“Oh. Cool. That’s not a bad idea.”
“Fourteen minutes until I get to work. What’s up? Something concrete?”
“Still not concrete, no, but I’m working an angle. It’s something my brother suggested.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes. I wanted to get your opinion on it. You remember what I mentioned about epigenetics?”
“Wait, before you get into that, did you do what I suggested last time we talked?”
“Yes,” Ricky said. “I pulled together a kind of support group for the families up here. I got a couple of people from town and I managed to get Liz and Alan Harper in the room as well. He held the meeting down in Portland. It was the only way I could get the Harpers to talk.”
“Makes sense,” Amber said. “They’re pretty cautious about divulging what happened to them.”
“Yeah,” Rick said. “Anyway, it didn’t go that great. It was really tough to get people to open up and I don’t think I learned anything new. I appreciate the idea, but I think it turned out to be somewhat of a dead end.”
“The point wasn’t just to learn what they already knew, Ricky,” Amber said. “The point was to set up a source of future information. If anything happens in the spring, you’re going to want to know as early as possible so you can get a jump on the action. This is the kind of thing that people aren’t going to discuss if they don’t already know they have an open line of communication.”
“Yeah. Right. Of course. I guess I’ll try to check back in individually with some of the folks and let them know to pass along anything that happens in the future.”
“Perfect,” Amber said.
“But about my brother.”
“Go ahead.”
“He had an interesting thought. He suggested that maybe we can set up a trap.”
“Oh?”
“If I’m right about them being attracted to paranormal trauma, then all I have to do is get attractive people in the right place and maybe I can lure them in.”
“To what end, Ricky?”
“To eliminate them.”
“We tried really hard to do that at the hotel, Ricky. It didn’t turn out so well.”
“That was with no planning though. If we can control the venue and the timing, we could be really prepared and I think we’ll have much better success.”
“Couldn’t you just take a fraction of that effort and use it to move far away from the issue? You don’t know the scope of the infestation. What if there are ten thousand of the things crawling around and you attract all of them at once. Do you think it’s possible to prepare for that?”
Ricky was silent for a few seconds before he said, “I don’t know. I can’t ask everyone I care about to move away though.”
“The other side of the coin is that you’ve been safe your whole life with no knowledge of any of this. One could argue that your town is not on their regular route. Maybe just don’t spent the night in the mountains, and you’ll be fine.”
“Yeah. That’s a good point too,” Ricky said.
“I’m pulling into work,” Amber said. “Gotta run.”
“Take care.”
“You too.”
# # #
Evelyn was up by the time that Amber got home.
The coffee smelled wonderful, but Amber had to get to bed before she collapsed. The last thing she wanted to do was wake herself up with more coffee.
“How was your first week?” Evelyn asked.
“Good, actually. Not as intellectually stimulating as the law firm I was working at up in Maine, but ten times better than being a receptionist. So I think it’s a good step up in the world.”
“You haven’t found your real work yet,” Evelyn said. “It’s a good thing to move around until you do. You need to taste from a bunch of different plates until you figure out what’s going to sit best in your stomach.”
“I guess. I need to get to bed. Night.”
“Morning,” Evelyn said with a laugh.
Amber pulled all the shades and peeled off her clothes as she yawned.
She was just slipping between the sheets when the phone rang again. Amber moaned when she saw the display.
“Yes, Ricky?”
“I’m sorry. You weren’t asleep, were you?”
“I was very close.”
“I was trying to figure out how long it would take you to get home after work. I didn’t want to call while you were still there. I thought that would be rude.”
“What is it, Ricky?”
“After we talked last night I realized that I hadn’t told you the most important thing.”
“Which is?”
“I may have tracked down someone else who came in contact with the things but who didn’t die.”
“Yeah?”
She put the phone on speaker and closed her eyes.
“Yes. It’s a man who lives up in the middle of nowhere. He was written off as a lunatic after the newspaper interviewed him, but one of my co-workers says that he’s perfectly sane. The only problem is that he doesn’t leave his house at all. I have to go up there to get a sense of him.”
“And this is important because?”
“I was hoping you could come with me.”
“No.”
“I looked up airfare, and I can get you up to Boston for pretty cheap. You could come and be back home in a couple of days. I’ll split the cost with you. I mean, I guess I could pay for the whole thing because you would be doing me a favor, you know?”
“No.”
“Will you think about it?”
“Ricky, no. I won’t think about it. I’ve already told you no. Call me again and I’m going to block you, okay?”
“Just… Can you just not decide right this second and let me know? I sent a book to you. You should get it in a few days.”
“You’re turning into a stalker, Ricky. How did you even get my address?”
“I looked up your cousin. Just check out the book and then think about the meeting. I’m tentatively planning on going up there in two weeks. I’ll pick you up at the airport and drop you off after. You won’t have to lift a finger.”
“No.”
She reached over and stabbed the display
