ABVH 01 - Guilty Pleasures

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  Jesus, some days I hate my job. “Talk to her, Phillip. Tell her we didn’t come here to hurt anyone.”

  Phillip knelt beside her. He kept his hands at his sides as he talked to her. I didn’t hear what he said. Her shuddering sobs floated after me through a right-hand doorway. It led into the bedroom.

  A coffin sat beside the bed, dark wood, maybe cherry, varnished until it gleamed in the twilit dark. She thought I came to kill her lover. Jesus.

  The bathroom was small and cluttered. I hit the light switch, and the harsh yellow light was not kind. Her makeup was scattered around the cracked sink like casualties. The tub was nearly rotted with rust. I found what I hoped was a clean washrag and ran cold water over it. The water that trickled out was the color of weak coffee. The pipes shuddered and clanked and whined. The water finally ran clear. It felt good on my hands, but I didn’t splash any on my neck or face. It would have been cool, but the bathroom was dirty. I couldn’t use the water, not if I didn’t have to. I looked up as I squeezed the rag out. The mirror was shattered, a spiderweb of cracks. It gave me my face back in broken pieces.

  I didn’t look in the mirror again. I walked back past the coffin and hesitated. I had an urge to knock on the smooth wood. Anybody home? I didn’t do it. For all I knew, someone might have knocked back.

  Phillip had the woman on the couch. She was leaning against him, boneless, panting, but the crying had almost stopped. She flinched when she saw me. I tried not to look menacing, something I’m good at, and handed the rag to Phillip. “Wipe her face and put it against the back of her neck; it’ll help.”

  He did what I asked, and she sat there with the damp rag against her neck, staring at me. Her eyes were wide, a lot of white showing. She shivered.

  I found the light switch, and harsh light flooded the room. One look at the room and I wanted to turn the light off again, but I didn’t. I thought Rebecca might attack me again if I sat beside her, or maybe she’d have a complete breakdown. Wouldn’t that be pretty? The only chair was lopsided and had yellowed stuffing bulging out one side. I decided to stand.

  Phillip looked up at me. His sunglasses were hooked over the front of his tank top. His eyes were wide and careful, as if he didn’t want me to know what he was thinking. One tanned arm was wrapped around her shoulders, protective. I felt like a bully.

  “I told her why we are here. I told her you wouldn’t hurt Jack.”

  “The coffin?” I smiled. I couldn’t help it. He was a “jack in the box.”

  “Yes,” Phillip said. He stared at me as if grinning were not appropriate.

  It wasn’t, so I stopped, but it was something of an effort.

  I nodded. If Rebecca wanted to shack up with vampires, that was her business. It certainly wasn’t police business.

  “Go on, Rebecca. She’s trying to help us,” Phillip said.

  “Why?” she asked.

  It was a good question. I had scared her and made her cry. I answered her question. “The master of the city made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

  She stared at me, studying my face, like she was committing me to memory. “I don’t believe you,” she said.

  I shrugged. That’s what you get for telling the truth. Someone calls you a liar. Most people will accept a likely lie to an unlikely truth. In fact, they prefer it.

  “How could any vampire threaten The Executioner?” she asked.

  I sighed. “I’m not the bogeyman, Rebecca. Have you ever met the master of the city?”

  “No.”

  “Then you’ll have to trust me. I am scared shitless of the master. Anybody in their right mind would be.”

  She still looked unconvinced, but she started talking. Her small, tight voice told the same story she’d told the police. Bland and useless as a new-minted penny.

  “Rebecca, I am trying to catch the person, or thing, that killed your boyfriend. Please help me.”

  Phillip hugged her. “Tell her what you told me.”

  She glanced at him, then back at me. She sucked her lower lip in and scraped it with her upper teeth, thoughtful. She took a deep, shaky breath. “We were at a freak party that night.”

  I blinked, then tried to sound reasonably intelligent. “I know a freak is someone who likes vampires. Is a freak party what I think it is?”

  Phillip was the one who nodded. “I go to them a lot.” He wouldn’t look at me while he said it. “You can have a vampire almost any way you want it. And they can have you.” He darted a glance at my face, then down again. Maybe he didn’t like what he saw.

  I tried to keep my face blank, but I wasn’t having much luck. A freak party, dear God. But it was somewhere to start. “Did anything special happen at the party?” I asked.

  She blinked at me, face blank, as if she didn’t understand. I tried again. “Did anything out of the ordinary happen at the freak party?” When in doubt, change your vocabulary.

  She stared down into her lap and shook her head. Long, dark hair trailed over her face like a thin curtain.

  “Did Maurice have any enemies that you know of?”

  Rebecca shook her head without even looking up. I glimpsed her eyes through her hair like a frightened rabbit staring out from behind a bush. Did she have more information, or had I used her up? If I pushed she’d break, shatter, and maybe a clue would come spilling out, then again, maybe not. Her hands were tangled in her lap, white-knuckled. They trembled ever so slightly. How badly did I want to know? Not that badly. I let it go. Anita Blake, humanitarian.

  Phillip tucked Rebecca in bed, while I waited in the living room. I half-expected to hear giggling or some sound that said he was working his charm. There was nothing but the quiet murmur of voices and the cool rustle of sheets. When he came out of the bedroom, his face was serious, solemn. He slipped his glasses back on and hit the light switch. The room was a thick, hot darkness. I heard him move in the ovenlike blackness. A rustle of jeans, a scrape of boot. I fumbled for the doorknob, found it, flung it open.

  Pale light spilled in. Phillip was standing, staring at me, eyes hidden. His body was relaxed, easy, but somehow I could feel his hostility. We were no longer playing friends. I wasn’t sure if he was angry with me for some reason, or himself, or fate. When you end up with a life like Rebecca’s, there should be someone to blame.

  “That could have been me,” he said.

  I looked at him. “But it wasn’t.”

  He spread his arms wide, flexing. “But it could be.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. What could I say? There but for the grace of God go you? I doubted God had much to do with Phillip’s world.

  Phillip made sure the door locked behind us, then said, “I know at least two other murdered vampires were regulars on the party circuit.”

  My stomach tightened, a little flutter of excitement. “Do you think the rest of the . . . victims could be freak aficionados?”

  He shrugged. “I can find out.” His face was still closed to me, blank. Something had turned off his switch. Maybe it was Rebecca Miles’s small, starved hands. I know it hadn’t done a lot for me.

  Could I trust him to find out? Would he tell me the truth? Would it endanger him? No answers, just more questions, but at least the questions were getting better. Freak parties. A common thread, a real live clue. Hot dog.

  21

  INSIDE MY CAR I turned the air conditioning on full blast. Sweat chilled on my skin, jelling in place. I turned the air down before I got a headache from the temperature change.

  Phillip sat as far away from me as he could get. His body was half-turned, as much as the seat belt would allow, towards the window. His eyes behind their sunglasses stared out and away. Phillip didn’t want to talk about what had just happened. How did I know that? Anita the mind reader. No, just Anita the not so stupid.

  His whole body was hunched in upon itself. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said he was in pain. Come to think of it, maybe he was.

  I had just bullied a very frag
ile human being. It hadn’t felt very good, but it beat the heck out of knocking her senseless. I had not hurt her physically. Why didn’t I believe that? Now, I was going to question Phillip because he had given me a clue. The proverbial lead. I couldn’t let it go.

  “Phillip?” I asked.

  His shoulders tightened, but he continued to stare out the window.

  “Phillip, I need to know about the freak parties.”

  “Drop me at the club.”

  “Guilty Pleasures?” I asked. Brilliant repartee, that’s me.

  He nodded, still turned away.

  “Don’t you need to pick up your car?”

  “I don’t drive,” he said. “Monica dropped me off at your office.”

  “Did she now?” I felt the anger, instantaneous and warm.

  He turned then, stared at me, face blank, eyes hidden. “Why are you so angry at her? She just got you to the club, that’s all.”

  I shrugged.

  “Why?” His voice was tired, human, normal.

  I wouldn’t have answered the teasing flirt, but this person was real. Real people deserve answers. “She’s human, and she betrayed other humans to nonhumans,” I said.

  “And that’s a worse crime than Jean-Claude choosing you to be our champion?”

  “Jean-Claude is a vampire. You expect treachery from vampires.”

  “You do. I do not.”

  “Rebecca Miles looks like a person who’s been betrayed.”

  He flinched.

  Great Anita, just great, let’s emotionally abuse everyone we meet today. But it was true.

  He had turned back to the window, and I had to fill the pained silence. “Vampires are not human. Their loyalty, first and foremost, must be to their own kind. I understand that. Monica betrayed her own kind. She also betrayed a friend. That is unforgivable.”

  He twisted to look at me. I wished I could see his eyes. “So if someone was your friend, you would do anything for them?”

  I thought about that as we drove down 70 East. Anything? That was a tall order. Almost anything? Yes. “Almost anything,” I said.

  “So loyalty and friendship are very important to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because you believe Monica betrayed both of those things, it makes it a worse crime than anything the vampires did?”

  I shifted in the seat, not happy with the way the conversation was going. I am not a big one for personal analysis. I know who I am and what I do, and that’s usually enough. Not always, but most of the time. “Not anything; I don’t believe in many absolutes. But, if you want a short version, yes, that’s why I’m angry at Monica.”

  He nodded, as if that were the answer he wanted. “She’s afraid of you; did you know that?”

  I smiled, and it wasn’t a very nice smile. I could feel the edges curl up with a dark sort of satisfaction. “I hope the little bitch is sweating it out, big time.”

  “She is,” he said. His voice was very quiet.

  I glanced at him, then quickly back to the road. I had a feeling he didn’t approve of my scaring Monica. Of course, that was his problem. I was quite pleased with the results.

  We were getting close to the Riverfront turnoff. He had still not answered my question. In fact, he had very nicely avoided it. “Tell me about freak parties, Phillip.”

  “Did you really threaten to cut out Monica’s heart?”

  “Yes. Are you going to tell me about the parties or not?”

  “Would you really do it? Cut out her heart, I mean?”

  “You answer my question, I’ll answer yours.” I turned the car onto the narrow brick roads of the Riverfront. Two more blocks and we would be at Guilty Pleasures.

  “I told you what the parties are like. I’ve stopped going the last few months.”

  I glanced at him again. I wanted to ask why. So I did. “Why?”

  “Damn, you do ask personal questions, don’t you?”

  “I didn’t mean it to be.”

  I thought he wasn’t going to answer the question, but he did. “I got tired of being passed around. I didn’t want to end up like Rebecca, or worse.”

  I wanted to ask what was worse, but I let it go. I try not to be cruel, just persistent. There are days when the difference is pretty damn slight. “If you find out that all the vampires went to freak parties, call me.”

  “Then what?” he asked.

  “I need to go to a party.” I parked in front of Guilty Pleasures. The neon was quiet, a dim ghost of its nighttime self. The place looked closed.

  “You don’t want to go to a party, Anita.”

  “I’m trying to solve a crime, Phillip. If I don’t, my friend dies. And I have no illusions about what the master will do to me if I fail. A quick death would be the best I could hope for.”

  He shivered. “Yeah, yeah.” He unbuckled the seat belt and rubbed his hands along his arms, as if he were cold. “You never answered my question about Monica,” he said.

  “You never really told me about the parties.”

  He looked down, staring at the tops of his thighs. “There’s one tonight. If you have to go, I’ll take you.” He turned to me, arms still hugging his elbows. “The parties are always at a different location. When I find out where, how do I get in touch with you?”

  “Leave a message on my answering machine, my home number.” I got a business card out of my purse and wrote my home phone number on the back. He got his jean jacket out of the back seat and stuffed the card into a pocket. He opened the door, and the heat washed into the chill, air-conditioned car like the breath of a dragon.

  He leaned into the car, one arm on the roof, one on the door. “Now, answer my question. Would you really cut out Monica’s heart, so she couldn’t come back as a vampire?”

  I stared into the blackness of his sunglasses and said, “Yes.”

  “Remind me never to piss you off.” He took a deep breath. “You’ll need to wear something that shows off your scars tonight. Buy something if you don’t have it.” He hesitated, then asked, “Are you as good at being a friend as you are an enemy?”

  I took a deep breath and let it out. What could I say? “You don’t want me for an enemy, Phillip. I make a much better friend.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet you do.” He closed the door and walked up to the club door. He knocked, and a few moments later the door opened. I got a glimpse of a pale figure opening the door. It couldn’t be a vampire, could it? The door closed before I could see much. Vampires could not come out in daylight. That was a rule. But until last night I had known vampires could not fly. So much for what I knew.

  Whoever it was had been expecting Phillip. I pulled away from the curb. Why had they sent him at his flirtatious best? Had he been sent to charm me? Or was he the only human they could get at short notice? The only daytime member of their little club. Except for Monica. And I wasn’t real fond of her right now. That was just dandy with me.

  I didn’t think Phillip was lying about the freak parties, but what did I know about Phillip? He stripped at Guilty Pleasures, not exactly a character reference. He was a vampire junkie, better and better. Was all that pain an act? Was he luring me someplace, just as Monica had?

  I didn’t know. And I needed to know. There was one place I could go that might have the answers. The only place in the District where I was truly welcome. Dead Dave’s, a nice bar that served a mean hamburger. The proprietor was an ex-cop who had been kicked off the force for being dead. Picky, picky. Dave liked to help out, but he resented the prejudice of his former comrades. So he talked to me. And I talked to the police. It was a nice little arrangement that let Dave be pissed off at the police and still help them.

  It made me nearly invaluable to the police. Since I was on retainer, that pleased Bert to no end.

  It being daytime, Dead Dave was tucked in his coffin, but Luther would be there. Luther was the daytime manager and bartender. He was one of the few people in the District who didn’t have much to do with vampires, ex
cept for the fact that he worked for one. Life is never perfect.

  I actually found a parking place not far from Dave’s. Daytime parking is a lot more open in the District. When the Riverfront used to be human-owned businesses, there was never any parking on a weekend, day or night. It was one of the few positives of the new vampire laws. That and the tourism.

  St. Louis was a real hot spot for vampire watchers. The only place better was New York, but we had a lower crime rate. There was a gang that had gone all vampire in New York. They had spread to Los Angeles and tried to spread here. The police found the first recruits chopped into bite-size pieces.

  Our vampire community prides itself on being mainstream. A vampire gang would be bad publicity, so they took care of it. I admired the efficiency of it but wished they had done it differently. I had had nightmares for weeks about walls that bled and dismembered arms that crawled along the floor all by themselves. We never did find the heads.

  22

  DEAD DAVE’S IS all dark glass and glowing beer signs. At night the front windows look like some sort of modern art, featuring brand names. In the daylight everything is muted. Bars are sort of like vampires; they are at their best after dark. There is something tired and wistful about a daytime bar.

  The air conditioning was up full blast, like the inside of a freezer. It was almost a physical jolt after the skin-melting heat outside. I stood just inside the door and waited for my eyes to adjust to the twilight interior. Why are all bars so damn dark, like caves, places to hide? The air smelled of stale cigarettes no matter when you came in, as if years of smoke had settled into the upholstery, like aromatic ghosts.

  Two guys in business suits were settled at the farthest booth from the door. They were eating and had manila folders spread across the table top. Working on a Saturday. Just like me, well, maybe not just like me. I was betting that no one had threatened to tear their throats out. Of course, I could be wrong, but I doubted it. I was betting the worst threat they had had this week was lack of job security. Ah, the good old days.

  There was a man crouched on a bar stool, nursing a tall drink. His face was already slack, his movements very slow and precise, as if he were afraid he’d spill something. Drunk at one-thirty in the afternoon; not a good sign for him. But it wasn’t my business. You can’t save everybody. In fact, there are days when I think you can’t save anyone. Each person has to save himself first, then you can move in and help. I have found this philosophy does not work during a gun battle, or a knife fight either. Outside of that it works just fine.