He made a raspberry sound. “You love me and you know it.”
“We are not at liberty to share that information,” Myra said. How was it that she was acting more like the police chief than I was? Could it be that I was still tired, possibly muddled because half of this conversation involved my not-ex, long-time-crush hotty of a boyfriend, and also that I hadn’t had nearly enough coffee yet?
Yes. Yes, it could.
“You understand that the persons of interest trust us to act in their behalf,” Myra said. “We’ve sworn to keep them safe and keep their confidence. We won’t break that trust.”
Ryder took his time studying her serene face, then shifted his gaze to Jean for a bit, then finally to me. “None of you are going to tell me anything I want to know?”
“If you would answerourquestions, we might be able to facilitate a meeting with someone in town who could help you,” I said.
It wasn’t quite a bluff, wasn’t quite a promise. I was however, certain that Rossi would be more than happy to let Ryder know he was the big bad vampire in town. Rossi enjoyed threatening people he didn’t like, and he most certainly didn’t like Ryder.
Plus, I was pretty sure I’d agreed to let him be around when we questioned Ryder.
Ryder’s shoulders shifted as he leaned forward to put his empty coffee cup on the table. When he sat back, he looked like he’d made up his mind.
“Anyone want to tell me why the glassblower is here?” he asked.
“Maybe I’m a vampire,” Crow said.
“Nope,” I said.
Crow just shrugged and gave Ryder a wide grin. “Maybe I’m something else.”
“This isn’t about you.” I finished off the last of my coffee and sighed. “Jean, did you bring the photos?”
She pulled a folder out of her messenger bag and handed it to me. I sorted through the video surveillance shots. She’d done a great job cleaning up the images. The snap of the hand with the ring was particularly clear.
It looked familiar to me. Where had I seen that ring before?
“These are the images we got off of the surveillance camera outside Joe Boy’s.” I passed the folder to Ryder.
He opened it and studied the images.
“You said you know it was a group of vampire hunters that killed Sven. We can trace that ring, and will find the man who had his hand around Sven’s mouth. We’ll bring him in. But you could save us a lot of time, and do some good in building a positive position with the vampires in town if you would just tell us everything you know about this.”
Ryder held his breath a minute, deciding.
“His name is Rick Mortin. The man who is a part of the vampire hunters. He’s the head of the hunters sent to Ordinary. I can’t make out enough of that ring to recognize it.”
“Vampire hunters.”
“Yes. We didn’t know they were doing anything more than reconnaissance. We’d been tipped off that they’d be heading this way earlier in the year. I was supposed to keep my eyes out for them. Intercept them before they contacted any of the targets.”
“Targets?” Jean asked. “Holy shit, Ryder. Who the hell do you work for?”
The waves of disappointment and anger radiating off Jean was pretty hard to watch. She had always idolized Ryder as the perfect upstanding guy. The guy she wanted to see date her oldest sister, and make a happily ever after with me.
But that wasn’t how it ever worked in real life.
“I work with an agency that reaches out to supernaturals and creates lines of open communication for the continued peace and advantages to our respective races.”
“Tell me that’s not an acronym,” she muttered. “No, wait. Just tell me the name of your agency.”
“I work with the Department of Paranormal Protection.”
“Thought they were unfunded back in Eisenhower’s days,” Crow said. “Some kind of internal nut jobs tried to take over?”
