Sookie Stackhouse 8-copy Boxed Set (155 page)

Maybe she really was my fairy godmother.

I got up, shook myself. Grabbing up the plastic basket, I left to go move into my new home.

I
LET MYSELF IN WITH THE KEY I’D GOTTEN FROM SAM. I was on the right side of a duplex, the mirror of the one next door presently occupied by Halleigh Robinson, the young schoolteacher dating Andy Bellefleur. I figured I was likely to have police protection at least part of the time, and Halleigh would be gone during most of the day, which was nice considering my late hours.

The living room was small and contained a flowered couch, a low coffee table, and an armchair. The next room was the kitchen, which was tiny, of course. But it had a stove, a refrigerator, and a microwave. No dishwasher, but I’d never had one. Two plastic chairs were tucked under a tiny table.

After I’d glanced at the kitchen I went through into the small hall that separated the larger (but still small) bedroom on the right from the smaller (tiny) bedroom and the bathroom on the left. At the end of the hall there was a door to the little back porch.

This was a very basic accommodation, but it was quite clean. There was central heating and cooling, and the floors were level. I ran a hand around the windows. They fit well. Nice. I reminded myself I’d have to keep the venetian blinds drawn down, since I had neighbors.

I made up the double bed in the larger bedroom. I put my clothes away in the freshly painted chest of drawers. I started a list of other things I needed: a mop, a broom, a bucket, some cleaning products . . . those had been on the back porch. I’d have to get my vacuum cleaner out of the house. It had been in the closet in the living room, so it should be fine. I’d brought one of my phones to plug in over here, so I would have to arrange with the phone company for them to route calls to this address. I’d loaded my television into my car, but I had to arrange for my cable to be hooked up here. I’d have to call from Merlotte’s. Since the fire, all my time was being absorbed with the mechanics of living.

I sat on the hard couch, staring into space. I tried to think of something fun, something I could look forward to. Well, in two months, it’d be sunbathing time. That made me smile. I enjoyed lying in the sun in a little bikini, timing myself carefully so I didn’t burn. I loved the smell of coconut oil. I took pleasure in shaving my legs and removing most of my other body hair so I’d look smooth as a baby’s bottom. And I don’t want to hear any lectures about how bad tanning is for you. That’s my vice. Everybody gets one.

More immediately, it was time to go to the library and get another batch of books; I’d retrieved my last bagful while I was at the house, and I’d spread them out on my tiny porch here so they’d air out. So going to the library—that would be fun.

Before I went to work, I decided I’d cook myself something in my new kitchen. That necessitated a trip to the grocery store, which took longer than I’d planned because I kept seeing staples I was sure I’d need. Putting the groceries away in the duplex cabinets made me feel that I really lived there. I browned a couple of pork chops and put them in the oven, microwaved a potato, and heated some peas. When I had to work nights, I usually went to Merlotte’s at about five, so my home meal on those days was a combination lunch and dinner.

After I’d eaten and cleaned up, I thought I just had time to drive down to visit Calvin in the Grainger hospital.

The twins had not arrived to take up their post in the lobby again, if they were still keeping vigil. Dawson was still stationed outside Calvin’s room. He nodded to me, gestured to me to stop while I was several feet away, and stuck his head in Calvin’s room. To my relief, Dawson swung the door wide open for me to enter and even patted my shoulder as I went in.

Calvin was sitting up in the padded chair. He clicked off the television as I came in. His color was better, his beard and hair were clean and trimmed, and he looked altogether more like himself. He was wearing pajamas of blue broad-cloth. He still had a tube or two in, I saw. He actually tried to push himself up out of the chair.

“No, don’t you dare get up!” I pulled over a straight chair and sat in front of him. “Tell me how you are.”

“Glad to see you,” he said. Even his voice was stronger. “Dawson said you wouldn’t take any help. Tell me who set that fire.”

“That’s the strange thing, Calvin. I don’t know why this man set the fire. His family came to see me . . .” I hesitated, because Calvin was recuperating from his own brush with death, and he shouldn’t have to worry about other stuff.

But he said, “Tell me what you’re thinking,” and he sounded so interested that I ended up relating everything to the wounded shifter: my doubts about the arsonist’s motives, my relief that the damage could be repaired, my concern about the trouble between Eric and Charles Twining. And I told Calvin that the police here had learned of more clusters of sniper activity.

“That would clear Jason,” I pointed out, and he nodded. I didn’t push it.

“At least no one else has been shot,” I said, trying to think of something positive to throw in with the dismal mix.

“That we know of,” Calvin said.

“What?”

“That we know of. Maybe someone else has been shot, and no one’s found ’em yet.”

I was astonished at the thought, and yet it made sense. “How’d you think of that?”

“I don’t have nothing else to do,” he said with a small smile. “I don’t read, like you do. I’m not much one for television, except for sports.” Sure enough, the station he’d had on when I’d entered had been ESPN.

“What do you do in your spare time?” I asked out of sheer curiosity.

Calvin was pleased I’d asked him a personal question. “I work pretty long hours at Norcross,” he said. “I like to hunt, though I’d rather hunt at the full moon.” In his panther body. Well, I could understand that. “I like to fish. I love mornings when I can just sit in my boat on the water and not worry about a thing.”

“Uh-huh,” I said encouragingly. “What else?”

“I like to cook. We have shrimp boils sometimes, or we cook up a whole mess of catfish and we eat outside—catfish and hush puppies and slaw and watermelon. In the summer, of course.”

It made my mouth water just to think about it.

“In the winter, I work on the inside of my house. I go out and cut wood for the people in our community who can’t cut their own. I’ve always got something to do, seems like.”

Now I knew twice as much about Calvin Norris as I had.

“Tell me how you’re recovering,” I asked.

“I’ve still got the damn IV in,” he said, gesturing with his arm. “Other than that, I’m a lot better. We heal pretty good, you know.”

“How are you explaining Dawson to the people from your work who come to visit?” There were flower arrangements and bowls of fruit and even a stuffed cat crowding the level surfaces in the room.

“Just tell ’em he’s my cousin here to make sure I won’t get too wore out with visitors.”

I was pretty sure no one would question Dawson directly.

“I have to get to work,” I said, catching a glimpse of the clock on the wall. I was oddly reluctant to leave. I’d enjoyed having a regular conversation with someone. Little moments like these were rare in my life.

“Are you still worried about your brother?” he asked.

“Yes.” But I’d made my mind up I wouldn’t beg again. Calvin had heard me out the first time. There wasn’t any need for a repeat.

“We’re keeping an eye on him.”

I wondered if the watcher had reported to Calvin that Crystal was spending the night with Jason. Or maybe Crystal herself was the watcher? If so, she was certainly taking her job seriously. She was watching Jason about as close as he could be watched.

“That’s good,” I said. “That’s the best way to find out he didn’t do it.” I was relieved to hear Calvin’s news, and the longer I pondered it, the more I realized I should have figured it out myself.

“Calvin, you take care.” I rose to leave, and he held up his cheek. Rather reluctantly, I touched my lips to it.

He was thinking that my lips were soft and that I smelled good. I couldn’t help but smile as I left. Knowing someone simply finds you attractive is always a boost to the spirits.

I drove back to Bon Temps and stopped by the library before I went to work. The Renard Parish library is an old ugly brown-brick building erected in the thirties. It looks every minute of its age. The librarians had made many justified complaints about the heating and cooling, and the electrical wiring left a lot to be desired. The library’s parking lot was in bad shape, and the old clinic next door, which had opened its doors in 1918, now had boarded-up windows—always a depressing sight. The long-closed clinic’s overgrown lot looked more like a jungle than a part of downtown.

I had allotted myself ten minutes to exchange my books. I was in and out in eight. The library parking lot was almost empty, since it was just before five o’clock. People were shopping at Wal-Mart or already home cooking supper.

The winter light was fading. I was not thinking about anything in particular, and that saved my life. In the nick of time, I identified intense excitement pulsing from another brain, and reflexively I ducked, feeling a sharp shove in my shoulder as I did so, and then a hot lance of blinding pain, and then wetness and a big noise. This all happened so fast I could not definitely sequence it when I later tried to reconstruct the moment.

A scream came from behind me, and then another. Though I didn’t know how it had happened, I found myself on my knees beside my car, and blood was spattered over the front of my white T-shirt.

Oddly, my first thought was
Thank God I didn’t have my new coat on.

The person who’d screamed was Portia Bellefleur. Portia was not her usual collected self as she skidded across the parking lot to crouch beside me. Her eyes went one way, then another, as she tried to spot danger coming from any direction.

“Hold still,” she said sharply, as though I’d proposed running a marathon. I was still on my knees, but keeling over appeared to be a pleasant option. Blood was trickling down my arm. “Someone shot you, Sookie. Oh my God, oh my God.”

“Take the books,” I said. “I don’t want to get blood on the books. I’ll have to pay for them.”

Portia ignored me. She was talking into her cell phone. People talked on their phones at the damnedest times! In the library, for goodness’s sake, or at the optometrist. Or in the bar. Jabber, jabber, jabber. As if everything was so important it couldn’t wait. So I put the books on the ground beside me all by myself.

Instead of kneeling, I found myself sitting, my back against my car. And then, as if someone had taken a slice out of my life, I discovered I was lying on the pavement of the library parking lot, staring at someone’s big old oil stain. People should take better care of their cars. . . .

Out.

“Wake up,” a voice was saying. I wasn’t in the parking lot, but in a bed. I thought my house was on fire again, and Claudine was trying to get me out. People were always trying to get me out of bed. Though this didn’t sound like Claudine; this sounded more like . . .

“Jason?” I tried to open my eyes. I managed to peer through my barely parted lids to identify my brother. I was in a dimly lit blue room, and I hurt so bad I wanted to cry.

“You got shot,” he said. “You got shot, and I was at Merlotte’s, waiting for you to get there.”

“You sound . . . happy,” I said through lips that felt oddly thick and stiff. Hospital.

“I couldn’t have done it! I was with people the whole time! I had Hoyt in the truck with me from work to Merlotte’s, because his truck’s in the shop. I am
covered
.”

“Oh, good. I’m glad I got shot, then. As long as you’re okay.” It was such an effort to say it, I was glad when Jason picked up on the sarcasm.

“Yeah, hey, I’m sorry about that. At least it wasn’t serious.”

“It isn’t?”

“I forgot to tell you. Your shoulder got creased, and it’s going to hurt for a while. Press this button if it hurts. You can give yourself pain medication. Cool, huh? Listen, Andy’s outside.”

I pondered that, finally deduced Andy Bellefleur was there in his official capacity. “Okay,” I said. “He can come in.” I stretched out a finger and carefully pushed the button.

I blinked then, and it must have been a long blink, because when I pried my eyes open again, Jason was gone and Andy was in his place, a little notebook and a pen in his hands. There was something I had to tell him, and after a moment’s reflection, I knew what it was.

“Tell Portia I said thank you,” I told him.

“I will,” he said seriously. “She’s pretty shook up. She’s never been that close to violence before. She thought you were gonna die.”

I could think of nothing to say to that. I waited for him to ask me what he wanted to know. His mouth moved, and I guess I answered him.

“. . . said you ducked at the last second?”

“I heard something, I guess,” I whispered. That was the truth, too. I just hadn’t heard something with my ears. . . . But Andy knew what I meant, and he was a believer. His eyes met mine and widened.

And out again. The ER doctor had certainly given me some excellent painkiller. I wondered which hospital I was in. The one in Clarice was a little closer to the library; the one in Grainger had a higher-rated ER. If I was in Grainger, I might as well have saved myself the time driving back to Bon Temps and going to the library. I could have been shot right in the hospital parking lot when I left from visiting Calvin, and that would have saved me the trip.

“Sookie,” said a quiet, familiar voice. It was cool and dark, like water running in a stream on a moonless night.

“Bill,” I said, feeling happy and safe. “Don’t go.”

“I’ll be right here.”

And he was there, reading, in a chair by my bed when I woke up at three in the morning. I could feel the minds in the rooms around me all shut down in sleep. But the brain in the head of the man next to me was a blank. At that moment, I realized that the person who’d shot me had not been a vampire, though all the shootings had taken place at dusk or full dark. I’d heard the shooter’s brain in the second before the shot, and that had saved my life.