Death's Excellent Vacation - By Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner Page 0,68
the moon when they happened. Get a farmer’s almanac and just do that for me. You don’t have to tell anybody. Then, I want you to go to the Navajo reservation and ask the shaman there for two things . . . See if they can make some silver bullets for you and your men, and a potion bag filled with silver shavings, wolfsbane—”
“Jess, honey, please . . .” He closed his eyes and let out a weary exhale.
“Just do that for me in secret, okay? Wear the bag the shaman gives you. You were one of my mother’s oldest friends. She really liked you, and you all trusted each other. So trust me and her now.”
He opened his eyes and nodded, becoming misty at the memory. “She was good to me and my wife when we lost our boy . . . That’s how I came to know her. She helped me find his body and who killed him. So I feel like I should be looking out for her baby girl, too . . . and this just hurts my soul to hear you talking out of your head like this, honey.”
“Well, my momma is standing right beside you,” Jessica said quietly, briefly nodding toward his left.
He glanced around quickly and spoke in a nervous voice. “She used to do that . . . would go see the other side and ask questions.”
“Yeah, I know. It was really a trip growing up with her.” Jessica let go of his arm. “Then again, I used to freak her out, too.” Inclining her head to Sheriff Moore’s left, Jessica spoke to what appeared to be thin air. “So he’ll believe me, Momma, tell me what he had for dinner last night?” After a few moments passed, Jessica shook her head. “Bourbon ain’t no dinner. At your age you need to be taking better care of yourself.”
“You think I should really get the silver bullets?”
Jessica nodded. “And the bag . . . And don’t go hunting for these suckers without those bullets when it’s a full moon.”
Two
IT was clear that Sheriff Moore wasn’t going to listen to her, clear as a bell rung in church at high noon. The old man was gonna get himself killed for sure. Better stated, he was gonna get eaten. Her conscience wouldn’t allow for that; her mother had brought her up right, after all. Plus, these beasts were encroaching on her hometown. Had taken a couple of young kids in high school that were making out after dark by the lake. Wrong place, wrong time, and tore ’em up so badly, according to the sheriff, that their families didn’t have much left to put in a casket. Now that was just wrong.
Jessica walked to the refrigerator and opened it, looking for more lemonade. Her cell phone was pressed to her ear, and she glanced up at the clock. At two in the afternoon, Raph wouldn’t be up yet. When it rolled over to voice mail, she muttered a curse under her breath and hit redial. “Answer the danged phone!”
“What?” Raphael said in a sleepy, irritated tone. “I was working till four.”
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said, squeezing her eyes shut. True, her brother had been working at the strip club until four, but he hadn’t gotten to sleep until eight and still had company in his bed. “I . . . I . . . just need to ask you a favor.”
She heard Raphael get up and start moving.
“Stay out of my business, boo. You might see what you ain’t ready to deal with, calling me all early . . . You supposed to be psychic, so you just oughta check if—”
“My bad, but I need to ask you for—”
“Some money.”
Quiet settled on the line between them.
“Never mind,” she said, hurt, about to hang up.
“Now there you go, all proud. I have been waiting for the last two years for you to just call me up and let me help you, boo. What’s the matter with you? You’re my baby sister, so why you feel like you can’t ask me for help? That hurts me, Jess.”
“I’m trying to hold on to Momma’s trailer,” she said as her voice cracked. “I’m trying to hold on to everything she was and did, and I’m not able . . . Then I gave the sheriff a tip, like she used to, and he thinks I’m crazy.”
“You ain’t hardly crazy,” her brother said, soothing her with his voice. “You was so