Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride [64]
“Just in case,” I said, looking at Lilly as I handed the paper to Elaine.
Elaine was too polite to ask “in case of what?” to my face, but I could tell she was thinking it. She looked worried, and I wondered if on some level she knew her daughter needed help that she couldn’t give. Even if she never needed it, or if her mother threw that scrap of paper away, I hoped it would help for Lilly to know that I was there. That someone believed her, and would listen to her, even if he hadn’t been dead for a hundred years. It was all I could do.
I patted the small travel hairbrush in my pocket and headed for my car.
17
Strangers in the Night
“That,” Ramon said, “might be about the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.” He shoved a spoonful of Chunky Monkey ice cream into his mouth, chewing as he talked. He offered the next bite to Brooke, who was positioned on the edge of the kitchen table so Frank could brush out her hair.
“Which part of the story amuses you?” I asked. “The bastard-child-of-my-uncle part, or the two-new-half-sisters part?”
“Usually, I’d say both,” he said, “but I don’t like anything that besmirches Tia’s honor.”
“Big word,” I said.
“I know,” he said, digging his spoon around the bottom of the container. “I’ve been reading. You should try it.”
Frank paused, midbrush. “You don’t think your uncle is really your—”
“No,” we all said in unison.
Frank huffed and went back to brushing. “Okay, just asking. How am I supposed to know if I don’t ask?”
“It’s okay,” I said.
“I mean, your mom didn’t tell you about the whole necromancy thing, and that makes your uncle being your dad seem kind of small. You know, in comparison.” He stopped brushing and contemplated Brooke’s long blond hair. “What do you want me to do with this, Brooke?”
“Can you braid it?” she asked.
“I could try,” Frank said, “but I can’t make any guarantees. So it might be messy.”
“Here,” Ramon said, handing him the ice cream and taking the brush. “French sound good?”
“You can French braid?” Brooke blinked in surprise.
“Chica, I got three little sisters that I used to help get ready for school. Three picky little sisters. I could do this in my sleep.” He stuck the end of the brush in his mouth and started to separate her hair into manageable pieces. “Any real man can French braid a girl’s hair,” he said around the handle.
Brooke closed her eyes in contentment. I hadn’t really thought of it, but this was probably the first prolonged contact she’d had since she’d died. People, even reanimated ones, need to be touched.
Frank finished the last bite of the ice cream and threw the carton away.
“You owe me a thing of Chunky Monkey,” Ramon said.
“But I only had, like, two bites.”
“You know the rules.”
“C’mon.” Frank looked at me in appeal.
“Them’s the breaks, Frank.”
“You guys are assholes,” he said, digging into his pockets and pulling out a wad of dollar bills. He threw them onto the table. “There’s your blood money. Happy?”
“Very,” Ramon said.
Brooke sniggered. “It’s blood monkey money.”
I relaxed into my chair and sang softly, “Blood monkey, that funky monkey.”
Even Frank laughed at that. We all did, maybe more than we normally would have. We needed a little tension breaker. For me, anything that distracted me from the tiny countdown clock in my head was a good thing.
My phone rang, so I quietly excused myself. I didn’t want to interrupt their good time. It was nice to hear Brooke laugh.
Once I’d shut my bedroom door, I answered it.
“Hi,” the woman said. “I’m looking for Sam LaCroix?”
“May I ask who’s speaking?”
“No, but you can tell him I was given his name by Maya LaRouche.”
I guess I wasn’t the only one playing the cautious game. “This is Sam,” I said.
I could hear a little laughter in her voice when she said, “And this is June Walker. My sister, Maya, tells me you’ve been having a bit of trouble up there.”
“You could say that.”
“Want to tell me what’s going