“Let them have a good time without you.”
“They’d have a better time with me.”
“I’d have a better time without you,” I muttered.
“Oh, kitten. So catty.” He grinned. “I heard the monster hunter knows Ryder.”
“Yeah.” I opened the Jeep. Crow walked around to the other side and got in the passenger seat.
“I also noticed them out having dinner together.”
“Yeah.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“I don’t. I want her gone. It bothers me that she’s here right now. What is she hunting? Did it lead her here? Or did she just decide she wanted to find out why Ryder quit the monster-hunting business? Or is it something else?”
“Like maybe she’s the ghoul.”
“It’s possible, but I don’t think she is.”
I started the Jeep and flicked on the headlights. “Home?” I asked him.
“I’d rather go with you. Share the good word about our monster hunter, ghoul thing.”
“You really think she’s the ghoul?”
“Do you?”
And it was weird, but I knew in my gut she wasn’t. For one thing, the ghoul would have to have eaten a part of the real Vivian Dunn to take on the shape of her. And that would mean the real Vivian had been nearby. Or the ghoul had eaten her then driven her car here to get all handsy with Ryder, and…yeah. None of that fit together easily.
Answers to these sorts of problems were usually the most obvious.
“I’ll send Hogan by to smell her,” I said.
“Kinky.”
“He can smell ghouls.”
“Oh-kay,” Crow said. “I didn’t think they had a smell.”
“It’s a Jinn thing, as far as I know.” I dialed Jean. She answered on the first ring.
“…my boss, so I’ll be going now. Hey, Delaney, what do you need?”
“Where are you?” I asked, curious why she was trying to get out of a conversation.
“Banshees,” she explained, as I heard the door to her truck open and shut. “Man, they can talk.”
Crow grinned. “Did they corner you and show you pictures from their latest vacation?”
“Lasttwovacations. I never want to see another Areosmith cover band concert shot again. Hey, Crow, why are you with Delaney?”
He opened his mouth, but I spoke first. “Because he can’t keep his nose out of our business.”
“Hey,” he said. “But also: True.”
“I need you to have Hogan smell the monster hunter.”
