"I'd rather be unobtrusive. Your car is not under observation – I determined that while waiting for you to complete your business in that apartment building," he said. "Still, I would prefer not to take the chance that we be seen speaking together at this stage."
"All right. If that's the way you want it, come on in."
"Very well. I will see you very shortly."
I closed the phone and said to Karl, "Don't jump – Castle is about to magic himself into our back seat."
"Huh? Why the hell would he do that?"
"Because I think it wise not to be seen talking with you officers," Castle's voice said from behind us. Despite my warning, Karl jumped a little. We turned, and there was the Supefather. He was wearing the jacket that went with his three-piece this time.
"If you can do this," I said, "and it seems pretty clear that you can, why wait until we got back? You could've been waiting back there when we got in."
"That would show rather bad manners on my part, Sergeant. In any case, I did not want to startle you officers, and run the risk of a violent response on your part."
Karl turned to me. "Isn't there a spell on all police vehicles designed to repel magic?"
"Yes, there was," Castle said, as if he'd been the one Karl asked. "Very competent journeyman work. I dismantled it while waiting for you to return."
"Who the fuck said you could do that?" Karl said. "Now we're helpless against magic!"
Castle gave him a tight smile. "If you'll pardon a little professional hubris, Detective, as long as you are with me, you will never be helpless against magic." He shrugged those well-tailored shoulders. "In any case, I will replace the protective spell when I leave. In fact, I worked out a variation that will make the spell even stronger than before. It helped pass the time while I waited."
As long as Castle was feeling generous with his magic, I toyed with the idea of asking him to give the car a bigger engine, plush carpeting, and a kick-ass stereo system. But then Karl would want an ejection seat and machine guns under the headlights, just like James Bond. Fuck it – McGuire would probably consider the whole thing a bribe and report us to Internal Affairs.
"OK, fine, whatever," I said. "You're here now – so what's on your mind?"
"Recent events," he said, "have taken a turn that disturbs me greatly."
"What events are we talking about here?" I asked.
"In addition to the recent witch burnings, you mean? Well, there was that tragic business in Nay Aug Park the other night."
"You know about that, huh?" I said.
"Such a bizarre event could hardly remain a secret for very long, to one with my resources. Besides," he said, and gave a brief laugh, "the story was in today's Times-Tribune."
That's what I get for not reading the paper every day.
"Yeah, that was some fucked-up shit, all right," Karl said, earning him another thoughtful look from Castle that made me glad Karl carried a badge.
"What was not in the paper just yet," Castle said, "was the news that two vampires, a husband and wife, were staked in their home sometime today."
That must have been the case Meroni had referred to, the one keeping the forensics techs busy.
"You probably know more about that than we do," I said. "It's not our case, and I just caught a mention of it in passing from another officer."
"And now," Castle said, "I find you officers at the scene of an alleged vampiric murder of a human."
"That's private police business!" Karl snapped. "You've got no right to that until it's released by the department."
Castle turned his head slightly so that he was looking at Karl directly. He studied Karl in silence for a second or two, then said quietly, "Benimm dich, du Grünschnabel. Solche Unverschämtheit passt einfach nicht für Neuankömmlinge."
Castle and Karl had locked eyes, but Karl looked away first. I didn't know what Castle had said – I recognize German, but don't speak it – but it sure got Karl to chill out.
"Regardless of whether you should know about this case, you obviously do," I said. "So I might as well break a few regulations of my own and fill you in on what we know. Your use of 'alleged' to describe this vampire attack is a good choice of words, as it turns out."
I told Castle what we had observed in Howard's bedroom, as well as what we suspected. I laid out for him what we were going to tell the doc who would perform Howard's autopsy.
When I finished, Castle was quiet, staring out the side window as if the solutions to all his problems were out there in the night somewhere. When he spoke his voice was pensive.
"We have witches being killed by humans…" He looked at me. "I gather that's the working assumption?"
When I nodded, he went on. "Then a werewolf murdered by persons, or beings, unknown. Two vampires, staked in broad daylight."
"Which is the best time, if you're going to do that kind of thing," I said.
"Yes, to be sure," he said absently. "And now we have what on the surface appears to be a human murdered by a vampire, although that conclusion may not stand up to close examination."
He glanced at Karl, who seemed fascinated by the knobs on the radio, then looked at me. "What in the name of all the gods is going on here, Sergeant?"
"We have a theory about that," I said, being sure to give some of the credit to Karl.
"Would you care to share it?" Castle asked.
"It boils down to two words, I told him. "Helter Skelter."
Castle blinked a couple of times. "Helter Skelter. Wasn't that an old movie about that murderous lunatic, Charles Manson?"
"Yeah, and before that it was a song by the Beatles," I said, "but now it's a crackpot idea, and somebody around these parts seems to think its time has come."
I told him what I'd learned from Pettigrew. When I was done Castle just sat there, looking stunned.