The Night Beat

actually a lich, I always thought of him as a man, mostly because he was so young, as liches go, that he was at no risk of turning stone-like and none of his parts ever wobbled, let alone fell off. Monty assured me that in a few hundred years Edgar was going to stop being the ladies’ man of the lich set, but I didn’t worry about it and I knew Edgar didn’t, either.
    It was always fun to see the other males’ reactions to Edgar’s effect on the females. It was nice to see that Jack seemed just as annoyed and jealous as the others. Maurice was the only one not bothered by it one way or the other.
    “So, my dears,” Edgar said to me, Amanda and Gretel. “What is our plan?”
    “Well, first off, what did you find at the scene?” That Edgar had already been to the scene was a given.
    He shook his head. “Human intervention for certain. However, I have nothing more than that. Those with the enhanced senses of sight and smell need to weigh in.”
    “Pretty much what we figured.” I looked around. “How do we want to get there?” I hoped someone else would suggest not flying.
    “Well, I left our car the next street over,” Jack said. “I think the Chief would like it returned, so some of us can go in that.”
    “I think everyone but the vamps can fit.” It would be cozy, but I was willing to sit right up next to Jack. Anything for the cause, me.
    Ken nodded. “Sounds about right. We’ll stay with you overhead, though, just in case.”
    We found the car and piled in. I made sure I was in the front seat next to Jack. Thankfully, I was joined by Edgar. Hansel “accidentally” shoved Ralph into the backseat and the others piled in. Gretel stayed small and sat on Edgar’s lap. No one other than Jack bothered with seatbelts -- a car crash wasn’t going to kill any of us unless we crashed into a silver and garlic factory made out of wooden spikes and filled with unholy water. And even then, our chances were better than average of not having any problems.
    Jack drove quickly, but even so, downtown was far away from the OLOC. “This is cozy,” he said quietly. “You and the other girls all part of Edgar’s harem?”
    “Gee, you sound jealous. I’ll be flattered later. He’s charming. More males could try that as a technique. Besides, he’s happily married.” This was true. The first thing he’d done when he’d been turned into a lich was find his late wife and see if she could become undead. She’d turned into a zombie and they had a very happy, though quiet, family life. She didn’t get involved in Enforcement work, but she did handle a lot of “wife of the dean” chores at the University. She covered those for H.P.’s side of things, too, since he wasn’t married.
    “If you say so.” Jack didn’t sound convinced. I wasn’t sure if I should go for hopeful and flattered or businesslike and educational. I was saved from a decision by the radio.
    “Detectives Wagner and Wolfe, please come in.” Darlene sounded stressed again. Probably not a good sign.
    I grabbed the radio since Jack was driving. “Here, Darlene. What’s up?”
    She sighed. We were supposed to use the official police call numbers and codes, but I almost never bothered. I had enough Enforcement info rattling around in my head; the human stuff was more confusion than I felt I needed to deal with. Besides, it wasn’t like it affected my performance. “Chief would like to know where the two of you have been. You did not respond to radio or cellular.”
    That made sense. My cell phone was still in the car, on the dash -- I was staring at it. It was blinking merrily. I took a look. Oh yeah, a lot of missed calls. Jack’s was there, too, blinking just as much.
    “We, ah, were in pursuit.”
    “Of what?” Darlene didn’t sound amused.
    “Perpetrators of the crime we investigated earlier.” I mean, technically, we were in pursuit now, so that counted, right? “How are the four officers who were down?”
    “They’re all going to recover, at least so far as we’ve heard.”
    Jack and I both relaxed a little. “That’s great news. What about the others?”
    “The drug dealer’s already back on the streets,” Darlene said. “Figures, doesn’t it? The ladies of the evening are likely to pull through, though they’re still in the hospital.”
    A thought struck me. “Where was the dealer released? And what’s his name?”
    “Angelo Tomio was released from City Hospital twenty minutes ago. Do you want officers