The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires(59)

“Grace,” Patricia said. “That’s wonderful news.”

“Not if he’s hurting children,” Grace said.

“No, of course not,” Patricia said, feeling chastised and triumphant at the same time.

“If you really think this man is up to no good,” Grace said, “you need more than this before we go to Ed. We don’t want to go off half-cocked.”

“Don’t worry, Grace,” Patricia said. “When we go off, we’ll be fully cocked.”





PSYCHO


   August 1993





CHAPTER 20


“But I said you could spend the night with Laurie,” Patricia told Korey.

“Well, now I changed my mind,” Korey said.

She stood in the doorway to Patricia’s bathroom while Patricia finished doing her makeup. Korey had come home from soccer camp and increased Patricia’s stress exponentially. It was hard enough to make sure Blue was always somewhere safe after dark, but Korey hung around the house aimlessly, watching TV for hours, and then she’d get a phone call and suddenly need to borrow the car to go see her friends in the middle of the night. Except for tonight, when Patricia actually wanted her out of the house.

“I’m hosting book club,” Patricia said. “You haven’t seen Laurie since you got back from camp.”

One of the reasons they were having it at her house was because she’d exerted gentle pressure on Carter to take Blue out for supper at Quincy’s Steak House and then to a movie (they decided on something called So I Married an Axe Murderer). Korey was supposed to be spending the night downtown.

“She canceled,” Korey said. “Her parents are getting divorced and her dad wants to spend quality time. That skirt’s too tight.”

“I haven’t decided what I’m wearing yet,” Patricia said, even though her skirt was definitely not too tight. “If you have to be home you need to stay in your room.”

“What if I have to go to the bathroom?” Korey asked. “Can I leave my room then, Mother? Most parents would think it was great that their child wanted to spend more time with them.”

“I’m only asking you to stay upstairs,” Patricia said.

“What if I want to watch TV?” Korey asked.

“Then go to Laurie Gibson’s.”

Korey slouched off and Patricia changed her skirt because it felt tight, and then she finished her makeup and sprayed her hair. She wasn’t going to put out anything to eat, but she’d made coffee and put it in a thermal jug in case the police wanted some. What if they wanted decaf? She didn’t have any and worried that might affect their mood.

She felt tense. Before this summer she had never interacted with the police, and now she felt like that was all she did. They made her nervous, but if she could get through tonight, James Harris would no longer be her problem. All she had to do was convince the police that he was a drug dealer, they’d start looking into his affairs, and all his secrets would come spilling out. And she wasn’t doing it alone; she had her book club.

Patricia wondered what they would have said if she told them that she thought James Harris was a vampire. Or something like that. She wasn’t sure of the exact terminology, but that would do until a better name came along. How else to explain that thing coming out of his face? How else to explain his aversion to going out in sunlight, his insistence on being invited inside, the fact that the marks on the children and on Mrs. Savage all looked like bites?

When she’d tried to perform CPR on him he had looked sick and weak and at least ten years older. When she saw him the following week he’d positively glowed with health. What had happened in between? Francine had gone missing. Had he eaten her? Sucked her blood? He’d certainly done something.

When she got rid of her prejudices and considered the facts, vampire was the theory that fit best. Fortunately, she’d never have to say it out loud to anyone because this was just about finished. She didn’t care how they ran him out of town, she just wanted him gone.

She went downstairs and jumped when she saw Kitty waving at her through the window by the front door. Slick stood behind her.

“I know we’re a half hour early,” Kitty said as Patricia let them in. “But I couldn’t sit around at home doing nothing.”

Slick had dressed conservatively in a knee-length navy skirt and a white blouse with a blue batik vest over it. Kitty, on the other hand, had apparently lost her mind right before she got dressed. She wore a red blouse bedazzled with red rhinestones and a huge floral skirt. Looking at her made Patricia’s eyes hurt.

Patricia put them in the den, then went to make sure Korey had her bedroom door closed, then checked the driveway, and walked back into the den just as Maryellen opened the front door.

“Yoo-hoo? Am I too early?” Maryellen called.

“We’re in the kitchen,” Patricia hollered.

“Ed went to pick up the detectives,” Maryellen said, coming in and putting her purse on the den table. She took two business cards out of her day planner. “Detective Claude D. Cannon and Detective Gene Bussell. He says Gene is from Georgia but Claude is local and they’re both good. They’ll listen to us. He can’t promise how they’ll react, but they’ll listen.”