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“I wondered if I could talk to you about Marcus? I’ll try to keep it quick.”
“Of course.” He acquiesced. “Anything I can do to help.”
She pulled out the chair and sat down. “Thanks.”
Mayflower returned with a black coffee, which she set down in front of Mowlam.
“Thanks, May.”
She nodded and walked off briskly. Seemed at least one person was immune to Mowlam’s looks.
“I saw you talking to Dr. Dalton,” Barbara said.
“Yeah, he’s my landlord.”
“Having a disagreement about the rent?”
He added some sugar to his coffee and stirred it. “No, just some repairs that need doing. You know landlords. Never want to put their hands in their pockets.”
“Oh, I’ve got that T-shirt.”
He laughed. “Right?”
“How long have you been here in Deadhart?” Barbara asked.
“Almost two years.”
“What brought you here?”
A small shrug. “Alaska sounded different. Mountains, glaciers, bears…vampyrs.”
“Where were you before?”
“Here and there. I’ve traveled a lot.”
“Teaching?”
“Not always. I like to mix things up.”
Barbara waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “What do you teach?”
“Well, English and history are my main subjects but, here, I cover a bit of everything.”
She nodded. “Did you know Marcus and his friends well?”
“It’s a small class, mixed grade, only twelve kids, so I know all the pupils pretty well. And the boys came to my after-school book club.”
“Really? I didn’t think teenage boys were big readers.”
“Well, I’ve been trying to change that. Boys, especially in more rural areas, get left behind with literacy. Often because the study material is a little dry, shall we say?”
“So, what books do your group study?”
“We’ve read Lolita, American Psycho, Dracula.”
Barbara stared at him. “Ever thought of trying something lighter, like Mein Kampf?”
He chuckled. “You don’t approve?”
