I got about halfway across the living room before I heard a car door shut, immediately followed by a car engine. I ran to the front door and threw it open just in time to see the shattered rear window of the Blue Beetle zipping down the street and out of sight.

I fumbled at my pockets and groaned. My keys were missing. "Son of a bitch," I snarled. I punched the door frame in sheer frustration. I didn't punch it very hard. I was angry, not looking to break my own knuckles. "The old stumble and bump and I fell for it."

Susan stepped up beside me and sighed. "Harry, you idiot. You're a good man. But an idiot where women are concerned."

"First my coat and now my car. That's freaking gratitude for you."

Susan nodded. "No good deed goes unpunished."

I stared at her. "Are you laughing at me?"

She faced me from behind a perfectly straight face. But her voice sounded a little choked. "No."

"You are."

Her face turned pink and she shook her head.

"Laughing at my pain."

She turned and walked back to the living room and picked up her paper. She sat down and held it up so that I couldn't see her face. Choked sounds came out from behind the paper.

I stalked back out to the addition, growling. Forthill looked back at me, his eyebrows raised.

"Give me something to break. Or hit really hard," I told him.

His eyes sparkled. "You'll hurt yourself. Here, hold this for me."

I lifted another cut board into place, while Forthill reached up to hammer it in. As he did, the sleeve of his shirt tugged up, and showed me a pair of green lines.

"Wait," I said, and snapped my hand over to his arm. The board slipped out of my other hand and bonked me on the head on the way down. I scowled at it, wincing, but tugged the sleeve up.

Forthill had a tattoo on the inside of his right arm.

An Eye of Thoth.

"What is this?" I demanded.

Forthill looked around and tugged his sleeve back down. "A tattoo."

"Duh, a tattoo. I know that. What does it mean?"

"It's something I had done when I was younger," he answered. "An organization I belonged to."

I tried to calm down but my voice still sounded harsh. "What organization?"

Forthill blinked mildly at me. "I don't understand why you are so upset, Harry-"

"What organization?"

He continued to look confused. "Just several of us who took our orders together. We were barely more than boys, really. And we'd … well. We'd happened on to some of the stranger events of our day. And records of others. A vampire had killed two people in town, and we stopped it together. No one believed us, of course."

"Of course," I said. "What about the tattoo?"