Page 55 of Death and Do-Overs

“I ordered food. I didn’t know what you’d want, and I didn’t want to leave, so I ordered a bunch of takeout. I hope that’s all right.”

“Thank you, Imogen. That was thoughtful.”

She beamed at me.

I took a seat across from her on my own mattress and searched for what exactly I should tell her about my broken memories. I decided to start with the most important piece of information I’d gleaned.

But before I could utter a word, she said, “I called Brock and told him to focus on the background check for Guy Jones first. I talked to Rose and Wendy, too. And Rose said that you thought a cloaked dude was stalking Nie, and he followed her onto the train, and that he was both the bad guy and Birdie since Birdie had a ticket, but since she can change shapes, there’s no good reason for her to hide who she is with a cloak. Ithadto be Guy Jones creeping on Nie.”

I just blinked at her.

“Sorry, that was a lot.” Imogen smiled. “You looked like there was something you wanted to say at the start there. Go ahead. I’m all ears.”

I said, “You were right all along.”

“Oh, that’s so nice. People almost never say that to me. Right about what?”

“It wasn’t Bernadette who broke into my last room. It was someone else.”

“So you have Nie’s memories.” She clapped her hands together. “That's the best news. And I’m so glad it’s not Birdie. I mean Ireallydidn’t want it to be her.”

We didn’t need to get into Imogen’s weird adoration for the reaper again.

“I have broken memories,” I said.

“Because…of Wendy’s magic? Like Nie didn’t have all of her own memories?”

It was possible. It was also possible that the issue was the fact that Mar and Nie had lived separate lives much longer before reuniting this time, and it was difficult to access all of those memories. I hoped time would help.

I said simply, “I don’t know.”

“Well, we should have some takeout, and while we eat and think things over, we should call Andrew back. He’s been calling you. I didn’t want to be rude and answer your phone, but I did happen to see who was calling, even though I wasn’t trying to see.”

“Okay.”

Was Andrew calling to follow up on his lab work from our initial meeting? Whatever he wanted, better to know about it as soon as possible.

I called him back and set the phone down on the mattress on speaker.

Imogen smiled at me, enthusiastic about being included.

“Mar,” Andrew answered. “I’m glad you called.”

“Imogen is here. You’re on speaker.”

“All right,” he said.

“Hi. Mar’s actually Marnie now,” Imogen said.

It only occurred to me then that the reason Andrew was calling could be because he wanted me to physically check something on Nie’s head. Too late for that.

“I hope the memories prove useful,” Andrew said.

I hoped so, too.

“I’m calling to report on your lab work,” Andrew said. “I didn’t detect anything magical or pharmaceutical in her system. Her cholesterol is a bit high.”

“I like french fries,” I said.

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