After the first night, I flew to Bon Temps. Flying was faster and more discrete and I no longer needed to keep up appearances for Adele's sake. Sookie did well in her lessons with Mrs. Dawson. After a few evenings of blocking and reading Adele's thoughts while holding my hand , Sookie and I took a little "field trip" to her parent's house. We sat outside in a tree(actually Sookie sat on my lap) as Sookie listened in on them. Jason mostly thought about himself, Michelle mostly thought about Sookie's dad, and Corbett mostly thought about whatever was on T.V. Sookie was so much better off living with her Gran. By the end of the first evening, Sookie was able to block out all of their thoughts at once. After two weeks, she could listen to one without listening in on the others. Amazing!
One evening we were sitting around the kitchen table talking about the upcoming Thanksgiving feast Adele was preparing for the family.
"Don't invite Uncle Bartlett," Sookie said quietly.
"Why not Sookie?"Adele asked, looking her straight in the eye. What did she suspect?
"He hurts Hadley and he thinks about hurting me." My fangs ran out.
"I'm going outside for some air," I said half way to the door. I figured their conversation might go better without my presence. And I felt like ripping things apart.
After making some arrangements, I flew back a couple of hours later. Adele was in the porch swing wrapped in a shawl. Her eyes were red from crying.
"What do I do now Eric?" she asked.
"I would arrange for Bartlett to walk in front of a train." She stared at me. Not the suggestion she was looking for, I guess.
"I suspected once that he had tried to go after my daughter Linda. I made sure he was never alone with her again. I didn't really want to believe it. My own brother! If I had spoken up then…."
"Adele, you can't do anything about that now." I put my arm around her and pulled her close. Then I pulled out my handkerchief – just in case.
After a few minutes she took a deep breath and straightened. "Hadley has started having some problems in school. I will offer to pay for counseling for her and when I make the appointment, I will let the counselor know what I suspect. I don't want Sookie to have to go through a lot of questioning." I hadn't ever thought of Adele Stackhouse as looking old before. I kissed her on the cheek and headed back to Shreveport.
Surprisingly (well, not really), Bartlett Hale did walk out in front of a train two nights later. Trains are very efficient killers and no one suspects foul play. Trains don't go chasing people, they have to walk (be pushed, dropped, be glamoured into walking) on the track themselves. And the carnage is such that all marks of torture are completely erased. I love trains.