Sam Harlan (Book 3): Damned Cold (17 page)

“You’re a good man,” Callie said, the ghost of a smile playing across her face.

* * *

Janice Korman had taped fresh gauze across Callie’s legs and given her a pair of brown slacks, forty years out of date, to wear. Callie sat at the kitchen table, next to Janice Korman, and across from Jodie and Gene Rexford. Randy stood behind his wife, glaring at everyone.

Jodie’s coven filled the rest of the kitchen, barely offering enough standing room for Father Jameson and Father Mosley, who were stuck in the corner. The air was stifling hot from all the bodies and a trickle of sweat ran down my back. The coven members were deathly quiet, waiting for me to speak. I glanced at Callie, who nodded her encouragement.

“You
need
to make peace with Meriwether,” I said. “I’ll help if I can, but if you continue like this, you’re going to wind up dead.”

There were several gasps around the room, but I didn’t take my eyes off Jodie. She glared at me, but her expression finally faltered and she spat out, “Carlton has my sister.”

I shook my head. “Do you
think
he has your sister, or do you
know
he has your sister? I’ve been to his house. She wasn’t there.”

“Don’t give us orders,” Randy said. “You’re an outsider here.” He pointed to the two priests. “All of you. This ain’t your
place
.”

“Bullshit,” I said. Several of the coven started murmuring, but I silenced them with a glare. “You made it my place when you caught that vampire. You’re witches. I get it. Do you know what I am?” Before Randy could answer, I pointed to Jodie. “You saw what I do.”

Jodie remained silent, but the members of her coven turned to her. A bald-headed man in his late thirties wearing blue jeans and a heavy flannel shirt spoke up. “What’s he talking about? You said he could get Dorothy back, but you never said how.”

Gene Rexford turned to the man. “You didn’t need to know, Brady.”

“This isn’t a dictatorship,” the man said, his face reddening. “We’re not servants. I’m getting tired of being told what to do.” He put his arm around the thin woman next to him, a pretty young blonde close to him in age. “We’re supposed to be part of something bigger, but the only thing we’ve done lately is listen to you bitch and moan about Dorothy.”

“Shut your trap,” Randy said, turning to the man. “With a talent as weak as yours, you should be thankful we allow you to be a part of this coven.”

The pretty blonde next to Brady spoke up. “That’s unfair, Randy. That’s really unfair. We may not have your level of talent, but I don’t remember you complaining when you asked us to join.”

Brady nodded vigorously. “Rachel’s right. You begged us, remember?” He turned to Jodie. “You said we were equals—that the coven was greater as a whole. You said all that, but then you run it with an iron fist. You tell us what to do and where to go. That
has
to change.” He pointed at me. “What is he talking about?”

“I kill vampires,” I said loudly. The murmuring stopped and the room fell deathly quiet. “Callie and I came for the vampire. I don’t care about your coven, or your power struggle.”

There was an immediate reaction in the room, a sense of pressure building. The coven’s fear was causing them to instinctively draw on their power.

Callie frowned and I knew that she sensed it, too.

“We just want Dorothy back,” Jodie said wearily. She searched the faces of her coven. “Can’t you understand that? Carlton has her. I know it!”

Brady, the bald-headed man, frowned. “I know you think that—”

“I don’t
think
it,” Jodie said, her voice rising. “I
know
it!”

“Why?” I asked.

Jodie turned to me, her face suddenly blank. “What?”

“
Why
are you so convinced that Meriwether took Dorothy? He’s a witch. I got it. He had a fling with her. Yeah. That’s all true, but why are you so convinced
he
took her? Is it those stupid Tarot cards?”

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Jodie. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

“Don’t,” Randy said. “You don’t have to explain.”

Janice placed her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “They should know.”

“What?” Brady demanded.

“Nothing,” Randy said. He was still angry but his voice had lost its edge. “It’s family business.”

Jodie sighed. “It’s too late for that, Randy. No more excuses. Carlton may be Nicky’s father, but Dorothy is Nicky’s mother.”

A hand grenade going off would have caused less of a reaction.

“What?” Brady said. His wife clutched his arm, pulling at him, but he brushed her hand aside. “How?”

Everyone began speaking at once. The noise was so loud I could barely hear myself think, but Father Jameson barked out over the din, “Quiet. Let her speak.”

The room fell silent. Jodie sat in the middle of the group, looking lost. “Carlton told you that he dated Dorothy. He didn’t tell you that she got pregnant. Carlton’s father threatened to disown him, so he abandoned her. He met his wife and got married right after that. A few months later, Annette got pregnant and died during childbirth.”

“How did he wind up with Nicky?” I asked.

“A child born out of wedlock was shameful,” Randy said. “No one knew Dorothy had got herself pregnant. She wore loose clothing and quit going out.” He shrugged. “That was what women did back then.”

“She gave birth in secret,” Callie said. “You used magic, didn’t you?”

Jodie exhaled heavily. “It was simple magic. Just enough to keep people from asking questions. We took Dorothy to a Springfield hospital. She almost died delivering the baby, and we … well, we knew as soon as he was born that something was wrong. Dorothy wanted to keep him, but Randy talked her out of it.”

Everyone turned to Randy. There was a tremor in the old man’s hands and he tucked them into the pockets of his overalls. “The baby wasn’t right. I could see it. The boy was never gonna be normal.”

I blinked. Randy sounded so sure of himself, and his attitude had probably been common in the late sixties or early seventies. But I had noticed his hands shaking and wondered how sure he was now. “That still doesn’t explain how Nicky wound up with Meriwether.”

“Dorothy found a couple to adopt the boy,” Randy said, his gruffness giving way to a more plaintive tone. “They knew about him and would take him and love him as their own. Carlton found out, but he didn’t care ‘bout Nicky until that wife of his died during childbirth. He thought he was gonna have another son. A better son. When it all went south, he found Nicky and convinced that couple to give him up.”

“No one knew about this?” I asked.

“Nicky was only six months old,” Jodie said. “Carlton kept him hidden until he was almost two. By then, the age difference wasn’t apparent. As far as anyone was concerned, Nicky
was
Annette’s baby. He told everyone the child had survived her death.”

“Dorothy knew,” Janice said. “She was heartbroken. The idea that Carlton would raise their son? Well, it crushed her. She
hated
Carlton for it.”

“He wanted to be with Dorothy,” I said in sudden understanding. “The two of them, raising their son together.”

Jodie’s eyes widened. “How did you—”

“It’s all starting to make sense,” I said.

“Dorothy wouldn’t have anything to do with Meriwether?” Callie asked.

“No,” Janice said. “She
hated
him. She wanted Nicky back, but she wouldn’t give Carlton the time of day.”

“
That’s
why you think he’s taken Dorothy,” I said. “You think he wants them to finally be together.”

“Carlton is a very dangerous man,” Jodie said. “He is used to getting his way. It infuriated him that Dorothy wouldn’t have anything to do with him.”

“Why now?” Callie asked. “After all these years, why take her now?”

“Ain’t none of us young pups,” Randy said, shaking his head. “Maybe he got to thinking it was time for action. Or he finally got so full of himself he decided to
take
what he wanted.”

I studied the old farmer. The man was resolute. Every time he spoke Meriwether’s name, he looked like he wanted to spit on the floor. “All these years and you still dislike him,” I said. “It can’t just be about Dorothy.”

“I used my sight to look at that baby,” Randy said. “It wasn’t just touched in the head. There was an evil in it.”

“I’m supposed to believe a baby,” I said, “a newborn baby, contained evil? That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.”

The old farmer squinted at me. “You know about vampires, boy, but I know magic. It may sound crazy to you, but I saw
inside
that baby. Call it what you want, but the evil in that baby came from somewhere, and it
weren’t
from Dorothy.” He turned to his wife. “Tell them. Tell them I’m not crazy.”

Everyone in the room watched Janice, waiting for her to speak. She blinked furiously, then spoke in a hushed tone. “He saw it, Mr. Harlan. Randy is a lot of things, but he’s not a liar. He sees things. Strange and terrible things. It’s his gift.”

* * *

The coven slowly filtered out of the kitchen and into the living room, giving us a chance to speak privately. Several of the coven members cast hostile glances at Jodie on their way out, especially Officer Gary’s widow, Molly.

When they were finally gone, it was just Gene and Jodie Rexford, Janice and Randy Korman, and Callie crowding around me at the kitchen table.

“What are you going to do?” Jodie asked.

I hesitated. “I can speak with Meriwether again. Try to make peace.”

“No,” Randy snapped. “You don’t make peace with the Devil.”

“If I may?” Father Jameson interrupted. “Speaking with Meriwether will give Sam an opportunity to question him in person. He might find your sister’s whereabouts. And, if Sam is correct and Meriwether
doesn’t
have your sister, you’ll have eliminated a possible threat.”

“Weren’t you listening?” Randy said. He placed his big palms on the table and glared at me. “His boy is
evil
. I saw it.”

It dawned on me that the old farmer’s gruff exterior was actually fear. Nicky terrified the old man. I shook my head. “I don’t know
what
you saw, but I talked to the kid. He’s no more evil than I am.”

Jodie raised her head. “You’ve asked him twice about Dorothy. Ask again. The power of three.”

“The power of three?” I asked.

“Three is a magical number,” Callie confirmed. “It has power among those who practice witchcraft. Meriwether can lie, but not when asked three times.”

Jodie looked startled. “How on earth did you know that?”

Callie looked to Father Jameson, who gave a nod of permission. “The Church knows many things about witchcraft,” she said.

Janice Korman jerked back from the table. “You’ve been spying on us?”

“Not you,” Jameson said. “But in general terms, yes, the Church stays abreast of such subjects.”

There was a look in Jameson’s eyes and I wondered if anyone else caught it. “If I ask him again, he has to tell the truth? Even if he lied before?”

“Yes,” Jodie said. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “If he says he doesn’t have my sister, I’ll believe it.”

I pointed to Randy. “Even though he’s convinced that Nicky is an evil beast who got it from his father?” Randy started to speak, but I silenced him with a raised finger. “Don’t. Whatever you want to say, just don’t. I’ve only been here two days and I can already see that you’ve been egging this on.”

Callie’s hand found mine and she squeezed tightly, but I continued, “You’ve made Meriwether into the biggest threat you could imagine. You captured a vampire. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that. What were you going to do, unleash it on him?”

Jodie couldn’t look me in the eye and even Randy looked abashed.

“You were going to sic it on him,” I said. “What a bunch of morons. You thought you could control it? You saw what it did. It’s like a nuclear bomb. It goes off and everything near it dies.”

I saw some emotion flash across Jodie’s face, something I couldn’t quite place. She turned to Randy and stared at him until he finally looked away. “Tell him,” she said.

“We think Carlton has a vampire,” Randy said.

A ball of ice settled in my stomach. “What?” I waited for them to continue, but they were busy looking everywhere but at me.

It was Janice who finally spoke up. “We were visited by a vampire. He had business with our coven. He wasn’t a bad man—”

“He’s
not
a man,” I said. “You people are unbelievable. Vampires only care about blood and terror and making other vampires.”

“Not this one,” Jodie said. “He isn’t like that. Then he … disappeared. Carlton has him. It’s the only explanation.”

“Wait,” Callie said. “We were at Meriwether’s house. We would have felt the vampire’s presence.”

I started to agree, then remembered how Jodie’s coven had captured a vampire without me sensing it. “How did you hold the vampire?” I asked. “How did you bind it to the pit? I didn’t feel it until I was right on top of it.”

Randy pointed at Callie. “An old spell, like the one we used on her.”

“Meriwether
could
have a vampire,” Jameson said, rubbing at his chin. “Sam, you have to investigate.”

“Sure,” I said. “Or let me offer another explanation. The vampire abducted Dorothy, and is going to drain her and dump her body in a ditch, if it hasn’t already.”

Gene Rexford had been sitting quietly next his wife, showing a mix of concern and guilt, but he finally spoke up. “Please, Mr. Harlan. I know we haven’t given you much reason to trust us, but we need your help. If Carlton has Dorothy, we need to know.”

“What if he doesn’t?” I asked.

Gene shrugged. “Then we need to know that, too.”

I turned to Callie, but I knew it was too late. She had the same look I’d seen in Marshalltown. Jameson was nodding his head. Father Mosley was looking at me expectantly, even though he was still looked like he might faint. “Bobby Gary died here today because of you,” I said, pointing to Jodie. “That’s on you. But if there is a vampire and I leave without investigating it, then that’s on me.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but I didn’t feel relieved. I felt manipulated. I leaned close to Callie and whispered, “We need to talk.”