Code 61 - Donald Harstad [132]
“They're really all victims. Victims of some rich woman who can afford to provide a phony hiding place for them. And this Peale bastard. Oh, yeah, Mr. Peale. Her pet vampire. But Jessica, she's acquiring them, they're just being kept like a bunch of livestock. Peale killed Edie, and with Toby's help. That's a given. But Jessica Hunley's the one who made the whole thing possible. And that really pisses me off.”
I simply said, “Okay.” It got sort of quiet again.
“Look,” she said suddenly, “I'm saying that, if they'd had some more time for things to sort themselves out, none of 'em would be in this mess in the first place. Jessica just recruited at the right time.”
“Okay.”
“Don't humor me, Houseman.” She rummaged some more. “Did you take the salt?”
“Nope. I found some pepper, though.” I held up the little packet. “See?” I remember thinking that her fries had to be cold by now.
“Well there's a bunch of ketchup packs, but unless I squeeze 'em into my hand … ” She looked up from her search. “Do you see what I mean, though?”
“I think so. She found some people at an unstable time in their lives?”
“Part of it. It's not just that when all the expectations you've had for yourself don't come true, it's when everybody who is important to you had them for you…. ” She stopped abruptly. “Shit happens, Houseman. But not at the same time or the same way for everybody. So, when it happens to you early on, you just watch others pass by, with no shit sticking to them at all. And you feel betrayed.”
“I can see that,” said Harry. “Shit really does happen. Boy, I know that.”
“And you sometimes do things to cover up the disappointment.” Hester sounded tired. “Things you normally wouldn't do, even a while later, but once you start it's almost impossible to stop, because you think you've found your … ”
“Place?” I tried to help.
She sighed. “No, no. Guys are so dense. No, it's much more than that. It's like, you've found your accomplishment. You have to settle for a little less, but you've found it.”
“Oh. I see.”
Hester shook her head. “Oh, Houseman, eat your hamburger.”
“I do get it, though,” I said, leaning forward so the special sauce wouldn't drip on my shirt.
She sighed. “Okay. So, anyway. We agreed that we go right to our motels, and start fresh in the morning?” She was still burrowing through the sack, looking for the rest of her cold fries.
“Mmmph.” I love Big Macs, but they're kind of hard to talk through.
“Here they are!” She fished a bunch of them out, along with a wad of napkins. They'd apparently spilled from the cardboard container, and gotten in with the pile of condiments, napkins, and salt that the employee had swept into the bag. “Okay, then, you want to start with …?”
I swallowed, and used one of the napkins to wipe some sauce off my chin. “I think with the Walworth County Sheriff's Department would be good, don't you?”
“Mmmm.” This time she was the one with the mouthful of fries.
“Got it covered,” said Harry. “Already talked to them. We got the run of the county as long as nobody fucks … oops … screws up.”
“Okay, then,” I said, “wherever we can find Jessica. We drop in, agreed?”
“Sure.” Hester took a long pull on her Diet Coke straw. “What time?”
I thought about it. “Nine-thirty? Ten?”
She looked at her watch. “Let's go for nine-thirty. We aren't going to get squared away tonight until one or so.” She was already tidying up, folding her paper napkin, and getting ready to go. I quickly took a large bite of my second Big Mac. It was cold by now, too.
“You know how to get to Fontana?” asked Harry. “Hester should be taking fifty to Lake Geneva, but we should take sixty-seven south to Williams Bay, and then back westerly to Fontana.”
I swallowed again. “Oh, sure. No problem.”
“What I was trying to say, you two,” said Hester, suddenly, “is that gathering victims at such a hard time in their lives is more despicable than recruiting people who want to get into this vampire stuff.”
“Sure.” Harry agreed. I guessed I did, too.
About thirty minutes later, Harry and