Page 38 of Always Murder

“I’m not looking for Paul,” Anthony said.

“Well,” I said, and I glanced at Bobby for help.

“Ryan Naught told us you approached him,” Bobby said.“He said you wanted to know where Paul was, and you told him Paul owed you.”

Anthony checked Sissy, but she was still focused on her pipe.He turned back to us and said, “He’s lying.”

“He’s not lying, actually,” I said.“I was there, at the Christmas tree farm.I heard you.”

“Nope,” Anthony said.

“That was some other guy,” Sissy said.

“Must have been some other guy,” Anthony said.Genius must have struck because he added, “Somebody who looked like me.”

“All right,” Bobby said.“Thanks for your time, Anthony.”

After a quick glance at Sissy, Anthony shuffled back inside.

“That was amazing,” I said.“Are you a Jedi?Was that a Jedi mind trick?‘These are not the droids you’re looking for.’”A more worrisome thought occurred to me.“Are you a Sith Lord?”

“He’s the one that keeps catching all those killers?”Sissy said to Bobby.

“He’s the one.”

Sissy frowned around her pipe at me.“Scrawny, isn’t he?”

“Hey!”

“Cute, though.Like someone tried to drown a kitten, and somehow, he got out of the bag.”

“Okay, first of all, thank you.I think.Second of all, you shouldnotdrown kittens.You give them to the Humane Society or—I don’t know,somebody.” I drew myself up.“Bobby, arrest her.”

“Sissy,” Bobby said in a surprisingly conciliatory tone, “this is more of an unofficial visit—”

“And circling back to the scrawny comment,” I said over him—because now I was in the full glory of my righteous indignation—“at least I don’t look like I’m late for the middle school 4-H club.”

Bobby’s eyes widened.

Sissy, in the act of adjusting her pipe, froze.

I realized—as the rush of my righteous indignation faded—that maybe, possibly, it was significant that Anthony had been taking his talking points from this girl.

Who was not, I was beginning to suspect, late for the middle school 4-H club.

And then Sissy laughed.It was a weird, cackling laugh, high-pitched like her voice, and distorted by the pipe in her mouth.Then she started to cough, so she plucked the pipe away but kept on laughing.Bobby still held himself like he thought he was going to have to draw down on her, but as the moments trickled past, some of the tightness in his shoulders loosened.

“Good God,” Sissy said when she could breathe again.She put the pipe back in her mouth and considered me again.“You’re something, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I’m really something.”And then, to Bobby, “She’s in charge, isn’t she?”

Still a little wide-eyed, Bobby nodded.

“Figures,” I said.To Sissy, I said, “Does it help if I tell you I didn’t know?”

“Is it better if you thought you were arguing with a middle-schooler?”

“Um, maybe?”I didn’t pursue that line of thought, though.“Is it too late to apologize?”

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