Day Shift
Page 61

“Listen, I can tell you’re mad at me for something I really can’t help. But see if you can rein it in for today, all right? I’m not telling anyone any of your awful little secrets.”
Olivia wanted nothing so much as to punch him in the face. “Be quiet now,” she said, her voice so low and intense that people near them actually turned to look. “Really, really, be quiet.”
Suzie said, “Everything okay here? You young people! Mind your manners!”
“Says the ex-hooker,” Barry whispered, and suddenly Olivia wanted to laugh.
“Hey, Tommy, you need some more tea?” Manfred was down at the other end of the table, and he’d been very solicitous to Tommy and Suzie the whole meal. Maybe because he wanted to pretend she, Olivia, wasn’t in a total rage? Olivia took a deep breath and reconciled herself to the fact that she could do nothing about what Barry had learned from her thoughts. But, she reassured herself, I can kill him if he ever tells anyone. What about when he leaves? He might find my father and tell . . .
She glanced sideways at the man next to her. She didn’t want to have to kill Barry, but she might have to. It would be a pity. She could see so many times a gift like his would come in handy. If only somehow she could immunize herself against it!
“Is there anyone you can’t hear? At all?” she asked, picking up a roll and taking a small bite.
“Vampires.” He cut up his ham with precision. “And it’s hard to hear people who can turn into an animal. Texas is better than Louisiana. Not so many of either one.”
“And yet you have enemies here in Texas.”
He chewed and swallowed. “Enemies with long memories.”
He was reminding Olivia that she had a hold over him, too.
It was still true that if you didn’t go looking for vampires, you’d have a good chance of never seeing one. But every large city had at least one vampire-oriented nightclub and a house or two where vampires were known to nest. For those reasons alone (the company of their own kind, the profitability of simply being undead, and the safety of numbers), it was hard to find a vampire who preferred to live on his or her own in a rural area; Lemuel was an exception. But he was an exception in more than one way. He didn’t have to have blood. He could take energy instead, a sip here and a sip there, just enough to keep him going.
He could take from other vampires, too. And he defended his area vigorously.
That was why most undead would not come within miles of Midnight, unless they had to come to the pawnshop for something rare. Lemuel would not leech from a customer of the store.
“You won’t be bothered by your enemies while you’re in Midnight,” Olivia said. “At least, when Lemuel is there.”
“But he’s not. Any idea of when he’ll return? I’d like to stay to see Granddaddy settled in a real nursing home. With more supervision. But I’m not going to die to make that happen.”
“Of course not,” Olivia said. “He’s had his turn.”
Barry said, “When you put it like that, doesn’t make me sound too good.”
She raised her eyebrows. “But it’s the truth.”
He lifted his shoulders, let them drop. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“You better take Tommy to the men’s room. You never know what kind of conversation he’s going to have with another customer.”
Barry went with Tommy while Olivia took Suzie to the ladies’ room and Manfred paid their bill. Olivia, glancing back at the wreck of the table, thought, I didn’t know old people could eat that much. She remembered her own grandmother picking at the food on her plate. But her grandmother had been ill . . . her last illness.
Manfred and Barry loaded Suzie and Tommy into Manfred’s car this time, and Olivia drove alone. The solitude was a huge relief. She listened to Yo-Yo Ma the whole way into Dallas. It cleared her mind and calmed her. She felt much better when they stopped for the final briefing, which took place at a filling station in Bonnet Park. But by then, she’d come to a decision.
“I have to go in,” she said.
Everyone stared at her, but that didn’t bother Olivia. She was used to it.
“But the maid might recognize you, you said yourself,” Manfred said. “And I know Lewis would recognize me.”
“Give me ten minutes at a Goodwill and she won’t know me,” Olivia promised.
“Where are you going to find a Goodwill around here?” Barry waved a hand. “I don’t care if you come in or not. But I have to be out of Dallas by dark, and I’m not kidding. So if you’ve changed your mind, fine with me, but get your ass in gear.”
“Okay, give me thirty, and I’ll be back.” She’d spotted a wig shop five blocks south, and she went in there first, emerging with short black hair. There was a consignment shop a block away, and she came out of it in a pair of very tight jeans and a tank top and sandals. She put on a lot of eye makeup with the help of the rearview mirror.
When she got back to the filling station, she found Tommy and Suzie sipping icy drinks while Manfred filled his gas tank and Barry stared at the sky and his watch alternately. There were hours of daylight left, but it was easy to see he was genuinely anxious.
Whatever he’d done to engender this terror, it must have been something pretty awful. Barry grew more and more interesting. It’s a real pity I hate to be in the same room with him.
Manfred did a double take, and Barry raised one eyebrow in an irritating way. Tommy said, “You look smoking hot, young lady.”