Dead and Gone

would show up tonight or not. I didn’t want anyone else to pop up and surprise me, as Murry had done. I didn’t want anyone trying to lure me to my doom or shooting guns in my vicinity. No more betrayal by people I cared for, either.

I had a long list of requirements, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing.

As I pulled my purse out of the drawer in Sam’s office and called good night to Antoine, who was still cleaning in the kitchen, I realized that the height of my ambition was to get home and go to bed without talking to anyone else, and to sleep undisturbed all night.

I wondered if that was possible.

Sam didn’t say anything else about Eric, and he seemed to attribute my asking him to escort me as an attack of nerves after the incident at the trailer. I could have stood just inside the bar door and looked out with my other sense, but it was best to be double careful; my telepathy and Sam’s nose made a good combination. He was eager to check the parking lot. In fact, he sounded almost disappointed when he announced there was nothing out there but us.

As I drove away, in my rearview mirror I saw Sam leaning on the hood of his truck, which was parked in front of his trailer. He had his hands in his pockets, and he was glaring at the gravel on the ground as if he hated the sight of it. Just as I pulled around the corner of the bar, Sam patted the truck’s hood in an absentminded way and walked back into the bar, his shoulders bowed.

Chapter 13

“Amelia, what works against fairies?” I asked. I’d gotten a full night’s sleep, and I was feeling much better in consequence. Amelia’s boss was out of town, so she had the afternoon off.

“You mean something that’ll act as a fairy repellent?” she asked.

“Yeah, or cause fairy death even,” I said. “That’s preferable to me getting killed. I need to defend myself.”

“I don’t know too much about fairies, since they’re so rare and secretive,” she said. “I wasn’t sure they still existed until I heard about your great-grandfather. You need something like Mace for fairies, huh?”

I had a sudden idea. “I’ve already got some, Amelia,” I said, feeling happier than I had in days. I looked in the racks on the door of the refrigerator. Sure enough, there was a bottle of ReaLemon. “Now all I got to do is buy a water pistol at Wal-Mart,” I said. “It’s not summer, but surely they’ve got some over in the toy department.”

“That works?”

“Yeah, a little-known supernatural fact. Just contact with it is fatal. I understand if it’s ingested, the result’s even quicker. If you could squirt it in a fairy’s open mouth, that would be one dead fairy.”

“Sounds like you’re in big trouble, Sookie.” Amelia had been reading, but now she laid her book on the table.

“Yeah, I am.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“It’s complicated. Hard to explain.”

“I understand the definition of ‘complicated.’”

“Sorry. Well, it might not be safe for you to learn the ins and outs of it. Can you help? Will your wards work against fairies?”

“I’ll check my sources,” Amelia said in that wise way she had when she didn’t have a clue. “I’ll call Octavia if I have to.”

“I’d appreciate it. And if you need some kind of spell-casting ingredients, money is no object.” I’d gotten a check in the mail that very morning from Sophie-Anne’s estate. Mr. Cataliades had come through with the money she’d owed me. I was going to run it to the bank this afternoon, since the drive-through would be open.

Amelia took a deep breath, stalled. I waited. Since she’s an exceptionally clear broadcaster, I knew what she wanted to talk about, but to keep our relationship on an even keel, I simply held out until she spoke out loud.

“I heard from Tray, who’s got a couple friends on the police force—though not many—that Whit and Arlene are denying up and down that they killed Crystal. They . . . Arlene says they planned on making you an example of what happens to people who hang around with the supernatural; that it was Crystal’s death that gave them the idea.”

My good mood evaporated. I felt a profound depression settle on my shoulders. Hearing this spoken out loud made it seem even more horrible. I could think of no comment to offer. “What does Tray hear about what might happen to them?” I said finally.

“Depends on whose bullet hit Agent Weiss. If it was Donny’s—well, he’s dead. Whit can say he was being shot at, so he shot back. He can say he didn’t know anything about a plan to harm you. He was visiting his girlfriend and happened to have some pieces of wood in the back of his pickup.”

“What about Helen Ellis?”

“She told Andy Bellefleur she just came to the trailer to pick up the kids because they’d done really well on their report cards, and she’d promised to take them to the Sonic for an ice cream treat. Any more than that, she doesn’t know diddly squat.” Amelia’s face expressed extreme skepticism.

“So Arlene is the only one talking.” I dried the baking sheet. I’d made biscuits that morning. Baking therapy, cheap and satisfying.

“Yeah, and she may recant any minute. She was real shaken up when she talked, but she’ll wise up. Maybe too late. At least we can hope so.”

I’d been right; Arlenewas the weakest link. “She gotten a lawyer?”

“Yeah. She couldn’t afford Sid Matt Lancaster, so she hired Melba Jennings.”

“Good move,” I said thoughtfully. Melba Jennings was only a couple of years older than me. She was the only African-American woman in Bon Temps who’d been to law school. She had a hard-as-nails facade and was confrontational in the extreme. Other lawyers had been known to take incredible detours to dodge Melba if they saw her coming. “Makes her look less of a bigot.”

“I don’t think it’s going to fool anyone, but Melba’s like a pit bull.” Melba had been in Amelia’s insurance agency on behalf of a couple of clients. “I better go make my bed,” Amelia said, standing and stretching. “Hey, Tray and I are going to the movies in Clarice tonight. Want to come?”

“You’ve really been trying to include me on your dates. You’re not getting bored with Tray already, I hope?”

“Not a bit,” Amelia said, sounding faintly surprised. “In fact, I think he’s great. Tray’s buddy Drake has been pestering him, though. Drake’s seen you in the bar, and he wants to get to know you.”

“He a Were?”

“Just a guy. Thinks you’re pretty.”

“I don’t do regular guys,” I said, smiling. “It just doesn’t work out very well.” It “worked out” disastrously, as a matter of fact. Imagine knowing what your date thinks of you every single minute.

Plus, there was the issue of Eric and our undefined but intimate relationship.

“Keep the possibility on the back burner. He’s really cute, and by cute, I mean hotter than a steam iron.”

After Amelia had tromped up the stairs, I poured myself a glass of tea. I tried to read, but I found I couldn’t concentrate on the book. Finally, I slid my paper bookmark in and stared into space, thinking about a lot of things.

I wondered where Arlene’s children were now. With Arlene’s old aunt, who lived over in Clarice? Or still with Helen Ellis? Did Helen like Arlene enough to keep Coby and Lisa?

I couldn’t rid myself of a nagging feeling of responsibility for the kids’ sad situation, but it was going to have to be one of those things I simply suffered. The person really responsible was Arlene. There was nothing I could do for them.

As if thinking of children had triggered a nerve in the universe, the phone rang. I got up and went to the wall-mounted unit in the kitchen. “Hello,” I said without enthusiasm.

“Ms. Stackhouse? Sookie?”