The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix Page 0,67

They stepped over the low railing around Mt. Zion A.M.E. and got all the way to its steps before Patricia said anything.

“It wasn’t natural,” she said.

It took Patricia two steps to realize Mrs. Greene had stopped walking. She turned around. In the church’s porch light, Mrs. Greene looked very small.

“Everyone’s hungry for our children,” she said, and her voice cracked. “The whole world wants to gobble up colored children, and no matter how many it takes it just licks its lips and wants more. Help me, Mrs. Campbell. Help me keep that little girl with her mother. Help me stop that man.”

“Of course,” Patricia said. “I’ll—”

“I don’t want to hear of course,” Mrs. Greene said. “When I tell someone what’s happening out here they see an old woman living in the country who’s never been to school. When you tell them, they see a doctor’s wife from the Old Village and they pay attention. I don’t like to ask for favors but I need you to make them pay attention to this. You know I did everything I could to save Miss Mary. I gave my blood for her. When you called me on the telephone tonight you said we’re all mothers. Yes, ma’am, we are. Give me your blood. Help me.”

Reflexively, Patricia almost said of course again, then wiped it from her mind. She didn’t say a thing. She stood across from Mrs. Greene and spoke, soft and firm.

“We’ll save them,” she said. “We won’t let them take Destiny, and we won’t let that man take any more children. I will do everything in my power to stop him. I promise you.”

Mrs. Greene didn’t reply, and the two of them stood like that for a moment.

“Well, that’s that,” Carter said, coming up behind her. “They’ll have her to the doctor tomorrow and if anything’s wrong they have my information in the report.”

The mood broke and the three of them walked toward Mrs. Greene’s house.

“Carter,” Patricia said. “You don’t think DSS will do anything to that little girl, do you?”

“What?” he asked. “Like, take her?”

“Yes,” Patricia said.

“No,” he said. “The doctor who sees her is mandated to report signs of abuse, but we don’t just snatch wailing babies out of their mothers’ arms. There’s a whole process. If you’re worried, I’ll ask around and see what kind of doc this guy is tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Patricia said. “I’m just feeling nervous.”

“Don’t worry,” Carter said. “I’ll make sure.”

Mrs. Greene went into her house and Patricia heard her lock the door. Carter opened Patricia’s car door for her. She clicked in her seat belt and rolled down the window.

“Thank you for coming,” she said.

“I got your note,” he said. “Too many things have happened for you to be riding around all alone out here in the middle of the night. Why don’t you follow me home and we’ll get some rest and talk in the morning?”

She nodded, grateful that he wasn’t trying to make her feel like a fool, and then she followed his red taillights all the way out of Six Mile, down Rifle Range Road, and back to the Old Village. When they passed James Harris’s house she saw Carter’s brake lights flare briefly, probably because he also noticed James’s Chevy Corsica parked in front of his house.

That night, for the first time in months, Carter held Patricia while she slept. She knew because she kept waking up from nightmares about a bloody red mouth chasing her through the woods and each time she felt his arms around her, and went back to sleep, reassured.

CHAPTER 18

Patricia woke up feeling like she’d fallen down the stairs. Her joints popped when she got out of bed, and her shoulders groaned like they were stuffed with broken glass when she reached for the coffee filters. When she undressed for her shower she noticed bruises on both hips from sliding back and forth across the back seat of the police car.

Carter had to go in to the hospital even though it was Saturday, and Patricia let Blue do whatever he wanted because it was