Chapter 36 Jayne
Sin’s gaze went cold.
“What? Why?” I spit the truffle into a napkin. Sadly. Because it had been delicious.
He crumpled the paper and shoved it in his pocket.
“I’ll tell you in a minute. I don’t want to alarm my parents.
” He snagged the half truffle I’d been offering him, wrapped it in another napkin, and tucked it in his pocket.
“Do you want to text Joshua and let him know we’re ready to be picked up?
I need to go do something real quick. I won’t be long. ”
“Sure.” Obviously, he thought there was something wrong with the truffle, so I went along, trying not to react. I was sure he’d tell me soon. I texted Joshua, then got up to talk to Sin’s aunt and parents, who were excitedly running new ideas off each other for their Vegas act.
I kept my eyes on Sin. He opened the box door and said something to Luke, who was still standing there. Then Sin pulled out the truffle wrapper as he stepped out and closed the door.
I refocused on his family’s conversation. All of the ideas centered around the aurora borealis. It was pretty cute, actually. I had to smile. “I take it you guys enjoyed the show.”
“Oh, Jayne, it was spectacular,” Lila said. “Thank you so much for making this happen.”
“You’re welcome, although I didn’t have that much to do with it.” My phone vibrated. Joshua was on his way.
Sin came back in, looking about the same as he had when he’d left. We gathered everyone up, and Luke walked us to the exit. That seemed above and beyond for a concierge, but it was very nice of him.
It was a solid forty minutes later until Sin and I were alone in our apartment.
My aunt and uncle had wanted to know how the evening had gone and, of course, given us a full report on JJ.
He’d had two bottles, which had resulted in two diaper changes and one clothing change due to an epic throw-up, but otherwise a pretty standard evening.
Spider and Sugar were swirling around our legs in need of attention. Sin let out a sigh as he closed the door behind my aunt and uncle. “I’ll get the cats some treats. Come on, you two.” He shot me a quick smile. “Long night but a great time.”
“I agree.” I had JJ on my shoulder, and I was rocking him back and forth. I was pretty sure he was just about out. “You want to tell me about the truffle?”
“I wish there was nothing to tell.” He stopped on his way to the kitchen and took the wrapper out of his pocket, uncrinkling it so I could see what was drawn inside. “I was worried it was poisoned, although you’re okay so far. Hopefully, you didn’t ingest much of it.”
“I didn’t.” I frowned. “Snowballs.”
He nodded and set it on the counter. “I talked to Luke about it to see if he knew who’d prepared the snack tray, but all he’d done was pick it up from the concession counter. I also gave him the rest of the truffle to have it tested, just in case there was something in there.”
“I feel fine. So the truffles came from the concession counter?”
“No.” He turned to get the treats down. “According to Luke, everything we had this evening was from the palace, sent ahead for us.” He caught my gaze again.
“I’m not saying that was drawn by someone in the palace—it could have very easily been done by someone in the planetarium—but you realize whoever did it could have very easily poisoned one of us? You, my mom, my dad, my aunt—”
“Or you.” A chill went through me.
“The good news is Luke was sent by Ezreal. He was there to guard us.”
I wrinkled my nose. “That’s great, but if those truffles had been poisoned, we’d still be dead.
” I laid my hand on JJ’s back and tucked him against my neck.
My heart ached at what could have been. It probably wasn’t healthy to dwell on such things, but I was tired and it had been a long day. “I want this over.”
“So do I.”
JJ was asleep. I could just tell. “I’m going to put him in his crib, then I’m going to bed.”
“Right behind you.”
Sin fell asleep right away, but I lay there, thinking over the details of the case, trying to make connections where there weren’t any, hoping to come up with something we’d missed.
I must have drifted off, because JJ’s whimpers on the baby monitor brought me around again. Sugar and Spider were passed out at the foot of the bed.
I got up and grabbed my robe. Sin stirred. “Stay asleep,” I whispered. “I’ve got this.”
I hurried into the nursery, picked JJ up, and sat in the rocker to feed him.
I left the lights off, the nightlight more than enough.
I was preoccupied by the thoughts in my head.
My mind was still hard at work, churning through everything I knew, everything from the interviews we’d done.
I replayed conversations, hoping to remember some crucial detail.
Spider wandered in, eyes half shut. He sat a few feet away and yawned.
Goofy thing. “Go back to bed, silly cat.”
He flopped over. “Spider stay with Mama and little brother.”
“Okay, sweet boy.”
“Mama?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Why Spider named Spider?”
No doubt he’d heard all the Naming Day talk. “Because that’s the name that was on your tag when I adopted you. I didn’t give you that name.”
“What would Mama have named Spider?”
I’d never considered that. “I don’t know.
Names are important. That’s why Naming Day exists.
Names have a lot of meaning.” I narrowed my eyes as my brain headed down a rabbit hole.
Names did have a lot of meaning. And there was one that had been stuck in my head since I’d heard it. “Do you want a different name?”
“Nah. Spider likes Spider.”
“I am very happy to hear that. I can’t imagine you as anything else.” JJ was done, so I got us both situated, put him in a clean diaper, then rocked him back to sleep. Didn’t take him long. I put him in the crib, then, wide awake now, went into the study.
Spider followed. I turned on the small lamp for a little light, then stood back to look at the murder board.
As murder boards went, it was pretty anemic. Not much other than a question mark under Suspects and Delton’s name under Victim.
I grabbed the blue dry-erase marker and added Serja Vintorf in the middle. I didn’t know how, but I felt like she was involved. There was something there, something my brain couldn’t let go of.
What was it?
To occupy myself, I started adding a few possibilities to the Suspect list. Percy Tinselwick, even though I didn’t think he was anything more than a cranky son with deep regrets.
Under his name, I wrote True North. Again, I had my doubts about the group being involved, but getting things out of my head and onto the board might help me think more clearly.
Who else?
My gaze kept going back to Serja’s name. The more I thought about her, the more I wondered what her backstory was. How had she ended up in Little Reykjavik? Was it just because she was an artist and that community was more welcoming of artsy types?
I didn’t buy that. There were plenty of artsy types who lived in town. LeRoy was proof of that, although I couldn’t see him living out that way. He was definitely someone who liked the hustle and bustle of town life.
Another name came to mind. The one no one was supposed to speak or acknowledge or even think about.
So I did the very thing I wasn’t supposed to do. I wrote my aunt’s name on the board above Serja’s. Two women I wanted to know more about. Two women who were entangled in this mess. Two women who …
I narrowed my eyes. That couldn’t be right.
I grabbed the red marker and yanked the cap off, then I started drawing lines. When I was done, I stepped back. “Son of a nutcracker.”
“What is it, Mama?”
I shook my head, my eyes focused on the board, the fumes from the marker making me slightly dizzy. “Something that can’t be. At least, it shouldn’t be.”
I capped the marker and just stared. Letter to letter. Every line connected. Not a letter was left out, not a letter was missing. My heart started racing.
There was no way this was a coincidence. I had to get Sin. I had to be sure I wasn’t dreaming.
I turned and headed out to get him, only to run straight into him and his crutches.
He stabilized himself as he grabbed me to keep us both from falling over. “Jayne! What are you doing?”
“I was—never mind, you have to see this.”
“See what?”
“In the den.” I went back in, this time flipping on the light.
He blinked, scrunching up his face as he hobbled in. Slowly, his eyes focused on the murder board, and his mouth came open. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Mama said names have meaning,” Spider proudly offered.
Sin nodded slowly. “You’d better believe they do.”