Grave Sight Page 0,57

how awful Tolliver and I were," I said to my aunt Iona. "She wouldn't come back with me if I found her. She'd run the other way. Besides, I only find dead people. You look for her. Call the police, of course. I bet you haven't." I pressed the button to end the conversation, if you could call it that.

"What?" Tolliver asked. I recounted Iona's words.

"Don't you think you were a little hasty?" His words were mild, but they stung me.

"We're due in Memphis and Millington, and we've been delayed here already. There's no telling where Mariella is, or this Craig either. How far could they be? They can't drive. They're right down the road from Iona, I bet. She hasn't gone to the police because she's too proud to let them know Mariella's run away."

"You remember what Cameron was like at eleven?" Tolliver asked. "I didn't know her then. But I bet she ran off, too, huh?"

"No," I said. "We were still safe when Cameron was eleven." Though probably the signs of our parents' dissolution had been there by then, we'd just been too young to interpret them. We'd still been cocooned in upper middle class assurances. "Maybe Mariella and her friend went to join the circus," I suggested. "Or travel with a rock band."

"I think you're being old-fashioned," Tolliver said. "Girls now want to be fashion designers or supermodels."

"Well, Mariella will never make it," I said. The last time we'd seen our sister Mariella, she'd been on the short and plump side, and models notoriously aren't. It was a little early for her to have gotten her growth spurt.

"They'll call Mark next," Tolliver said. His older brother lived not too far from Will and Iona.

"Poor Mark," I said. He always helped other people, and he needed a break himself. His first marriage had failed spectacularly and quickly, and he'd been dating a string of losers ever since. Mark was a nice guy, and he deserved better, but he always sought worse. "We should call him tonight."

"Good idea. Well, here we are again."

The little house seemed drenched in gloom today. Jay Hopkins might have a hard time selling the place, though the paint was fresh and the yard in good condition.

Jay Hopkins was as thin as his ex-wife had been. I had a fleeting image of their skeletons clacking together during sex, an image I was quick to banish from my mind. He was sitting on the front steps, so I was able to get a good look as we crossed the yard. Helen's ex had the malnourished face of a longtime drinker, and he could have passed for anywhere between his probable age - which would be in his early forties - and sixty. His hair was sparse and silver-blond, and he smoked with quick jerks of his hand.

"Thank you all for coming by," he said. "You must be the psychic lady."

"I'm not psychic," I explained, for maybe the thousandth time. I started to add I wasn't a lady, either, but that would become evident, and the topic bored me. "I just find bodies."

"I'm Tolliver Lang, Harper's brother." Tolliver extended his hand. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"My whole family is dead now," Jay Hopkins said, matter-of-factly. "Both my daughters, and my wife. You couldn't get a much bigger loss than that."

I groped around mentally for something to say, but came up speechless. Maybe there just wasn't anything.

"Have a seat," Jay said, when the pause became painful.

"Before I do," I said abruptly, "I have a question for you. Did your wife leave Teenie's room just like it was?"

"Yes, because she always expected her to come back," he said unsteadily. "Sally and Teenie shared that room until Sally married Hollis, and then Teenie had it all to herself. What are you wanting to know?"

"May I see it?"

"You said you weren't psychic. What are you hoping to find out?" Jay Hopkins was sharper than I'd given him credit for. Maybe he hadn't started drinking for the day.

I hesitated. "I want to see if some of her hair is left in her hairbrush," I said finally.

"For what reason?" He lit another cigarette. It was his house, I reminded myself.

"I want to have it tested," I said.

"To find out what?"

Now he'd asked one question too many.

"I think you know," Tolliver said unexpectedly. "I think you wonder, too."

Jay stubbed out the cigarette with vicious jabs. "What're you talking about, mister?"

"You wonder who her father was."

Jay froze in position, I guess amazed that someone had