“So was he a friend of both your parents or not?” Bricker asked with a frown, and when she glanced to him questioningly, pointed out, “You said he was a family friend of your mom and dad’s, but then you said he came around after your brother died when you were seven. Did he show up when you were seven or before that?”
Sherry hesitated and then shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I was a kid.”
“It doesn’t matter if he hasn’t been in her life since she was a teenager,” Drina interrupted. “We’re dealing with an immortal who is obviously still in her life. This Uncle Al would hardly disappear for fifteen years and then suddenly show up to scare her out of Port Henry all this time later.”
“Well, there isn’t anyone in my life who fits the bill of an immortal,” Sherry said. “The only people I even deal with on a daily basis, who are in their early twenties, are my employees Emma, Joan, Allan, Zander, Sarah, and Eric . . . and I didn’t know any of them before I opened the store three years ago. So if one of them is an immortal—”
Drina shook her head. “Three years isn’t long enough. But it doesn’t have to be someone who looks like they’re in their early twenties. As I said, hair dye, makeup, and clothing could make them look older.”
“It doesn’t matter how old they look,” Sherry insisted. “I just haven’t had anyone in my life that long. The longest anyone has been in my life is my mother, who as I said is dead. After that, my buddy Luther was in my life for the longest at nine years, and he got a job in Saudi Arabia and moved there just before I opened the store three years ago. I haven’t seen him since.”
“Aunts and uncles?” Drina asked.
“My relatives are not vamp— immortals,” Sherry said with certainty.
“You cannot be certain—” Drina began, but Sherry cut her off.
“I am certain,” she insisted firmly. “No amount of makeup and hair dye could make a twenty-something look sixty to seventy years old. My mother was the youngest, an afterthought, born fifteen years behind her eldest sister. All my aunts have varicose veins and are wrinkled from their foreheads down to their feet. As for my uncles, one is bald with a little sprout of gray hair on his crown, the other has that donut thing happening where the top of the head is bald and the hair grows around the sides, and the third one has a belly that actually does shake like a bowl full of jelly when he laughs. I’m telling you, they are not immortals.”
Silence filled the room briefly, and then Lucian crumpled up the empty wrappings of his sandwich, tossed it on the plate with his now empty chip bag, picked up his plate and drink gla.s.s and stood to leave the room for the kitchen. They heard him banging around in there, presumably disposing of the wrappings and putting the plate in the dishwasher, then he returned with a notepad and a pen.
“Write down everyone you have ever known in your life and how long they have been or were in your life,” he instructed, handing the notepad and pen to her.
“Everyone?” Sherry echoed with alarm.
“Everyone who has spent a lot of time around or near you while they were in your life,” he clarified. “Friends, family friends, that sort of thing.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Sherry warned, accepting the notepad and pen.
“You have until morning,” Lucian said firmly, and then turned to Harper. “You can take Stephanie and Drina back to Port Henry, or stay for a couple days, as you like. But if you stay, Stephanie doesn’t leave the apartment.”
Harper nodded, but asked, “And Sherry and Basil?”
“They stay here until we sort out who the immortal is in her life and why they didn’t want her in Port Henry,” he announced.
Sherry couldn’t help noticing that n.o.body protested his dictating everyone’s life like this. Even she was keeping her mouth shut, she acknowledged wryly as Lucian continued.
“If you’re staying tonight,” he said to Harper and Drina, “they can stay here too. Otherwise, Bricker will take them to the Enforcer house after he drops me off.”
Harper nodded and glanced to Drina when she caught his hand. She tugged him to the side to whisper in his ear, and his eyebrows rose slightly. But he nodded and then straightened and said, “Sherry and Basil can stay here. We’d like to stay a couple days and try to help sort out who this immortal might be before we go.”
“To make up for my mistake,” Drina added quietly. “It can’t hurt to have more minds working on the puzzle of who the immortal in Sherry’s life might be.”
“I like puzzles,” Stephanie announced, dropping onto the couch next to Sherry and grinning at her good-naturedly.
Sherry smiled back and then glanced to Lucian as he headed for the entry, announcing, “We’re leaving, Bricker.”
Bricker paused with his sandwich halfway to his mouth and gaped after the man, then sighed and quickly wrapped up the second half of his sandwich, muttering, “Of course, we are.”
Sherry bit her lip as they all watched Bricker scramble after Lucian. No one spoke until they heard the telltale sign of the elevator door opening and closing, and then Drina glanced to Sherry and smiled.
“I’ll make some coffee and see if Mrs. Parker made brownies or anything to help fuel your brain while you make the list.”
“I’ll help,” Harper offered, moving to her side.
Sherry jumped in surprise when Stephanie suddenly squealed, “Brownies!” and leapt off the couch to hurry after the couple. She watched the girl go with wry amus.e.m.e.nt. Sometimes Stephanie seemed sixty, and sometimes she just seemed sixteen . . . or even six, she thought, and shook her head.
“Are you all right with staying here?”
Sherry glanced to Basil and started to nod, then frowned and said, “Oh, G.o.d, I’m sorry, Basil. You came to Canada to visit your daughter and now—” Biting her lip, she shook her head and said, “You don’t have to stay here, you know. I’ll understand if you want to return to Port Henry and continue your visit with Katricia.”
He smiled faintly at her words and reached out to caress her cheek, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “We can visit Katricia after we resolve this. I meant are you okay with staying here as opposed to the Enforcer house? This is the third new place in almost as many days. I wondered if you would prefer someplace you’ve already been.”