Dead Ever After

didn’t come over here in the middle of the night and kill her.”
    “How do you know it was the middle of the night?”
    “I sure can’t slip anything by you, Andy,” I said. “You got me there.” I took a deep breath and told myself to be patient. “I know it had to have happened in the middle of the night because the bar was open until midnight . . . and I don’t think anyone would have murdered Arlene and put her in the trash while the bar was full and the cooks were working in the kitchen, Andy. By the time the bar closed, I was asleep in my bed, and I stayed that way.”
    “Oh, you got a witness to that?” Andy smirked. There were days I liked Andy more than others. Today was not one of those days.
    “Yes,” I said. “I do.”
    Andy looked a little shocked, and Sam’s face was carefully blank. But I myself was pretty glad that I’d had a nocturnal visitor or two. I’d known this moment would come while I sat sweating and waiting for Arlene’s body to be removed. I’d thought it through. Eric had said he wanted his visit to be kept secret, but he hadn’t said anything about Karin’s.
    “Who’s your witness?” Andy said.
    “A—woman named Karin. Karin Slaughter.”
    “You switching teams, Sookie? Did she stay all night?”
    “None of your business what we were doing, Andy. Last night before the bar closed, Karin saw me at my house, and she knows I stayed there.”
    “Sam, what about you? Anyone at your house?” Now Andy was sounding heavily sarcastic, as if we were covering up something.
    “Yes,” Sam said. Again, Andy looked surprised, and not happy.
    “All right, who? Your little girlfriend from Shreveport? She come back from Alaska?”
    Sam said steadily, “My mom was here. She left early this morning to get back to Texas, but you can sure call her. I can give you her phone number.”
    Andy copied it down in his notebook.
    “I guess the bar has to be closed today,” Sam said. “But I’d appreciate being able to open as soon as I can, Andy. These days, I need all the business I can get.”
    “You should be able to open at three this afternoon,” Andy said.
    Sam and I exchanged glances. That was good news, but I knew the bad news was not over, and I tried to convey that to Sam with my eyes. Andy was about to try to shock us with something. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I could tell he was baiting his trap.
    Andy turned away with an air of unconcern. Abruptly, he turned back to us with the sudden pounce of someone springing an ambush. Since I could read his mind, I knew what was coming. I kept my face blank only because I’ve had years of practice.
    “You recognize this, Sookie?” he asked, showing me a picture. It was a gruesome close-up of Arlene’s neck. There was something tied around it. It was a scarf, a green and peacock blue scarf.
    I felt remarkably sick.
    “That looks kind of like a scarf I used to have,” I said. In fact, it was exactly like a scarf I’d gotten by default: the one the werebat Luna had tied around my eyes in Dallas when the shifters had been rescuing me.
    That seemed like a decade ago.
    Feverishly, I tried to remember what had happened to the scarf. I’d gone back to my hotel with it. After that, I’d left it in my belongings in a Dallas hotel room and returned to Shreveport on my own. Bill had deposited my little suitcase on my porch when he’d returned, and the scarf had been tucked inside. I’d hand-washed it, and it had come out real pretty. Also, it was a memento of an extraordinary night. So I’d kept it. I’d worn it tucked into my coat in winter, tied it around my ponytail the last time I wore my green sundress . . . but that had been a year ago. I was sure I hadn’t used it this summer. Since I’d just cleaned out my bedroom drawers, I’d have seen it when I was refolding my scarves, but I had no specific memory of that, which didn’t mean a thing. “I sure don’t remember the last time I saw it,” I said, shaking my head.
    “Hmmm,” said Andy. He didn’t like to think I’d strangled Arlene, and he didn’t believe I could have gotten her in the Dumpster by myself. But , he thought, don’t people who drink vampire blood get real strong, for a while? This was one reason vamp blood was the hottest illegal drug around.
    I started to tell him out loud that I hadn’t had any vampire blood in a long time. But luckily, I thought twice.
    There was no point in reminding Andy that I could read his thoughts. And there