Jesse squirmed in his seat. “Glory...It’s not an informant thing. I just can’t talk about it. Life and death, I promise.”
She studied him for a few long minutes, then stood up, walked around her desk, and closed the door, leaning against it. “I’m gonna go out on a limb, here...Does this have anything to do with vampires?”
Despite all the time with Scarlett, the word vampires sounded gaudy and ridiculous coming from Glory. But she’d said it all the same.
Jesse’s eyes boggled. “Uh...how did...?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Glory sighed, going back to sit down at her desk. “About seven, eight years ago, I was doing evidence on a homicide case where the victim was a teenage boy with two bite marks in his neck. The techs at the scene figured they were superficial; the kid was into playing cowboys and vampires, but the city morgue was backed up and the body came here for autopsy. It happens. They told us it would be hours until the ME could get here, so I happened to be alone here with the body when I got a visitor. Said his name was Dashiell.”
Jesse took a sharp breath. “He’s a really big deal, apparently.”
“Apparently. Anyway, he told me that vampires were real and the teenager was probably going to rise from the dead, and if I didn’t want to die, too, I should help him. Naturally, I went to the phone to call security, but he got there first. Just appeared on the other side of the room. He offered me a deal. If I went about my other work for an hour and nothing happened, I could call in the National Guard, for all he cared. But if it did, he said that I would want him there. And twenty minutes later...Well, he was right. I wanted him there.”
Glory’s chin was trembling, and Jesse reached across the desk to touch her hand. She squeezed his briefly and let go, scooting back in her chair. “I’d never seen anything like it, and I hope I never do again. Anyway, Dashiell said it might be useful to have someone like me know the truth, but I had to stay quiet. Before I could even respond to that, he asked me how Rob and Natalie were doing. He used their names, Jesse. He knew that Rob was in fourth grade, and Natalie in kindergarten. That was pretty much all I had to hear.”
“What happened to the kid? The teenage vampire?” Jesse asked, caught up in the story.
She gave him a wry smile. “Well, that was the hard part. We figured the easiest thing would be to show that he was still alive. Pretend it was drug-related or something. Dashiell took him out to ‘eat,’ and then when they came back, I faked a migraine and went home. The kid laid back on the table, and when the ME showed up at four a.m., he was blinking and drooling, like he was shaking the effects of some crazy new street drug. Five people and the ME saw him walk out of this building, and nobody looked at me twice.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow.” Her voice was sarcastic, and Jesse thought of her two kids. It must have been terrifying, worrying that you’d slip and end up losing the people you loved most. “It was one of those urban legend autopsy stories for a few months; then everyone forgot about it.”
“Did you ever hear from Dashiell again?”
“Once or twice a year, he calls, even now, asking me to ‘accidentally’ drop a blood sample on the floor or destroy the log for some piece of evidence. A tooth, once, of all things. He never mentioned Rob and Natalie again, but it’s always there, between us. I haven’t gotten caught yet, but even if I do, it’s still worth it.”
“I’m sorry, Glory.”
“Yeah.” She played with her plastic ID badge, looking unsettled. “Now, what’s this about you and vampires?”
Jesse thought for a second. He’d been told very explicitly not to talk abut the Old World, but Glory already knew at least part of it, and he really needed her help. Besides, she’d told him her story. If she trusted him enough to risk her kids by telling him, then it was the least he could do. As quickly as he could, he sketched out the case so far: meeting Scarlett, learning that another null was involved, tracing the silver handcuffs, Freedner. When he got to the part about Dashiell accusing Scarlett of being involved, the color suddenly drained from Glory’s face. “Oh, God.”
“What? What’s the matter?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I helped him last night; I gave him photos of the victim’s faces. I’m so sorry, Jesse, I had no idea...”
It took Jesse a minute to process it, that she was talking about the same photos Dashiell had shown Scarlett. “Oh, Glory, you couldn’t have known.”
She took a deep breath, trying to settle herself. “You’re right, but I feel terrible, anyway. What I did got you guys in trouble with this...man.”
“I understand, though,” Jesse said, and despite himself, he did understand. He was fond of Rob and Natalie, and really, was what Glory had done any worse than what Scarlett did? At least Glory has a good reason, he thought. “Please, don’t worry any more about it. If it wasn’t you, he would have found out some other way.”
She nodded, silently thanking him for the forgiveness. “I’ve never heard of a null. Well, I never heard of anything besides vampires, really, but I guess it makes sense.” She frowned. “It would have been helpful for Dashiell to introduce me to this girl. Maybe we could have worked together.”
“I think Dashiell plays his cards pretty close to the vest.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Glory stood up. “You better get going.”
“Will—”
“Yeah. I’ll cover.” She bit her lip and then added, “But, Jesse? Watch your back. I know you like this girl, but I don’t trust anyone from that world. You shouldn’t, either.”
Chapter 23