The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires(105)

“Spare me,” Grace said.

“I am crawling on my knees begging for your help,” Patricia said.

“Don’t tell me the rest of you believe this nonsense?” Grace asked.

Maryellen and Kitty wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Kitty,” Patricia said. “You and I saw what he did to Francine. I know how scared you are but how long do you think it will be until he figures out you were in his attic, too? How long do you think it will be before he comes after your family?”

“Don’t say things like that,” Kitty said.

“It’s true,” Patricia said. “We can’t hide from it anymore.”

“I’m not sure what you’re asking us to do,” Maryellen said.

“You said you wanted to live where people watched out for each other,” Patricia told her. “But what’s the good of watching if we’re not going to act?”

“We’re a book club,” Maryellen said. “What are we supposed to do? Read him to death? Use strong language? We can’t go to Ed again.”

“I think…we’re beyond that,” Slick said.

“Then I don’t know what we’re talking about,” Maryellen said.

“The last time we did this we learned one thing,” Patricia said. “The men stick together. Their friendship with him is stronger now than it was then. There’s only us.”

Grace hitched her purse’s shoulder straps higher over her shoulder and regarded the room.

“I am leaving now before this becomes even more absurd,” she said, nodding to Kitty and Maryellen. “And I think you should both come with me before you do something you’ll regret.”

“Grace,” Kitty said, low and calm, staring at her knees. “If you keep acting like I’m feebleminded, I’m going to smack you. I’m a grown woman, the same as you, and I saw a dead body in that attic.”

“Good night,” Grace said, heading for the door.

Patricia nodded to Mrs. Greene, who stepped into Grace’s path, blocking her.

“Mrs. Cavanaugh,” she said. “Am I trash to you?”

Grace did a double take, the first one any of them had ever seen.

“I beg your pardon?” Grace asked, all frozen hauteur.

Frozen hauteur didn’t cut much ice with Mrs. Greene.

“You must think I’m trash,” Mrs. Greene said.

Grace swallowed once, so outraged she couldn’t even get the words lined up on her tongue.

“I said no such thing,” she managed.

“Your actions aren’t the actions of a Christian woman,” Mrs. Greene said. “I came to you years ago as a mother and as a woman, and I begged for your help because that man was preying on the children in Six Mile. I begged for you to do something simple, to come with me to the police, and tell them what you knew. I risked my job and the money that puts food on my table, to come to you. Do you even know my children’s names?”

It took a minute for Grace to realize Mrs. Greene was waiting for an answer.

“There’s Abraham,” Grace said, searching for their names. “And Lily, I think…”

“The first Harry,” Mrs. Greene said. “He passed. Harry Jr., Rose, Heanne, Jesse, and Aaron. You don’t even know how many children I’ve got, and I don’t expect you to. But you owe me. You protected yourself, but you didn’t do a thing for the children of Six Mile because they weren’t worthwhile to you. Well, now he’s coming after your children. Mrs. Campbell’s daughter is one of you. Mrs. Paley is supposed to be your friend. Mrs. Scruggs saw Francine’s body in his house. What are you made of, Mrs. Cavanaugh, that lets you walk away from your friends?”

They watched Grace cycle through a dozen different emotions, a hundred possible responses, her jaw working, her chin clenching, the cords in her neck twitching. Mrs. Greene stared back at her, jaw outthrust. Then Grace pushed past her, threw open the door, and slammed it behind her.

In the silence, none of them moved. The only sound was wind whistling through a chink in the window’s weatherstripping.

“She’s right,” Slick said. “All of us…got scared and sacrificed the children of Six Mile…for our own. We were…embarrassed and frightened. Proverbs says…‘Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain…is a righteous man who gives way…before the wicked.’ We gave way…We wanted to believe…that Patricia was wrong because it meant we didn’t have to do…anything hard.”

Patricia decided it was safe to push them to the next step.

“I don’t know if the word is vampire or monster,” Patricia said. “But I’ve seen him like this twice and Slick has seen it once. He’s not like us. He can live for a very long time. He’s strong. He can see in the dark.”

“His willpower can make animals do his bidding,” Mrs. Greene said.

Patricia looked over at her, both of them thinking about the rats, about the way the house smelled for days after, about Miss Mary in the hospital, unconscious, her wounds stained with iodine, breathing through a tube. Patricia nodded.

“I think you’re right,” she said. “And he needs to put his blood through people to live. They get addicted to him. Right now, Korey would stab me in the back for him to suck on her again. That’s how good it feels. He’s gotten everything he wants, so why would he stop by himself? We need to stop him.”