Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Books 1-8) - Charlaine Harris [234]
She sat on a bar stool and faced me over the shining expanse of wood.
This was ominous. I had never seen Pam anywhere but Fangtasia. “What’s up?” I said by way of greeting. I smiled at her, but I was tense all over.
“Where’s Bubba?” she asked, in her precise voice. She looked over my shoulder. “Eric’s going to be angry if Bubba didn’t make it here.” For the first time, I noticed that Pam had a faint accent, but I couldn’t pin it down. Maybe just the inflections of antique English.
“Bubba’s in the back, in Sam’s office,” I said, focusing on her face. I wished the ax would go on and fall. Sam came to stand beside me, and I introduced them. Pam gave him a more significant greeting than she would have given a plain human (whom she might not have acknowledged at all), since Sam was a shape-shifter. And I expected to see a flicker of interest, since Pam is omnivorous in matters of sex, and Sam is an attractive supernatural being. Though vampires aren’t well-known for facial expressions, I decided that Pam’s was definitely unhappy.
“What’s the deal?” I asked, after a moment of silence.
Pam met my gaze. We’re both blue-eyed blonds, but that’s like saying two animals are both dogs. That’s as far as any resemblance went. Pam’s hair was straight and pale, and her eyes were very dark. Now they were full of trouble. She looked at Sam, her stare significant. Without a word, he went over to help Jane’s son, a worn-looking man in his thirties, shift Jane to the car.
“Bill’s missing,” Pam said, shooting from the conversational hip.
“No, he’s not. He’s in Seattle,” I said. Willfully obtuse. I had learned that word from my Word-A-Day calendar only that morning, and here I was getting to use it.
“He lied to you.”
I absorbed that, made a “come on” gesture with my hand.
“He’s been in Mississippi all this time. He drove to Jackson.”
I stared down at the heavily polyurethane-coated wood of the bar. I’d pretty much figured Bill had lied to me, but hearing it said out loud, baldly, hurt like hell. He’d lied to me, and he was missing.
“So . . . what are you going to do to find him?” I asked, and hated how unsteady my voice was.
“We’re looking. We’re doing everything we can,” Pam said. “Whoever got him may be after you, too. That’s why Eric sent Bubba.”
I couldn’t answer. I was struggling to control myself.
Sam had returned, I suppose when he saw how upset I was. From about an inch behind my back, he said, “Someone tried to grab Sookie on her way into work tonight. Bubba saved her. The body’s out behind the bar. We were going to move him after we’d closed.”
“So quickly,” Pam said. She sounded even unhappier. She gave Sam a once-over, nodded. He was a fellow supernatural being, though that was definitely second best to him being another vampire. “I’d better go over the car and see what I can find.” Pam took it quite for granted that we’d dispose of the body ourselves rather than doing something more official. Vampires are having trouble accepting the authority of law enforcement and the obligation of citizens to notify the police when trouble arises. Though vamps can’t join the armed services, they can become cops, and actually enjoy the hell out of the job. But vamp cops are often pariahs to the other undead.
I would a lot rather think about vampire cops than what Pam had just told me.
“When did Bill go missing?” Sam asked. His voice managed to stay level, but there was anger just under the surface.
“He was due in last night,” Pam said. My head snapped up. I hadn’t known that. Why hadn’t Bill told me he was coming home? “He was going to drive into Bon Temps, phone us at Fangtasia to let us know he’d made it home, and meet with us tonight.” This was practically babbling, for a vampire.
Pam punched in numbers on a cell phone; I could hear the little beeps. I listened to her resultant conversation with Eric. After relaying the facts, Pam told him, “She’s sitting here. She’s not speaking.”
She pressed the