Charlaine Harris - Day Shift

“I didn’t know any of that,” Olivia said, after an appreciable pause.

“I know,” he said.

“The other three were brought here the same way, but at least they all knew each other,” Olivia said. “No wonder your grandfather is so disoriented.” He was in a strange land with strange people.

“In all fairness, this is a lot nicer than the apartment he was in,” Barry said. “And someone’s watching him all the time, though maybe not closely enough, as I discovered today. But since no one at all was minding him before, this is still better. But I need to know why he was brought here, who brought him, what they want.”

This was an issue Olivia had planned to investigate after she’d solved Manfred’s problems, so she wasn’t best pleased at having it pushed to the forefront of the agenda. But she accepted it as inevitable. “You can’t take care of him, I gather?”

“I don’t see how,” Barry said. “I haven’t settled anywhere in years, and I can’t stay in Texas.”

“You have some history here in this state?”

“Most of it bad,” he said gloomily.

“I take it you have vampire trouble.”

He nodded. “You could say that. I would rather have done anything than follow Shorty’s trail to Texas, but all my roads seem to lead back here. I had a hell of a lot of bad luck in Dallas, mostly due to my own stupidity. The vampire population here has… Well, they’re prejudiced against me, let me just say.”

“There’s only one in this area. And he’s unusual. And he’s not here at the moment.”

“That gives me exactly one drop of relief, into a bucket of worry.”

“Plus, in the summer, a lot of the vamps have started migrating.”

“Sure. Somewhere where the days aren’t so long.” Barry sounded very familiar with vampire habits.

“You’re not a hunter, are you?”

He snorted. “Do I look like a fool with a death wish?”

She shook her head. “No, but people don’t always look like what they are. No one would look at you and say, ‘He’s a telepath.’”

“We’re definitely not common,” he said offhandedly.

“There are many more?” She didn’t disguise her surprise.

“At least one more.” He obviously wasn’t going to talk about that. “What do you need?” He’d been relaxed, chatty, but no longer.

“All right,” she said, with equal briskness. “I need you to go with Tommy, Suzie, and Mamie tomorrow on a little road trip to a fancy house in a suburb of Dallas. Manfred and I will go with you most of the way, but we’re not going to the house in question. We’ll fill you in on everything at length, so you’re prepared. But what we need you to do, if you agree, is get in the house, get the older people up to the room designated as the library, and look at it as hard as you can while you’re there. There’s something hidden there, and we need to know where to start to look. Now that I know what you can do, I also want you to get as close to the man named Lewis as you can. Get everything you can out of his mind. And tell us what you see.”

“How much?” was all Barry asked.

Naturally, Olivia was curious about Barry’s need for money. He was able-bodied, personable, not stupid. But actually, it didn’t matter.

“No,” he said. “It doesn’t.”

Having a telepath around was a two-edged sword. “Interesting,” Olivia said, after an appreciable pause. “I’m so used to assuming my mind is opaque that I simply hadn’t applied your particular skill to me.”

“Yeah, it wins me friends everywhere.”

“But you haven’t really tried to conceal it.”

“Not here. It’s effing weird. Everywhere else I’ve been, my whole life, my primary purpose has been concealing what I am. But here… not so much.”

“Let me ask you…”

“What?”

“You’ve been in the diner.”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the deal with the Reeds?”

“What do you mean?” He was hedging. She didn’t have to be a telepath to see that.

“I’ve always wondered about them. Why are they here? They’re so… I started to say, normal . But there has to be a reason for them to be here. It’s not simply chance.” Olivia really did want to know.

“Would you like me to tell them things about you?”

Olivia leaned forward, ready to break his neck if she had to. “What do you think?” she whispered.

“Then I’m not going to tell you things about them.”

Olivia forced herself to relax. She hadn’t realized until this moment how much she didn’t trust the Reeds, and his reaction somehow reinforced that feeling. “Fair enough,” she said.

“So. You never answered. How much?”

“Five hundred,” she said. She had that much in her room, and she could go by the ATM in Davy to get more. Manfred would repay her.

“Seven fifty.”

“Six hundred.”

“Six fifty,” he countered.

“Done,” she said.

He stood to extend his hand to her, and she also stood to shake his. When she touched him, she had the same feeling she’d had when she’d first touched Lemuel. “Not completely human,” she said.

“What?”

“You heard me.” She smiled, glad that she’d been able to shake him up in return for the unpleasant surprise he’d given her.

Barry smiled back. “Sorry about your psycho mom,” he said, and walked away.

“Tomorrow morning, bright and early,” she called after him. She would not let him have the last word.

She was tougher than that. She was always tougher than that.

The day of the Bonnet Park field trip didn’t start well on any level. Manfred, Olivia, and Barry were up and ready by the designated time, and Olivia and Manfred both took their cars over to the hotel. Mamie, Suzie, and Tommy were up, which was good, and they’d had breakfast, which was good, but Mamie had had a bad night and she was hurting.

“I can’t go,” she said. “I just can’t face a long drive. My hip hurts too bad today, dammit. I want to get out of this hole and see some life.”

Manfred agreed with her assessment. Mamie looked frail and pale, and she moved with obvious difficulty. But Tommy and Suzie argued and cajoled and wasted time trying to persuade their friend to go with them. It was a relief to Manfred when Mamie remained adamant.

Then Lenore Whitefield became an obstacle. She was startled and dismayed to discover that “her” old people had planned an excursion. It was obvious she’d never imagined they might want to be anywhere else, and she was uncertain about whether she could allow it.

“Allow it?” Olivia stood with her hands on her hips. “Are they in jail? Do they have to bring notes from their parents?”

Lenore flushed. “Miss Charity, you’re being difficult on purpose. Of course not, but they’re in my care, and I’m responsible for their well-being.”

“Last I heard, I was an adult and responsible for myself,” Tommy said pugnaciously. “I’m no baby sucking on a tit.” Suzie nodded vigorously.

Lenore grew even redder. “No need for that kind of talk, Tommy. You’ll miss your nurse’s visit.”

“I ain’t dying today,” Tommy said. The force of his personality was too much for Lenore. She literally threw up her hands.

“All right, go on,” she said. “Please don’t try to do too much, and please take all your medication before you go.”

“We’ll have them back this evening,” Manfred said, trying to placate the woman. He had an uneasy feeling that if Lenore called Eva Culhane, they’d never leave the building, because from the little he’d seen of Culhane, she was formidable. Since his first conversation with Tommy, he’d been aware there was something wrong with the setup at the Midnight Hotel.