The Dark Reunion by L. J. Smith

endlessly.
    In the car, Meredith said, “Where next?”
    “I need to test a theory,” said Stefan briefly.
    “That the killer is a vampire?” Matt said from the back, where he sat with Bonnie.
    Stefan glanced at him sharply. “Yes.”
    “That’s why you told Vickie not to invite anyone in,” Meredith added, not to be outdone in the reasoning department. Vampires, Bonnie remembered, couldn’t enter a place where humans lived and slept unless they were invited. “And that’s why you asked if the man was wearing a blue stone.”
    “An amulet against daylight,” Stefan said, spreading his right hand. On the third finger there was a silver ring set with lapis lazuli. “Without one of these, direct exposure to the sun kills us. If the murderer
is
a vampire he keeps a stone like this somewhere on him.” As if by instinct, Stefan reached up to briefly touch something under his T-shirt. After a moment Bonnie realized what it must be.
    Elena’s ring. Stefan had given it to her in the first place, and after she died he’d taken it to wear on a chain around his neck. So that part of her would be with him always, he’d said.
    When Bonnie looked at Matt beside her, she saw his eyes were closed.
    “So how can we tell if he’s a vampire?” Meredith asked.
    “There’s only one way I can think of, and itisn’t very pleasant. But it’s got to be done.”
    Bonnie’s heart sank. If Stefan thought it wasn’t very pleasant, she was sure she was going to find it even less so. “What is it?” she said unenthusiastically.
    “I need to get a look at Sue’s body.”
    There was dead silence. Even Meredith, normally so unflappable, looked appalled. Matt turned away, leaning his forehead against the window glass.
    “You’ve got to be kidding,” Bonnie said.
    “I wish I were.”
    “But—for God’s sake, Stefan. We
can’t.
They won’t let us. I mean, what are we going to say? ‘Excuse me while I examine this corpse for holes’?”
    “Bonnie, stop it,” Meredith said.
    “I can’t help it,” Bonnie snapped back shakily. “It’s an
awful
idea. And besides, the police already checked her body. There wasn’t a mark on it except the cuts she got in the fall.”
    “The police don’t know what to look for,” Stefan said. His voice was steely. Hearing it brought something home to Bonnie, something she tended to forget. Stefan was one of
them.
Oneof the hunters. He’d seen dead people before. He might even have killed some.
    He drinks
blood
, she thought, and shuddered.
    “Well?” said Stefan. “Are you still with me?”
    Bonnie tried to make herself small in the backseat. Meredith’s hands were tight on the steering wheel. It was Matt who spoke, turning back from the window.
    “We don’t have a choice, do we?” he said tiredly.
    “There’s a viewing of the body from seven to ten at the funeral home,” Meredith added, her voice low.
    “We’ll have to wait until after the viewing, then. After they close the funeral home, when we can be alone with her,” said Stefan.
    “This is the most gruesome thing I’ve ever had to do,” Bonnie whispered wretchedly. The funeral chapel was dark and cold. Stefan had sprung the locks on the outside door with a thin piece of flexible metal.
    The viewing room was thickly carpeted, its walls covered with somber oak panels. It wouldhave been a depressing place even with the lights on. In the dark it seemed close and suffocating and crowded with grotesque shapes. It looked as if someone might be crouching behind each of the many standing flower arrangements.
    “I don’t want to
be
here,” Bonnie moaned.
    “Let’s just get it over with, okay?” Matt said through his teeth.
    When he snapped the flashlight on, Bonnie looked anywhere but where it was pointing. She didn’t want to see the coffin, she
didn’t.
She stared at the flowers, at a heart made of pink roses. Outside, thunder grumbled like a sleeping animal.
    “Let me get this open—here,” Stefan was saying.