'Excommunication must make demons harder to fight,' Rickman jibed.

'If your faith is pure, you're safe enough,' I said.

'Pure? Your faith is pure?' Rickman laughed.

'Don't be a dick, Ricky,' Dr Shelley warned him.

'She's sleeping with enough men to field a football team, how is that pure?'

Gonzales and Burke both called him on it, but I raised a hand and said, 'It's okay, I've heard it before, but I have a question for the detective.'

Burke looked skeptical, Gonzales looked worried, Al more curious, Shelley angry, and Rogers like he was ready to be elsewhere, but they all let me ask my question.

'If I were a man sleeping with that many women, would it bother you as much?'

He seemed to think about it and then finally shook his head. 'No, I guess it wouldn't. I wouldn't want the guy dating my sister, but ... no, it wouldn't bother me as much.'

'Why not?' I asked.

'Why not, what?' he asked.

'Why wouldn't it bother you as much, if I were a man?'

He frowned, thought, and finally said, 'You're a woman, you're not supposed to sleep around. You're a beautiful woman. You don't have to be a slut.'

Dr Shelley said, 'Jesus, Ricky.'

Burke said, 'You aren't in my chain of command, but I will be speaking to your superiors about this.'

Gonzales was shaking his head. 'All I can do is apologize for him, Anita.'

I laughed, not the I-think-this-is-funny laugh, but the abrupt I-can't-believe-what-I'm-hearing laugh. 'I've heard all of it before, unfortunately, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone's reasoning being that only ugly women sleep around. That's a new one.'

'Beautiful women don't have to; men chase them,' Rickman said, as if he truly didn't understand what he was doing wrong. Maybe he didn't?

'So ugly women sleep around because sex is the only way they can get men?' I asked.

'Please, shut up now, Ricky,' Gonzales said. 'You are embarrassing yourself and the Boulder PD.'

He looked from one to the other of the others, and his expression was plainly confused.

It was Dr Rogers, who had been so quiet through all of it, who said, 'He doesn't understand, does he?'

'Jesus, Ricky,' Dr Shelley said, 'I thought you just hated women in authority and were offensive, but you honestly don't understand that you're wrong.'

'Regardless, I will be reporting this incident to your superiors,' Commander Burke said.

'What?' Rickman said.

'You called Marshal Blake a slut,' Al said.

'I didn't,' he said.

Gonzales sighed and smoothed his hand over his face. 'So that's why when the other women came forward and said you'd called them names, you were so surprised.' He looked at me. 'It's why none of the complaints stuck; he seemed so damned innocent.'

'Because he thought he was,' I said.

Gonzales nodded.

'It's like social dyslexia,' I said. 'He can't see it.'

Gonzales nodded again.

Burke said, 'Regardless, it's unacceptable behavior in an officer.' I was betting he hadn't realized he was sounding more military than cop, but once military enough, it's hard to shake all of it.

'Conduct unbecoming,' I said.

Burke nodded. 'Very much so. I apologize for all the discourtesy you have experienced since you arrived here. I thought the religious zealots upstairs would be the main problem, but apparently not.' He gave Rickman a hard, cold look.

Rickman might not understand why he was in trouble for talking to me, but he understood the look. He tried to give a hard look in return, but his face was uncertain. I think because he knew that not everyone in the room could be wrong, which made him wrong. Maybe, just maybe, he was rethinking all those accusations from other women and wondering if they had been right? One could hope that even men like Rickman could be taught.

Dr Rogers had to go back to his living patients. We were all stripping off the gowns, masks, and protective gear as I asked him, 'Is Micah going to be able to actually talk to his dad?'

'He's basically in a medically induced coma. Normally, I'd bring him out of it pretty quickly, but the last patient to die seemed to go into shock when the drugs left her system, so I'm going to wean the sheriff off more slowly and hope his body adjusts better.'

'You mean, one of the victims died just from coming out of the drugs?' I asked.

He nodded.

'Shit,' I said, softly.

'I am sorry, Marshal. I will do everything I can to give your fiance a chance to say good-bye to his dad.'

'I appreciate that, Doctor.'

He nodded, his face a little grim. It's never good when doctors make faces like that. I turned to the only thing I could do to help: police work. I got promises to have access to everyone's witness statements. Al went one better. 'Deputy Gutterman was with Rush when he was attacked. You can hear his statement firsthand.'

'We can do that next,' I said.

He shook his head. 'Gutter is out on another call. With the sheriff and me out of rotation, there's not enough people on our force to keep Gutter at the hospital, too.'

Burke said, 'I could send a couple of cars on extra patrols through your town if you need it, Al.'

'I really appreciate that, Commander. I may take you up on it, just depends on how ... things go.'

I was pretty sure that if I hadn't been Micah's fiance, he'd have said something different, because once Rush Callahan died, his small police force wouldn't feel compelled to keep manpower at the hospital. I could have told Al that I didn't have to be babied, but if Micah was with me, then we'd need it; better to get in the habit now.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as all the policemen knew exactly why Deputy Al had hesitated, and everyone wondered whether to say something or let the silence spread.