21. Twenty-One #2
“Would that change your approach?” Landon asked. “Say the construction workers were jackholes about the whole thing and taunted the naiad. What if they did something else to her? Something sexual and bad?”
I gripped my spoon tightly. “Then I would suggest the naiad had the right idea.”
“What if it wasn’t all of them?” Landon continued. “What if one of them did it before the others realized? Who gets to decide guilt, Bay?”
I didn’t like his tone. “I guess I do.” I pinned him with a glare. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“I don’t have a problem with you.” Landon’s voice turned soft. “You know that. I’m just worried that you won’t get over it if another human dies.”
“She probably won’t get over it if the naiad dies,” Scout offered. “That’s the problem. We’re trying to come up with a solution that stops the killing.”
Landon flicked his eyes to her—Scout often rubbed people the wrong way—then nodded. “I get it. I’m sorry. I’m not in the best mood today, and I’m taking it out on the wrong people.” He kissed my cheek. “I don’t mean to be a jerk.”
“You’re going through sugar withdrawal,” Gunner offered. “You should probably have a cookie.”
“You don’t want me to regain my eight-pack,” Landon complained. “You know I’m hotter than you.”
“There is no universe in which you’re hotter than me.”
“I think you both look like whiny girls,” Aunt Tillie announced. She’d plowed through her lunch. “As for the naiad, she has a right to avenge her sister.”
I gave her a peculiar look. “You seem to have a pretty concrete opinion on this.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Aunt Tillie’s gaze was even when it landed on me. “The naiads were protecting their homes. Then one of them was killed. Are you telling me you wouldn’t protect your family under the same circumstances?”
It was rare for Aunt Tillie to be this serious. “I would want revenge if someone went after my family,” I agreed after a few seconds. “I wouldn’t be able to help myself. This situation is fraught, though.”
“What situation isn’t? There’s right and there’s wrong. You can’t just take someone’s home and try to shove them in a box after the fact.”
“Nobody is talking about shoving her in a box.” The assertion grated. “Who said anything about a box?”
“She’s in the right.” Aunt Tillie pushed herself away from the table and stood. “The soup was good. You’re improving,” she said to Marnie. Then she looked back at me. “You don’t get to decide who is and isn’t worthy.”
With that, she turned on her heel and flounced through the swinging door. I watched her go, momentarily confused.
“She’s tired,” Mom explained. “She was out looking for Millie all day. I don’t think it went very well.”
“She was odd,” Landon said. “She didn’t even give me any grief about my diet.” He almost looked disappointed.
“I thought it wasn’t a diet,” Gunner challenged. “Chicks go on diets.”
“Do you feel there’s something wrong with being a chick?” Scout, her tone icy, asked.
Gunner realized his mistake and sent his girlfriend a charming smile. “Of course not. In fact, I wish I could be a chick sometimes.”
“I’ll make you a chick if you really want to be one,” Scout offered, a gleam in her eyes.
Gunner shifted on his chair. “I’m good.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Chicks are awesome, though,” he insisted.
Scout rolled her eyes. “Eat a cookie, Gunner.” She turned back to me. “You’re pretty thoughtful. You’re not letting what Tillie said get to you, are you?”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t Aunt Tillie.”
“It sounded like her.”
I continued to stare at the swinging door.
“It looked like her,” Scout added.
It might have looked like her, but that no longer meant anything. “That was Millie.”
“What are you talking about?” Mom demanded.
“She sat in the wrong chair. She said Marnie was getting better as a cook. She talked about being shoved in a box and took it personally. That wasn’t Aunt Tillie.”
Mom’s gaze swung to the door. “Holy crap, you’re right! That was Millie.”
“Should we go after her?” Stormy asked.
I shook my head. “She’s already gone.”
“How can you know that?”
“She only came to lunch to placate Mom. She was here for something else. She likely has it and is gone.”
Silence descended over the table.
“Besides,” I added, “we don’t know what we’re going to do with her yet. We need to talk to Aunt Tillie.”
“How do we know if we’re dealing with the real Aunt Tillie?” Marnie asked. “She just fooled all of us.”
“Only because you didn’t think to look for Millie.” My mind drifted back to the night we’d found the bodies. “This isn’t the first time she’s been in the inn. She was here the first night. I talked to her in the lobby. That’s why I was confused when Mom said she was in the family living quarters.”
Realization dawned on Mom. “Oh, geez. What do we do?”
“We can’t do anything. Aunt Tillie has to deal with her. Or with us. The naiad has to be the priority. She’s killing people. Millie is just looking for an escape.”
“What do we do about the naiad?”
“We put together a list,” I replied. “We need to know everyone who has been at that construction site, and we have to protect them.”
“That’s easier said than done,” Landon countered. “What are we going to tell Steve?”
I’d already worked that out too. “We tell him the truth. If he wants a magical problem, he’s about to be very happy.”