I stood, winced a little at my stiff back and scowled at my bed. I hadn’t been asleep long enough to get a crick in my back. “Rossi is not pleased.”
“But he’s taking care of it, is that correct?”
“It’s not something he can take care of, Bertie.” At her look, I continued. “Not something that he alone can take care of. Someone killed Sven. Murder is against the law. Mortal law, which is the law we follow in this town, the law I enforce. Someone in town committed murder. I’m going to find them, arrest them, and lock them away for life.”
“What if it’s not a mortal?”
“I’m worried at how much you’re insisting it might be a werewolf. Did the Wolfes do something to bother you? Forget to fill out their volunteer forms for the next festival? Laugh at your Cakes on Skates idea? Overcharge you for gravel in your driveway?”
“Don’t be silly,” she said primly. “My driveway is clay pavers.”
“If it is someone in the Wolfe family, then that’s up to Rossi to deal with, since they have laws in place between their kind,” I said. “If it’s a mortal, or any other creature in town, then that’s on me and the law.”
“And if it’s a god?” She watched me over her cup, golden fingernails gleaming in the low light coming through the windows.
“If it’s a god, then I’ll deal with that too. Just like my fathers and mothers before me.”
“You think you can handle a rogue god?”
“I think there isn’t anyone else around here who could handle it better than me.”
She sipped tea, the last of it, from how deeply she tipped the cup.
“Well, then. Since you have god powers to track down and a killer to find, I’ll be on my way and let you do your work.” She stood and started toward my bedroom door. “I don’t know who killed him, Delaney. That is beyond my knowing. I do know he wasn’t killed in Ordinary.”
“What? Wait. How?”
“Becausethatis within my knowing. Every death that happens on this soil, I will know.” She shrugged. “Mostly the gods, but I am old enough and have been here long enough that I’ve developed a sense of when mortals and creatures die too.”
“And Sven wasn’t murdered here?”
“No.”
“Do you know where he was killed?”
“No.”
“Does Rossi know Sven wasn’t killed in town?”
“Do you think anyone could be quick enough to kill one of his before he was there to stop them?”
Vampires were not slow.
“No.”
I chewed on that information. If Sven hadn’t been killed in town, I’d need to find out when he left and where he went. Unlike the vacationing deities who were on a pretty tight leash went it came to walkabouts, creatures could and did wander the world at their leisure and pleasure.
If Bertie was right, and Sven had been killed outside of Ordinary, then why had he been found in the shed inside town? Yes, it was on the outermost northern edge of town, and a person wouldn’t have to drive more than half a mile to be officially out of town, but either someone had brought him back or he had somehow gotten that far on his own.
Rossi said the ichor techne was an invitation, which would mean someone had dropped off Sven’s dead body. Dead before he was even inside of Ordinary again.
Another reason Rossi was so angry. Since all the vampires seemed to be able to speak with each other thought-to-thought, he would have known where Sven was, might even have heard his last thoughts.
I’d need to talk to him to find out exactly how the telepathy worked, and what rules and restrictions he enforced. There might be other details that he or another vampire could give me, clues that could lead to the killer.
“Yes, then,” Bertie said into what I realized was a long span of silence. “I’ll leave you to your busy day.”
“Thank you, Bertie.”
