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The knowledge skittered at the edges of my awareness, but I wouldn't look at it directly.
"Too bad you weren't working the afternoon shift," he said, somehow following a similar train of thought.
"Calvin Norris was in here."
"And?"
"I think he came in hopes of seeing you."
I looked at Sam skeptically. "Right."
"I think he's serious, Sookie."
"Sam," I said, feeling unaccountably wounded, "I'm on my own, and sometimes that's no fun, but I don't
have to take up with a werewolf just because he offers."
Sam looked mildly puzzled. "You wouldn't have to. The people in Hotshot aren't Weres."
"He said they were."
"No, not Weres with a capital W. They're too proud to call themselves shifters, but that's what they are.
They're were-panthers."
"What?" I swear I saw dots floating in the air around my eyes.
"Sookie? What's wrong?"
"Panthers? Didn't you know that the print on Jason's dock was the print of a panther?"
"No, no one told me about any print! Are you sure?"
I gave him an exasperated look. "Of course, I'm sure. And he vanished the night Crystal Norris was
waiting for him in his house. You're the only bartender in the world who doesn't know all the town
gossip."
"Crystal she'sthe Hotshot girl he was with New Year's Eve? The skinny black-headed girl at the
search?"
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I nodded.
"The one Felton loves so much?"
"He what?"
"Felton, you know, the one who came along on the search. She's been his big love his whole life."
"And you know this how?" Since I, the mind reader, didn't, I was distinctly piqued.
"He told me one night when he'd had too much to drink. These guys from Hotshot, they don't come in
much, but when they do, they drink serious."
"So why would he join in the search?"
"I think maybe we'd better go ask a few questions."
"This late?"
"You got something better to do?"
He had a point, and I sure wanted to know if they had my brother or could tell me what had happened
to him. But in a way, I was scared of finding out.
"That jacket's too light for this weather, Sookie," Sam said, as we bundled up.
"My coat is at the cleaner's," I said. Actually, I hadn't had a chance to put it in the dryer, or even to
check to make sure all the blood had come out. And it had holes in it.
"Hmmm" was all Sam said, before he loaned me a green pullover sweater to wear under my jacket. We
got in Sam's pickup because the snow was really coming down, and like all men, Sam was convinced he
could drive in the snow, though he'd almost never done so.
The drive out to Hotshot seemed even longer in the dark night, with the snow swirling down in the
headlights.
"I thank you for taking me out here, but I'm beginning to think we're crazy," I said, when we were
halfway there.
"Is your seat belt on?" Sam asked.
"Sure."
"Good," he said, and we kept on our way.
Finally we reached the little community. There weren't any streetlights out here, of course, but a couple
of the residents had paid to have security lights put up on the electric poles. Windows were glowing in
some of the houses.
"Where do you think we should go?"
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"Calvin's. He's the one with the power," Sam said, sounding certain.
I remembered how proud Calvin had been of his house, and I was a little curious to see the inside. His
lights were on, and his pickup was parked in front of the house. Stepping out of the warm truck into the
snowy night was like walking through a chilly wet curtain to reach the front door. I knocked, and after a
long pause, the door came open. Calvin looked pleased until he saw Sam behind me.
"Come in," he said, not too warmly, and stood aside. We stamped our feet politely before we entered.
The house was plain and clean, decorated with inexpensive but carefully arranged furniture and pictures.
None of the pictures had people in them, which I thought interesting. Landscapes. Wildlife.
"This is a bad night to be out driving around," Calvin observed.
I knew I'd have to tread carefully, as much as I wanted to grab the front of his flannel shirt and scream in
his face. This man was a ruler. The size of the kingdom didn't really matter.
"Calvin," I said, as calmly as I could, "did you know that the police found a panther print on the dock, by
Jason's bootprint?"
"No," he said, after a long moment. I could see the anger building behind his eyes. "We don't hear a lot
of town gossip out here. I wondered why the search party had men with guns, but we make other people
kind of nervous, and no one was talking to us much. Panther print. Huh."
"I didn't know that was your, um, other identity, until tonight."
He looked at me steadily. "You think that one of us made off with your brother."
I stood silent, not shifting my eyes from his. Sam was equally still beside me.
"You think Crystal got mad at your brother and did him harm?"
"No," I said. His golden eyes were getting wider and rounder as I spoke to him.
"Are you afraid of me?" he asked suddenly.
"No," I said. "I'm not."
"Felton," he said.
I nodded.
"Let's go see," he said.
Back out into the snow and darkness. I could feel the sting of the flakes on my cheeks, and I was glad
my jacket had a hood. Sam's gloved hand took mine as I stumbled over some discarded tool or toy in
the yard of the house next to Felton's. As we trailed up to the concrete slab that formed Felton's front
porch, Calvin was already knocking at the door.
"Who is it?" Felton demanded.
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"Open," said Calvin.
Recognizing his voice, Felton opened the door immediately. He didn't have the same cleanliness bug as
Calvin, and his furniture was not so much arranged as shoved up against whatever wall was handiest. The
way he moved was not human, and tonight that seemed even more pronounced than it had at the search.
Felton, I thought, was closer to reverting to his animal nature. Inbreeding had definitely left its mark on
him.
"Where is the man?" Calvin asked without preamble.
Felton's eyes flared wide, and he twitched, as if he was thinking about running. He didn't speak.
"Where?" Calvin demanded again, and then his hand changed into a paw and he swiped it across
Felton's face. "Does he live?"
I clapped my hands across my mouth so I wouldn't scream. Felton sank to his knees, his face crossed
with parallel slashes filling with blood.
"In the shed in back," he said indistinctly.
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