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The Laughing Corpse :: Гамильтон Лорел
Страница: 21 из 213"
"Who?"
I looked up into the clear August sky. "You think we'll get rain?"
"Dammit, Anita, I need your help."
"I've given you my help," I said.
"The name."
"Not yet. I'll check it out, and if it looks suspicious, I promise to share it with you."
"Well, isn't that just generous of you?" A flush was creeping up his neck. I had never seen Dolph angry before. I feared I was about to.
"The first death was a homeless man. We thought he'd passed out from liquor and ghouls got him. We found him right next to a cemetery. Open and shut, right?" His voice was rising just a bit with each word.
"Next we find this couple, teenagers caught necking in the boy's car. Dead, still not too far from the cemetery. We called in an exterminator and a priest. Case closed." He lowered his voice, but it was like he had swallowed the yelling. His voice was strained and almost touchable with its anger.
"Now this. It's the same beastie, whatever the hell it is. But we are miles from the nearest frigging cemetery. It isn't a ghoul, and maybe if I had called you in with the first or even the second case, this wouldn't have happened. But I figure I'm getting good at this supernatural crap. I've had some experience now, but it isn't enough. It isn't nearly enough." His big hands were crushing his notebook.
"That's the longest speech I've ever heard you make," I said.
He half laughed. "I need the name, Anita."
"Dominga Salvador. She's the voodoo priest for the entire Midwest. But if you send police down there she won't talk to you. None of them will."
"But they'll talk to you?"
"Yes," I said.
"Okay, but I better hear something from you by tomorrow."
"I don't know if I can set up a meeting that soon."
"Either you do it, or I do it," he said.
"Okay, okay, I'll do it, somehow."
"Thanks, Anita. At least now we have someplace to start."
"It might not be a zombie at all, Dolph. I'm just guessing."
"What else could it be?"
"Well, if there had been blood on the glass, I'd say maybe a lycanthrope."
"Oh, great, just what I need-a rampaging shapeshifter."
"But there was no blood on the glass."
"So probably some kind of undead," he said.
"Exactly."
"You talk to this Dominga Salvador and give me a report ASAP."
"Aye, aye, Sergeant."
He made a face at me and walked back inside the house. Better him than me. All I had to do was go home, change clothes, and prepare to raise the dead.
"Who?"
I looked up into the clear August sky. "You think we'll get rain?"
"Dammit, Anita, I need your help."
"I've given you my help," I said.
"The name."
"Not yet. I'll check it out, and if it looks suspicious, I promise to share it with you."
"Well, isn't that just generous of you?" A flush was creeping up his neck. I had never seen Dolph angry before. I feared I was about to.
"The first death was a homeless man. We thought he'd passed out from liquor and ghouls got him. We found him right next to a cemetery. Open and shut, right?" His voice was rising just a bit with each word.
"Next we find this couple, teenagers caught necking in the boy's car. Dead, still not too far from the cemetery. We called in an exterminator and a priest. Case closed." He lowered his voice, but it was like he had swallowed the yelling. His voice was strained and almost touchable with its anger.
"Now this. It's the same beastie, whatever the hell it is. But we are miles from the nearest frigging cemetery. It isn't a ghoul, and maybe if I had called you in with the first or even the second case, this wouldn't have happened. But I figure I'm getting good at this supernatural crap. I've had some experience now, but it isn't enough. It isn't nearly enough." His big hands were crushing his notebook.
"That's the longest speech I've ever heard you make," I said.
He half laughed. "I need the name, Anita."
"Dominga Salvador. She's the voodoo priest for the entire Midwest. But if you send police down there she won't talk to you. None of them will."
"But they'll talk to you?"
"Yes," I said.
"Okay, but I better hear something from you by tomorrow."
"I don't know if I can set up a meeting that soon."
"Either you do it, or I do it," he said.
"Okay, okay, I'll do it, somehow."
"Thanks, Anita. At least now we have someplace to start."
"It might not be a zombie at all, Dolph. I'm just guessing."
"What else could it be?"
"Well, if there had been blood on the glass, I'd say maybe a lycanthrope."
"Oh, great, just what I need-a rampaging shapeshifter."
"But there was no blood on the glass."
"So probably some kind of undead," he said.
"Exactly."
"You talk to this Dominga Salvador and give me a report ASAP."
"Aye, aye, Sergeant."
He made a face at me and walked back inside the house. Better him than me. All I had to do was go home, change clothes, and prepare to raise the dead.