Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

Nevada vampire, the redhead.
    “Pleased to meetcha,” Angie said, nodding.
    The last time I’d seen her, Angie Weatherspoon had been dancing on the low table, enjoying Felipe’s regard. Now the redhead was wearing a gray pencil skirt, a sleeveless green button-up blouse with tiny ruffles on the deep V neckline, and three-inch heels. Her legs went on forever. She looked great.
    When Eric turned to the humans for their introductions, he paused. Eric clearly didn’t know the hugely muscular man’s name, but before the moment could become awkward, the man extended a bulging arm and shook the detective’s hand very delicately. “I’m Thad Rexford,” he said, and Ambroselli’s mouth dropped open.
    The uniform who’d come in behind her said, “Oh, wow! T-Rex!” with sheer delight.
    “Wow,” Ambroselli echoed, forgetting her stern expression.
    All the vampires looked blank, but another human present, a plump and perky twenty-year-old with a light brown mane of hair of which Kennedy Keyes would have approved, looked proud, as if being at the same party with him raised her status. “I’m Cherie Dodson,” she said, in a voice that was surprisingly babyish. “This is my friend Viveca Bates. What’s going on out front, guys?” Cherie was the woman who’dbeen making out with T-Rex. Viveca, just as curvaceous but with slightly darker hair, had been the one giving Felipe the “donation.”
    Detective Ambroselli quickly recovered from the surprise of meeting a famous wrestler at a vampire’s house, and she was twice as pugnacious since she’d shown a moment of starstruck awe. “There’s a dead woman outside, Ms. Dodson. That’s what’s going on. You-all need to stay here to be ready for questioning. First off, did you ladies bring a third woman here with you?” The detective was clearly talking to the humans; that is, all the humans except me.
    “These two lovely ladies were with me at the casino,” T-Rex said.
    “Which one?” Ambroselli was all about the details.
    “The Trifecta. We met Felipe and Horst at the bar there, struck up a conversation over drinks. Felipe here kindly invited us to Mr. Northman’s beautiful home.” The wrestler seemed completely at ease. “We was just out on the town, having some fun. We didn’t bring nobody else with us.”
    Cherie and Viveca shook their heads. “Just us,” Viveca said, and gave Horst a coy sideways look.
    “The victim came into the house, Mr. Northman says, but he doesn’t seem to know who she was.” Cara Ambroselli’s flat tone made it clear what she thought of men who took blood from women they’d never met, while at the same time casting doubt on Eric’s assertion that he hadn’t known her. That was a lot to convey in one sentence, but she managed.
    I was standing right behind her, and I was getting a good reading on her. Cara Ambroselli was both ambitious and tough—necessary attributes to get ahead in the law enforcement world, especially for a woman. She’d been a patrol officer, distinguished herself by hercourage in rescuing a woman from a burning house, sustained a broken arm in the course of subduing a robbery suspect, kept her head low and her social life secret. Now that she was a detective, she wanted to shine.
    She was simply packed full of information.
    I kind of admired her. I hoped we wouldn’t be enemies.
    Cherie Dodson said, “Tell me she doesn’t have on a green and pink dress.” All the flirty fun had drained from her voice.
    “That’s what she’s wearing,” the detective said. “Do you know her?”
    “I met her this evening,” Cherie said. “Her name’s Kym. Kym-with-a-y, she said. Her last name was Rowe, I think. T-Rex, you remember her?”
    He looked down as though he were working hard at recovering the recollection, his dyed platinum hair showing a quarter-inch of dark root. T-Rex’s cheeks sported reddish-brown bristles, and his tight black T-shirt revealed that he’d shaved his chest. I thought that he had some ambivalence about his hair growth, but I was kind of fascinated by his musculature, I have to admit. He just bulged muscles everywhere, even in his neck. I glanced up to find Eric giving me a frosty look. Well, big whoop, considering.
    “I had quite a bit to drink tonight, Miz Ambroselli,” the wrestler said, with a charming ruefulness. “But I remember the name, so I must have met her. Cherie, honey, was she at the bar?”
    “No, baby. Here. While we were dancing, she walked through