"This is Mercy," I told it after it beeped at me. "Adam and Samuel are missing. Where are you? Call me or Darryl as soon as you can."
I didn't know enough about witchcraft to know if she could help or not. At the very least I could pick her brain about vampires and sorcerers--if I could convince her that Adam's orders not to talk to me were out of date. I called all three of Tony's numbers and told him to call me on my cell. I called Zee, but only got his answering machine. I left a detailed message on his phone also. That way Darryl and Zee both knew what I was up to.
Then I took my cell phone and headed to work. I'd send Gabriel home for the day and close the shop.
My watch said I was fifteen minutes early, so I was surprised to see Mrs. Hanna. She was hours ahead of her customary schedule.
When I parked in my usual spot, she was next to my car. Frantic as I was, Mrs. Hanna's very presence demanded that I be polite. "Hello, Mrs. Hanna. You're early today."
There was a pause before she looked up at me, and for a moment she didn't know me at all. A month or two more, I thought, and there would only be a little personality left.
But for today, her face eventually lit up, "Mercedes, child. I was hoping to see you today. I have a special drawing just for you."
She fumbled around in her cart without success, becoming visibly more agitated.
"It's all right, Mrs. Hanna," I told her. "I'm sure you'll find it later. Why don't you leave it for me tomorrow?"
"But it was just right here," she fretted. "A picture of that nice boy who likes you. The dark one."
Adam.
"Tomorrow will be fine, Mrs. Hanna. What brings you out so early?"
She looked around as if bewildered by the question. Then relaxed and smiled. "Oh that was Joe. He told me I'd better change my route if I wanted to keep visiting him." I smiled at her. When she'd been alive, she'd talked about John this and Peter that. I never had been sure if she really had boyfriends, or just liked to pretend that she had.
She leaned forward confidentially. "We women always have to change for our men, don't we."
Startled I stared at her. That was it exactly. I felt as though Adam was changing who I was.
She saw that her words had hit home and nodded happily. "But they're worth it, God love them. They're worth it."
She puttered off in her usual shuffle-shuffle step that covered a surprising amount of ground.
CHAPTER 10
"No, sir, she's not--" Gabriel looked up as I walked into the shop. "Wait. She's here."
I took the phone, thinking it might be Tony or Elizaveta. "This is Mercy."
"This is John Beckworth, I'm calling from Virginia. I'm sorry, I forgot how much earlier you are than we."
The voice was familiar, but the name was wrong. "Mr. Black?" I asked.
"Yes," he sounded a little sheepish. "It's Beckworth, actually. I just got off the phone with a Bran Cornick. He suggested that there is some trouble in the Tri-Cities." "Yes, we have something of a... situation here." Either Adam had called Bran yesterday, or Darryl had remembered the Blacks/Beckworths and talked to him this morning.
"So Mr. Cornick said. He suggested that we fly to Montana early next week." He paused. "He seemed less intense than Adam Hauptman."
That was Bran, quiet and calm until he ripped out your throat.
"Are you calling to make sure he's safe?" I asked.
"Yes. He wasn't on the list of men you gave me."
"If I had a daughter, I'd have no qualms leaving her with Bran," I said sincerely, ignoring the question of why Bran's name wasn't on the list. "He'll take good care of you and your family."
"He talked to Kara, my daughter," he said, and there was a world of relief in his voice. "I don't know what he said, but I haven't seen her this happy in years."
"Good."