Katie sat on the sofa in the sitting room, staring dully at the carved wooden figure of a woman with a baby. Her brain tried desperately to process all that had happened. She wondered if she were in shock. She felt exhausted and confused. The shower and clean clothes had helped, as did the hot coffee Archie brought her. Still, her mind was whirling.

Bill came into the room quietly. "Katie, Officer Jones is ready to take your statement now."

Marcus Jones was a tall, good-looking man about Walter's age. His uniform was neatly pressed, and his mustache and hair were perfectly trimmed, with just a touch of grey. He looked like a man who made sure he paid attention to all the details. Katie felt slightly nervous at the idea.

"I just need a few minutes of your time, miss." He said respectfully. "I know you've been through a lot."

"Yes, of course." Katie straightened and tried to focus on the man. "Is Clarissa going to be okay?"

"I hope so. Walter is at the hospital with her now." He nodded. "Now Miss Gallagher, what is it that you do here at Willow Manor?"

She cleared her throat, tried to clear away mental images of the wolf. The werewolf. The... "I'm the nanny."

"So, the babysitter." He made a note.

That got her full attention. She looked at him sharply. "I'm in charge of the children's education and their well-being."

Officer Jones nodded. "I see."

Tears formed in Katie's eyes. Delia talking to Arabella... Blake depressed and angry... Clarissa kidnapped by a vampire... A werewolf trapped the two of them in the mausoleum while she, Katie, could do nothing to defend them... She was a failure. She whispered, in harsh self-criticism, "I'm in charge of the children's well-being."

"Don't beat yourself up, Katie." Bill offered from the other side of the room. "If you hadn't been there, Clarissa would be dead."

Officer Jones wrote something in his notebook. "Walk me through what happened. How did Miss Barrington get injured?"

"I woke up as she was leaving the house last night." Katie said softly. "I followed her."

Officer Jones nodded. "Sneaking out after bedtime?"

"Yes. We had suspected she had done it previously, so I was alert." Katie nodded.

"And the man?" Jones consulted his notes. "This Davicus... was he in the house?"

"He couldn't have been." Bill interjected.

Vampires couldn't enter a house uninvited. Katie had thought that, too, until she saw Davicus inside the house with Clarissa. That meant Clarissa had invited him in. Or that a vampire could go where it wanted, unrestricted. Both thoughts were terrifying.

"He couldn't have?" Officer Jones turned to look at him analytically. "Why is that?"

Katie shook her head at Bill and he shrugged. Officer Jones stared at him a moment, then turned to Katie. The he turned back to Bill. "Why couldn't he have been in the house?"

"We were on the alert for him." Bill kept his voice level, calm. "We wouldn't have let him in."

Officer Jones raised his eyebrows. "You've seen him before?"

Bill looked to Katie and she shook her head again. This time, Officer Jones noticed. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her. "You have seen him? He's been here before?"

"Not really." Katie mumbled.

"Not really?" Officer Jones pressed. "It's a yes or no."

Bill shot her a look and she tried to elaborate enough to satisfy the policeman. "We saw someone once before, but he ran away."

"Someone outside of the house?" Jones raised an eyebrow. "Or inside?"

"Outside. Waiting in the garden." She said. "But he ran away before we could stop him."

"Waiting for Miss Barrington?" He prompted.

Katie looked at Bill before answering. "Yes. I believe so."

"But you didn't file a police report." Officer Jones stated.

"No, sir." She glanced at Bill again. "We thought that would be the end of it, that he would just go away."

"And you didn't think to call the police when he showed up again last night?" Officer Jones asked. "Inside the house?"

Katie's face burned with the implication that she had failed in her job to protect Clarissa. "I thought it was more important to get Clarissa out of immediate danger."

Officer Jones watched her face carefully. Then he wrote something down. "So you followed her and this strange man who was inside your house to the outside? Without calling the police?"

"I didn't want to let them out of my sight." Katie explained. "My cellphone was in the house."

Officer Jones wrote something else down. "And did they see you following them?"

"Yes. They definitely did." Katie nodded, sick at the memory of the vampire's face. "He... he laughed at me."

"And Miss Barrington? She was laughing, too?" Officer Jones was writing. "She was in on it?"

"No. She seemed sick. Weak." Katie shook her head. "I don't think she wanted to go with him."

Jones nodded. His eyes bore into her uncomfortably. She knew, she could feel, that he had a way of getting at the truth. How would he react to the truth of this? "So you think he was forcing her?"

"Yes." Katie nodded. She made sure not to lie. This man would see through a lie. "I think he was coercing her in some way."

Officer Jones wrote another note. "Where were you, Mr. Allen?"

Bill looked at Katie before answering. "I was in the house, in bed."

The officer flipped back a few pages in his notebook. "Mr. Barrington says you were out of the house, out of town."

Bill looked a little confused. Katie jumped in. "Yes. Well, clearly he's not."

"I had a few drinks and decided not to make the drive until the morning." Bill mumbled.

Jones looked at him impassively. "Good call. So you didn't see or hear anything last night?"

"No. As I said, I was sleeping it off." Bill shook his head. "And this house is really well-built. Almost soundproof."

"Is that a fact?" Officer Jones mused. He wrote something down. "And were you alone all night?"

"Yes." Bill said, surprised by the unexpected question. "Of course, I was alone."

Jones looked from Bill to Katie to Bill again. He questioned Katie, with his eyes still on Bill. "And so, Miss Gallagher, you followed Clarissa outside and saw her with a man? But you don't have a cellphone?"

"You've already asked me this. Yes, I saw them, and they saw me." She was growing irritated with the questioning. "And I have a phone, but I don't keep it in my nightgown."

If Officer Jones was aware of her irritation, he didn't show it. He turned to her and continued his line of questioning. "Then what? How did you end up at the mausoleum?"

"I followed them there. I thought they had gone inside." Katie explained. "But there was something else there."

Bill shot her a look and she shifted uncomfortably. Officer Jones noticed that. He nodded. "What else was there?"

Katie twisted her hands together. Bill was not going to like it, but she had to say something about the wolf. Clarissa would surely mention it. "I mean, there was some kind of animal inside."

Officer Jones nodded. He looked at Bill and then back to her. "What kind of animal? A racoon?"

"No. A big one. Like a big dog or wolf." Katie did not look at Bill. "Are there wolves around here?"

"Coyotes, maybe." Officer Jones wrote in his notebook. "But it's not likely one would be in a building with the door shut."

"Whatever it was, it chased me out. I was worried it would kill me." She glanced over at Bill's face. He looked miserable. "Then I saw Clarissa and that man, Davicus, leaving together. And the wolf saw them too. It passed me up to attack him."

"It passed up easy prey for one that would fight back." Jones nodded. "Why do you think it did that?"

"She's not an animal expert." Bill interjected.

Jones looked at him without saying anything.

"I don't know. Clarissa looked extremely ill at this point. I just wanted to get her to safety. So, we ran into the mausoleum." Katie shook her head. "They fought for a long time. We couldn't really see, but we could hear it. Clarissa passed out and I must have fallen asleep at some point. When I woke up, they were both gone."

Officer Jones nodded. "And where did you come in, Bill?"

Bill looked at Katie. "I heard her calling for help around dawn. She was running toward the house from the cemetery."

Katie nodded. "And that's when we woke Mr. Barrington. And called you."

"So, you were outside at dawn?" Officer Jones turned back to Bill. "Because you wouldn't have been able to hear her from inside this well-built soundproof house, right?"

Katie worked to keep the stricken look off her face. "Yes, he was outside."

"After tying one on the night before?" Jones turned to Katie. "Up at the crack of dawn?"

Bill cleared his throat. "Yes. That's when I usually start my day around here. I have to make sure the property is fine, and the cars are in order..."

Jones nodded. "The cars that are in the garage on the other side of this well-built, soundproof house?"

"Yeah." Bill crossed his arms over his chest. "And the rest of the property."

"Okay." Officer Jones held his pen poised above his notebook. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Katie shook her head, relieved that the questioning was over. No wonder Walter was so tense every time he had to deal with this man. He was relentless. "I've already given a description of the man to the officer outside."

Jones nodded. "Nothing else?"

"She said that's it." Bill said angrily.

Officer Jones narrowed his eyes. "Is something going on between you two? A little May/December romance between coworkers?"

Katie was shocked and offended. "Absolutely not!"

"I'm just trying to figure this out." The officer watched them both. "See, I feel like you're lying to me about something and I'm wondering what it is."

"What?" Katie gasped. "No! Of course not!"

"It's just the way you two look at each other when I ask a question." Officer Jones watched them carefully. "So, either you've got something going on, or you're making sure your stories match up. And if there's no secret love affair... I don't know. It just makes me wonder what you're trying to hide."

"Nothing." Katie's face burned. "That's the whole story."

Jones watched the two of them a moment more. Then he closed his notebook and put it in his pocket. "Okay then. If you think of anything else, call me right away."

Katie nodded. "We will."

"I'll show myself out." He left the room.

When they heard the front door and knew he was gone, Katie let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "I don't like that. It felt wrong."

Bill nodded. "We need to talk."