worse than Pop, but it’s a family thing.”
“Do you have them?”
“Not so far,” she said. “It’s always a possibility, though. Charles’s episodes didn’t start until two years ago. My dad never had them as a kid, either, according to Uncle Cabot. Scary thought, huh?” She didn’t look up from her coffee when she said it and she didn’t look scared.
“I’ve been having a lot of scary thoughts lately. What about the dogs?”
“It… I don’t know. I wish I did. I’d tell Emmett if I knew who was using those dogs. It’s a horrible, horrible way to go. I get shivers just thinking about it.”
I didn’t believe her. I wanted her to be on my side in this, and not only because of the help she could give me, and I certainly didn’t want to fight with her. “Are you sure you don’t know anything? Maybe there’s something about the killings that you would mention if you had a little time to think about it. Something funny about each one.”
“Like what?”
“Like, did these people have enemies in common? Did they die at the same time of day, or at the same sort of place? Anything in common? Anything unusual?”
“Stanley Koch died in the alley behind his bar. Wilma Semple ran off the road up the highway. That was just a car wreck, though, although they said a cougar got to her before the ambulance did. Henry the grocer was mauled on his loading dock along with his night custodian, a man named Johnson, I think.”
“What’s the town gossip?”
“When Wilma died, everyone thought it was Harlan. She had just divorced him and taken up with another man. And Stan had just barred him from his place for a month for bad behavior. But Harlan didn’t even know Henry. He did all his shopping at the Safeway.”
“Did Wilma own a business in town?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Then who had she taken up with?”
“Luke Dubois.”
“So you know the Dubois brothers are behind this.”
“Lots of people think so. Only a couple will say it out loud. Luke had been after Wilma for years, though. He was pretty torn up when she was killed.”
“You think she found out something that she wasn’t supposed to?”
“Like what? That the cops in this town extort protection money? The whole town knows that.”
“I mean, that the Dubois brothers are werewolves.”
She flinched. “What?” She was honestly surprised. I was relieved to see it.
“Werewolves.”
“Are you joking?”
“Phyllis Henstrick said it was obvious to anyone willing to believe.”
She stared off into space for a minute or two, holding the cup halfway to her lips. I took a sip, enjoying the warmth in my belly. It felt good to sit here with her like this. I tried to imagine myself sitting here day after day, talking to Cynthia while we shared coffee. I thought it would be a good life.
It was never going to happen. Not while Annalise was around, and not while Charles still had his “seizures.”
“Is that true?” she asked.
“I think it is.”
“What should we do about it?”
“
“Okay, then. What are
“I’m going to cure them, if I can.”
It was the truth, but it wasn’t the whole truth. As far as I knew, the only cure was the most permanent one.
“Wow.” That was all she said. “There’s so much ugliness in the world.”
I looked down at the table. Some of that ugliness came from me, and it was only going to get worse. “Tell me about the kids.”
The color drained from her face. She didn’t answer. She just gaped at me.
“Tell me about the kids in Hammer Bay who have been burning to death. Yeah, I know about it. I have the same tattoo you do. It twinges whenever Charles has a seizure, just like yours. Tell me about them.”
“I…” She wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t speak.
I reached out and gently took her hand. Whether that made her feel comforted, trapped, or both, I couldn’t say.
“What do you want me to say?”
“Everything,” I said. “Start wherever you have to, but I want everything.”
