She smiled, and the smile was all it should have been. She smiled like she knew the effect it had on most people. I was almost afraid to see her near a man. If she lit up this much for me, the thought of what she'd do around Jamison or Manny was kind of frightening.
"I'm a writer. I'm working on a book about shapeshifters."
My smile wilted around the edges. "Really. And what brings you to the offices of Animators, Inc.?"
"The book is set up with each chapter being a different animal form. I give history, any well-known shapeshifters of that form from history, then a personal profile of a present-day shapeshifter."
My face was beginning to hurt, and I knew my smile was more a baring of teeth than anything else. "Sounds like an interesting book. Now, how can I help you?"
She blinked gorgeous eyes at me and looked puzzled. She was good at looking puzzled. I'd seen the intelligence in her eyes a moment ago. The dumb-blonde routine was an act. Would it have worked if I were a man? I hoped not.
"I'm missing one interview. I need to find a wererat. The interview can be strictly confidential." The dumb blonde was gone as quickly as it had come. She'd seen I wasn't buying it.
The interview can be—not would—be confidential. I sighed and gave up on the smile. "What made you think I could find you a wererat?"
"Mr. Vaughn assured me that if anyone in this area could help me, it would be you."
"Did he really?"
She smiled, eyes glittering. "He seemed very sure you could help me."
"My boss promises a lot of things, Ms. Drew. Most of which he doesn't have to deliver." I stood. "If you could wait here for just a moment, I want to confer with Mr. Vaughn."
"I'll wait right here for you." Her smile was just as sweet, but something in her eyes let me know she knew exactly what kind of conferring I had in mind.
The outer office was done in pale greens, from the wallpaper, with its thin Oriental designs, to the foamy carpet. Plants flourished in every unoccupied niche. Bert thought the plants gave the office a homey touch. I thought it looked like a cheap jungle set.
Mary, our daytime secretary, glanced up from her computer keyboard with a smile. Mary was over fifty, with blond hair that was a little too yellow to be natural. "You need something, Anita?" Her smile was pleasant. I'd almost never seen her in a bad mood. It was a good personality trait for a receptionist.
"Yeah, to see the boss."
She cocked her head to one side, eyes suddenly wary. "Why?"
"I should have an appointment to see Bert today, anyway. I told Craig to schedule it."
She glanced through the appointment book. "Craig did, and Bert canceled it." The smile was gone. "He really is very busy today."
That was it. I went for Bert's door.
"He's with a client right now," Mary said.
"Peachy," I said. I knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for permission.
Bert's desk took up most of the pale blue office. It was the smallest of the three offices, but it was permanently his. The rest of us had to rotate. He'd played football in college and it still showed. Broad shoulders, strong hands, six feet four inches tall and aware of every inch. His boater's tan had washed away with the winter weather. His white crew cut seemed a little less dramatic against the paler skin.
His eyes are the color of dirty window glass, sort of grey. Those eyes glared at me now. "I'm with a client, Anita."
I spared a glance for the man sitting across from him. It was Kaspar Gunderson. He was dressed all in white today, and it emphasized everything. How I could have ever looked at him and thought him human was beyond me. He smiled. "Ms. Blake, I presume." He put out a hand.
I shook it. "If you could wait outside for just a few moments, Mr. ."
"Gunderson," he said.
"Mr. Gunderson, I need to speak with Mr. Vaughn."
"I think it can wait, Anita," Bert said.
"No," I said, "it can't."
"Yes," he said, "it can."
"Do you want to have this particular talk in front of a client, Bert?"
He stared at me, his small grey eyes looking even smaller as he squinted at me. It was his mean look. It had never worked on me. He gave a tight smile. "Are you insisting?"
"You got it."
He took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly, as if he were counting to ten. His flashed his best professional smile on Kaspar. "If you will excuse us for a few minutes, Mr. Gunderson. This won't take long."
Kaspar stood, nodded at me, and left. I closed the door behind him.
"What the hell are you doing coming in here while I'm talking to a client?" He stood up, and his broad shoulders nearly touched from wall to wall.
He should have known better than to try and intimidate me with size. I've been the smallest kid on the block for as long as I can remember. Size hadn't been impressive for a very long time.
"I told you no more clients that are outside my job description."
"Your job description is anything I say it is. I'm your boss, remember?" He leaned over his desk, palms flat.
I leaned into the desk on the other side. "You sent me a missing person's case last night. What the fuck do I know about missing persons?"
"His wife's a lycanthrope."
"And that means we should take his money?"
"If you can help him, yes."
"Well, I gave it to Ronnie."
Bert leaned back. "See, you did help him. He would never have found Ms. Sims without your help."
He was looking all reasonable again. I didn't want him reasonable. "I've got Elvira Drew in my office right now. What the hell am I supposed to do with her?"
"Do you know any wererats?" He had sat down, hands crossed over his slightly bulging middle.
"That's beside the point."
"You do, don't you?"
"And if I say yes?"
"Set up an interview. Surely one of them wants to be famous."
"Most lycanthropes go to a lot of trouble to hide what they are. Being outed endangers their jobs, marriages. There was that case in Indiana last year where a father lost his kids to his ex-wife after five years, because she found out he was a shapeshifter. No one wants to risk that kind of exposure."
"I've seen shifters interviewed on live television," he said.
"They're the exceptions, Bert, not the rule."
"So you won't help Ms. Drew?"
"No, I won't."
"I won't try and appeal to your sense of greed, though she has offered us a lot of money. But think what a positive book on lycanthropy would do to help your shapeshifting friends. Good press is always welcome. Before you turn her down, talk to your friends. See what they say."
"You don't give a damn about good exposure for the lycanthrope community. You're just excited about the money."
"True."
Bert was an unscrupulous bastard and didn't care who knew it. It was hard to win a fight when you couldn't insult someone. I sat down across from him. He looked pleased with himself, like he knew he'd won. He should have known better.
"I don't like sitting down across from clients and not knowing what the hell they want. No more surprises. You clear clients with me first."
"Anything you say."
"You're being reasonable. What's wrong?"
His smile widened, setting his little eyes sparkling. "Mr. Gunderson has offered us a lot of money for your services. Twice the normal fee."
"That's a lot of money. What does he want me to do?"
"Raise an ancestor from the dead. He's under a family curse. A witch told him if he could talk to the ancestor that the curse originated with, she might be able to lift it."