Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse #10)(45)
Author: Charlaine Harris

We got there to find her standing over a patch of dirt in a little clearing. It had been disturbed recently, though an attempt had been made to camouflage that disturbance.

Eric eased me down onto the ground, and Jason shone the lantern at the earth. "It’s not … ?" I whispered, knowing everyone there could hear me.

"No," Eric said firmly. "Too recent." Not Debbie Pelt. She was elsewhere, in an older grave.

"Only one way to find out who it is," Alcide said. Jason and Alcide began to dig, and since they were both very strong, it went quickly. Alexei came over to stand by me, and it occurred to me that a grave in the woods had to be a bad flashback for him. I put an arm around him as if he were still human, though I noticed that Appius gave me a sardonic look. Alexei’s eyes were on the gravediggers, especially Jason. I knew this child could dig the grave with his bare hands as fast as they were digging with shovels, but Alexei looked so frail it was hard to think of him being as strong as other vampires. I wondered how many people had made that mistake in the past few decades, and how many of those had died at Alexei’s small hands.

Jason and Alcide could make the dirt fly. While they worked, Annabelle and Jannalynn prowled around the little clearing, probably trying to pick up what scents they could. Despite the rain of two nights ago, there might be something in the areas protected by the trees. Heidi hadn’t been looking for a murderer; she’d been trying to make a list of who’d crossed the land. I was thinking that the only creatures who hadn’t been tromping through my woods had been regular old humans. If the Weres were lying, a Were could be the killer. Or it could be one of the fae, who were a violent race, as I had observed. Or the killer could be Bill, since Heidi thought the vampire she’d scented was my neighbor.

I hadn’t smelled the body while it was under the dirt as the others had, since my sense of smell was only a fraction of theirs. But as the dirt piles grew and the hole got deeper, I could tell it was there. Oh gosh, could I.

I put my hand across my nose, which didn’t help at all. I couldn’t imagine how the others were enduring it, since it would be so much sharper to their senses. Maybe they were also more practical, or simply more accustomed.

Then both the diggers stopped. "He’s wrapped up," Jason said. Alcide bent over and fumbled with something at the bottom of the hole.

"I think I got it pulled apart," Alcide said after a moment.

"Pass me the lantern, Sookie," Jason said, and I tossed it to him. He shone it down. "I don’t know this man," he said.

"I do," said Alcide in a strange voice. Annabelle and Jannalynn were at the edge of the grave instantly. I had to brace myself to step forward to look down into the pit.

I recognized him instantly. The three Weres threw back their heads and howled.

"It’s the Long Tooth enforcer," I told the vampires. I gagged and had to wait a minute before I could go on. "It’s Basim al Saud." The passage of days had made a great difference, but I knew him instantly. Those corkscrew curls I’d envied, the muscled body.

"Shit," screamed Jannalynn, when the howling was done.

And that about summed it up.

When the Weres had calmed down, there was a lot to talk about.

"I only met him the once," I said. "Of course, he was fine when he got in the truck with Alcide and Annabelle."

"He told me what he’d smelled on the property, and I told him to tell Sookie," Alcide told Eric. "She had a right to know. We didn’t talk about anything in particular on the way back to Shreveport, did we, Annabelle?"

"No," she said, and I could tell she was crying.

"I dropped him off at his apartment. When I called him the next day to go with me to a meeting with our representative, he said he had to pass because he had to work. He was a website designer, and he had a meeting with an important client. I wasn’t too happy he couldn’t go, but of course, the guy had to make a living." Alcide shrugged.

Annabelle said, "He didn’t have to work that day."

There was a moment of silence.

"I was at his apartment when you called," she said, and I could tell the effort she was expending to keep her voice calm and level. "I had been there a few hours."

Wow. Unexpected revelation. Jason had hopped out of the grave, and he and I gave each other big eyes. This was like one of Gran’s "stories," the soap operas she’d watched religiously.

Alcide growled. The ritual howling for the dead had brought out the wolf in him.

"I know," Annabelle said. "And we’ll talk about it later. I’ll take my punishment, which I deserve. But Basim’s death is more important than my bad judgment. This is my duty, to tell you what happened. Basim got a phone call before yours, and he didn’t want me to hear it. But I heard enough to understand his conversation was with someone who was paying him."

Alcide’s growl intensified. Jannalynn was standing close to her pack sister, and the only way I can put it was that she was aimed at Annabelle. She was crouching slightly, her hands curved as if they were about to sprout claws.

Alexei had edged close to Jason, and when the tension kept ratcheting up, Jason’s arm slung around the boy’s shoulders. Jason was having the same problem separating illusion and reality that I was.

Annabelle flinched at the sound coming from Alcide, but she kept on going. "So Basim made up an excuse to get me out of the apartment, and he took off. I tried to follow him, but I lost him."

"You were suspicious," Jannalynn said. "But you didn’t call the packmaster. You didn’t call me. You didn’t call anyone. We took you in and made you a member of our pack, and you betrayed us." Suddenly, she hit Annabelle in the head with her fist, actually leaping into the air to land the blow. Just like that, Annabelle was on the ground. I gasped, and I wasn’t the only one.

But I was the only one who noticed that Jason was straining to hold Alexei back. Something about the violence in the air had sent the boy over the edge. If he’d been a little bigger, Jason would’ve been on the ground. I punched Eric in the arm, jerked my head in the direction of the struggle. Eric leaped over to help Jason restrain the boy, who fought and snarled in their arms.

For a moment there was silence in the dark clearing as everyone watched Alexei struggle with his madness. Appius Livius looked profoundly sad. He worked his way into the knot of limbs and wrapped his own arms around his child. "Sshhhhhh," he said. "My son, be still." And gradually Alexei grew quiet.

Alcide’s voice was very close to a rumble when he said, "Jannalynn, you are my new second. Annabelle, get up. This is pack business now, and we’ll settle it at a pack meeting." He turned his back on us and began moving.