Part 10 (2/2)

She rolled neatly and bounced back onto her feet, just like I had, ready in case I was already coming in. I wasn't. I was standing there berating myself for being an overconfident a.s.shole.

”That was awesome!” she squealed. And came straight back at me.

Ten minutes later we were both dripping in sweat, and I'd been infected with her laughter.

But I had a date with Officer Knight, so I reluctantly put up my gloves in surrender.

She tossed her head protector aside and gave me a hug.

”Thank you so much, Amber. I can call you Amber, can't I? I've seen you practicing but Pa didn't want me to spar with you. I've had to go on at him for, like, ages.”

”Whoa! Master Liu is your dad?”

”Yeah. He's pretty cool.”

”Okay.” I guessed I would call him pretty cool if I was nineteen years old and overfilled with exuberance.

”When are you coming back? Can we spar again?”

”Yeah, yeah, of course. Tuesday probably. I won't go so easy on you next time,” I said.

Ha!

”Awesome.”

I had a sudden thought. ”And what if I sent someone to train with you? She might have a problem persuading her parents or her uncle to pay for coaching, but if she could just join in and see what it's like? Ask a few questions?” I said, innocently.

”Yeah, sure.”

”Her name's Jo. I'll send you her cell.”

”Okay. Thanks so much for today.” She skipped away.

I grinned. Oh, that was evil. But they'd wear each other out instead of me.

I waved goodbye to Liu and went to shower.

It didn't escape me that he'd matched me up with Tullah deliberately and given me a message in one neat maneuver.

His earlier comments were replaying in my mind. Could he really see things inside me?

What if his message was about things going on deeper inside me? What if he was saying I'd be better off not fighting it, just becoming a vampire? Disappear into their world. All this c.r.a.p would just go away then. Life would be simpler.

What would it feel like, being a vampire?

I shut that thought down. Anyway, there was no way he could see stuff like that inside me.

Even at a surface level, he had certainly given me lots to think about, but Sat.u.r.day night on patrol wasn't going to be the place for it.

Chapter 13.

Sat.u.r.day's patrol with Knight was like any other Sat.u.r.day-the constant feel that things could become a riot with the wrong spark. The feeling of disbelief when they didn't.

I wasn't sure whether he'd worked through his anger, or he was just giving me another chance, but Knight acted as if the last s.h.i.+ft hadn't happened.

He was on good form with his patter as we went from incident to incident. I heard things I hadn't heard before. Some of them were useful.

We were making our way back after a trip to the station to hand over an incompetent burglar, stoned out of his mind, when I turned onto 12th and an idea formed about checking out Werner Schumacher's sighting on Friday night.

”Y'know, it used to be that burglars were worth chasing,” Knight was saying. ”They were professionals. It gave you a sense of achievement to bring them in. Now the guy doesn't even notice us walking up behind him.”

”I don't think he even knew we were at the station,” I said. ”It'll be fun for him when he wakes up in the morning.” We drew level with the alley where the body had been found and I let the car slow. The traffic was light.

”It's quieter,” I said.

”Yeah, well, learn to enjoy it,” he said. ”That might help keep you alert. Better than bored, careless and dead.”

I nodded in time with the emphasis he beat out on the dash. I'd learned that lesson in harder schools than he had, where the gap between careless and dead was frighteningly small. Still, it was sound advice, the sort of thing a rookie would need to hear.

We pa.s.sed the Schumachers' shop. Werner had looked out and seen three men walking along here. From his description, the security camera I'd seen from the club, and the death of the man whose body we'd found in the dumpster, it was a reasonable a.s.sumption that they were the same group.

I didn't have proof and I couldn't talk it through with Knight, but we were in the right place and I could use the time to think about it.

They'd walked along here. They'd been wearing coats. Of course, they could have parked a car and walked the last bit. If they did that, how had they picked their parking spot? Why not park right outside where they were going? If they didn't want the car to be seen where they were going, how far would they walk? Where would they park that would make them feel it was safe?

”What's up?” asked Knight, finally.

”I'm practicing being a detective,” I said. He knew which case I was talking about. ”I heard that they've identified the vic and he shared an apartment backing onto the alley. I'm guessing he was dumped so his roommates didn't find him. The body might never have been found, or only found when it went to the dump.”

”You know what Buchanan will think about you getting involved?”

”Humor me. Buchanan's not in the car with us. We're just kicking it around.”

”Yeah? Okay, so he still wasn't killed in the apartment or the alley. He had to have bled out someplace else. Where? How did they get him back there?”

I knew an answer to that-he'd been bled out right in that apartment, but I wasn't about to share how that was.

”Not relevant at the moment,” I said instead. ”My point is, the three guys we have reported walking here at the right time are either suspects or need to be questioned.”

Knight played along with it, but I could tell what he thought about the rookie trying to be detective.

”So,” I said. ”Three guys in coats. Where did they walk from?”

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