All Together Dead

deaths.”
    “The only death that matters at this summit is the death of Peter Threadgill.”
    I sighed at the image of Wybert’s head, and then I said, “Yeah, I was there.”
    Johan may have been lower than pond scum, but he knew his stuff. We went through a long question and answer session that left the lawyer knowing more about what had happened than I did, and I’d been there. Mr. Cataliades listened with great interest, and now and then threw in a clarification or explained the layout of the queen’s monastery to the lawyer.
    Diantha listened for a while, sat on the floor and played jacks for half an hour, then reclined her seat and went to sleep.
    The Anubis Airline attendant came through and offered drinks and snacks from time to time on the three-hour flight north, and after I’d finished my session with the trial lawyer, I got up to use the bathroom. That was an experience; I’d never been in an airplane bathroom before. Instead of resuming my seat, I walked down the plane, taking a look at each coffin. There was a luggage tag on each one, attached to the handles. With us in the plane today were Eric, Bill, the queen, Andre, and Sigebert. I also found the coffin of Gervaise, who’d been hosting the queen, and Cleo Babbitt, who was the sheriff of Area Three. The Area Two sheriff, Arla Yvonne, had been left in charge of the state while the queen was gone.
    The queen’s coffin was inlaid with mother-of-pearl designs, but the others were quite plain. They were all of polished wood: no modern metal for these vamps. I ran my hand over Eric’s, having creepy mental pictures of him lying inside, quite lifeless.
    “Gervaise’s woman drove ahead by night with Rasul to make sure all the queen’s preparations were in place,” Mr. Cataliades’s voice said from my right shoulder. I jumped and shrieked, which tickled the queen’s civil lawyer pink. He chuckled and chuckled.
    “Smooth move,” I said, and my voice was sour as a squeezed lemon.
    “You were wondering where the fifth sheriff was.”
    “Yes, but you were maybe a thought or two behind.”
    “I’m not telepathic like you, my dear. I was just following your facial expressions and body language. You counted the coffins and began reading the luggage tags.”
    “So the queen is not only the queen, but the sheriff of her own area.”
    “Yes; it eliminates confusion. Not all the rulers follow that pattern, but the queen found it irksome to constantly consult another vampire when she wanted to do something.”
    “Sounds like the queen.” I glanced forward at our companions. Diantha and Johan were occupied: Diantha with sleep, Johan with his book. I wondered if it was a dissection book, with diagrams—or perhaps an account of the crimes of Jack the Ripper, with the crime scene photographs. That seemed about Johan’s speed. “How come the queen has a lawyer like him?” I asked in as low a voice as I could manage. “He seems really…shoddy.”
    “Johan Glassport is a great lawyer, and one who will take cases other lawyers won’t,” said Mr. Cataliades. “And he is also a murderer. But then, we all are, are we not?” His beady dark eyes looked directly into mine.
    I returned the look for a long moment. “In defense of my own life or the life of someone I loved, I would kill an attacker,” I said, thinking before every word left my mouth.
    “What a diplomatic way to put it, Miss Stackhouse. I can’t say the same for myself. Some things I have killed, I tore apart for the sheer joy of it.”
    Oh, ick. More than I wanted to know.
    “Diantha loves to hunt deer, and she has killed people in my defense. And she and her sister even brought down a rogue vampire or two.”
    I reminded myself to treat Diantha with more respect. Killing a vampire was a very difficult undertaking. And she could play jacks like a fiend.
    “And Johan?” I asked.
    “Perhaps I’d better leave Johan’s little predilections unspoken for the moment. He won’t step out of line while he’s with us, after all. Are you pleased with the job Johan is doing, briefing you?”
    “Is that what he’s doing? Well, yes, I guess so. He’s been very thorough, which is what you want.”
    “Indeed.”
    “Can you tell me what to expect at the summit? What the queen will want?”
    Mr. Cataliades said, “Let’s sit and I’ll try to explain it to you.”
    For the next hour, he talked, and I listened and asked questions.
    By the time Diantha sat up and yawned, I felt a bit