I didn't know enough about witchcraft to know if she could help or not. At the very least I could pick her brain about vampires and sorcerers-if I could convince her that Adam's orders not to talk to me were out of date.
I called all three of Tony's numbers and told him to call me on my cell. I called Zee, but only got his answering machine. I left a detailed message on his phone also. That way Darryl and Zee both knew what I was up to.
Then I took my cell phone and headed to work. I'd send Gabriel home for the day and close the shop.
My watch said I was fifteen minutes early, so I was surprised to see Mrs. Hanna. She was hours ahead of her customary schedule.
When I parked in my usual spot, she was next to my car. Frantic as I was, Mrs. Hanna's very presence demanded that I be polite. "Hello, Mrs. Hanna. You're early today."
There was a pause before she looked up at me, and for a moment she didn't know me at all. A month or two more, I thought, and there would only be a little personality left.
But for today, her face eventually lit up, "Mercedes, child. I was hoping to see you today. I have a special drawing just for you."
She fumbled around in her cart without success, becoming visibly more agitated.
"It's all right, Mrs. Hanna," I told her. "I'm sure you'll find it later. Why don't you leave it for me tomorrow?"
"But it was just right here," she fretted. "A picture of that nice boy who likes you. The dark one."
Adam.
"Tomorrow will be fine, Mrs. Hanna. What brings you out so early?"
She looked around as if bewildered by the question. Then relaxed and smiled. "Oh that was Joe. He told me I'd better change my route if I wanted to keep visiting him."
I smiled at her. When she'd been alive, she'd talked about John this and Peter that. I never had been sure if she really had boyfriends, or just liked to pretend that she had.
She leaned forward confidentially. "We women always have to change for our men, don't we."
Startled I stared at her. That was it exactly. I felt as though Adam was changing who I was.
She saw that her words had hit home and nodded happily. "But they're worth it, God love them. They're worth it."
She puttered off in her usual shuffle-shuffle step that covered a surprising amount of ground.
Chapter 10
"No, sir, she's not-" Gabriel looked up as I walked into the shop. "Wait. She's here."
I took the phone, thinking it might be Tony or Elizaveta. "This is Mercy."
"This is John Beckworth, I'm calling from Virginia. I'm sorry, I forgot how much earlier you are than we."
The voice was familiar, but the name was wrong. "Mr. Black?" I asked.
"Yes," he sounded a little sheepish. "It's Beckworth, actually. I just got off the phone with a Bran Cornick. He suggested that there is some trouble in the Tri-Cities."
"Yes, we have something of a... situation here." Either Adam had called Bran yesterday, or Darryl had remembered the Blacks/ Beckworths and talked to him this morning.
"So Mr. Cornick said. He suggested that we fly to Montana early next week." He paused. "He seemed less intense than Adam Hauptman."
That was Bran, quiet and calm until he ripped out your throat.
"Are you calling to make sure he's safe?" I asked.
"Yes. He wasn't on the list of men you gave me."
"If I had a daughter, I'd have no qualms leaving her with Bran," I said sincerely, ignoring the question of why Bran's name wasn't on the list. "He'll take good care of you and your family."
"He talked to Kara, my daughter," he said, and there was a world of relief in his voice. "I don't know what he said, but I haven't seen her this happy in years."
"Good."
"Ms. Thompson, if there is ever anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to call."
I started to automatically refuse, but then I stopped. "Are you really a reporter?"
He laughed. "Yes, but I don't cover celebrity sex lives. I'm an investigative journalist."
"You have ways of finding out about people?"
"Yes." He sounded intrigued.
"I need as much information as you can get on a man named Cory Littleton. He has a website. Fancies himself a magician. It would be particularly helpful if you could find out if he owns property in the Tri-Cities." That was a long shot, but I knew that Warren had checked out all the hotels and rentals. If Littleton was here, he had some place to stay.
He read the name back to me again. "I'll get what I can. It may take a few days."
"Be careful," I said. "He's dangerous. You don't want him to know you're looking."
"Is this connected to the trouble Mr. Cornick was telling me about?"
"That's right."
"Tell me how to contact you-probably an e-mail address would be best."
I gave him what he needed, and thanked him. Hanging up the phone, I noticed Gabriel's eyes on me.
"Trouble?" he asked.
Maybe I should have worked harder to keep Gabriel out of my world. But he had a good head on his shoulders, and he wasn't stupid. I'd decided it was easier to tell him what I could-and safer than if he went looking.
"Yes. Bad trouble."
"That phone call last night?"
"That's part of it. Warren 's hurt badly. Samuel and Adam are missing."
"What is it?"
I shrugged. "That I can't tell you." The vampires didn't like people talking about them.
"Is he a werewolf?"
"No, not a werewolf."
"A vampire like Stefan?"
I stared at him.
"What? I'm not supposed to figure it out?" He shook his head reprovingly. "Your mysterious customer who drives the funky bus painted up like the Mystery Machine and only shows up after dark? Dracula he isn't, but where there's werewolves, there certainly ought to be vampires."
I laughed, I couldn't help it. "Fine. Yes." Then I told him seriously, "Don't let anyone else know you know anything about vampires, especially not Stefan." Then I remembered that wouldn't be a problem. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and continued seriously. "It's not safe for you or your family. They'll leave you alone as long as they don't know you believe in them."
He pulled his collar aside to show me a cross. "My mother makes me wear this. It was my father's."
"That'll help," I told him. "But pretending ignorance will help more. I'm expecting a couple of phone calls. One from Tony and the other from Elizaveta Arkadyevna, you'll know her by her Russian accent." I'd intended to close the shop for the day, but I didn't have anything to do until Tony or Elizaveta called me back. If it had taken two weeks for Stefan and Warren to find the sorcerer, I was unlikely to find him by driving up and down streets at random. There are over 200,000 people living in the Tri-Cities. It isn't Seattle, but it's not Two Dot, Montana, either.