Definitely Dead

derriere. “Fur-free,” he said. “Can I share the bed?”
    “Yes,” I said, and crawled in. He got in the other side, and he was asleep in thirty seconds. After a minute or two, I slid over in the bed and put my head on his chest.
    I listened to his heartbeat.

Chapter 23
    WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH JADE FLOWER?” AMELIA asked the next day. Everett was driving the U-Haul, and Amelia and I were following in her little car. Quinn had left the next morning by the time I’d gotten up, leaving me a note telling me he was going to call me after he’d hired someone to take Jake Purifoy’s place and after his next job, which was in Huntsville, Alabama—a Rite of Ascension, he said, though I had no idea what that was. He ended the note with a very personal comment about the lime-green dress, which I won’t repeat here.
    Amelia had her bags packed by the time I’d dressed, and Everett was directing two husky men in loading up the boxes I wanted to take back to Bon Temps. When he returned, he would take the furniture I didn’t want to Goodwill. I’d offered it to him, but he’d looked at the fake antiques and politely said they weren’t his style. I’d tossed my own stuff in Amelia’s trunk, and off we’d driven. Bob the cat was in his own cage on the backseat. It was lined with towels and also held a food and water bowl, which was kind of messy. Bob’s litter box was on the floorboard.
    “My mentor found out what I’d done,” Amelia said gloomily. “She’s very, very unhappy with me.”
    I wasn’t surprised, but it didn’t seem tactful to say so, when Amelia had been such a help to me.
    “He is missing his life now,” I pointed out, as mildly as I could manage.
    “Well, true, but he’s having a hell of an experience,” Amelia said, in the voice of someone determined to look on the bright side. “I’ll make it up to him. Somehow.”
    I wasn’t sure this was something you could “make up” to someone. “I’ll bet you can get him back to himself soon,” I said, trying to sound confident. “There are some really nice witches in Shreveport who might help.” If Amelia could conquer her prejudice against Wiccans.
    “Great,” the witch said, looking more cheerful. “In the meantime, what the hell happened last night? Tell me in detail.”
    I figured it was all over the supernatural community to day, so I might as well spill the beans. I told Amelia the whole story.
    “So how did Cataliades know Jade Flower had killed Gladiola?” Amelia asked.
    “Um, I told him,” I said, my voice small.
    “How’d you know?”
    “When the Pelts told me they hadn’t hired anyone to watch the house, I figured the murderer was someone sent by Peter Threadgill to delay my getting the message from Cataliades. Peter Threadgill knew all along that the queen had lost the bracelet to Hadley. Maybe he had spies among the queen’s own people, or maybe one of her dumber followers, like Wybert, let it slip. It wouldn’t be hard to watch the movements of the two goblin girls the queen used as messengers. When one of them came to deliver the queen’s message to me, Jade Flower followed her and killed her. The wound was pretty drastic, and after I saw Jade Flower’s sword and watched her whip it out so fast I couldn’t see it move, I figured she was a likely candidate for the designated killer. Plus, the queen had said if Andre was in New Orleans, everyone had to assume she was, too . . . so the reverse had to be true, right? If the king was in New Orleans, everyone would assume Jade Flower was, too. But she was outside my house, in the woods.” I shuddered all over at the memory. “I found out for sure after calling a lot of gas stations. I talked to a guy who definitely remembered Jade Flower.”
    “So why did Hadley steal the bracelet?”
    “Jealousy, I guess, and the desire to put the queen in a bad spot. I don’t think Hadley understood the implications of what she’d done, and by the time she did, it was too late. The king had laid his plans. Jade Flower watched Hadley for a while, snatched the opportunity to take Jake Purifoy and kill him. They hoped it would be blamed on Hadley. Anything that would discredit Hadley would discredit the queen. They had no way of knowing she would turn him.”
    “What will happen to Jake now?” Amelia looked troubled. “I liked him. He was a nice guy.”
    “He still may be. He’s just a vampire nice guy.”
    “I’m not sure there’s such a thing,” my