Chapter Thirteen #3
Vaughn Miller, the headwaiter, placed several plates of food on the table. “Cheer Shabina up. We can’t have our boss looking glum.”
“I’m glum because we have no drinks,” Shabina said.
“I have my drink,” Vienna said, holding it up.
“That’s favoritism,” Zahra announced. “Vaughn, you can’t show favoritism like that. If Vienna has her drink already, we all should, meaning me.”
Vaughn saluted Zahra. “So sorry, Ms. Metcalf. I’ll personally bring your drink to the table.”
Zahra looked at him with grave suspicion while Harlow did her best not to laugh. Vaughn was their waiter. Of course he was going to bring the drinks personally to the table.
“Are you being a smart-ass?” Zahra asked.
“Yes, ma’am, I am,” Vaughn admitted readily, winking at her.
“All right, then. Just clarifying. You may carry on.” Zahra waved her hand as if she were a princess giving leave to her subject.
Vaughn’s eyebrow shot up, but he didn’t try to further engage Zahra. He recognized she was effortless at her dry wit, and he wasn’t going to outdo her with smart remarks. “To the master,” he said with a slight bow, and hurried off.
“He didn’t ask what I wanted to drink,” Zahra pointed out to Shabina.
“Every waiter in the café knows what you like to drink, Zahra,” Shabina said.
“I might want something different.”
Shabina rolled her eyes. “If he dared to ask you what you wanted, you would have informed him in your haughtiest tone that you’ve been here a million times and ordered the exact same thing every time.
Then you’d ask him if he had brain rot or something equally as annoying, and you’d do it with a straight face. ”
Zahra didn’t appear in the least bit fazed. She lifted one eyebrow elegantly and looked down her nose at Shabina. “I make your entire staff better waiters.”
“And, by the way, you show favoritism to Vaughn. Every other waiter in this establishment knows you prefer him to wait on you,” Stella said.
“He’s an amazing waiter and a good person.”
Harlow joined in the laughter that floated around the table, all but Zahra, who kept her straight face.
She was so good at what she did. Harlow had to give her just dues for staying in character, no matter what was happening around her.
She always acted as if the outrageous things she said and did were perfectly normal.
“I think we’d better get back to discussing accidents versus murder,” Raine said. “We could be on the Zahra train for the rest of the day and get nowhere.”
“While I always love the Zahra train,” Vienna said, “I think you’re right.
I happen to know Rush is putting a time limit on you, Raine, and if we want to figure this out, we’d better get to it.
I’m going to just come out and say it. I don’t see how these random people were killed by the same person,” she continued.
“Giselle Gentry died a couple of months ago. What actual connection did she have to Helen McKay or Lawyer Collins? And we know Edith Shumaker and these last four victims were all strangers. I believe we’re so paranoid after the last two serial killers were in Knightly that we look for things like that. ”
“You have a point,” Stella admitted. “A very valid one, but what about the nightmares I’m having? I don’t get those unless there’s a serial killer on the loose and I’ve somehow come in contact with him or her.”
Vienna sighed. “I honestly don’t know what to think about that, Stella. If you hadn’t come forward and told us you were having those nightmares, no one would have even considered that these deaths are in any way related.”
“True,” Stella said. “But I am having them.”
“Not true when it comes to the serial killer theory,” Harlow found herself admitting.
“I don’t know why, but I’ve had a gut feeling all along that something isn’t right.
Maybe it isn’t a serial killer like we’re used to, but if someone is experimenting on snakes or they’re injecting strangers to see if their venom kills and how quickly, to me, that’s still a serial killer.
And weirdly, out of the blue, Alek mentioned the possibility. So we aren’t the only ones.”
“I’m on the fence,” Zahra admitted. “I don’t want it to be a serial killer again. Especially if it’s someone we know. Are we magnets for murder?”
For some unexplained reason, Zahra’s last inquiry made Harlow want to laugh hysterically. The woman could say the most outrageous things and still make some kind of sense. She also always lightened the mood when they were veering toward darkness.
“I’ve been searching for experiments, even obscure ones that haven’t seen the light of day,” Raine said.
“Military, medical labs, not just in the United States, but all over the world. So far, I haven’t turned up much.
There was some speculation in India and China about mixing snakes to create a hybrid, but the actual experiments weren’t successful.
That was some years ago. It doesn’t mean an individual got ahold of their discarded papers, theorized and decided to try for themselves. ”
Harlow sighed. “There are plenty of people who would try just to say they did, let alone use the product as a weapon of destruction.”
“I’ll keep digging because, honestly, my gut is telling me Harlow is right. I don’t know who is killing or why, or even how, but this feels like it’s been orchestrated, not just randomly occurring,” Raine said.
Vienna waited for Vaughn to set drinks in front of those who didn’t have them and leave before she made her concession.
“I’m all about odds and numbers. I have to tell you, odds are coming down on the side of this entire thing being orchestrated.
I didn’t want to believe it, because we’ve had enough drama in Knightly, but I fear we’re really in for a difficult ride. ”
“I believe, along with Stella, Harlow and Vienna, that we’ve all gone to the dark side,” Raine said. “Shabina and Zahra are on the fence.”
She didn’t add “as usual,” but her tone implied it.
“Someone has to play devil’s advocate, and I do so very, very well,” Zahra said. “It’s my superpower.”
“One of your many superpowers,” Raine corrected. “We need that from you to keep us grounded. And Shabina is our thoughtful one. She thinks things through entirely before she makes any kind of judgment, and we need that as well.”
“That sounds so much better than sitting on a fence,” Shabina said.
“I do take more time because I try to look at it from every angle. I play my own devil’s advocate when I come up with theories.
” She flashed them a small, self-deprecatory smile.
“I had to learn to think that way when I was a teen, and it’s so ingrained in me I can’t seem to stop. ”
“That’s a good thing,” Raine said.
Harlow nodded in agreement. “A very good thing.”
“Rainier says that as well. He never hurries me when we’re having a discussion. It isn’t that my mind doesn’t think fast—it does,” Shabina explained. “It’s just that I want to have the best response before I speak.”
“Babe.” Stella leaned toward her. “Your opinion is very valued for that reason. We all think differently. We come at problems from different angles. That’s what makes us good at what we do when we’re together.”
“Well, the truth is, as much as some of the victims don’t make sense, I think someone is behind the attacks.
Lawyer, Helen and Ms. Gentry were longtime residents.
Lawyer was in the security business. He knew practically everyone in town, and I have no idea what he saw on the security screens, but I’m sure not all of it was good.
Ms. Gentry was into everyone’s business and made no apologies for it.
Helen kept to herself for the most part, but she knew everyone as well.
Like Zahra, many people went to her for help with training their dogs, particularly those with farms or ranches.
As for the fourth victim, Edith Shumaker, I believe the target was Chelsey Sarten, and Edith just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. ”
That made sense to Harlow, but…“And the latest victims?”
Shabina shrugged. “I don’t know enough about them yet to say how they fit. For all we know, the killer might have targeted them just to throw off the investigators.”