From Dead to Worse

some sweetener, pouring milk over it. I hunched over the bowl because I didn’t want to dribble milk down my tank top. And by the way, it was getting too cold to wear a tank top around the house. I pulled on a cheap jacket made of sweats material and was able to finish my coffee and cereal in comfort.
    “What’s up, you two?” I asked, signaling I was ready to interact with the rest of the world.
    “Amelia told me about your problem,” Octavia said. “And about your very kind offer.”
    Ah-oh. What offer?
    I nodded wisely, as if I had a clue.
    “I’ll be so glad to be out of my niece’s house, you have no idea,” the older woman said earnestly. “Janesha has three little ones, including one toddler, and a boyfriend that comes and goes. I’m sleeping on the living room couch, and when the kids get up in the morning, they come in and turn on the cartoons. Whether or not I’m up. It’s their house, of course, and I’ve been there for weeks, so they’ve lost the sense that I’m company.”
    I gathered that Octavia was going to be sleeping in the bedroom opposite me or in the extra one upstairs. I was voting for the one upstairs.
    “And you know, now that I’m older, I need quicker access to a bathroom.” She looked at me with that humorous deprecation people show when they’re admitting to a passage-of-time condition. “So downstairs would be wonderful, especially since my knees are arthritic. Did I tell you Janesha’s apartment is upstairs?”
    “No,” I said through numb lips. Geez, this had happened so fast.
    “Now, about your problem. I’m not a black witch at all, but you need to get these young women out of your life, both Ms. Pelt’s agent and Ms. Pelt herself.”
    I nodded vigorously.
    “So,” Amelia said, unable to keep quiet any longer, “we’ve come up with a plan.”
    “I’m all ears,” I said, and poured myself a second cup of coffee. I needed it.
    “The simplest way to get rid of Tanya, of course, is to tell your friend Calvin Norris what she’s doing,” Octavia said.
    I gaped at her. “Ah, that seems likely to result in some pretty bad things happening to Tanya,” I said.
    “Isn’t that what you want?” Octavia looked innocent in a real sly way.
    “Well, yeah, but I don’t want her to die. I mean, I don’t want anything she can’t get over to happen to her. I just want her away and not coming back.”
    Amelia said, “ ‘Away and not coming back’ sounds pretty final to me.”
    It sounded that way to me, too. “I’ll rephrase. I want her to be off somewhere living her life but far away from me,” I said. “Is that clear enough?” I wasn’t trying to sound sharp; I just wanted to express myself.
    “Yes, young lady, I think we can understand that,” said Octavia with frost in her voice.
    “I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding here,” I said. “There’s a lot at stake. I think Calvin kind of likes Tanya. On the other hand, I bet he could scare her pretty effectively.”
    “Enough to get her to leave forever?”
    “You’d have to demonstrate that you were telling the truth,” Amelia said. “About her sabotaging you.”
    “What do you have in mind?” I asked.
    “Okay, here’s what we think,” Amelia said, and just like that, Phase One was in place. It turned out to be something I could have thought of myself, but the witches’ help made the planning run much more smoothly.
    I called Calvin at home, and asked him to stop by when he had a minute to spare around lunchtime. He sounded surprised to hear from me, but he agreed to come.
    He got a further surprise when he came into the kitchen and found Amelia and Octavia there. Calvin, the leader of the werepanthers who lived in the little community of Hotshot, had met Amelia several times before, but Octavia was new to him. He respected her immediately because he was able to sense her power. That was a big help.
    Calvin was probably in his midforties, strong and solid, sure of himself. His hair was graying, but he was straight as an arrow in posture, and he possessed a huge calm that couldn’t fail to impress. He’d been interested in me for a while, and I’d only been sorry I couldn’t feel the same way. He was a good man.
    “What’s up, Sookie?” he said after he’d turned down the offer of cookies or tea or Coke.
    I took a deep breath. “I don’t like to be a tale-teller, Calvin, but we have a problem,” I said.
    “Tanya,” he said immediately.
    “Yeah,” I said, not