“How so?” she asked, looking up at him. A nervous quiver jumped into her belly. Was she not acting normal? She was trying to act normal. As if she didn’t know this huge secret.

“Yeah. Usually you’d be out pounding the streets really aggressively after we’ve caught a new case. Today you’re just looking over cases that are going cold or are almost closed.”

“Well,” she said, tapping the file in her hand. “This is the Grovener murder. Tommy Grovener is coming in at three for an interview.”

“So what’s to review? We already know he’s guilty. You ought to have issued a warrant for him already.”

“It’s better this way. He comes in voluntarily, so we don’t have to chase him down. He thinks he’s going to get information out of us, when in fact we are going to get a confession out of him. And if I’m going to get that confession, I better damn well know the case inside and out. So should you. You’ll be in there with me.”

“I already know the case by heart. And so do you. C’mon. What gives? Why aren’t we out scoping more bars or whatever? Our doer is getting farther and farther away every minute we waste.”

“It doesn’t help the case to run around without direction. We’ll wait until we hear back from one of the bars we already went to. That one seemed like a good line.”

“Yeah. Maybe. But shouldn’t we be interviewing the family and his work? Maybe it wasn’t a stranger at all. Maybe he knew his killer.”

“Of course. We’ll do all of that. I just want to get this Grovener thing under our belts, then we’ll focus on our new one. Okay?”

Jimmy seemed to think about it, taking a moment to narrow his eyes on her and scrutinize her face. “And you’re sure that’s all it is? You just want to get this one done?”

“That’s all it is,” she assured him.

“All right. I’ll buy it for now. But I want this guy. He did the vic in broad daylight. A guy like that doesn’t care who he hurts and he doesn’t care if he gets caught. That makes him dangerous.”

“Tell me about it,” she said darkly.

“Don’t worry. We’ll catch him. Hopefully before he does someone else.”

“Yeah,” Renee said with an internal wince. “Hopefully.”

“C’mon. It’s lunchtime. Let’s get out of here a little while.”

“Oh. No. I’ll eat here.” She indicated her desk.

“C’mon. We’ll go to Mrs. Pho’s. You love pho.”

Renee’s stomach rumbled in response to the suggestion and Jimmy chuckled. He snatched up her coat from the back of her chair and pulled her to her feet, forcing her to drop the file onto her desk.

“No really, Jimmy. I have to stay in,” she said, Rafe’s warning resounding in her head.

“The only thing you have to do is eat. Come on. Move it. Go.”

Jimmy slipped her jacket onto her arms and was guiding her out of the precinct a moment later. Renee felt her stomach clench anxiously as they hit the cold outdoors.

It should be all right, she told herself. It was daylight and the street was full of people. Then again, the phant that had killed that man had not cared that it was daylight or that there were witnesses. Was she putting Jimmy in danger? She would never be able to live with herself if something were to happen to him. He didn’t know what they could potentially be walking into. He didn’t know how to kill a phant. He didn’t even know they existed.

Ignorance was bliss, she thought with a sigh. She wished, for a moment, that she didn’t know anything about e-vamps and their world. But the next moment she knew that she would much rather know than not. She had never been one to enjoy ignorance. She had to know. She had to know everything. It was what made her such a good detective. She never stopped until she solved her case, until every detail was revealed.

Renee drew herself to attention. She became sharply aware of her surroundings, looking for signs that anyone was following her…or was lying in wait.

Luckily, Mrs. Pho’s was only a short block away from the precinct. They walked into the restaurant in the middle of a large lunch crowd.

“We should get this to go,” Renee said, trying hard not to look or sound as nervous as she felt.

“No, look! There’s a table. Let’s go.”

They caught the table as another couple left it and sat down before it was even cleaned up. A waitress with a calm demeanor came up and wiped down the table. She took their drink order and Renee looked anxiously around the crowded room. She realized she had no way of knowing the difference between a human versus a vampire versus a sycophant. The sycophants that had attacked them last night had reminded her a little of drug addicts with their gaunt features and poor complexions, but she didn’t know if that was normal for them, and she still wouldn’t be able to tell them apart from a human junkie.

Over the years she had been a cop, she’d gotten pretty good at picking a junkie out of a crowd. But for every one that looked the part there was one who looked as normal as any middle-class person could look. Or upper class. Or any class. Just…normal. Was that the same for phants? If so, how long did they have to be feeding on tainted humans before they started to look the part?

“All right, what’s up with you?” Jimmy demanded of her. “You’re as jittery as a virgin at the prom. Relax. It’s just lunch.”

Renee forced herself to pay attention to Jimmy and smile. “Nice analogy. I’m not jittery. Not that much anyway. I’m just anxious to get Grovener.”

“Yeah, but you’re usually better at hiding your emotions. You can’t go into the interview like this. You need to find your calm or this will blow up in your face.”

“I will. I am.” Renee exhaled a long, slow breath. “There. See? I’m calm.”

Jimmy chuckled, but it was clear he was watching her closely. He was right. She needed to find her calm. If a phant did attack her in broad daylight, she needed to be able to act wisely and with deadly accuracy.

And within the guidelines of human law.

That was going to be tricky. Especially in daylight with witnesses like Jimmy around. And what about Jimmy? What if he got caught in the crossfire? She and Jimmy had been partners the entire two years she had been at homicide. He was like an annoying younger brother…or older brother. She wouldn’t know as she’d only had sisters growing up.