It was a nasty shock. Rowan and the girls had saidsimilar things, but coming from Jeremy it sank in, somehow. Ash had undoubtedly done things in his life that ... well, that would make her want to kill him if she knew. Things you couldn't just forget about.
"I'll be careful," she said. She realized her fists were clenched, and she said with a glimmer of humor, "I can handle him."
Jeremy still looked bleak. His brown eyes were dark and his jaw was tight as he looked at Ash. Underhis quietness, Mary-Lynnette could sense leashed power. Cold anger. Protectiveness. And the fact that he didn't like Ash at all .
The others were coming back. "I'll be all right," Mary-Lynnette whispered quickly.
Aloud, Jeremy said, "I'll keep thinking about the people around town. I'll tell you if I come up with something."
Mary-Lynnette nodded. "Thanks, Jeremy." She tried to give him a reassuring look as everybody got into the car.
He stood watching as she pulled out of the gas station. He didn't wave.
"Okay, so we go home," Mark said. "And then what?"
Nobody answered. Mary-Lynnette realized that she had no idea what.
"I guess we'd better figure out if we still have anysuspects," she said at last.
"There's something else we've got to do, first," Rowan said softly. "We vampires, I mean."
Mary-Lynnette could tell just by the way she said it. But Mark asked, "What?"
"We need to feed," Kestrel said with her most radiant smile.
They got back to Burdock Farm. There was no sign of the cat. The four vampires headed for the woods, Jadecalling for Tiggy, and Mary-Lynnette headed for Mrs. B.'s rolltop desk. She got engraved stationery only slightly mildewed at the edges-and a silver pen with a fussy Victorian pattern on it. "Now,"
she said to Mark as she sat at the kitchen table. "We're going to play List the Suspects."
"There's nothing in this house to eat, you know," Mark said. He had all the cupboards open. "Just things like instant coffee and green Jujyfruits. The ones everybody leaves."
"What can I say, your girlfriend is undead. Come on. Sit down and concentrate." Mark sat down and sighed. "Who have we got?"
"We should have gone to find out what the dealwas with that horse," Mark said.
Mary-Lynnette stopped with her pen poised overthe stationery. "You're right, that must be connected. I forgot about it." Which just goes to show you, detective work doesn't mix with 1-with idle dawdling.
"All right," she said grimly. "So let's assume that whoever killed the horse was the same person who killed Aunt Opal and the goat. And maybe the sameperson who broke the gas station window-that hap pened last night, too. Where does that get us?"
"I think it was Todd and Vic," Mark said.
"You're not being helpful."
"I'm serious. You know how Todd is always chewing on that toothpick. And there were toothpicks stuck in the goat."
Toothpicks... now, what did that remind her of? No, not toothpicks, the bigger stakes. Why couldn't she remember ?
She rubbed her forehead, giving up. "Okay...I'llput Todd and Vic, vampire hunters, with a question mark. Unless you think they're vampires themselves."
"Nope," Mark said, undeterred by her sarcasm. "I think Jade would've noticed that when she drank their blood." He eyed her thoughtfully. "You're the smart one. Who doyou think did it?"
"I have no idea." Mark made a face at her, andshe doodled a stake on the stationery. The doodle changed into a very small stake, more like a pencil,held by a feminine hand. She never could draw hands....
"Oh, my God. Bunny."
"Bunny did it?" Mark asked ingenuously, preparedto be straight man for a joke.
But Mary-Lynnette said,"Yes.I mean-no, I don't know. But those stakes in the goat-the big ones I've seen herusingthem. She uses them on her nails. They're cuticle sticks."
"Well ..." Mark looked dismayed. "But I mean ... Bunny . C'mon. She can't kill a mosquito."
Mary-Lynnette shook her head, agitated. "Rowan said she had a lamia name. And she said something strange to me-Bunny-the day I was looking for Todd and Vic." It was all coming back now, a flood of memories that she didn't particularly want. "She said, 'Good hunting."'
"Mare, it's from The Jungle Book ."
"I know. It was still weird for her to say. And she's almosttoosweet and scared-what if it's all an act?" When Mark didn't answer, she said, "Is it any more unlikelythan Todd and Vic being vampire hunters?"
"So put her down, too."
Mary-Lynnette did. Then she said, "You know, there's something I keep meaning to ask Rowanabout how they wrote to Mrs. B. from thatisland-" She broke off and tensed as the back door banged.
"Am I the first one back?"
It was Rowan, windblown and glowing, slightlybreathless. Her hair was a tumbling chestnut loud around her.
"Where's everybody else?" Mary-Lynnette asked.
"We separated early on. It's the only way, you know, with four of us in this small of an area."
"Small!" Mark looked offended. "If Briar Creekhas one good thing-and I'm not saying it does it's space."
Rowan smiled. "For a hunting range, it is small,"she said. "No offense. It's fine for us-we never got to hunt at -all on the island. They brought our mealsto us, tranquilized and completely passive."
Mary-Lynnette pushed away the image this evoked. "Urn, you want to register a guess on Whodunit?"
0Rowan sat down in a kitchen chair, smoothing a wisp of brown hair off her forehead. "I don't know. I wonder if it's somebody we haven't even thought of yet."
Mary-Lynnette remembered what she'd been talking about when the door banged. "Rowan, I always meant to ask you-you said that only Ash could havefigured out where you were going when you ran away. But what about the guy who helped yousmuggle letters off the island? He would know where your aunt lived, right? He could see the address on the letters."
"Crane Linden." Rowan smiled, a sad little smile. "No, he wouldn't know. He's ..." She touched her temple lightly. "I don't know what you call it. His mind never developed completely. He can't read.