it."