The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires(118)

Bennett had passed out on the downstairs sofa, so they put Patricia in Grace’s guest bedroom, and then Grace called Carter.

“She wound up watching the game over here after visiting Slick at the hospital,” she told him. “She fell asleep. I think it’s better not to wake her.”

“Probably for the best,” Carter said. He’d had a lot to drink so it came out prollyferthebersh. “I’m glad you girls are friends again.”

“Good night, Carter,” Grace said, and hung up.

She drove Mrs. Greene home and let her out in front of her dark house.

“Thank you for all your help,” Grace said.

“Tomorrow,” Mrs. Greene said, “I’m going to drive up to Irmo and bring my babies home.”

“Good,” Grace said.

“You were wrong three years ago,” Mrs. Greene said. “You were wrong, and you were a coward, and people died.”

They stood, considering each other in the glow of the car’s ceiling light, as the engine idled. Finally Grace said something she’d almost never said before in her life.

“I’m sorry.”

Mrs. Greene gave a small nod.

“Thank you for coming tonight,” she said. “We couldn’t have done it alone.”

“None of us could have done this alone,” Grace said.



* * *



—

Grace sat by Patricia’s bed, dozing in her chair. Patricia woke up around four in the morning with a gasp. Grace smoothed her sweaty hair back from her face.

“It’s over,” Grace said.

Patricia burst into tears, and Grace took off her shoes and crawled into bed next to her and rocked Patricia while she cried herself out. The pain hit next, and Grace helped her to the bathroom and stood outside the door while Patricia sat on the toilet, her bowels turned to water. She’d barely got the toilet flushed before she had to kneel in front of it and vomit.

Grace helped her back to bed and sat with her while she tossed and turned. Finally, she found her copy of In Cold Blood.

“‘The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas,’” she read to Patricia in her soft Southern accent. “‘A lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.” The land is flat, the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.’”

She read to her until the sun came up.





CHAPTER 41


Patricia saw Miss Mary one last time.

Her fever lasted for two days, so maybe it was only a dream. But when Patricia got older she forgot what she was wearing the day Carter proposed, she forgot whether Blue’s high school graduation was outdoors on a sunny day or in the gym because it rained, and she even forgot the date of her wedding anniversary, but she never forgot opening her eyes one bright November afternoon and feeling a dry, smooth hand stroke her cheek, and seeing a pair of black shoes standing beside her bed.

They were ugly shoes, practical, and low—schoolteacher’s shoes. The legs in them wore nude pantyhose, and they rose up to the hem of a plaid cotton dress, but she was too weak to lift her head and see the rest. Then the shoes turned, and walked out of her bedroom, and what Patricia would always remember about Miss Mary wasn’t those hard meals, or the shock of finding her that night after Grace’s party, or the roach falling into her water glass, but it was how much you had to love your son to come back from Hell to warn him.

And then she remembered that Miss Mary hadn’t come back to warn Carter. She’d came back to warn her.

Her fever broke that same afternoon. One minute she felt drugged and sweaty, in a sleep so deep she couldn’t crawl out. The next minute everything felt clear, and she blinked in the sunlight and sat up in bed, sweat drying on her skin, eyes sharp. She heard the toilet flush and Grace came out of the bathroom.

“Good, you’re awake,” Grace said. “Would you like a glass of water?”

“I’m hungry,” Patricia said.

Before Grace could get her something, Carter burst into the room.

“She’s awake,” Grace told him.

“It’s good to have you back,” he said. “You’ve been running a fever. I was getting ready to take you to the hospital if it didn’t break by tonight.”

“I feel all right,” Patricia said. “Just hungry. Where are Blue and Korey?”

“They’re fine,” he said. “Listen, we’re going to lose—” Then he remembered Grace. “I appreciate you being here, but I’d like some privacy with my wife.”

Patricia nodded to her, and Grace said, “I’ll check back with you this evening,” and left the room.

Carter sat in the chair Grace had been sitting in beside the bed.

“We’re going to lose Gracious Cay,” he said. “Leland can’t hold on to it with James Harris gone. He had a lot of money in escrow, and some of it’s just not there anymore. We’re already getting nervous investors after that fire, and if they hear Jim’s gone and Leland can’t find a lot of the cash, we’re going to lose what we put in. Do you have any idea where he’s gone? His house is totally empty.”