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Nick’s warning look turned disbelieving. “You know what I mean. Jesus fucking Christ. Did they put a car on the place or not?”

There was a brief silence.

Then the detective with the salt and pepper gray hair exhaled.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Presumably. Why wouldn’t they? You mean the house the sister and her husband came from? The one out in Amityville?”

“Yeah. I mean, think so. I never got the name of the town.” Nick felt his frown deepen as he remembered what he’d seen behind his eyes. “They should really send someone out there. They need them to actually go into the house… make sure the people in there are okay. Who would we talk to, to see if that was done? Those assholes who picked me up? They’re from Long Island Police, right? Or do we call their bosses?”

Morley exhaled in annoyance.

His voice shifted a few shades more grim.

“We call them first, I’d say. Call Charlie. She knows them, although she doesn’t seem to like them much. She could at least give you their real names. Charlie herself was calling them ‘Rick and Rob,’ but I don’t know if that’s some kind of shorthand. She told us she dealt with them before at some police function or other.”

“She’s friends with those guys?” Nick was frankly amazed.

Morley grunted. “I didn’t say that. Her tone on the whole matter didn’t strike me as a ringing endorsement. More of a cautionary tale. But she knows them.”

Remembering handlebar mustache’s leer at Wynter’s photo, Nick scowled.

“Yeah, that sounds more like it.” Thinking then, he frowned. “Maybe we should call her. Charlie. She might be able to convince them to send a car over there. They’re pigs, but I’m thinking they’d be more likely to listen to her. Even over you. Definitely over me.”

“What’s this about? You have reason to believe––”

“Not a good reason, no,” Nick admitted.

At the silence this produced, Nick gave Morley a warning look.

“I just can’t help but think this isn’t over. It doesn’t feel over to me. And if this guy’s targeting Tanakas, it stands to reason he’d finish cleaning them up before he stops.”

Morley grimaced at Nick’s choice of words.

Then he nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful.

He nodded again a few seconds later.

“Okay,” he said. “Okay. I think you’re right. You better call her. Charlie.”

Nick hesitated only a beat.

Then he sent the impulse to his headset.

The female detective picked up instantly. Fast enough to startle him.

“Nicky!” Her voice sounded genuinely pleased. “You’re out?”

He felt his shoulders relax slightly. “Yeah. Technically, at least. I won’t feel out-out until we solve this thing.” Nick paused, then went on in a more businesslike voice. “I’m out at the site with Morley now. He’s still working on getting us inside, but I guess tech is doing something on their end.”

Hesitating as he watched Morley go back to speaking to someone on his own headset, Nick added, “I passed with I.S.F. I guess they decided a hungry vampire with a sarcasm disorder likely isn’t their guy…” Charlie burst out in a laugh, and Nick smiled. “Especially since I was over a thousand miles away when the murder took place. Probably playing video games in my underwear and complaining to whoever would listen about how bored I was.”

Charlie smiled again, then grunted in annoyance.

“Bullshit that they even picked you up, Nicky. Racist pricks.”

Nick smiled for real that time.

“No argument here,” he said. “But at least I’m working again.”