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“So, Rita tells me your family has always lived in Deadhart?”
“My grandfather came here, like a lot of men, to work in the mine.” He spooned coffee into mugs, hand trembling slightly. “Why are you interested in Deadhart’s history?”
“I think there may be a connection to what’s happening now.”
He poured hot water into the mugs, brought them over to the table.
“The connection is obvious. The Colony. They came back, and another kid is dead. That’s all they bring. Death. Won’t ever change. It’s not right to ask good God-fearing people to live alongside them. Not without being able to defend ourselves.”
He sat down heavily on one of the hard wooden chairs.
“And you think attack is the best form of defense?” Barbara asked, pulling out the chair opposite.
“It’s us or them,” he said. “We took care of things before.”
“An unauthorized cull. You killed Aaron, his father and his uncle.”
“Tucker was letting a killer escape.”
“And what if you were wrong? What if Aaron didn’t kill Todd Danes?”
Beau blinked at her. “He confessed.”
“To protect the Colony.”
Beau’s hand went to his head, rubbed at it. “No. You confessed,” he muttered.
Barbara frowned. You? A slip of the tongue, or something else?
“What do you know about the Bone House, sir?” she asked, deciding to change tack.
She saw him start. “Why are you asking about that place?”
“I’m interested.”
“If you know the name, you already know what it was.”
“A whorehouse, where men had sex with vampyrs. I understand your own grandfather was a visitor.”
The blue eyes flashed. “Lots of men visited. It was a different time. Your type always act like vampyrs are the victims. Kids used to go missing from Deadhart all the while back then. Rita ever tell you about her mom’s older sister? Six years old. Lost in the woods. Never found her body. But everyone knew it was the Colony.”
“No, Rita never told me,” she said, and wondered why.
“Well, I guess her mom don’t like to talk about it.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right though.”
“No. And maybe that’s why that vampyr girl hates us so much. Why she wants revenge.”
“Athelinda?”
He nodded. “It ain’t just about Aaron and his family. It’s about that place—the Bone House. What they did to her there.”
“What they did…”
And suddenly the penny dropped. Of course. How had she missed it?
“Athelinda was kept at the Bone House?”
