"Hi, Harper! Cam said you might drop by. Come on in. I've got some coffee on, if you want some, she added, holding the door So Cam got in touch with you?" I asked as I settled myself at the table.
"Yeah," she called over her shoulder as she gathered up the coffee things. "He came by kind of late last night. Like, about two a.m."
She brought the tray and sat down with me. "I was kinda surprised to see him. I mean, you said you thought you'd find him pretty quick, but I didn't expect it to be that quick. And then he starts telling me this crazy story, and I thought he was jerking my chain, at first. I mean, that is one weird tale. A vampire? Like I think that's likely…"
"What do you think now?" I asked.
"It sounds crazy, but I believe him. It… it kind of fits. Mom is not going to be cool with this, though. I'm still a little out of it on some of the details myself. Cam couldn't stay a real long time, y'know. He said you're making him call Mom tonight. Is that right?"
"I'm not holding a gun to his head. I told him it was the reasonable, responsible thing to do. If he had called her a month ago, I never would have gotten the case. Even if he'd made up some kind of lie to tell her, your mother would have at least known he was around."
"I know," she said, rocking her shoulders in a queer, rolling shrug. "It's just going to be hard to tell her the truth and get her to believe it. Mom's imagination is limited to interior design and party planning."
"We'll have to wait and see."
"Yeah, I guess. I got the feeling there's still some kind of problem, but like I said, we didn't have a lot of time. Is he going to be all right?"
"I think so," I replied. "Something needs to be resolved, yet, but once that's taken care of, things should be OK. But this is pretty strange stuff to be going through on your own."
"You got that right." She shuddered. "It makes me pretty creeped out to think about it. Edward could have gotten me, too, y'know."
I shook my head. "I haven't gotten a handle on this guy yet, but I don't think he would have done the same thing to you. You're not the same sort of person as your brother, and I think the personality clash made all the difference. At least, that's what I think right now. I could change my mind by this time next week." I didn't add that I suspected the natural path of Edward's games with Sarah would have led to the county morgue.
"In the meantime," I continued, "I'm going to try to help Cameron resolve his problem. Can I call on you if I need your help?"
"Sure," she said. "Anything you need." She got a notebook out of her purse and scribbled on a page, ripped it out, and handed it to me. "That's my boyfriend's cell phone number. He left it with me while he's in Italy."
I cocked a quizzical look at her. "You've had a phone all this time?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't going to let my mom know that." She grinned and became a very pretty girl with very ugly hair.
"I won't tell her," I promised.
"Thanks."
Back across the water, I stopped at the office to check my messages.
"Ms. Blaine, of course paying for information is no problem. Up t… five hundred dollars? This will be acceptable. Please keep me informed." Sergeyev really wanted this thing.
I wrote myself a note, then headed home.
I checked Chaos when I got home and found her sleeping, ignoring me with a will. I looked toward the chair and the narrow, awful-red cabinet and let them wait. I flopped onto the couch with a beer and indulged in total, potato-headed TV-watching.
I was fascinated by some kind of nature show about Australia when the phone rang. I answered and was ambushed.
"I just talked to my son, thank you," Colleen Shadley started, "and he told me some… cockamamie story about vampires and night-clubs and I don't know what. Now, you—you tell me what is really going on!"
"I'm not certain myself yet," I answered. "It's complicated."
"That's hogwash! Why is he doing this to me? Why is Cameron lying to me? I hired you to find my son and you seem to have found some kind of nut!"
"Are you saying that the man you just spoke to was not your son?" I asked.
"No, I am not!"
"So it was Cameron who called?"
"Well, it sounded like him. Except for this wild tale-telling. Now, you tell me the truth, damn it!"
"Well," I drawled, "I am pretty well convinced your son is a vampire."
"What!" she shrieked. "Have you gone completely insane!"
"No." My speech was like molasses. "I don't want to upset you, Colleen, but, as the Bard said, 'There are more things in heaven and earth… I wasn't inclined to believe it myself, at first, but Cam has said and demonstrated some things that convince me that he's… not factory spec anymore. And he still has some problems to resolve."
She barked. Well, it sounded like a cross between a growl and a bark, and it wasn't the sound I was expecting. "I want you over here— now!" She spat out the address and slammed down the phone. I pushed the disconnect button. The phone rang again before I could even put it down.
Cam sounded about eight years old. "Harper? Did my mom call you?"
"Yes. She just hung up."
"Is she still upset?"
"Upset would be a very mild description. I have been ordered into the presence at once. How 'bout you?"
"Me, too. Umm… do you want to go together? I could pick you up."
"I think separate cars would be better. There's no guarantee we'd be leaving at the same time."
"All right. I'll see you over there."
I hung up and went looking for my shoes. I tickled my computer and got it to spit out a copy of my bill, just in case.
On the way to Bellevue, I considered what I was heading into. I hadn't really expected Cameron to try the truth on her quite so soon, and I hadn't any idea how Colleen Shadley would react once I arrived. I supposed that she wanted me out there so she could fire me or demand answers she liked better than her son's. I didn't think she'd like mine any better, but since I'd already completed the task, she couldn't fire me.
She could refuse the bill, though, and that would be unpleasant. I hadn't had to remind a client of nonpayment in a long time and I didn't look forward to it. Colleen was the lawyers-and-litigation type, without a doubt, and Nan Grover wouldn't like having to choose between a friend and me. No matter what happened, it wasn't going to be fun.
The Shadley house sprawled in one of the horse-trail suburbs where the yards run to an acre or two around houses of equal size. I had to wander a bit to get into the nest of twisted streets and up the curving, grumpy rises to the rambling stone house that hung back from the street like a shy child behind a screen of cypress trees. Cameron's green Camaro stood in the driveway.
The air near the house flickered a bit to my gaze and familiar, cold nausea slid a bodkin along my ribs. I looked sideways at the curtain between here and there, probing the dark spots until I thought I had looked into them all. I caught the shape…
"Hi," he said, and I twitched, not quite prepared. Cam was waiting in the shadows of the trellised entry. "I didn't want to go in without you."
"Afraid your mother will eat you?" I asked.
"Sort of. I've never heard her this mad. I mean, she yells at Sarah once in a while, but not like this. She's hot."
"I noticed." I took a few deep, slow breaths before continuing. "All right. Let's beard the lioness." I rang the bell. The porch light came on and the door wrenched open.
Colleen glared at both of us and directed us in. Cam, the coward, let me go first. She led us into a stiff, formal room. I shot a glance at Cameron and he made a grimace. This must have been the child-free zone of his youth, approached only on formal occasions or under parental indictment. We were being called onto the antique Chinese carpet.