32 #3
“It’s a Yupit word for a type of walrus.
” Tean hesitated. “They’re different from other walruses.
Most walruses forage on the seafloor. They eat clams, primarily.
Angeyeghaq, on the other hand, eat meat.
They’ll get hold of seals and hold them with their flippers and rotate them, tearing off strips of flesh—it creates a unique pattern. ”
“Sounds like the world’s most disgusting corn on the cob.”
“They kill more than they need to eat, too. There are differing explanations. That these walruses were orphaned, and so they weren’t taught how to forage.
Or that they’re a response to population pressures, because there seem to be more of them as the population grows.
” Tean ran a hand across the table. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say. ”
“People are animals. Animals get fucked up in the head too. And we don’t know why. Is that about it?”
With a quiet laugh, Tean nodded. “I suppose so.”
“Then,” Jem said, “we’re back where we started?”
“Not exactly. If you’re correct that he didn’t kill her because she was trying to leave, then you’re also correct that there’s something strange here. Why did he kill her?”
“Because she was a threat.” The words just popped out of Jem. When Tean glanced at him, he said, “That’s why he killed Amy, right? And River? The people he’s killing, the ones who aren’t LGBTQ, the ones he went out of his way to get rid of—he killed them because they’re a threat.”
“She was a threat,” Tean said slowly. “But how? Maybe you’re right. Maybe she was trying to take over the pack.”
“Maybe she knew he liked the occasional wiener in his mouth.”
Tean blinked several times.
“Just a guess,” Jem said. “But he seems pretty sensitive about that stuff.”
“But even if she knew—” Tean stopped. “Oh my gosh.”
“What?”
“What if Tess knew whatever Amy did?”
“Amy didn’t know anything,” Jem said.
“You know what I mean. What if whatever Tess knew, Kai was afraid Amy and River were going to find out?”
“I mean, I guess,” Jem said. “It seems like a stretch.”
“But think about it. All River did was background info. She went to Roosevelt, Vernon, all over the Uinta Basin. She talked to people. She did some archival digging, pulled yearbooks, that kind of thing. And that digging got her killed.”
“So, we’re back where we started.” Jem tapped his spoon on the plastic McFlurry cup. “Maybe it’s the yearbook. Maybe he didn’t want us to know about Scott.”
Tean didn’t say anything. He was pushing his hands through his hair, making it wild again. “She talked to people. She dug up background info on all of them. But we still don’t know why they killed her.”
“If it’s something in the background info,” Jem said, “it should be in the stuff Amy sent us, right?
“Yes,” Tean said, but he sounded distracted. “Correct. Excellent idea, Jem.”
He grabbed his phone and began tapping and scrolling.
Jem took out his phone as well. He was tired. He was still, maybe the teensiest bit, a little strung out. In spite of the medical miracle of secret sauce and a McFlurry, he wasn’t anywhere close to a hundred percent. So, he figured he’d leave the reading to Tean.
Instead, he opened the folder of images that Amy had sent them and began looking through them.
One of Zeb in a swimsuit, standing at the edge of a pool.
Big guy. Nice build. If you were into the tough-acting straight guy kind of thing, anyway.
Some scars—arm, shoulder, cheek. The tattoo on his neck.
Was there something he was supposed to see?
It felt like some Sherlock Holmes kind of shit.
Then Tess at Halloween, almost unrecognizable in the huge wig and the dramatic makeup and the slutty nurse costume, surrounded by her girlies.
Was that the clue? Something about the nurse’s costume?
Something medical? It seemed like a stretch.
And then the photo of Kai when he’d been a teenager, backstage at the theater.
Jem was a pretty enlightened guy—definitely an enlightened guy now that he was with Tean, who always reminded him not to say bitch and who had instituted Meatless Mondays, and who one time had told him that you weren’t supposed to call them ladyboys even if that’s what they said in Thailand.
But just looking at the skinny kid who loved theater and had a backstage obsession about the makeup—
It was like pins and needles all over him. And then his hands felt like ice.
He thumbed back to the previous image.
Tess in her big wig. Tess under all that makeup. Tess in the slutty nurse’s costume.
But not with her girlies. That’s where Jem had been wrong. Because at least some of the other ladies were actually dudes.
And one of them, under all the makeup and hair, behind the fake tits and the dress that didn’t quite fit—one of them had hazel eyes. Dead eyes. A thousand-yard stare.
And then the click-click-click of everything else falling into place.
Why Kai had killed Tess.
Why Kai had killed Wendell.
Why Kai had killed River and Amy.
He was surprised his voice worked when he asked, “What does Lupita mean?”
Tean frowned at his phone. “Little wolf, I guess, but it’s a common name—” Then he stopped. He brought his head up. His mouth opened like Jem had slapped him.
“We have to go,” Jem said. “Right now.”