Deadlocked (28 page)

After supper, I planned to take the bag out to the big garbage can that we had to wheel out to the road every Friday.

When I heard Dermot calling me, I washed my hands and my face and left the bathroom, making myself stand straight. As I passed through my bedroom, I slipped the cluviel dor into my pocket, where the sunglasses had been. I couldn’t leave it alone in my room. Not anymore.

The hamburgers were good, and I managed to eat mine and some fruit salad, too. Dermot and I were quiet together, which suited me fine. As we did the dishes, Dermot told me shyly that he had a date and would be going out after he showered.

“Oh my gosh!” I grinned at him. “Who’s the lucky girl?”

“Linda Tonnesen.”

“The doctor!”

“Yes,” he said a little doubtfully. “I think that’s what she said she did. Treats human ailments?”

“Oh, that’s a big deal, really, Dermot,” I said. “Doctors get a lot of respect in our society. I guess as far as she knows, you’re human?”

He flushed. “Yes, she thinks I’m a
very
attractive human. I met her at the bar three nights ago.”

It would be pretty stupid for me to comment further. He was handsome, sweet natured, and strong. What more could a woman want?

Besides, considering the confused state of my own love life, I could hardly pass out dating tips.

I told Dermot I’d finish the dishes so he could go get ready for his date, and by the time I was ensconced on the living room couch with a book, he came downstairs in navy slacks and a pale blue striped shirt with a button-down collar. He looked amazing, and I told him so. He grinned at me.

“I hope she’ll think so,” he said. “I love the way she smells.”

That was a very fairy compliment. Linda Tonnesen was a smart woman with a great sense of humor, but she was not what humans thought of as conventionally pretty. Her smell had scored her big points with Dermot. I’d have to remember that.

By the time Dermot left, dark had fallen. I got the bag containing Jannalynn’s jacket and went out the back door, on my way to Bill’s house. I felt a little better after I’d dropped the other little bag, the one containing the smashed dark glasses, into the garbage bin. I turned on my flashlight and strode to the woods. There was a little path; Bill came over often, probably far more often than I knew.

Just before I reached the cleared ground of the old cemetery, I heard a sound to my left. I stopped in my tracks. “Bill?” I said.

“Sookie,” he answered, and then he was right in front of me. He had his own little plastic sack looped over his left hand. We were all carrying bags around tonight.

“I brought Jannalynn’s jacket,” I said. “For you and Heidi.”

“You stole her jacket?” He sounded amused.

“If that were the worst thing I’d done today, I’d be a happy woman.”

Bill let that pass, though I could almost feel him peering at me. Vampire eyesight is excellent, of course. He took my arm and we walked a few feet to get into the cemetery grounds. Even though there weren’t many lights there, there were a few, and I could see (faintly) that Bill was excited about something.

He opened my bag, put it to his face, and inhaled. “No, that’s not a scent I picked up at the gate in the backyard. Of course, considering all the scents around there and the length of time before we were able to investigate, that can’t be a definite no.” He handed it back.

I felt almost disappointed. Jannalynn made me so antsy that I would have liked to find her guilty of something, but I chided myself for being uncharitable. I should be glad Sam was dating an innocent woman. And I was. Right?

“You look unhappy,” Bill said. We were walking back to his house, and I’d tucked the plastic bag under my arm. I’d been thinking of how I’d return Jannalynn’s jacket to Sam’s office. I’d have to do it soon.

“I
am
unhappy,” I said. Then, because I didn’t want to explain my every inner qualm, I told Bill, “I listened to the news on the radio while I was cutting up sweet potatoes. That girl Kym, the police are trying to blame her murder on a vampire because she died in Eric’s front yard. Someone vandalized Fangtasia, threw white paint all over the exterior. Are Felipe and his crew still here? Why don’t they go home?”

Bill put his arm around me. “Calm down,” he said, his voice hard.

I was so surprised that I actually held my breath for a moment.

“Breathe,” he commanded. “Slowly. Thoughtfully.”

“What are you, Zen Master Fang?”

“Sookie.” When he used that voice, he meant business. So I took a deep breath, let it out. Again. Again.

“Okay, I’m better,” I said.

“Listen,” Bill said, and I raised my eyes to his. He was looking excited again. He shook his own bag. “We’ve had all eyes open to try to track down Colton … or find his body. Very early this past morning, Palomino called from her job at the Trifecta. She’s seen Colton. Felipe does have him. We’ve got a plan to get him out. Cobbled together, but I think it might work. If we can accomplish that, maybe we’ll also discover where they’re keeping Warren. If we find Warren and broadcast his whereabouts, Mustapha will come forward to tell what he knows. When Mustapha tells us who suborned him by holding Warren hostage, then we’ll know who killed Kym. When we tell the police, the heat will be off Eric. Then we can solve the problem of that asshole Appius’s posthumous betrothal of Eric to Freyda. Felipe and his ‘posse’ will go back to Nevada. Eric will have his sheriff’s job, or a new title, but Felipe will not fire him or kill him.”

“That’s a hell of lot of dominoes, Bill. Colton to Warren to Mustapha to Kym’s murderer to the police to Appius to Freyda to Eric. Anyway, isn’t it too late? We’re doomed. Colton’s probably already told him everything.”

“He can’t have. Colton was grieving so hard over Audrina that I wiped his memory of her death. So he doesn’t remember all of what happened that night, by any means.”

“You didn’t tell Eric that, did you?”

Bill shrugged. “I didn’t need his permission. It doesn’t matter now, anyway. Felipe won’t have Colton after tonight.” He brandished the bag he’d brought.

“Why?”

“Because you and I are going to kidnap him back.”

“And do what with him?” Colton was a pretty nice guy, and he hadn’t had what anyone would think was an easy life. I didn’t want to rescue him from Felipe only to find that Bill planned to remove Colton as a witness in a very final way.

“I have it all planned. But we have to act quickly. I’ve texted Harp to tell him we have to reschedule. I think this is more important than asking him questions about Kym’s parents.”

I had to agree.

“Say we get Colton out,” I said, as we hustled toward Bill’s car. “What about Immanuel? Can they track him in Los Angeles?” Immanuel the hairdresser, also human, had been there that night, since Victor’s cruelty had led to his sister’s death.

“He got work on the set of a television show. Ironically, it’s about vampires and most of the shooting takes place at night. Two members of the crew are actually vampires. I put Immanuel under the care of one of them. He’ll be guarded.”

“How’d you arrange that?”

“Coincidence. It happens,” Bill said. “And you’re the other human, but you can’t be glamoured. So if we can just get Colton away and find Warren …”

“Since Warren never came into Fangtasia the night we killed Victor,” I said, “I don’t believe his abduction has anything to do with Victor’s death. I think Warren was snatched just to force Mustapha to let Kym Rowe in the back door of Eric’s house.” I had enough lightbulbs popping over my head to illuminate an operating room. “What do you think?”

“I think we have a lot of questions,” Bill said. “Now let’s go find out some answers.”

Our first stop was my house, where I left Jannalynn’s jacket and opened the bag Bill had brought.

“Good God,” I said in disgust. “I got to wear that?”

“Part of the plan,” Bill said, though he was smiling.

I stomped into my room and pulled on the blue “flirty” skirt, which began well below my navel and ended about two inches below my happy place. The “blouse”—and it was a blouse in name only—was white with red trim and tied between my breasts. It was just like a bra with sleeves. I put on white Nikes with red trim, which was the best match I had on my shoe rack. There sure wasn’t any pocket in this outfit, so I stuck the cluviel dor in my shoulder bag. While I was preparing for this secret mission, I put my phone on vibrate so it couldn’t ring at an awkward moment. I looked in the bathroom mirror. I was as ready as I’d ever be.

I felt ridiculously self-conscious when I came into the living room wearing the abbreviated outfit.

“You look just right,” Bill said soberly, and I caught the corner of his mouth twitching. I had to laugh.

“I hope Sam doesn’t decide we ought to dress this way at Merlotte’s,” I said.

“You would have a full house every night,” Bill said.

“Not unless I lost some weight.” My glance in the mirror had reminded me that my stomach was not exactly concave.

“You look mouthwatering,” Bill said, and to make his point his fangs came down. He tactfully closed his mouth.

“Oh, well.” I tried to accept this as an impersonal tribute, though I don’t think any woman minds knowing she looks good, as long as the admiration isn’t expressed in an offensive way and doesn’t come from a disgusting source. “We better get going.”

The Trifecta, a hotel/casino on the east side of Shreveport, was the closest thing the town had to “glamorous.” At night it glowed silver with so many lights I was sure you could see it from the moon. Since the lot was full, we were forced to park outside the fenced employee parking area. But the gate was open and unguarded at the moment, so we simply walked through the lot and right up to the very prosaic beige metal door that was the employee entrance.

There was a keypad outside. Though I felt dismayed, Bill didn’t seem worried. He looked down at his watch and then knocked on the door. There were some faint beeps inside, and Palomino swung the door open. She was balancing a room service tray on one hand. Laden as it was, that was an impressive achievement.

The young vampire was wearing the same outfit I was, and she looked mouthwatering in it. But at the moment, her appearance was the last thing on her mind. “Get in!” she snapped, and Bill and I entered the grungy back corridor. If you got to enter the Trifecta as a guest, it was glittery and gleaming and full of the constant machine noise and the frantic human yearning for pleasure that fills all casinos. But that wasn’t for us, not tonight.

Wordlessly, Palomino set off at a fast clip. I noticed that she was able to balance the tray perfectly, no matter how much her speed picked up. I scurried after the two vampires along the beige-painted corridors, marred with scratches and chips. Everyone back here was in a hurry to get where they needed to be, either at a work station or out the back door to go somewhere more pleasant. They were saving their smiles for people they cared about. I saw a half-remembered face among the grim horde, and after I passed I recalled that she was one of the Long Tooth pack. She didn’t let on by a twitch or a smile that she knew who I was.

Palomino strode ahead of us, her light-brown skin looking warm even though she’d been dead for years, her pale hair bouncing over a depressingly tight butt. We hustled onto a huge elevator. Instead of being lined with mirrors and shiny rails, this one was padded. The staff elevator was obviously used for bringing up palettes of food and other heavy items.

“I hate this fucking job,” Palomino said as she jabbed a button. She glared at Bill.

“It’s only for a little while,” he said, and from his voice I could tell he’d told her the same thing many times before. “And then you can quit. You can quit dating the Were, too.”

She was mollified and even managed to smile. “He’s on the fifth floor, in 507,” she said. “I walked all over this damn hotel tracking him, but since they didn’t station guards outside the room, I couldn’t pinpoint it until last night when I took in the room service tray.”

“You’ve done a good job. Eric will be grateful,” Bill said.

Her smile glowed even brighter. “Good! That’s what I was hoping! Now Rubio and Parker may get a chance to show their skills.” The two vampires were her nestmates. They were not great fighters. I hoped they
did
have other skills.

“I’ll present that to Eric in the most urgent terms,” Bill promised.

The staff elevator stopped, and Palomino handed the tray to me. I had to use both my hands. Lots of food and three drinks weighed it down. She pressed the Doors Closed button and began to talk very quickly.

“Keep your head turned away, and they’ll think you’re me,” she said.

“No one would think that,” I said, but after a second I could sort of see it.

Palomino was naturally brown, and I was very tan. Palomino’s hair was paler than mine, but mine was as abundant and long. We were much the same height and build, and we were wearing identical outfits.

“I’m going to go be conspicuous out front,” she said. “Give me three minutes to get within sight of the security cameras. I’ll meet you at the back door ten minutes after that. Now, get off the elevator so I can go.”

We got off. Bill held the tray for me while I took my hair out of its ponytail and shook my head from side to side to increase my resemblance to the vampire.

“As long as you had her here, why couldn’t she have done this?” I hissed.

“This way she can be visibly elsewhere,” Bill said. “If Felipe suspected her complicity, he could have her killed. He can’t do that to you. You’re Eric’s wife. But that’s a worst-case scenario. We’ll pull the trick off.” He pulled a khaki fishing hat out of his back pocket and pulled it over his head. I forbore to comment on the way he looked.

“What trick?” I asked, instead.

“Well, it is a sort of conjuring trick,” he said. “Now you see him. Now you don’t. Remember, there are two guards in there with him. They’ll open the door, and your job is to make sure it stays open. I’ll come in and do the rest.”

“You couldn’t just break the door down?”

“And have security here in two minutes? I don’t think that would be a good plan.”