All Together Dead

was how I felt.
    I’m not finding anyone else in the area, Barry told me.
    Me, either, I said, after I’d performed my second, more thorough, scan.
    Barry, of course, knew exactly what I planned to do, and he said, Do you want me to come with you?
    No, I want you to wait outside. I’ll call you if I need you. In truth, it would have been nice to have him closer, but it smelled too bad in the room for anyone to stand around for more than a minute, and our minute was up.
    Without protesting, Barry went back outside, and I crept down the counter to a clear area. It felt indescribably creepy to scramble over, avoiding Copper’s body. I was glad her sightless eyes were not aimed in my direction as I used a tissue to wipe the area my hands had gripped.
    On the employee side of the counter, there was evidence of a considerable struggle. She’d fought hard. There were smears of blood here and there, and paperwork had gotten knocked to the floor. There was a panic button clearly visible, below the top of the counter, but I guess she hadn’t had time to punch it.
    The lights were on in the office behind the counter, too, as I could see through the partially open door. I pushed it with my foot, and it swung away from me with a little creak. Again, nothing leaped out at me. I took a deep breath and stepped through.
    The room was a combination security room/office/break-room. There were counters built around the walls with rolling chairs pulled up to them, and there were computers and a microwave and a little refrigerator: the usual stuff. And there were the security tapes, heaped in a pile on the floor and smoldering. All the other smells in the outer room had been so bad we simply hadn’t gotten around to this one. There was another door leading out; I didn’t go check to see where it led to, because there was a body blocking it. It was a man’s body, and it was lying facedown, which was a blessing. I didn’t need to go over to check to see if he was dead. He was surely dead. Copper’s replacement, I assumed.
    “Well, crap,” I said out loud. And then I thought, Thank God I can get the hell out of here. One thing about the security tapes having been burned: any record of our earlier visit was gone, too.
    On my way, I pressed the panic button with my elbow. I hoped it was ringing somewhere at a police station, and that they’d get here soon.
    Barry was waiting for me outside, as I’d been 99 percent sure he would be. Though I confess I wouldn’t have been completely surprised if he’d left. “Let’s book! I set off the alarm,” I said, and we jumped into the car and got the hell out of there.
    I was driving, because Barry was looking green. We had to pull over once (and in Rhodes traffic that wasn’t easy) for him to be sick. I didn’t blame him one little bit. What we’d seen was awful. But I’ve been blessed with a strong stomach, and I’d seen worse.
    We got back to the hotel in time for the judicial session. Barry looked at me with gaping astonishment when I commented that I’d better get ready for it. He hadn’t had an inkling what I’d been thinking, so I knew he was really feeling bad.
    “How can you think of going?” he said. “We have to tell someone what happened.”
    “I called the police, or at least a security company who’ll report it,” I said. “What else can we do?” We were in the elevator rising from the parking garage to the lobby.
    “We have to talk to them.”
    “Why?” The doors opened and we stepped out into the hotel lobby.
    “To tell them.”
    “What?”
    “That someone tried to kill you last night here by…okay, throwing an arrow at you.” He fell silent.
    “Right. See?” I was getting his thoughts now, and he’d come to the correct conclusion. “Would it help solve her murder? Probably not, because the guy is dead and the tapes are destroyed. And they’d come here asking questions of the master vampires of a third of the United States. Who would thank me for that? No one, that’s who.”
    “We can’t stand by and do nothing.”
    “This isn’t perfect. I know that. But it’s realistic. And practical.”
    “Oh, so now you’re practical ?” Barry was getting shrieky.
    “And you’re yelling at my—at Sookie,” said Eric, earning another shriek (this one wordless) from Barry. By that time, Barry didn’t care if he ever saw me again in his life. Though I didn’t feel quite that drastic, I didn’t think we were going to become pen pals,