Dead Letter Day (26 page)

I turned to Meredith. “I think we need to find out more about the yarn shop lady and I’m going to need your help to do it.”

“SO WHERE EXACTLY ARE YOU GOING TO BE?” MEREDITH asked as we pulled into town.

“Nearby. It depends on where I can find parking.” A Messenger’s days were full of details like parking and other issues like that. It really was kind of ridiculous. I could be driving around northern California with a magical sword or a charmed chalice and still have to look for two-hour parking on the street before I could deliver them. “Are you nervous?”

Meredith rolled her eyes. “I don’t do nervous.”

I waited.

“I just want to know where you are in case I need to make a quick exit.”

That seemed reasonable. “I don’t think I can be closer than maybe a block away without slamming everything shut pretty hard.” Inge’s effect on me was profound and deeply disturbing. Just thinking about having to be around that melancholy made my stomach twist. Of course, I hadn’t been my usual rock-solid self in the gastrointestinal area.

“That’s fine. What do you want me to look for when I’m in there?” Meredith asked, fiddling with her braid.

“I’m not even sure. I just know that she has to be involved somehow.” My cell phone buzzed. I glanced at the number and hit the reject button.

“Who was that?”

I didn’t answer.

“You’re not going to talk to him?” She shook her head.

Not fair. “I did talk to him.”

“Are you not going to talk to him ever again? Are you kicking him to the curb?”

Was I? I didn’t know myself anymore. I knew that he’d disappointed me and hurt me. Although, really, whose fault was that? I’d let him in, hadn’t I? I’d invited him into my life in a manner that was way more profound than the way Norah had invited Alex into our apartment. I was still pissed at her about that and I was beginning to see I should be pissed at myself as well. No hypocrisy here. Well, not much. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s kicking me to the curb. He didn’t exactly drop to one knee and propose when I told him I was carrying his child.”

Meredith’s eyebrows went up. “Did you just drop it on him like a big bomb?”

“Yep. It’s kind of my way.”

“And what has he said since then?”

I shrugged. Ted had now left me at least six voice mails and sent me about a dozen texts, none of which I’d listened to or read.

“He hasn’t said anything?” Meredith’s brows climbed higher.

“I haven’t been taking his calls,” I admitted.

“Melina, Melina, Melina. What are we going to do with you?” She chuckled. “You should cut the guy a little slack. Impending fatherhood is kind of a big deal. It might have taken him a minute or two to let the news sink in.” She stopped and then gave me a very piercing look. “He didn’t ask if you were sure the baby was his, did he?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Well, okay, then. That’s sort of a deal breaker. Unless, of course, you’ve given him reason to ask.”

I punched her in the shoulder.

“Ouch.”

I didn’t apologize.

“Give him another chance.”

“I’ll think about it.” I pulled the Buick into a parking place a block down and around the corner from Inge’s shop and Kevin’s hardware store.

Meredith flipped the vanity mirror down and checked her hair and makeup. “Can you keep your senses open here?”

I experimented. I could feel Inge’s presence, but it wasn’t overwhelming me. Distance indeed made me fonder of her. “Yeah. I should be okay here.”

“Good. Then you should be able to sense it when I’m coming back to the car.” She flipped the mirror shut. “You know, just in case I’m in a hurry.”

I gave her a long hard look. “What is it that you’re intending to do in there?” Our plan had been for Meredith to do a little reconnaissance. I wasn’t exactly a great candidate to do it. First of all, Inge had seen me before in Kevin’s shop. I didn’t want her to get suspicious if she did indeed have something to do with Paul’s disappearance. Second, being near her weakened me to the point where I was practically on my knees.

Reconnaissance, however, generally didn’t require you to beat a hasty retreat to a getaway car, which sounded like what Meredith was planning.

She turned to me all wide-eyed and innocent. “I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re looking for or what we’re getting into here. Neither do you. I want to be prepared.”

“No spellcasting,” I said, trying to sound stern.

“Of course not,” she said as if she wouldn’t have dreamt of it, which had to be a bald-faced lie.

“Okay then. Beat it. I’ll be right here.” I leaned the seat back in the Buick.

“Don’t fall asleep, Melina,” she warned.

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Don’t do it anyway.”

Whatever.

Meredith got out of the car and disappeared around the corner toward the yarn shop.

I sat in the car and stewed. This was a fool’s errand. What had I been thinking? If Paul had been at Inge’s store, I would have felt him by now. I was 100 percent sure of that. Even with Inge’s masking melancholy and what felt like a few stray brownies around, I knew I would pick his signal up. I hadn’t. Besides, who would hide a werewolf in a yarn shop? I don’t care what you were using to keep him subdued, it wasn’t going to work. It took the bull in a china shop metaphor to a whole new level.

There were other werewolf vibes around. I had to assume it was Kevin and Sam and whoever else was working in the hardware store. Not Paul, though. I would have recognized Paul.

Speaking of werewolf, however, there was one getting pretty close. I slid down in the Buick, but it didn’t help. Sam leaned in the open window on the passenger side. “Melina, what are you doing here?”

Great. I tried to keep track of Meredith’s signal as the powerful presence of a young vital werewolf filled all my senses. “Oh, you know, just hanging out.” Lame. I know. I should have had a lie prepared.

He cocked his head to one side. “Do you have a lead on
Paul?” He opened the door and slipped into the car, his big brown eyes wide and interested.

“I’m not sure. Maybe.” There wasn’t a whole lot of point in lying, but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone besides Meredith about Inge yet. It could be totally a false direction. The last thing I needed was for a bunch of werewolves to be breathing down her neck if she wasn’t involved. Or, for that matter, if she was. I had no idea where Paul might be or what she might be doing with him, after all. If he was in danger, I didn’t want to make it worse.

“What is it? Is there some way I can help?” he asked.

I bit my lip. As much as I wanted to keep my own counsel, I needed more information. Sam would know plenty. “What can you tell me about Inge?”

If possible, those wide brown eyes got wider. “Inge who runs the yarn shop? That Inge?”

I nodded.

“You think she has something do with Paul?” He pressed.

“Honestly, I don’t know yet. That’s why I’d like to know more about her.”

“Well, she’s sure had her share of trouble.” Sam sat back in the seat.

“What kind?”

Sam squirmed a little. “The car accident kind, I guess. Her husband and her youngest son were killed in a one-car accident on State Route 89 last year.”

No wonder this woman had melancholy rolling off her like stink off an ogre. That would devastate anyone. “That’s terrible.”

“Yeah. Everybody said it was just a matter of time. Still, nobody really expects that.” He looked pained.

“I’m not following.”

“The husband. He was a drunk. He’d had like three DUIs in the past two years.”

“How did he still have a license?” I asked. That was ridiculous.

“He didn’t. He was driving without one.” Sam shook his head. “Some people just don’t care, Melina.”

“But he had one of his kids in the car with him? How could he not care about that?” I was starting to feel sick. What kind of father was that? My father would never NEVER have put me in danger that way. And Ted? I knew through every fiber of my being that there was absolutely no way that he would do that to our baby even if he didn’t want him or her.

Oh, God, our baby. His and mine, even if circumstances were forcing us into parenthood before we were ready. I gripped the steering wheel to keep my hands off my stomach.

“It’s hard to fathom, I know, but it happens all the time, Melina,” Sam said.

No wonder Inge walked around like a black cloud. What a hideous combination of grief and guilt and regret must she carry around with her? Wait. I knew exactly what kind of hideous cloud it was. It had nearly choked me to death the first time I’d come in contact with it. “How does she keep going?”

“She’s got two more sons. That’s a pretty powerful incentive to get out of bed in the morning,” Sam said. Then suddenly he bared his teeth and growled. I stared at him. “You brought her with you?”

I looked down the sidewalk. Meredith was coming back to the car. He must have sensed her.

“I did. She’s a friend.” I did not like the turn this was taking.

He snorted. “Not in my book, she’s not.”

I got out of the car and held up my hands, hoping to slow Meredith down. She was doing her typical sexy stride back to the car and didn’t even break her pace by one step, waving to me instead as if she thought I’d gotten out of the car to greet her.

I ducked my head back into the Buick. “Don’t start anything.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. I’m leaving.” Sam got out of the car, striding with his long legs. As he passed Meredith, the two of them glanced at each other. I could see her eyes narrow and his lips pull back from his teeth. I held my breath, but the two kept on walking.

“Consorting with werewolves the second my back is turned?” she asked as she got to the car.

“Consorting isn’t exactly how I’d describe it,” I said, getting back into the Buick, relieved that they hadn’t started actual combat on the street.

“Probably just as well. He looked like a baby and a woman in your condition shouldn’t be flirting.”

I looked down the street where Sam had turned the corner. He did look young and I tended to treat him like he was, but that was a mistake. There was no telling how old he was. I needed to keep that in mind when I was dealing with him. I opted to ignore the remark about my condition. Flirting wasn’t my strong suit even when I wasn’t knocked up. I doubted the whole swelling waistline and intermittent nausea would create any great coquettish moments. “What did you find out?”

“That I’d really like to learn to make broomstick lace, real wool makes me sneeze and Inge worships at an altar to Frigga in the back of her shop.” Meredith smiled. “Now start driving.”

11

“WHAT DID THE ALTAR LOOK LIKE?” I ASKED, NOSING THE Buick into the street and back toward the highway.

“Like an altar.” Meredith pulled an emery board out of her purse and started to file her nails.

“Could I have a few more details, please?”

Meredith sighed as if the breath was coming up from her toes. “It had a white and blue cloth and white and blue candles arranged in a circle. Then there was some yarn on a spindle and a jug of something.”

“Something?”

“I’d guess mead or something like it. I don’t have your nose. I can’t walk by and sniff something and know what it is.”

“So where was it?” I was trying to imagine a shrine like that in the middle of a yarn shop. You’d think people would mention it.

“Tucked in the back of the shop in the storeroom.”

“How did you get back there?”

“I pretended like I was looking for a bathroom.”

“Do you think she bought it?”

Meredith made a comme ci, comme ça gesture with her hand. “Maybe. I think she’ll remember me if she sees me again too soon, but she didn’t seem overly suspicious. She was pretty quick to hustle me out of there, though.”

“Did she at least let you pee?”

“No. Not very sisterly, was it?” Meredith shook her head.

No. It wasn’t. What the hell was Inge up to? Meredith was clearly worrying at the same problem, chewing at the edge of her thumb while she did it. Suddenly she turned to look at me. “You were saying that there have been two crows—big crows—hanging around outside your place all the time lately?”