main article) I wasn’t surprised to read she’d recently been fired from her job as an exotic dancer for assaulting a customer.
That must have been a hel of a night at that strip club.
The cause of Kym’s death, according to the paper, had been a broken neck. Quick, quiet, requiring only strength and the element of surprise.
That was why, even in that quiet neighborhood, no one had heard her scream … not even Bil , with his vampire hearing. Or so he said. Kym Rowe, I discovered, had good reason to have a short temper.
“Rowe was desperate for money. ‘She was behind on her car payments, and her landlord was about to evict her,’ Oscar Rowe, the victim’s father, said. ‘She was doing crazy things to earn money.’” That was the short and sad story of the life of Kym Rowe. One thing stood out: She’d had nothing to lose.
Of course, much was made of the fact that she’d been found on the lawn of a “prominent vampire businessman and his party guests.” Eric and his uninvited company were in for a hard time with the publicity machine. There was at least one picture of T-Rex in his wrestling costume. The words “bulging” and “manic” came to mind. I turned to the inside page where the article continued. Kym’s grieving parents were posed clutching a Bible and a bouquet of daisies, which they said had been Kym’s favorite flower. Though I chided myself for my snobbishness, they didn’t look like much.
Before I could finish the article, the phone rang. I jumped about a foot. I’d been wondering if Eric would cal back after he’d had enough time to get real y angry with me, but the cal er ID let me know my cal er was Sam.
“Hey,” I said.
“What happened last night?” he asked. “I just watched the Shreveport news.”
“I went over to Eric’s because of the out-of-town vamp visitors,” I said, condensing. “This Kym Rowe left the house right after I got there. Eric had taken blood from her.” I had to pause to col ect myself. “Then Bil found her dead on the lawn. They might have hushed it up…. Oh, hel , of course they’d have hushed it up. Moved her body, or something. But the police had gotten an anonymous cal that there was a body at Eric’s, so the police were there before he even knew her body was on the lawn.”
“Do you know who did it?”
“No,” I said. “If I knew who’d kil ed her, I’d have told the cops last night.”
“Even if the kil er was Eric?”
That stopped me dead. “It would depend on the circumstances. Would you turn in Jannalynn?”
There was a long silence. “It would depend on the circumstances,” he said.
“Sam, sometimes I think we’re just dumb,” I said, and then I heard myself. “Wait, not speaking for you! Just for me!”
“But I agree,” he said. “Jannalynn … she’s great, but I feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew some days.”
“Do you tel her everything, Sam?” How much did other couples share? I needed some feedback. I’d had so few relationships.
He hesitated. “No,” he said, final y. “I don’t. We haven’t gotten to the ‘I love you’ stage yet, but even if we had … no.”
My mental focus took a U-turn. Wait a minute. According to Alcide, Jannalynn had told him she was going to propose. Sure didn’t sound like Sam was ready for that, if they hadn’t even told each other they loved each other. That couldn’t be right. Someone was lying or deluded. Then Sam said,
“Sookie?” and I knew I’d been letting silence fil the air while I thought al this.
“So it’s not just me and Eric,” I said hastily. “Between us, Sam, I feel like Eric’s not tel ing me some pretty important stuff.”
“What about the things you aren’t tel ing him? Are those things important?”
“Yeah, they are. Important, but not … personal.” I hadn’t told Eric about Hunter, my little second cousin, being telepathic like me. I hadn’t told Eric how worried I was about the concentration of the fae in Monroe. I’d tried fil ing Eric in on the fae situation, but it had been easy to tel that the politics of his own kind were at the top of his list these days. I couldn’t blame him for that.
“Sookie, you’re okay, right? I don’t know what you mean by ‘not personal.’ Everything that happens to you is personal.”
“By personal stuff … things that are only about me and him. Like if I wasn’t happy with the way he treated me, or if I thought he needed to be around more, or if he’d go with me to Jason and Michele’s wedding. If I needed to talk about any of those things, I would. But I know pieces of information that affect other people, and I don’t always tel him those things, because he has such a different perspective.”
“You know you can tel me, if you need to talk about something. You know I’l listen and I won’t tel anyone.”
“I know that, Sam. You’re the best friend I’ve got. And I hope you know I’m always ready to listen to anything you need to talk about. I’m sure Eric and I wil get back to normal when Felipe leaves … when the boat stops rocking.”
“Maybe you wil ,” he said. “But you know that if you get nervous out there, I got an extra bedroom here.”
“Jannalynn would kil me,” I said. I’d spoken the first thought that went through my head, and I could have slapped myself. I’d spoken the truth—but I was talking about Sam’s girlfriend. “Sorry, Sam! I’m afraid Jannalynn believes you and I have a—a lurid past. I guess she’s not there tonight?”
“She’s working tonight, at Hair of the Dog. She’s watching the phones and the bar traffic while Alcide’s having meetings in the back room. You’re right, she’s a little possessive,” he admitted. “It was kind of flattering at first, you know? But then I began to wonder if that means she doesn’t have any faith in my integrity.”
“Sam, if she has a grain of sense she can’t possibly doubt you.” (I was pretty sure Jannalynn blamed it al on me.) “You’re an honest guy.”
