I felt like I’d deactivated a nuclear missile.

“So you fuckheads destroyed my house yet?”

I smiled. “Oh, and thank you for traveling cross-country to help my sorry old ass, and . . .”

“All right, all right!” Sam yelled. “Fill me in. Where’s my body? You deal with Billy yet?”

I fish-eyed the ghoul. “No. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Sam flipped out. Well, as much as a solo head can flip out. “What?! You mean to tell me you’ve been out here for a week plus and you’ve done nothing about finding my body?! What the fuck have you been doing?!”

“Been pretty busy, actually.”

“Shut up!”

He was one angry head, but he didn’t know the details. I filled him in on the flurry of activity, from the hipster werewolves to the showdown with Dave. I ended by updating him on the fate of his sheriff buddy. Sam took it pretty well. He screamed and yelled and somehow managed to turn his face red as a ripe tomato.

“How could he have fallen from that high in the middle of nowhere?” he asked when he had finally calmed down. “Any reports of flying beasties?”

“I don’t know, Sam,” I said. “Give me a chance to think. There’s a pattern here somewhere, I can feel it. I’m pretty sure that Billy is a key element.”

“You think so, shithead?”

I turned and pointed right in Sam’s face on the coffee table. “You better start showing a little respect, or so fucking help me, I’ll punt you all the way back to D.C.”

Sam smiled. “There you go. That’s more like it.”

When I turned, Mo’Lock was glaring at me. “You talk to him. Couldn’t you have told me?”

I started to tell him to fuck off, but he was right. I nodded and gave his shoulder a little slug. “No reason at all. Sorry.”

I looked in my pockets for anything to give me a buzz but came up empty. Things were getting fucked up fast. I started getting cravings. On top of it all, I was a part-time werewolf. I could feel their eyes on me, but I ignored them and lit a cigarette. I dug through my desk and found the last of the stash of meth that I kept taped under the top drawer. It had survived the move.

I put the little glass bottle up to one nostril, held the other closed and snorted the crystals into my head. It stung, but within seconds I felt the effects. I chased it with a drink. Now I was ready for work.

Mo’Lock was frozen at the front window. I watched him until one of his eyebrows rose. He turned his head toward me and pointed with his thumb. “Cops are here.”

I looked up, and sure as shit there were two LAPD blues getting out of a squad car in front of the house.

“Goddammitmotherfuckingshit,” I muttered. I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. “Cover the head!”