Page 78 of Dead & Breakfast
“You won’t catch me laughing.”
“I’m going back to town, and I’m going to solve this mystery. I’m going to clear my name.”
“Names are changeable!” Sal exclaimed. “For an entire year I went by Arsenio Primavera to avoid— You know what, not the point. What I’m saying is, Shakespeare was onto something with the whole ‘rose by any other name’ stuff. You could be called Diarrhea Blastington and I would love you all the same.”
“It isn’t just about my name, Sal. It’s about this town and what might become of it if we leave. Don’t you see? Someone killed the mayor and hurt Brody Young. If we don’t find out for sure, the real culprit will get away with it, or worse—keep killing.”
“Well, if you want to be dramatic about it—”
Arthur sighed, set his shoulders, and lifted his chin. “What do you want me to do, just let this town think vampires did this? That will only make it harder for our kind to move here, and to other places like it. So, I can’t give up. I won’t.”
Salvatore took a step back toward Arthur, placing both hands on his shoulders. “Not all mysteries can be solved. I know you want to—you’re definitely smart enough.” Sal’s voice got soft around the edges. “But we’re out of time.”
Arthur shook his head and backed out of Sal’s grip. “We’re immortal, Sal. There’s always more time. Even the FPI gives paranormals trials. I can find the truth, even if I have to do it from behind bars.”
Salvatore’s eyes grew hazy and he looked at the ground. “I can’t let you do this—I can’t just stand by and let this happen to you.”
“You don’t have to.” Arthur swallowed over a lump in his throat. “I know you want to leave.”
Salvatore’s gaze snapped up to Arthur, horror draped across his face. “Not without you!”
Arthur’s chest tightened, but so did his resolve. “Yes, without me. It’s not safe in this town for us. You don’t have to stay. You shouldn’t.”
“How can you say that? When it was me they suspected, you protected me. Now let me protect you. Let me do what I do best and whisk you away somewhere safe.”
“Don’t you get it? There isn’t anywhere safe. Not really. We can’t just keep running from problem to problem forever.”
“We most certainlycan!”
Arthur almost laughed. “I have no doubt, my love, that you are most capable. But I…I don’t want that life.”
“And you think you’ll get the life you want behind bars?”
“I’ll never know if I don’t try.” Arthur didn’t know how to make Sal understand. He’d spent hundreds of years drifting around the world like a dandelion seed that never quite found its way to the ground. Maybe Sal had gone so long without a home, he’d forgotten what it could mean. Arthur had never felt the reality of the difference in age between them so starkly.
“I won’t abandon you.” Salvatore grasped Arthur’s sleeve, but Arthur jerked away.
“Then don’t abandon me. Stay and help me find the killer.”
“And watch them arrest you? Prison breaks are harder to pull off than you might think. Just because I once escaped Alcatraz—”
“I don’t have time for your stories, Sal.” Arthur took another step back. He couldn’t let himself be swayed, and Sal could be quite convincing. “Either come with me or go. There’s nothing you can say to make me run away from this. I’m not a coward.” Arthur put more bite into the last word than he intended.
Sal flinched. “Unlike me, you mean? It’s not cowardice to protect yourself or your loved ones. Trident Falls doesn’t matter, Arthur. You do.”
“Trident fallsdoesmatter. That’s what I’ve been telling you! I want a place to call home. I won’t settle for a life of running away every time things get difficult.”
“Coming with me is…settling?” Sal stared up at him with wide eyes. Unshed tears glimmered within.
“Yes.” Arthur never would’ve thought it possible, but it was true now. He loved Sal, but he couldn’t flee with him. “I can’t leave. I won’t leave. The guilt would destroy me if I did. The killer mightstrike again, you know. I could never live with myself if I let this go unsolved and someone else died because I was too afraid to try.”
“If you feel that strongly.” Sal picked up the backpack with the blood supply and hoisted it over one shoulder. Rumble meowed in protest. Then he took out a travel-size umbrella, this one patterned with cartoon breakfast foods in pastel colors, and popped it open in a startlingly aggressive manner. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Stay with me, Sal.”
“I told you, I won’t stand by and watch you get arrested. When you come to your senses, I’ll be at the bus stop, waiting for whichever one takes me to Portland.” He lifted his chin.
Arthur searched the eyes he’d gazed into for countless hours over so many nights, and swallowed past the lump in his throat. Sal really wasn’t going to help him. He’d be on his own. “Whenyoucome toyoursenses, wait for me at the inn.” He turned to go.
