"Nope," he said, making the word longer than it was.
"It means that I don't need your permission to enter this crime scene. I don't need anybody's permission. So it doesn't matter if the lieutenant is here or not. I told you who alerted me to this crime out of courtesy, but if you don't want to be courteous, officer, then we don't have to be."
I turned and looked at Jason. Normally, I would have left him at the car, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure I could make it up the rest of the hill without falling over. I genuinely didn't feel well enough to be here. But here I was, and I was going to see this crime scene.
I motioned Jason to me. He came around the Jeep, his smile fading around the edges. Maybe I looked as pale as I felt.
"Let's go."
"He's not a fed," Jenkins said.
I'd had enough of Jenkins. If I'd been feeling better I would have bullied our way through, but... there were other ways to bully.
I waited until Jason was there to steady me, then I moved my hair to one side showing the white gauze and tape on my own neck. I pulled on one side of the tape until it peeled down, and I could flash the bite at Jenkins. It wasn't a neat puncture wound. Asher had gotten carried away, because the edges of the wounds were torn.
"Shiiit," Jenkins said.
I let Jason tape the wound back up, while I talked to the other man. "I have had a hard night, Officer Jenkins, and I have the authority to go into any preternaturally related crime scene that I see fit to enter."
The tape was smoothed back into place, and Jason was standing very close to my left arm, as if he knew how unsteady I was feeling. Jenkins didn't seem to notice.
"It isn't a vampire attack," Jenkins said.
"Am I not speaking English here, Jenkins? Did I say it had anything to do with vampires?"
"No, sir, I mean... no."
"Then either escort us to the crime scene, officer, or step aside and we'll find our own way."
Flashing the vampire bite had thrown him, but he still didn't want a fed messing with his crime. Probably his boss wouldn't like it, but that wasn't my problem. I had a federal badge. In theory, I had the right to the crime scene. In actuality, if the local police barred my way there wasn't much I could do. I could go get a court order and force the issue, but that would take time, and I didn't have that kind of time. Dolph was already pissed at me. I didn't want to keep him waiting that long.
Jenkins finally stepped aside. We started walking up the hill. I had to take Jason's arm about halfway up. My goal in life for that moment was not to fall down, throw up, or faint, while Jenkins was still puzzling over whether he'd done the right thing letting us get past him.
17
My badge on its little cord around my neck got us past most of the cops. The few that questioned us recognized my name, or had worked with me before. Always good to be known. They questioned Jason's presence. I finally told them that I'd deputized him.
A big statie, with shoulders wider than either of us was tall, said, "I've heard it called a lot of things, but deputy isn't one of 'em."
I turned on him, slowly, because I couldn't move fast, and the very slowness of the turn helped the menace. It's hard to be menacing to someone when you barely reach their waist, but I have had lots of practice.
Jason must have been afraid of what I'd say, because he said, "You're just jealous."
The big man shook his head in his Smokey the bear hat. "I like my women bigger."
"Funny," I said, "that's what your wife says."
It took him a minute to get it, then he unfolded those beefy arms and took a step towards us. "Why you..."
"Trooper Kennedy," a voice said from behind us, "don't you have some speeders to go catch?"
I turned to see Zerbrowski walking towards us. He was dressed in his usual-sloppy as hell, as if he'd slept in the brown suit, a yellow shirt with the collar on one side pointing up, and a tie at half-mast, already stained with something, even though he probably hadn't had breakfast. His wife, Katie, was always neat as a pin. I'd never figured out how she let him go out looking like that.
"I'm on my own time here, detective," Trooper Kennedy said.
"And this is my crime scene, trooper. I don't think we need you here."
"She says that she deputized him."
"She's a federal marshal, Kennedy, she can do that."
The big man looked perplexed. "I didn't mean anything by the comment, sir."
"I know you didn't, Kennedy, just as Marshall Blake here didn't mean anything by hers. Did you, Anita?"
"I don't know his wife, so no, just pulling your leg, Officer Kennedy, sorry about that."
Kennedy frowned, thinking harder than was good for him, I think. "No offense taken, and none meant, ma'am." He couldn't quite bring himself to call me officer, or marshal, which was fine with me. The federal status was so new that I didn't always look up when someone called marshal. I kept forgetting they meant me.
When the big trooper had wandered away to his car, Zerbrowski called over one of the other detectives on the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, affectionately know as RPIT. If you wanted to piss them off, call them RIP.
"See if you can clear out some of the personnel we don't need."
"You got it, Sarge," and the man went to talk with all the nice policemen from all the many jurisdictions.
"Sarge," I said, "I knew Dolph made lieutenant finally, I didn't hear your news."
He shrugged, running a hand through his already messy curls. Katie would make him go in for a haircut soon. "When they moved Dolph up, he needed a second whip, I got tapped."
"They throw you a party yet?"
He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses. They didn't need adjusting. "Yeah."
If I'd been a man, I'd have let it go, but I was a girl, and girl's poke at things more than men. "I was invited to Dolph's party for making louie, but not yours?"
"I like Micah, Anita, but Dolph... didn't expect you to bring Micah. I don't think he could take seeing him at my shindig, too."
"He just can't handle the fact that my main squeeze is a shape-shifter."
Zerbrowski shrugged. "Katie gave me strict orders to invite you and Micah over for dinner the next time I saw you. So here it is, and when can you come over?"
There are points where you stop pushing. I didn't ask if Katie had really told Zerbrowski that, she probably had, but, whatever, he was trying to offer a social peace pipe, and I was going to take it.
"I'll ask Micah what our schedule looks like."
His eyes flicked to Jason, and he grinned. The grin reminded me so much of Jason's grin, that it made me wonder what Zerbrowski had been like in college, when Katie and he met. "Unless you've changed guys again?"
"No," I said, "Jason's just a friend."
"The friend speech," Jason clutched his heart with his free hand, the other still wrapped around mine, "it cuts so deep."
"Yeah, I've been trying to get into her pants for years. She just won't come across."
"Tell me about it," Jason said.
"Both of you, stop it, right now," I said.
They both laughed, and the laughs were so similar that it was kind of unnerving. "I know you have the right to make him a deputy, but I know what Mr. Schulyer here is, and where his primary residence is." Zerbrowski leaned in close enough to us that no one else would hear. "Dolph would kill me if I let him into the crime scene."
"You catch me if I pass out, and he can stay out here."
"Pass out," Zerbrowski said, "you're joking, right?"
"I wish I was." I had both hands on Jason's arm now, fighting the urge to totter on my high heels.