Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Page 33

I rubbed my face. I felt like I was five years old again. See, Daddy, look at the pretty picture I made , and what is that kid supposed to do when Daddy tears it to shreds? I didn't want to think about Carl as a father figure. More like… the tyrant in his harem. Or something.
Rick turned a wry smile. "It's growing pains. I've seen it before. It happens in a werewolf pack any time a formerly submissive member starts to assert herself. You're coming into your own, and Carl doesn't know what to do with you anymore."
"How do I make everything okay again?"
He leaned back. "If life were that easy, you'd be out of a job."
Right. Time to change the subject. I wanted to hear about the silver rush and Virginia City during the frontier days. I couldn't picture Rick in a cowboy hat.
"So, you want to be a guest on the show and tell some stories about the Old West?"
He smirked. "Arturo would kill me."
The trouble with this crowd was, you didn't know when that was a joke.
About a week later I came home from work and found Cormac leaning against the outside wall of my apartment building. It was well after dark. He had his arms crossed and stood at the edge of the glow cast by the light over the door. I stared for a good minute before I could say anything.
"You know where I live."
"Wasn't hard to find out," he said.
"Am I going to have to move now?"
He shrugged. "The place is kind of a dump. I thought you'd be making better money than this."
He didn't have to know about Carl's payoff. "Maybe I like it here. What do you want?"
My neck was tingling. I needed to get the hell out of here. But he wasn't armed tonight. At least not that I could see. Without all the guns he looked less like a hit man and more like a good-guy biker.
"You remember that cop? Hardin? She got in touch with me about those murders."
Just like that, the anxiety went away. The big picture took over. Being pissed off that someone was going behind my back took over. "Really? She told me she didn't trust you enough to talk to you about it."
"She seems to have the idea that you're too loyal to your 'kind' to be any help."
"Just because I wouldn't name names."
"Do you have a name?"
"No. Geez, it's like thinking that because someone's—I don't know, an auto mechanic—that they know every other auto mechanic in town."
"Werewolves are a little less common than mechanics."
I changed the subject "Why are you helping her? Last time I talked to her, she wanted to prosecute you for stalking and attempted murder."
"She offered to keep off my back if I helped catch this guy."
Hardin knew how to be everyone's friend. "Convenient."
"I thought so." He paced a couple of steps toward me. "Listen. You have information about this killer that I can't get—the scent. Is there something you're not telling the cops?"
I huffed. "I didn't recognize the scent. It's not one of ours. At least I don't think it is."
"Okay. I'm not the cops. I'm not territorial about information. We can get closer to catching this guy if we pool what we know."
"What do you know?"
"How to kill werewolves."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"No."
Defeated, I let out a sigh. "What do you want me to do?"
"If you see this guy, give me a call. You go places I don't, meet people I can't. You have contacts."
"You don't agree with Hardin? You don't think I'll protect him just because he's a werewolf?"
"I think you'll do the right thing. You have my number." He turned to walk away.
"Who owes who a favor now?"
He glanced over his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm keeping track."
Matt leaned against the doorjamb between the sound booth and studio. "Kitty? There's a live one on line three. Might be a crank, but she sounds like she's really in trouble. You want it?"
I could say no. This was my show, after all. It would be a lot easier and better for everyone if I transferred her to a hotline. Too bad there wasn't a hotline for troubled vampires and werewolves.
I nodded, listening to my current caller's ornate commentary about miscegenation and purity of the species. Standard canned reactionary rhetoric.
"Uh-huh, thank you," I said. "Have you considered a career as a speechwriter for the Klan? Next caller, please."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" The woman was sobbing, her words unintelligible around the hysterics.
"Whoa, slow down there. Take a breath. Slow breaths. That's a girl. Estelle? Is this Estelle?"
She stopped hyperventilating somewhat, matching her breathing to my calm words. "Y-yes."
"Good. Estelle, can you tell me what's wrong?"
"They're after me. I'm hurt. They're coming after me. I need help." Her words came faster and faster. My heartbeat sped up along with them. Her voice lisped, like she held her mouth too close to the phone.
"Wait a minute. Explain your situation. Who's after you?"
She swallowed, loud enough to carry over the line. "Have you heard of Elijah Smith? The Church of the Pure Faith?"
I stood and started pacing. More than heard of him, I was almost ready to show up at his door and let him have at me just to learn something new. I so wanted to expose him for a charlatan. Right now, the church caravan was parked some sixty miles away from the studio.
"Yes, I've heard of them."
"I left. I mean—I want to leave. I'm trying to leave."
"Oh. I mean—oh." I, who made my living by my voice, was speechless. No one had ever left the Church of the Pure Faith. None of Smith's followers had ever been willing to talk about him.
I had so many questions: What was she? Had she gone looking for a cure? Did it work? What was Smith like? This was the interview I'd been waiting for.
"Okay, Estelle. Let me make sure I'm clear on this. You are—what, vampire? Lycanthrope?"
"Vampire."
"Right. And you went to the Church of the Pure Faith seeking a cure for vampirism. You met Elijah Smith. You—were you cured? Were you really cured?" What would I do if she said yes?