It was a candlestickThe tip, where you... It was a candlestickThe tip, where you were
supposed to stick your candle, looked dark, as if
it had touched something very hot instead of
something cold and wet
"There are candles in all Miss Eastlake's rentals,
because we lose the power out here all the time,"
Wireman said"We have a gennie at the big house,
but the other places don't, not even this oneBut
unlike the smaller houses, this one does have
candlesticks from the big house, and they just
happen to be silver
"And you remembered that," I said
839
He shrugged, then looked at the Gulf
There was nothing there but moonlight and
starlight on the water
Wireman gripped my wristHis fingers closed over
it where the manacle had been, and my heart jumped
"What?" I
chanel earrings stud said, not liking the new fear I saw in
his face"Jack's alone at El Palacio
We took Wireman's carIn my terror, I'd never
noticed the headlights or heard it pull in beside
my ownThere had been a few calls from old
friends of Elizabeth's, but the last one had come
at quarter of nine, an hour and a half before we
came bursting in, bloody and wide-eyed, Wireman
still waving the candlestickThere had been no
intruders at El Palacio, and Jack hadn't seen the
ship that had been anchored for awhile in the Gulf
off Big PinkJack had been eating microwave
popcorn and watching Beverly Hills Cop on an old
videotape
840
He listened to our story with mounting amazement,
but no real disbelief; this was a young man, I had
to
cartier tank watch remind myself, that had been raised on shows
like The X-Files and LostBesides, it fit with
what he'd been told earlierWhen we were done, he
took the candlestick from Wireman and examined the
tip, which looked like the burnt filament in a
dead lightbulb
"Why didn't it come for me?" he asked"I was
alone, and totally unprepared
"I don't want to bruise your self-esteem," I said,
"but I don't think you're exactly a priority to
whoever's running this show
Jack was looking at the narrow red mark on my
wrist"Edgar, is that where-"
I nodded
"Fuck," Jack said in a low voice
"Have you figured out what's going on?" Wireman
asked me"If she sent that thing after you, she
must think you have, or that you're close
"I don't think
tiffany heart tag anyone will ever know all of it," I
said, "but I know who that thing was when it was
alive
841
"Who?" Jack was staring at me with wide eyesWe
were standing in the kitchen and Jack was still
holding the candlestickNow he put it aside on
the counterAdriana Eastlake's husbandThey
came back from Atlanta to help with the search
after Tessie and Laura went missing, that much is
true, but they never left Duma Key again
x
We went into the parlor where I had first met
Elizabeth EastlakeThe long, low table was still
there, but now it was emptyIts polished surface
struck me as a pitch-perfect mockery of life
"Where are they?" I asked Wireman"Where are her
chinas? Where's the Village?"
"I boxed everything up and put it in the
prada logos summerkitchen,"
he said, pointing vaguely"No real
reason, I justmuchacho,
would you like some green tea? Or a beer?"
I asked for waterJack said he'd take a beer, if
that was all rightWireman set off to get them
842
He made it as far as the hallway before starting
to cryThey were big, noisy sobs, the kind you
can't stifle no matter how hard you try
Jack and I looked at each other, then looked away
xi
He was gone a lot longer than it usually takes to
get two cans of beer and a glass of water, but
when he came back, he had regained his composure"I don't usually lose someone I
love and poke a candlestick in a vampire's face in
the same weekUsually it's one or the other He
shrugged his shoulders in an effort at
sacs hermes insouci