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CLAUDINE WAS ON ether, atched the firefighters ailass fro theover the sink, too While the firefighters concentrated on the fire, the police concentrated on the body Charles stepped up to bat right away

"I killed hi fire to the house He was armed, and he attacked me"

Sheriff Bud Dearborn looked more like a Pekinese than any human should look His face was practically concave His eyes were round and bright, and at the moment extreray, was combed back from his face all around, and I expected him to snuffle when he spoke "And you would be?" he asked the varacefully "At your service"

I wasn&039;t iave or Andy Bellefleur&039;s eye roll

"And you&039;d be on the spot because ?"

"He&039;s staying with me," Bill said smoothly, "while he works at Merlotte&039;s"

Presumably the sheriff had already heard about the new bartender, because he just nodded I was relieved at not having to confess that Charles was supposed to be sleeping inlied about that Our eyes met for a moment

"So you admit you killed this man?" Andy asked Charles Charles nodded curtly

Andy beckoned to the wo by her car - which made maybe five cars in lanced at me curiously as she walked past to the huddled for a stethoscope from a pocket, she knelt by the man and listened to various parts of his body "Yep, dead as a doornail," she called

Andy had gotten a Polaroid out of the police car to take pictures of the body Since the only light was the flash of the ca house, I didn&039;t think the pictures would turn out too well I was numb with shock, and I watched Andy as if this were an iood thing to find out why he torched Sookie&039;s house," Bill said as he watched Andy work His voice rivaled a refrigerator for coldness

"In my fear for Sookie&039;s safety, I suppose I struck too hard" Charles tried to look regretful

"Since his neck see Charles&039;s white face with the saiven ht; a woman slim to the point of skinny, with very short red hair She was about five foot three, and she had elfin features, or at least the kind I&039;d always thought of as elfin: a short, turned-up nose, wide eyes, large mouth Her words were both dry and bold, and she didn&039;t see called out in thelike this She must be the parish coroner, so I must have voted for her, but I couldn&039;t recall her name

"Who are you?" Claudine asked in her sweetest voice

The doctor blinked at the vision of Claudine Claudine, at this ungodly hour of the , was in full s Her shoes were fuchsia and black striped, and her jacket was, too Claudine&039;s black rippling hair was held off her face with fuchsia combs

"I&039;m Dr Tonnesen Linda Who are you?"

"Claudine Crane," the fairy said I&039;d never known the last name Claudine used

"And ere you here on the spot, Ms Crane?" Andy Bellefleur asked

"I&039; Though the scene was grihed, too It was like we just couldn&039;t stop being cheerful around Claudine But I wondered very much about Claudine&039;s explanation

"No, really," Bud Dearborn said "Why are you here, Ms Crane?"

Claudine sht with Sookie," she said, winking

In a second, ere the objects of fascinated scrutiny fro, and I had to lock down my head as if it were a uys were broadcasting

Andy shook himself, closed histo roll him," he said a little hoarsely, and turned the corpse so he could feel inside the dead man&039;s pockets The man&039;s wallet proved to be in his jacket, which seehtened and stepped away from the body to examine the billfold&039;s contents

"You want to have a look, see if you recognize him?" Sheriff Dearborn asked me Of course I didn&039;t, but I also saw that I really didn&039;t have a choice Nervously, I inched a little closer and looked again at the face of the dead ht be in his thirties "I don&039;t know hihters and the water pouring onto the house

"What?" Bud Dearborn was having trouble hearing me His round brown eyes were locked onto"I&039;ve never seen him, that I remember Claudine?"

I don&039;t knohy I asked Claudine

"Oh, yes, I&039;ve seen him," she said cheerfully

That attracted the undivided attention of the two vampires, the tmen, the doctor, and me

"Where?"

Claudine threw her arht You were too worried about your friend to notice, I guess He was over in the side of the roo that side

It wasn&039;t too a that I&039;d missed one male face in a crowded bar But it did bother hts and I&039;d hts that must have been relevant to me After all, he was in the bar with me, and a few hours later he&039;d set fire to ht?

"This driver&039;s license says he&039;s from Little Rock, Arkansas," Andy said

"That wasn&039;t what he told ia" She looked just as radiant when she realized he&039;d lied to her, but she wasn&039;t s "He said his name was Marlon"

"Did he tell you why he was in town, Ms Crane?"

"He said he was just passing through, had a motel room up on the interstate"

"Did he explain any further?"

"Nope"

"Did you go to hisfrom speaker to speaker as if she was at a verbal tennis s like that" Claudine smiled all around

Bill looked as if someone had just waved a bottle of blood in front of his face His fangs extended, and his eyes fixed on Claudine Va when fairies are around Charles had stepped closer to Claudine, too

She had to leave before the law Linda Tonnesen had already noticed; she herself was pretty interested in Claudine I hoped she&039;d just attribute the vamps&039; fascination to Claudine&039;s excellent looks, rather than the overwhel allure fairies held for vamps

"Fellowship of the Sun," Andy said "He has an honest-to-God membership card in here There&039;s no nae His license is issued to Jeff Marriot" He looked atto me

It was just like a Fellowshipas nasty as torching my house - with me in it - and no one would question him It wasn&039;t the first tiroup, had tried to burn me alive

"He must have known you&039;ve had, ah, an association with va my home, and I could have died, because I know vampires?"

Even Bud Dearborn looked a little embarrassed

"Someone must have heard you used to date Mr Compton, here," Bud muttered "I&039;m sorry, Sookie"

I said, "Claudine needs to leave"

The abrupt change of subject startled both Andy and Bud, as well as Claudine She looked at the two vampires, ere perceptibly closer to her, and hastily said, "Yes, I&039;et back home I have to work tomorrow"

"Where&039;s your car, Ms Crane?" Bud Dearborn looked around elaborately "I didn&039;t see any car but Sookie&039;s, and it&039;s parked in the back"

"I&039; had years of practice Without waiting for further discussion, she disappeared into the woods, and only liding into the darkness after her They were staring into the blackness of the trees when I pinched them, hard

"What?" asked Bill, al Bud and Andy and the new doctor wouldn&039;t overhear They didn&039;t need to know that Claudine was supernatural

"That&039;s quite a woman," Dr Tonnesen said, almost as dazed as the vaet, uh, Jeff Marriot I&039;m just here because I hadback froet some sleep Sorry about your fire, Ms Stackhouse, but at least you didn&039;t end up like this guy here" She nodded down at the corpse

As she got into her Ranger, the fire chief trudged up to us I&039;d known Catfish Hunter for years - he&039;d been a friend of my dad&039;s - but I&039;d never seen him in his capacity as volunteer fire chief Catfish eating despite the cold, and his face was sot it out," he said wearily "It&039;s not as bad as you ht think"

"It&039;s not?" I asked in a small voice

"No, honey You lost your back porch and your kitchen and your car, I&039;as in that, too But most of the house should be okay"

The kitchen where the only traces of the death I&039;d caused could have been found Now not even the technicians featured on the Discovery Channel could find any blood traces in the scorched rooh "The kitchen," I said between giggles "The kitchen&039;s all gone?"

"Yes," said Catfish uneasily "I hope you got you soiggle any more "I do It was hard for me to keep up the payments, but I kept the policy Grandrandreat believer in insurance She&039;d seen too many people drop policy payments to cut their monthly expenses and then suffer losses they were unable to recoup

"Who&039;s it with? I&039;ll call right now" Catfish was so anxious to stop , he was ready toAubert," I said

The whole night suddenly rose up and whalloped me one My house had burned, at least partially I&039;d had more than one prowler I had a vampire in residence for whoone There was a dead man named Jeff Marriot in my yard, and he&039;d set fire to my house and car out of sheer prejudice I was overwhelmed

"Jason isn&039;t at home," Catfish said from a distance "I tried him He&039;d want her to come over to his house"

"She and Charles - that is, Charles and I will take her over to my house," Bill said He seemed to be equally far away

"I don&039;t know about that," Bud Dearborn said doubtfully "Sookie, is that okay with you?"

I could barely h a few options I couldn&039;t call Tara because Mickey was there Arlene&039;s trailer was as crowded as it needed to be already

"Yes, that would be all right," I said, and my voice sounded re&039;s we knohere to reach you"

"I called Greg, Sookie, and left a," Catfish said

"Fine," I said

And all the firefighters shuffled by, and they all told me how sorry they were I knew every one of theulars at the bar, high school acquaintances

"You all did the best you could," I said over and over "Thanks for saving most of it"

And the ambulance caasoline can in the bushes, and the corpse&039;s hands reeked of gasoline, Dr Tonnesen said

I could hardly believe that a stranger had decided I should loseat that moment of how close I&039;d come to death, I didn&039;t feel it was unjust that he&039;d lost his own life in the process I ad I ht owe my life to Sam&039;s insistence that the vampire be billeted at iven him a very enthusiastic thank-you

Finally Bill and Charles and I started over to Bill&039;s house Catfish had advised , and then only after the insurance agent and the arson investigator had checked it over Dr Tonnesen had told me that if I felt wheezy, to co She&039;d said some other stuff, but I hadn&039;t quite absorbed it

It was dark in the woods, of course, and by then it wasAfter a few paces into the trees, Bill picked me up and carried me I didn&039;t protest, because I was so tired I&039;d been wondering hoas going to h the cemetery

He put me doe reached his house "Can you make it up the stairs?" he asked

"I&039;ll take you," offered Charles

"No, I can do it," I said, and started up before they could say anything more To tell the truth, I was not so sure I could, but slowly I made my way up to the bedroo light-tight place soround floor of the house, but I&039;d never asked hiood idea it was in the space the builders had lopped off the kitchen to create the hot tub/plant rooh in Louisiana for houses to have basements, I was almost as sure there was another dark hole concealed soether, anyway - not that that was too high on owns still lay in the drawer in the old-fashioned bedroom, and there was still a toothbrush of s in the trash; he&039;d left them, like he&039;d expected me to return