I don’t share my place with no one. I don’t like anyone knowin’ where it is, but Meggie . . . well, I made a mistake with her one time when it was real cold an’ let her stay with me. But it weren’t cold that night, and she smelled pretty damn ripe, so I tells her to move on.” She scowled. “Wasn’t like I knew what would happen, was it?”
“Of course not. And you’re entitled to your privacy.”
“I am.” She said that forcefully. “So I tells her to move on, an’ after a while she does. Now, my place . . .” She slid him a suspicious look. “I ain’t telling you where it is, but it’s close to the street, so I heard it when she starts talking to someone. I wanted to know who that was, ’cause Meggie’s too scared to speak to a shadow if’n she don’t know ’em. ’Specially a male shadow. So I’m thinkin’ it’s someone I know, and I don’t want her telling anyone where my place is, so I went to see.”
“You saw her taken?”
“Big old black car. Not a flying saucer, nothin’ like that. They was in a big old black car, real nice. And Meggie . . . she just stood there.” For a moment the woman stared into space, her face slack, her eyes holding a touch of real horror. “She weren’t right. I saw her face, and she weren’t right. They used their mind powers on her, I guess. That one of ’em who’d got out of the car took her arm and told her to come along, and she did. She just did what he said.” She shuddered. “That’s how I knew they was aliens. Meggie wouldn’t never get in a car with someone that way. ’Specially not a man.”
“They didn’t look like aliens, then?”
“Only saw that one. The other was driving the car, or mebbe there was a bunch of ’em in the car. I couldn’t see. But that one, he looked just like anyone.”
“He was disguised.”
“That’s right!” His suggestion unlocked a fierce series of nods. “That’s absodamnlutely right! I figure they can be anyone, those aliens. But you’re a werewolf. They can’t turn themselves into werewolves.”
“I don’t think so, no. This one you saw . . . was he fat or skinny or in between?”
“Kinda skinny, I guess. Dressed nice, but not fancy. Not in a suit or anything.” She squinted, thinking. “Not jeans, though. Businessman pants.”
“Dark skin? Pale?”
“Oh, he was white.”
Further questions revealed that the alien who snatched Meggie was neither “real old or real young.” His hair had been dark and short, and he hadn’t worn glasses or facial hair. He’d been a lot taller than “poor Meggie,” but Meggie was such a teeny dab of a thing, that wasn’t saying much. Mebbe six foot?
The alien abduction had happened about three weeks ago, and she hadn’t seen Meggie since. She didn’t know what time the men in the black car showed up, but it had been full dark for “a couple–three hours.” She had no idea what the make or model of the car was. She wouldn’t tell Rule where it had happened. She refused to talk to Lily—“Mebbe you ain’t an alien, but how do I know about her?”—and she still wouldn’t tell him her name. When he asked again, she stepped back. “I got somewhere to be.”
“All right. I’d like to pay you for your time.”
“Yeah? Well, I charges a hundred an hour.”
His lips tugged up. “I believe we spoke less than an hour.” He moved so his body blocked them from any prying eyes before slipping his wallet from his pocket. Some of those here wouldn’t hesitate to mug an old woman. He took out three twenties—and his card. One of the ones with his cell number. “Will you call me if you see them again?”
“Mebbe.”
“I’m glad you’re cautious. Don’t tell anyone else about these men. Who, ah, only look like men. You don’t want them to know you’ve seen them.”
She stuck the bills in her jeans pocket and gave him a sly smile. “Seen who?”
He could probably find out what name she went by, he thought as he angled across the room toward Lily, who’d finished with the servers and was talking to a shriveled little man in an incredibly bright blue sweater. Someone here probably knew that much. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. She liked her privacy, and who was he to take that away?