Sookie 10 Dead in the Family (11 page)

I stood there, phone to my ear, on an empty sidewalk in my little town, the streetlight only a few feet away. I’d seldom felt more alone. “I wish it had been Victor,” I said, from the bottom of my heart.

“You want to kill someone else?” Pam sounded mildly surprised.

“No, I want it to be over. I want everything to be okay. I don’t want any more killing at all.” Sam came out of the restaurant behind me and heard the distress in my voice. I felt his hand on my shoulder. “I have to go, Pam. Keep me posted.”

I shut the phone and turned to face Sam. He was looking troubled, and the light streaming from overhead cast deep shadows on his face.

“You’re in trouble,” he said.

I could only keep silent.

“I know you can’t talk about it, but if you ever feel like you have to, you know where I am,” he said.

“You, too,” I said, because I figured with a girlfriend like Jannalynn, Sam might be in almost as bad a position as I was.

The phone rang while I was in the shower Friday morning. Since I had an answering machine, I ignored it. As I was reaching out for my towel with my eyes shut, I felt it being thrust into my hand. With a gasp, I opened my eyes to see Claude standing there in his altogether.

“Phone’s for you,” he said, handing me the portable phone from the kitchen. He left.

I put it to my ear automatically. “Hello?” I said weakly. I didn’t know what to think about first: me seeing Claude naked, Claude seeing me naked, or the whole fact that we were related and naked in the same room.

“Sookie? You sound funny,” said a faintly familiar male voice.

“Oh, I just got a surprise,” I said. “I’m so sorry. Who is this?”

He laughed, and it was a warm and friendly sound. “This is Remy Savoy, Hunter’s dad,” he said.

Remy had been married to my cousin Hadley, who was now dead. Their son, Hunter, and I had a connection, a connection that we needed to explore. I’d been meaning to call Remy to set up a playdate for me and Hunter, and I chided myself now for putting it off. “I hope you’re calling to tell me that I can see Hunter this weekend?” I said. “I’ve got to work Sunday afternoon, but I have Saturday off. Tomorrow, that is.”

“That’s great! I was going to ask if I could bring him over this evening, and maybe he could spend the night.”

That was a lot of time to spend with a kid I didn’t know; more important, a kid who didn’t know me. “Remy, do you have special plans or something?”

“Yeah. My dad’s sister died yesterday, and they’ve set the funeral for tomorrow morning at ten. But the visitation is tonight. I hate to take Hunter to the visitation and the funeral. especially considering, you know, his. problem. It might be pretty hard on him. You know how it is. I can’t ever be sure what he’ll say.”

“I understand.” And I did. A preschool telepath is tough to be around. My parents would have appreciated Remy’s predicament. “How old is Hunter now?”

“Five, just had a birthday. I was worried about the party, but we got through that okay.”

I took a deep breath. I’d told him I’d help out with Hunter’s problem. “Okay, I can keep him overnight.”

“Thanks. I mean,
really
thanks. I’ll bring him over when I get off work today. That okay? We’ll be there about five thirty?”

I would get off work between five and six, depending on my replacement being on time and how full my tables were. I gave Remy my cell number. “If I’m not home, call my cell. I’ll be back here as soon as I can. What does he like to eat?”

We talked about Hunter’s routine for a few minutes, and then I hung up. By then, I was dry, but my hair was hanging in damp rattails. After a few minutes with the blow-dryer, I set off to talk to Claude once I was securely dressed in my work clothes.

“Claude!” I yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

“Yes?” He sounded totally unconcerned.

“Come down here!”

He appeared at the head of the stairs, his hairbrush in his hand. “Yes, Cousin?”

“Claude, the answering machine would have picked up the phone call. Please don’t come in my room without knocking, and especially don’t come in my bathroom without knocking!” I would definitely employ the door lock from now on. I didn’t think I’d ever used it before.

“Are you a prude?” He seemed genuinely curious.

“No!” But after a second, I said, “But maybe compared to you, yes! I like my privacy. I get to decide who sees me naked. Do you get my point?”

“Yes. Objectively speaking, you have beautiful points.”

I thought the top of my head would pop off. “I didn’t expect this when I told you that you could stay with me. You like men.”

“Oh, yes, I definitely prefer men. But I can appreciate beauty. I
have
visited the other side of the fence.”

“I probably wouldn’t have let you stay here if I’d known that,” I said.

Claude shrugged, as if to say, “Wasn’t I smart to keep it from you, then?”

“Listen,” I said, and then stopped, because I was rattled. No matter what the circumstances, seeing Claude naked. Well, your first reaction wouldn’t be rage, either. “I’m going to tell you a few things, and I want you to take me seriously.”

He waited, brush in hand, looking only politely attentive.

“Number one. I have a boyfriend, and he’s a vampire, and I’m not interested in cheating on him, and that includes seeing other guys naked. in my bathroom,” I tacked on hastily, thinking of twoeys of all sorts. “If you can’t respect that, you need to leave, and you’ll just have to cry all the way home. Number two. I’m having company tonight, a little kid I’m babysitting, and you better act appropriate around him. You picking up what I’m laying down?”

“No nudity, be nice to the human kid.”

“Right.”

“Is the child yours?”

“If he were mine, I’d be raising him, you can bet your money. He’s Hadley’s. She was my cousin, the daughter of my aunt Linda. She was the, ah, the girlfriend of Sophie-Anne. You know, the former queen? And she became a vampire, eventually. This little boy, Hunter, is the son Hadley had before all that happened to her. His dad’s bringing him by.” Was Claude related to Hadley? Yes, of course, and therefore to Hunter. I pointed that out.

“I like children,” Claude told me. “I’ll behave. And I’m sorry to have upset you.” He gave a stab at sounding contrite.

“Funny, you don’t look sorry. At all.”

“I’m crying inside,” he said, smiling a wicked smile.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” I said, turning away to complete my bathroom routine alone and unobserved.

I’d calmed down by the time I got to work.
After all,
I thought,
Claude has probably seen a gazillion people naked in his time
. Most supes didn’t think nudity was any big deal. The fact that Claude and I were distantly related—my great-grandfather was his grandfather—wouldn’t make any difference to him; in fact, it wouldn’t make any difference to most of the supes.
So,
I told myself stoutly,
no big deal
. When I hit a slow time at work, I called Eric’s cell and left a message to tell him I was expecting to babysit a child that night. “If you can come over, great, but I wanted you to know ahead of time that someone else will be here,” I told the voice mail. Hunter would make a pretty effective chaperone. Then I thought about my new upstairs roomer. “Plus, I kind of forgot to tell you something the other night, and probably you aren’t going to like it much. Also, I miss you.” There was a beep. My message time was up. Well. good. There was no telling what I would’ve said next.

The tracker, Heidi, was supposed to arrive in Bon Temps tonight. It seemed like a year since Eric had decided to send her over to check my land. I felt a little concerned when I thought of her arrival. Would Remy think Hunter attending the funeral was so bad, if he knew who else was dropping by my house? Was I being irresponsible? Was I putting the child at risk?

No, it was paranoid to think so. Heidi was coming to scout around in my woods.

I had thrown off my niggling worry by the time I was preparing to leave Merlotte’s. Kennedy had arrived to work for Sam again because he’d made plans to take the Were girl, Jannalynn, to the casinos in Shreveport and out to dinner. I hoped she was real good to Sam, because he deserved it.

Kennedy was contorting herself in front of the mirror behind the bar, trying to discern a weight loss. I looked down at my own thighs. Jannalynn was really, really slim. In fact, I’d call her skinny. God had been generous with me in the bosom department, but Jannalynn was the possessor of little apricotlike boobs she showed off by wearing bustiers and tank tops with no bra. She gave herself some attitude (and altitude) by wearing fantastic footwear. I was wearing Keds. I sighed.

“Have a nice night!” Kennedy told me brightly, and I straightened my shoulders, smiled, and wiggled my fingers good-bye. Most people thought Kennedy’s big smile and good manners had to be put on. But I knew Kennedy was sincere. She’d been trained by her pageant-queen mom to keep a smile on her face and a good word on her lips. I had to hand it to her; Danny Prideaux didn’t faze Kennedy at all, and I felt like he’d make most girls pretty nervous. Danny, who’d been brought up to expect the world to beat him down so he better throw the first punch, lifted a finger to me to second Kennedy’s farewell. He had a Coke in front of him, because Danny didn’t drink on duty. He seemed content to play Mario Kart on his Nintendo DS, or to simply sit at the bar and watch Kennedy work.

On the other hand, lots of men would be nervous about working with Kennedy since she’d served time for manslaughter. Some women would be, too. But I had no problem with her. I was glad Sam had stepped up for her. It’s not that I approve of murder—but some people just beg to be killed, don’t they? After all I’d been through, I was forced to simply admit to myself that I felt that way.

I got home about five minutes before Remy arrived with Hunter. I’d had just enough time to pull off my work clothes, toss them in the hamper, and put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt before Remy knocked at the front door.

I looked through the peephole before I opened the door, on the theory that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

“Hey, Remy!” I said. He was in his early thirties, a quietly good-looking man with thick light brown hair. He was wearing clothes suitable for an evening visitation at a funeral home: khakis, a white-and-brown-striped broadcloth shirt, polished loafers. He’d looked more comfortable in the flannel and jeans he’d been wearing the first time I’d met him. I looked down at his son. Hunter had grown since I’d seen him last. He had dark hair and eyes like his mother, Hadley, but it was too early to say who he’d favor when he grew up.

I squatted down and said,
Hi, Hunter
. I didn’t say anything out loud, but I smiled at him.

He’d almost forgotten. His face lit up.
Aunt Sookie!
he said. Pleasure ran through his head, pleasure and excitement. “I have a new truck,” he said out loud, and I laughed.

“You gonna show it to me? Come on in, you two, and let’s get you settled.”

“Thanks, Sookie,” Remy said.

“Do I look like my mama, Dad?” Hunter asked.

“Why?” Remy was startled.

“That’s what Aunt Sookie says.”

Remy was used to little shocks like this by now, and he knew it would only get worse. “Yes, you look like your mom, and she was good-looking,” Remy told him. “You’re a lucky young man, Son.”

“I don’t want to look like a girl,” Hunter said doubtfully.

You don’t.
“Not a bit,” I said. “Hunter, your room is right here.” I indicated the open doorway. “I used to sleep in this room when I was a kid,” I said.

Hunter looked around, alert and cautious. But the low twin bed with its white bedspread and the old furniture and the worn rug by the bed were all homey and unthreatening. “Where will you be?” he asked.

“Right here, across the hall,” I told him, opening the door to my room. “You just call out, and I’ll come a-running. Or you can come climb in the bed with me, if you get scared in the night.”

Remy stood, watching his son absorb all this. I didn’t know how often the little boy had spent the night away from his dad; not too often, from the thoughts I was picking up from the boy’s head.

“The bathroom’s the next door down from your room, see?” I pointed in. He looked into the old-fashioned room with his mouth hanging open.

“I know it looks different from your bathroom at home,” I said, answering his thoughts. “This is an old house, Hunter.” The claw-foot tub and the black-and-white tiles were not what you saw in the rental houses and apartments Remy and Hunter had lived in since Katrina.

“What’s upstairs?” Hunter asked.

“Well, a cousin of mine is staying up there. He’s not home right now, and he comes in so late you may not even see him. His name is Claude.”

Can I go up there and look around?

Maybe tomorrow we’ll go up together. I’ll show you the rooms you can go into and the rooms that Claude is using.

I glanced up to see that Remy was looking from Hunter to me, and he didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried that I could talk to his son in a way he could not.

“Remy, it’s okay,” I said. “I grew up, and it got easier. I know this is going to be tough, but at least Hunter is a bright boy with a sound body. His little problem is just. less straightforward than most other kids’.”

“That’s a good way to look at it.” But Remy’s worry didn’t diminish.

“You want a drink?” I said, not sure what to do with Remy now. Hunter had asked me silently if he could unpack his bag, and I’d told him—the same way—that unpacking was fine with me. He’d already unloaded a little backpack full of toys onto the bedroom floor.

“No, thank you. I got to get going.”

It was unpleasant to realize that I spooked Remy in the same way his son spooked other people. Remy might need my help, and I could tell he thought I was a pretty woman, but I could also see that I gave him the creeps. “Is the visitation in Red Ditch?” I asked. That was the town where Remy and Hunter lived. It was about an hour and a quarter’s drive southeast from Bon Temps.

“No, in Homer. So this is kind of on the way. If you run into any problems, just call my cell and I can come pick him up on the way home. Otherwise, I’ll stay the night in Homer, go to the funeral at ten tomorrow, stay for the lunch at my cousin’s home afterward, and pick Hunter up later in the afternoon, if that suits you.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said, which was sheer bravado on my part. I hadn’t taken care of kids since I’d sat with my friend Arlene’s young ’uns, way back when. I didn’t want to think about that; friendships that end bitterly are always sad. Those kids probably hated me now. “I’ve got videos we can watch, and a puzzle or two, and even some coloring books.”

“Where?” Hunter asked, looking around like he expected to see a Toys “R” Us.

“You say good-bye to your daddy, and we’ll go looking for them,” I told him.

“Bye, Dad,” Hunter said, waving a casual hand at Remy.

Remy looked nonplussed. “Want to give me a hug, champ?”