Dead Ever After

second,” Mr. Cataliades reassured him. “We think you have been . . . bewitched.”
    Alcee snorted. “Right.”
    “Something is wrong with you, and I think you know it,” Mr. Cataliades said. “Why not let us check this simple thing, if only to rule it out?”
    “Alcee, please,” whispered Barbara.
    Though he was obviously unconvinced there was anything in his car, Alcee agreed with a nod to the search. He withdrew his car key from his pocket and unlocked the car doors with the electronic key without moving from the front door. He gestured with the hand holding the key. “Knock yourself out,” he told the girl. She gave him a bright smile and was in the car so fast she seemed to be a blur.
    The three men moved closer to Alcee Beck’s car.
    “Her name’s Diantha,” Mr. Cataliades told Alcee Beck, though Alcee hadn’t asked out loud.
    “Another fucking telepath,” Alcee said, with an ugly sneer. “Just like Sookie. Our town didn’t need the one we got, much less another one.”
    “I’m the telepath. She’s much more. Watch her work,” said the part-demon proudly, and Alcee felt compelled to watch the white hands of the girl as she patted and probed every inch of his car, even leaning close to smell the seats. He was glad he kept his car clean. The girl—Diantha—slid bonelessly from the front seat to the back and then froze in place. If she’d been a dog, she’d have been on point.
    Diantha opened the back door and emerged from the car with something clutched in her left hand. She held it up so they could all see it. It was black and stitched with red, and it was mounted on twigs. It had a vague resemblance to the omnipresent dream catchers sold in fake Indian stores, but it emanated something much darker than the desire to make a buck.
    “What is that thing?” Alcee asked. “And why is it in my car?”
    “Sookie saw it get thrown in, when you had your car parked in the shade at Merlotte’s. Someone in the woods tossed it through your window.” Andy tried not to sound relieved. He tried to sound as though he’d been confident all along that such an object would be found. “It’s a charm, Alcee. Some kind of hex thing. It’s made you do stuff you really don’t want to do.”
    “Like what?” Alcee didn’t sound disbelieving, just startled.
    “Like persecute Sookie when the evidence is far from conclusive that she is guilty. She has a good alibi for the night of Arlene Fowler’s murder,” Mr. Cataliades said, reasonably. “And also, I believe you haven’t been yourself at home since the murder.” He looked at Barbara Beck for confirmation. She nodded violently.
    “Is this true?” Alcee asked his wife. “I’ve been scaring you?”
    “Yes,” she said out loud, and took a step back, as though she feared he would sock her in retaliation for her honesty.
    And with that clear evidence that Barbara feared him for the first time in their twenty years of marriage, Alcee had to admit that something was wrong with him. “I’m still mad, though,” Alcee said, sounding more grumpy than enraged. “And I still hate Sookie, and I still think she’s a murderess.”
    “Let’s see how you feel once we destroy this thing,” Mr. Cataliades said. “Detective Bellefleur, do you have a lighter?”
    Andy, who smoked the occasional cigar, slid a Bic out of his pocket and handed it over. Diantha squatted to the ground and laid the charm on some dry grass blown out by the Beck lawn mower. She flicked the Bic, smiling happily, and the charm caught fire immediately. The blaze flared up much higher than Andy would have guessed, since the charm itself had been small.
    Alcee Beck staggered back when the flame began to catch hold, and by the time the charm had burned away, he’d sunk to his knees in the doorway, clutching his head. Barbara called for help, but by the time Andy hustled over to him, Alcee was already trying to get to his feet.
    “Oh, my Lord,” he said. “Oh, my Lord. Help me to the bed, please.” Andy and Barbara steered him back inside the house while Mr. Cataliades and Diantha waited outside.
    “Good work,” said Mr. Cataliades.
    Diantha laughed. “Kid’swork,” she said. “Iknewwhereitwasafterasecond. Ijustwantedtomakeitlookgood.”
    Mr. Cataliades’s pocket buzzed. “Oh, bother,” he said quietly. “I’ve ignored it as long as I can.” He took out his phone. “I’ve got a text message ,” he told Diantha, in the same way another man might have said,