Page 56 of Death and Do-Overs

“Me, too,” Imogen whispered.

A knock came from the door. Imogen popped up to answer it.

“I did find something interesting in the earwax,” Andrew said.

“Besides the fact that it was vibrating?” I asked.

Imogen opened the door and exchanged words with whoever was on the other side. I leaned slightly to see a young woman handing over a plastic takeout bag.

“Yes,” Andrew said. “I’ve pinpointed the date the curse was whispered.”

“When?” I asked.

“October twenty-fourth,” he said.

The dayafterI—Nie—arrived in Nevermore.

“That means she wasn’t cursed in Piccadilly. She was cursed here,” Imogen said, as she returned to the bed. She laid out foam packages along the comforter and gestured for me to help myself.

“One more thing,” Andrew said. “Time of death occurred somewhere between seven and eleven p.m. on the twenty-sixth.”

Two days after Nie was cursed. The curse hadn’t killed me, which meant there was another cause.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my memories of what had happened during the three days I’d spent in Nevermore before someone had murdered me.

I came up blank.

I let out a breath and surveyed the food Imogen had purchased. I grabbed a french fry. The salty grease did little to soothe the disappointment I felt in my failure to access my own memories.

“Did you already know some of this stuff?” Imogen asked me.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Andrew, do you think Nie didn’t know everything she should know because she was undead?” Imogen asked.

“It’s possible. This particular situation is as new to me as it is to you,” Andrew said.

“Brokenmemories. It could be the fact thatshewas in pieces,” Imogen snorted. “Was that not funny? That’s definitely not funny. Ohmygoodnessgracious, I’msosorry.”

Except what if she was right?

“Sure,” Andrew said. “The entirety of Nie’s experience may not be contained in every part of her.”

“What would her shoulder remember?” Imogen asked. “Lifting her arm?”

“It’s unlikely for parts to have self-awareness,” Andrew said. “The rest of the body could have disappeared at the same time as the head when the memories were absorbed.”

So it was possible we had to find the rest of Nie to find the rest of the answers. I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than the rest of her disappearing and leaving no further evidence to find at all.

The entire conversation was making my stomach churn.

I pushed the food away.

After a few niceties and an invitation to call if we needed anything else, Andrew hung up.

“I need a nap,” Imogen said with another yawn. “I didn’t sleep last night.”

I hadn’t slept much either.

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