The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix Page 0,76

never write down the license plate number of a strange car. They would never tell you they saw a stranger watching your house. There are a lot of things that are different down here, but not once do I regret living in a community where we keep an eye out for each other. Let’s see if we can make a more convincing argument than Patricia, and if so, I’ll run it by Ed. If Ed thinks it holds up, then maybe we’ve done some good.”

Patricia felt a wave of gratitude toward her.

“I will not be a part of some kind of lynch mob,” Grace said.

“We’re not a lynch mob, we’re a book club,” Kitty said. “We’ve always been there for each other. This is where Patricia is now? It’s kind of weird, but okay. We’d do the same for you.”

“If that situation ever occurs,” Grace said, “don’t.”

And she walked out of Slick’s house.

* * *

—

The next morning Patricia had just decided to clean the den closet before doing more research on vampires when the phone rang. She answered.

“Patricia. It’s Grace Cavanaugh.”

“I’m so sorry about what happened at book club,” Patricia said, who hadn’t realized until this moment how desperately she wanted to hear Grace’s voice. “I won’t talk about it with you anymore if you don’t want me to.”

“I found his van,” Grace said.

The change to another page was so fast Patricia couldn’t follow.

“What van?” she asked.

“James Harris’s,” Grace said. “You see, I remembered that in Silence of the Lambs that man hides his car containing a head in a mini-storage unit. And I remembered that I’ve known you for almost seven years and I should afford you the benefit of the doubt.”

“Thank you,” Patricia said.

“The only mini-storage establishment in Mt. Pleasant is Pak Rat over on Highway 17,” Grace continued. “They spell pack wrong because they think it’s cute. It’s not. Bennett knows Carl, the man who runs it. So I called Carl’s wife, Zenia, last night, I’m not sure you’ve ever met her but we’re both in handbell choir. I told her what I was looking for and she was happy to call over and see what she could find and it turns out there is a James Harris who rents a unit, and the attendant said he’d seen him going in and out of it a few times in a white van. He saw him in it last week. So he still owns it.”

“Grace,” Patricia said. “That’s wonderful news.”

“Not if he’s hurting children,” Grace said.

“No, of course not,” Patricia said, feeling chastised and triumphant at the same time.

“If you really think this man is up to no good,” Grace said, “you need more than this before we go to Ed. We don’t want to go off half-cocked.”

“Don’t worry, Grace,” Patricia said. “When we go off, we’ll be fully cocked.”

PSYCHO

August 1993

CHAPTER 20

“But I said you could spend the night with Laurie,” Patricia told Korey.

“Well, now I changed my mind,” Korey said.

She stood in the doorway to Patricia’s bathroom while Patricia finished doing her makeup. Korey had come home from soccer camp and increased Patricia’s stress exponentially. It was hard enough to make sure Blue was always somewhere safe after dark, but Korey hung around the house aimlessly, watching TV for hours, and then she’d get a phone call and suddenly need to borrow the car to go see her friends in the middle of the night. Except for tonight, when Patricia actually wanted her out of the house.

“I’m hosting book club,” Patricia said. “You haven’t seen Laurie since you got back from camp.”

One of the reasons they were having it at her house was because she’d exerted gentle pressure on Carter to take Blue out for supper at Quincy’s Steak House and then to a movie (they decided on something called So I Married an Axe Murderer). Korey was supposed to be spending the night downtown.

“She canceled,” Korey said. “Her parents are getting divorced and her dad wants to spend quality time. That skirt’s too tight.”