Night Shift(71)

“What happened to your wife?” Olivia said, suddenly sounding a bit more alert. It was not only Lemuel who was thinking of something for the first time.

“The man who’d changed her. He came to woo her a few years later, and by that time we were strapped. Two energy suckers in an area with thin population, and very little transient traffic . . . it just wouldn’t work in those days. I was trying to live as I had when I was alive, plowing the fields at night, moving the cattle around then, too. That wasn’t working, either. I had never been anything but poor, and a cowboy. I had always planted just enough for my wife and me. We’d never had any but stillborn children, thank God, because with our days and nights reversed, what would have happened to them?”

“So this man came back? And he took your wife away with him?”

“He did. By that time, we were broke with each other. She’d changed me to save my life, but the life we had together wasn’t worth it. Yet we didn’t have much of any idea of how to change it.”

“Tell me the rest later?”

“Surely.”

“Night-night.”

He smiled over her head in the darkness, and then they were both asleep.

No customers came to Midnight Pawn in the hours before the sun was up, but three skunks, a fox, and seven opossums died under the traffic light that night.

The creature underneath raised a finger. It had not moved in almost two hundred fifty years.





22





Bobo rose early in the morning and went to the front window to check for dead people. The Rev was heading away from the intersection with a wheelbarrow full of dead animals. Diederik was trailing after the old minister, so Bobo didn’t run down to offer his own help. He turned away, shaking his head. It was obvious this wasn’t going to be an ordinary day, and Bobo wondered if there would ever be an ordinary day again.

Bobo dressed with some haste, and he took his bowl of oatmeal down to the shop with him. There was a new note beside the cash register, which he read with some bewilderment.

Arthur Smith walked through the door within the hour. Since he was the sheriff, he didn’t have to wear a uniform, though he usually preferred to. Today, Smith was very well turned out in a navy blazer, sharply pressed khakis, and a starched white shirt. His tie was a cheerfully subdued plaid of blue and green and a hint of red.

“Looking good,” Bobo said by way of greeting.

“Thanks,” Arthur said uncomfortably. “Ah, I have a thing later.”

“Okay. What can I do for you before you have your thing?” Bobo added together Arthur’s discomfort, the fact that he’d been seeing Magdalena Orta Powell very steadily, and Arthur’s romantic history. Bobo suspected that Arthur was about to get married again.

“I can’t rouse your tenants.”

Of course, Bobo had heard Arthur try the side door, so this was no news to him. He had wondered if he should intervene, but he’d correctly figured Arthur would come into the shop through the front door. “The side door stays locked until one of us goes out that way, Arthur. Of course you can’t see Lemuel, it’s daytime. I can’t believe you tried. Olivia worked the counter in here last night, too. Is this about her car?” (The note had said, “Bobo, my car was stolen last night, so people may show up asking for me. Olivia.”)

“Yes, mostly,” Arthur said. He still looked grim. “Lemuel is all right?”

“As far as I know. I can go check, if you want.”

“That would be a relief to me.”

Bobo went out the side door to the landing and downstairs. He heard a little stirring in Olivia’s apartment, so he knocked softly. She opened the door so swiftly he was startled and stepped back.

“What’s up?” she said. She’d just showered, and was wrapped in a towel. Her auburn hair trickled drops of water on her shoulders.

“Is Lem okay? The sheriff is upstairs asking. What happened?” Bobo whispered.

“Lemuel’s fine. Tell Arthur I’ll be up in just a minute,” she said. “I can explain then.” Her voice was at a normal level. “You could shout and Lem wouldn’t wake up, you know.”

“Right,” Bobo said, a little embarrassed. Up the stairs he went to relay Olivia’s message. He and Arthur had a calm exchange of pleasantries until she came in. She looked pale to Bobo, but he noticed she had put on makeup and an outfit that was nicer than her usual Midnight wear.

“Arthur, thanks for coming in person about my car. Did you find it?” Olivia was all hopefulness.

“We did find your car, but I’m afraid I have bad news,” Arthur said. “There was a small amount of ash that was a different color in the front seat. We think it was a dead vampire. And the car was wrecked. It had evidently bounced around like a pinball between the cars in the parking lot at the Cartoon Saloon in Marthasville.”