It was half gossip session, half debrief, as if she knew I needed the reprieve from the death and decay of decomping bodies.
JoJo told me all about last Sunday dinner with her mama and grandmama and great-grandmama, and had me laughing and commiserating with the multigenerational complaints and arguments of a bunch of women in JoJo’s tiny, ultramodern kitchen. Talking to her was a little like home, and somehow made me feel ready to talk to my sisters.
* * *
* * *
PsyLED had booked rooms for us in the Hampton Inn, off I-40. I remembered my reaction to the first hotel I had walked into, back when I signed on as a consultant. I had never seen such fancy carpeting, shiny stone floors, ornate décor. I had changed, or I was just exhausted. I didn’t hardly look at the place as I checked in, instead going straight to the elevator and up to our rooms, carrying my gear gobags and the potted rooted sprig from the vampire tree. I carried it with me because when I had to read the ground deeply, it let me do so safely. It seemed to keep other plants from trying to root and grow into my body, which was strange and complicated. The tree back home and the potted mini vampire tree were both sentient or near enough not to matter. Not that the tree or I had shared that secret with many people. Tandy knew, but Tandy would never share that.
On our last big case, the tree had named itself the Green Knight, and had chosen a job—to protect me. It also had to be fed occasionally, and it wanted living creatures—mice, squirrels, birds. Also not shared. I wasn’t used to keeping lies straight, so I managed by not talking about anything much at all. But it was getting hard to keep it all silent.
JoJo had booked three rooms, one a large suite for FireWind with a king bed and a work area, and the others two regular hotel rooms with two queen beds. If we double bunked, we could sleep four to a room. I hoped the CSI team would be put elsewhere. I didn’t particularly enjoy bunking with strangers.
I chose the room farthest from FireWind’s corner suite and fortunately my room had a south-facing window for the tree. I tossed my bags onto the bed closest to the window. The view was not much a nothing, but the tree would be happy come morning. I stuffed my death and decay–stinking clothes into a large zippered plastic bag, showered fast with my strong-smelling homemade lavender soap, and groomed my leaves—tightly curled leaf buds along my hairline. This was a part of my daily toilette, and if I forgot, the leaves stuck out. I had been classified in Spook School and was listed on my personnel records as nonhuman, paranormal, undifferentiated.
I dressed in sweats and unpacked my four-day gobag. I didn’t travel with much. A change of pants, three shirts, the sweats (which I wore when working in a hotel room when business attire would be uncomfortable), sleeping clothes that were really yoga pants and a tank top in case I had to be seen in the middle of the night, undies, extra socks, field boots, jeans for field work, a plastic bag of travel-sized toiletries, extra mags and ammo, and a speedloader. Unpacking took all of twenty seconds. I unlocked and cracked open the connecting door between the other room and this one so Occam would know I was here.
My cell rang. Again. It was Mud’s number. Sighing, I sat on the bed and stretched out, propped by the pillows. I hit the accept button for the overdue call with my younger sister.
“Hey, Mud.”
“You’un ain’t called us all day. We’uns been calling and calling and I’da thought you was dead if I hadn’t called JoJo and asked her.” Her voice went up in pitch, echoing in the house around her on speakerphone. “You’uns out of town and I need you! Esther wants to kick Cherry outta the house!” Her voice went louder. “She’s my dog and I say she’s an inside dog!”
Esther was taking care of Mud while I worked. It had sounded good in theory. It wasn’t working out as planned.
“Dogs and cats is not inside critters,” Esther shouted. “They belong outside and not in here with people!”
“I thought that since I didn’t have school today we’uns could go shopping. Instead I been stuck with her! Where are you and