Violets Are Blue

nice, unexpected treat, why wouldn’t I? I get to see the two of you. Plus, I
am
in excellent spirits. I’m getting married next year in the spring. My Thomas proposed two nights ago.”
    Kyle fumbled out a congratulation, and I called over our waiter and ordered a bottle of champagne to celebrate. For the next few minutes, Kate told us all about her Thomas, who owned and ran a small, nicely snooty bookstore in North Carolina. He was also a landscape painter, and Kate said he was exceptional at both his jobs.
    “Of course, I’m hugely biased, but I’m also a picky little bitch, and he really is good. He’s a fine person too. How are Nana and the kids? How’s Louise, Kyle?” she asked. “C’mon, tell me everything. I’ve missed you two.”
    By the end of dinner, we were all in good spirits. The champagne and the company did the trick. I had noticed before how Kate could raise up everyone around her — even Kyle, who usually isn’t the most social person. All through dinner he rarely took his eyes off of her.
    The three of us hugged outside the restaurant at around eleven.
    “You two are coming to my wedding,” Kate said, and stamped her foot. “Kyle will bring Louise, and Alex, you’ll bring the new love of your life. Promise?”
    We promised Kate. She left us no choice. We then watched her walk away toward her car, an old blue Volvo that she made house calls in.
    “I like her a lot.” I couldn’t help stating the obvious.
    “Yes, I like her too,” said Kyle, who didn’t stop watching until Kate’s car was gone from sight. “She’s a very special girl.”

Chapter 44

    WE WERE connecting some of the dots now.
Finally
. I hoped we would be able to put together the whole vampire puzzle soon. By the following afternoon, the FBI had identified twelve eastern cities where murders involving vampire-like bites had occurred as early as 1989. I put the names on one of my index cards. Then I stared at the list long and hard. What could possibly link these cities?

    Atlanta
    Birmingham
    Charleston
    Charlotte
    Charlottesville
    Gainesville
    Jacksonville
    New Orleans
    Orlando
    Richmond
    Savannah
    Washington, D.C.

    The breadth of the list was a problem. Scarier and more mystifying was the fact that the murders might have been going on for over a decade.
    Next I made an even longer list of cities where nonlethal attacks by supposed vampires had been reported and investigated. I stared at the list and got a little depressed. This was starting to look like an impossible conspiracy.

    New York City
    Boston
    Philadelphia
    Pittsburgh
    Virginia Beach
    White Plains
    Newburgh
    Trenton
    Atlanta
    Newark
    Atlantic City
    Tom’s River
    Baltimore
    Princeton
    Miami
    Gainesville
    Memphis
    College Park
    Charlottesville
    Rochester
    Buffalo
    Albany

    The violent crime unit in Quantico was working round the clock on the murders. Kyle and I were pretty sure that other cities would turn up, and that the pattern might go back longer than eleven years.
    In Atlanta, Gainesville, New Orleans, and Savannah there appeared to have been murders in at least two different years. So far, Charlotte, North Carolina, was the worst hit: There were three suspicious murders going back to 1989. It was even possible that the killing spree had started in Charlotte.
    The FBI had moved agents into the twelve cities where murders had happened, and special task forces had been set up in Charlotte, Atlanta, and New Orleans.
    I finished up with my investigation in Charleston. It didn’t accomplish too much. At this point, the media didn’t have the story about the wide net of murder cities, and we wanted to keep it that way for as long as we could.
    That night, I visited Spooky Tooth, the only club in the Charleston area that was a hangout for Goths and vampire wanna-bes. What I found there was a nest of young people, mostly under twenty. They were still in high school or college. I interviewed the owner of the nightclub and questioned some of the clientele. They were definitely angry and restless, but no one seemed a likely murder suspect.
    I made sure I was back in Washington the next afternoon. At seven-thirty, Nana, Jannie, little Alex, and I went to a Boys’ Choir concert.
    The choir sounded better than ever. Damon was one of the featured singers. He had a beautiful solo, “The Ash Grove.”
    “See what you’ve been missing?” Nana leaned in close and said.

Chapter 45

    WILLIAM AND Michael liked being in the South. It was wild and