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"What kind of curse?" I hed, veiny white hand pressed to her concave breast "Just extremely bad luck Or etting better and better

"You’re talking about Adaed "I read some before I came here He was in the army Flipped out"

"So they say" Her lips went pri to hie to shake her until all the secrets spilled out Mrs Beasly was the type of woman ouldn’t talk if you pissed her off - kind of like me I’d bet my next hot shower that the info she would impart couldn’t be found in any book Instead, I held lance around the echoing, cavernous library, she lowered her voice until I practically had to crawl over the desk to hear her

"Suicide" The word seemed to slither across my neck like Lazarus

"Who?"

"Both Adarandfather"

I frowned No wonder Adam had escaped to the army

"The police were certain it was suicide?"

"They both" She paused, uncomfortable "Well, there’s really no other way to say this except straight out They blew their heads off"

"Both of theation But the angle of the gun pretty much told the tale The sons were always suspect, of course"

"Sons?"

"Adam’s father was a suspect for his father’s death, and Adaht there was money"

"But there wasn’t?"

"Not only are the Ruelles cursed with insanity and sons, but everything they touch" She spread her hands

"Turns to shit," I ain "If you ar"

I must

’They’re land-poor," she said "Thethat in the family takes a lot of money"

"Why is there a ed me

"The first Ruelle came to Louisiana froht so

"Those people, the Cajuns, they kept to theht that land for a song, and they refused through centuries of bad luck to let it pass out of the family"

I’d never understood the obsession with land, but wars had been fought, countless lives had been lost, over just that

"Was there any indication of why the senior Ruelles killed the"

"I’d like to read the articles on those deaths, but"

I glanced at my watch First I needed to pick up my film

"I’ll find them for you," Mrs Beasly said I can reat" I handed her ten dollars

’I’ll leave them at the desk If I’m not here, someone will be What’s your naave lish teacher stare "I’ve never heard of the Ruelles having Irish relatives"

"Wrong side of the blanket," I said "Hush-hush"

For an instant I thought she ht refuse to help me, and why? She was a librarian, paid to impart information What difference did it uess not ood-bye

I hurried outside, surprised at what I’d learned However, the real surprise awaited me at the photo shop

I paid for the prints, anxiously drew them from the envelope, men nabbed the clerk and shoved one under his nose "What happened?"

Since he was about ten years younger, four inches shorter, and twenty pounds lighter than hts look as his proan to bob "I uh what?"

"There’s nothing here"

"But - " He peered at the picture "There is"

"I don’tthere"

"What?"

"I don’t know!" I practically shouted "That’s why I took the picture"

The kid appeared , and it isn’t on the print?"

"Yes"

"That’s i there, it’d be," he pointed to the lovely picture of nighttime in the swamp, "there Unless it was a vampire"

He snorted at his oit "No, wait, that’s a mirror Vampires don’t have a reflection It’s olves that don’t show up on a photograph"

I frowned, bla the shiver that passed overfor a steamy autumn day

"What did you say?"

My voice must have alerted the kid to the fact that I was not a and retreated behind the counter Like that would keephim if I wanted to

"Werewolves don’t show up on film," he repeated

"And you know this why?"

"I’ve lived in New Orleans all