"How broad's the pattern?" I asked.
"About three, three and a half miles. Some of the incidents are across the river in Paseo. There are outliers--our specialist tells me that there are enough to be significant. A few in Richland, Benton City and Burbank. Does this help?"
"I don't know," I told him. "Maybe. Thanks, Tony. I owe you a few favors for this."
"Just stop this thing."
"I'll do my best."
I met Darryl at the top of the stairs.
"You were right," he told me. "Food helped."
"Mmm," I said. "Samuel got a call last night. Warren doesn't know where they went, though."
"Warren's awake and talking?" I shook my head. "I wouldn't call it talking, and he's asleep again. It was Kyle who heard the phone call. As he apparently tried to tell you." I watched it sink in. "You might think about listening to Kyle," I told him gently, then to let him off the hook, I asked, "Do you know why my being able to talk to ghosts would scare the vampires?"
He grunted a negative. "I don't see how that would help. Last I heard, ghosts avoid evil." He walked past me without touching me.
I don't think he even realized what he'd given me.
Ghosts are not people. No matter how well Mrs. Hanna conversed, she was still just a memory of the person she had been.
I was so stupid.
She'd told me that she changed her routine and all I'd thought was how sad it was, because without her usual habits she'd probably fade quickly. I hadn't wondered why she'd changed her routine. Ghosts, pattern ghosts, just don't do that. Someone had told her to, she'd said--I couldn't remember who, just that it was a man's name. Her route wandered all over Kennewick. If the sorcerer was in Kennewick, she might have run into him.
Jesse looked up from the kitchen table as I ran down the stairs. "Mercy? Did you find out something."
"Maybe," I told her as I kept going to the door. "I have to find someone though." I looked at my watch. Eight twenty-seven. I had an hour and a half before dark--if the sorcerer had to wait for full dark to awaken.
CHAPTER 12
For most of the time that I'd lived in the Tri-Cities, Mrs. Hanna had pushed her grocery cart along the same path from dawn to dusk. I'd never actually followed her, but I'd seen her any number of places so I had a pretty good idea about most of her route. I didn't have any idea about how she'd changed it, so I had to look everywhere.
When I passed the first church, I pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out a notebook I kept in the car and wrote down the name of the church and its address. After an hour I had a list of eleven churches, reasonably near the KPD, none of which had flaming signs that said sorcerer sleeping here. The sun was noticeably low in the sky and my stomach was tight with dread.
If I was wrong that the reason Mrs. Hanna had to change her route was to avoid Littleton, then I'd wasted the last hour. If I was right, I was still running out of time.
I was also running out of places to look. I pulled over by Kennewick High and tried to think. If Mrs. Hanna hadn't changed her route it would be easier to find her. If she hadn't been dead it would have been easier yet. I was counting on being able to see her, but ghosts quite often manifest only to some senses: disembodied voices, cold spots, or just a whiff of perfume.
If I didn't find her soon it would be dark and I'd have to face Littleton during the height of his power--both as a demon and a vampire.
I stopped at the light on Garfield and Tenth. It was one of those lights that stayed red for a long time even when there was no oncoming traffic. "At least I wouldn't have to face Littleton alone after dark because I can call Andre." I pounded my hands on the steering wheel, impatient with the red light. "But if I don't find Mrs. Hanna before night, I won't find her at all." Mrs. Hanna went home at night.
I said it out loud because I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been. "Mrs. Hanna goes home at night."
There was still no traffic coming so I put my foot down, and for the first time in my adult life I ran a red light. Mrs. Hanna had lived in a little trailer park along the river, just east of the Blue Bridge and it took me five minutes and three red lights to get down to that area. I ran those lights, too.
I found her pushing her cart on the sidewalk next to the VW dealership. Parking my car on the wrong side of the street, I jumped out, biting back the urge to shout her name. Startled ghosts tend to disappear.
With that in mind I didn't say anything at all when I caught up to her. Instead I walked along beside her for a quarter of a block.
"What a nice evening," she said at last. "I do think we're due for a break in the weather."
"I hope so." I took two deep breaths. "Mrs. Hanna, pardon my rudeness, but I was wondering about that change in your usual walk."
"Of course, dear," she said absently. "How is that young man of yours?"