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Though before he’d begun work on the attic roo in his life, he’d watched a demonstration online and he was ready to work

"You rock, Der to the attic renovation, despite what I felt was an increasingly weak chance that Claude would return to claim his bedroom After he went upstairs, I cracked the kitchenover the sink so I’d have a little breeze while I scrubbed the sink with sobird had perched outside in a photinia at the corner of the house The stupid bird was singing to itself loud enough to wake the dead I wished I had a slingshot

Just as I thought that, I thought I heard a voice outside calling, "Sookie!"

I went out on the back porch Sure enough, Bill aiting in the backyard "I can smell the fairy from here," he said "I know I can’t come in Can you step out?"

"Hold on a minute" I rinsed out the sink, dried my hands on the dish towel, and shut theto keep in the air-conditioning Then, hoping my hair still looked decent, I went outside

Bill had been having so silent in the darkness, lost in his thoughts When he heard ht, looking both intent and focused It was easy to see that Bill had a list of things to tell s first," he said, rather stiffly "I don’t know if you’ve spared a moment to wonder aboutwo to find out She died while I was patrolling, and I won’t be easy until I understand why it happened"

Taken aback, I could only nod slightly "I don’t knohy you thought Ioh, Eric Well, never mind Please tell me what you’ve discovered Would you like to sit?"

We both sat in the lawn chairs "Heidi and I went over Eric’s backyard with great attention," Bill said "You know it slopes down to a brick wall, the outer periht" I hadn’t spent more than ten minutes total in Eric’s backyard, but I knew its contours "There’s a gate in the brick wall"

"Yes, for the yard crew" Bill said this like having a yard creas an exotic indulgence, like having a bunch of peacocks "It’s easier for the yard crew to gather all the yard debris and carry it out the back, rather than go uphill to the curb" His tone ht of people who liked to have a job made easier for them

"It isn’t kept locked?" I was startled at the idea that itopen

"Normally, yes And nor it for the yard crew on the day they’re expected, and he’s also responsible for locking it after they’re done But the lock was "

"A olf or vampire could have snapped it," I said "So Mustapha’s not necessarily guilty of opening the gate, anyway" He’d done soh You don’t vanish unless you’ve done so?"

"Even Heidi could not say for certain who’d been there," Bill said "Many humans, sweaty humansthe yard workers A dash of fairy, but that could have been a very faint trace of the vial around the girl’s neck And a stronger trace of twoey That could have been froht skythe only sky he’d seen in more than a hundred and thirty years

"What do you think happened?" I asked him, after we’d been quiet for a few calh Bon Teloard, especially this late I could see the stars, vast and cold and distant I shivered

"Look, Sookie," he said, and held out so small I took it and held it up to ht

"It’s true, then," I said It was a rubber stopper, the kind that would close a s rooht by a chair leg I think the wo to see Eric face-to-face," he said "She dropped it while she drank the blood She tucked the vial down into her bra in case the lingering scent would attract him further And when I found her on the lawn, I could smell that she o-natured That would have added to herallure"

"The dad’s two-natured, a Were, I think The Rowes showed up here atquotable happen"

Bill wanted to hear all about it "You have the reporter’s card?" he asked when I’d finished

I went into the house and found it on the kitchen counter Now that I took a moment to look at it, I discovered that Harp Poas based in Terre Sauvage, a small town that lay north of the interstate between Bon Te it to Bill, "I assue or Monroe"

Bill said, "I tasia He’s been published by a sional press He’s written several books"

Bill sounded quite respectful; he had great adtasia?" I asked, diverted

"He interviewed me and Maxwell Lee, since we’re both native Louisianans He was hoping to do a collection of Louisiana vampires’ histories He wanted to listen to our recollections of the tirew up in, the historical events we’d witnessed He thought that would be interesting"

"So, a ripoff of Christina Sobol?" I tried not to sound sarcastic Sobol’s Dead History I had been on all the best-seller lists a couple of years before Amazon had sent me a notice to tell me that Dead History II would be out in a uessed, were vampires’ reminiscences about the tiional twist on a national best seller

Bill nodded "I’ to remember if he asked questions about Eric I believe that he wanted Eric’s phone nuet in touch with hiive it to him, of course, but he could have discovered Eric’s address online" Bill was one of the computer-savvy vampires