“How long would it take for a mortal to build up that kind of resistance?” Bricker asked curiously.
“At least twenty years,” Drina murmured, eyeing Sherry curiously.
She immediately shook her head. “There is no way I have had an immortal in my life for twenty years without my knowing. You guys don’t age. I’d notice that.”
“Hair dye, older clothes, maybe some padding and a little makeup could make it appear like they were aging,” Drina said quietly.
“Seriously?” Sherry asked with surprise.
Drina nodded. “It will be someone you spend a lot of time with. Almost daily for twenty years, I should think. They . . .” Her voice trailed off when Sherry began to shake her head again.
“You can stop there. I haven’t had anyone in my life for that long.”
“No one?” Basil asked with a frown.
“Well, my mother was around for my first twenty-nine years, but she died three years ago of a heart attack. Your people wouldn’t die of a heart attack.”
“It’s not your mother. If your mother was immortal, you would be too. It’s passed on through the mother’s blood.”
“Unless her mother was turned after Sherry was born,” Drina pointed out.
Sherry shifted impatiently. “Hello. Heart attack. Dead. You people only die by decapitation and fire, from what I understand.”
“Did your mother have a partner?” Drina asked.
“Just my father. She never dated after they split up.”
“No one?”
Sherry started to shake her head, but then hesitated.
“Who is Uncle Al?” Lucian asked sharply, apparently picking up on the thought that had crossed her mind unspoken. “Your father’s brother?”
Sherry shook her head. “No. He wasn’t really an uncle. He was a family friend. He used to spend a lot of time with us, and he was very supportive of Mom when she and Dad split.” She shrugged. “For a while I thought they might start dating or something, but nothing came of it.”
“You’re sure about that?” Basil asked, and pointed out, “They might not have told you they were dating.”
“No. They didn’t date,” Sherry assured them. “I would have known. Besides, he wasn’t in my life that long. He came around after my brother Danny died, when I was seven. As I said, he wasn’t really an uncle. By the time I started university he was little more than a fond memory.”
“So was he a friend of both your parents or not?” Bricker asked with a frown, and when she glanced to him questioningly, pointed out, “You said he was a family friend of your mom and dad’s, but then you said he came around after your brother died when you were seven. Did he show up when you were seven or before that?”
Sherry hesitated and then shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I was a kid.”
“It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t been in her life since she was a teenager,” Drina interrupted. “We’re dealing with an immortal who is obviously still in her life. This Uncle Al would hardly disappear for fifteen years and then suddenly show up to scare her out of Port Henry all this time later.”
“Well, there isn’t anyone in my life who fits the bill of an immortal,” Sherry said. “The only people I even deal with on a daily basis, who are in their early twenties, are my employees Emma, Joan, Allan, Zander, Sarah, and Eric . . . and I didn’t know any of them before I opened the store three years ago. So if one of them is an immortal—”
Drina shook her head. “Three years isn’t long enough. But it doesn’t have to be someone who looks like they’re in their early twenties. As I said, hair dye, makeup, and clothing could make them look older.”
“It doesn’t matter how old they look,” Sherry insisted. “I just haven’t had anyone in my life that long. The longest anyone has been in my life is my mother, who as I said is dead. After that, my buddy Luther was in my life for the longest at nine years, and he got a job in Saudi Arabia and moved there just before I opened the store three years ago. I haven’t seen him since.”
“Aunts and uncles?” Drina asked.
“My relatives are not vamp— immortals,” Sherry said with certainty.
“You cannot be certain—” Drina began, but Sherry cut her off.
“I am certain,” she insisted firmly. “No amount of makeup and hair dye could make a twenty-something look sixty to seventy years old. My mother was the youngest, an afterthought, born fifteen years behind her eldest sister. All my aunts have varicose veins and are wrinkled from their foreheads down to their feet. As for my uncles, one is bald with a little sprout of gray hair on his crown, the other has that donut thing happening where the top of the head is bald and the hair grows around the sides, and the third one has a belly that actually does shake like a bowl full of jelly when he laughs. I’m telling you, they are not immortals.”