Page 6 of Always Murder

Possibilities of exactlyhowMillie might need our help flashed through my mind.She knew I didn’t have any money.And if she wanted Bobby to have a stern, manly talk with Keme about something, she wouldn’t have roped us into this awful evening.I had the sudden, gut-wrenching notion she was going to ask me to fight her sisters.

“I really don’t think—” I began.“My conditioning, see—”

“It’ll only take a minute,” she said in that same awful, scratchy voice, and she wiped her eyes.“Please?”

I didn’t say anything, and neither did Bobby.She must have taken our silence for agreement because she turned and headed down the hall.

And since this was Millie, and I would literally do anything for her (except let her pierce my ears, which had been a real bone of contention between us until Bobby had put an end to it by saying he liked my ears the way they were), we followed.

We caught up with her as she was knocking on a door.Keme slouched against the wall next to her, his face a dark mask.I had been down this hallway before; this was where all the bedrooms were located, which I knew because on a previous visit, Millie had showed me the bedroom she shared with Kassandra and Angeline.I figured this was Paul and Ryan’s bedroom, and my theory was confirmed when an angry, “Go away!”came in answer to Millie’s knock.

Millie pushed the door open and marched inside.

My first impression of the room wasboy.The walls were the same off-white as the rest of the house.The carpet was the same brown.A black, particle-board bedroom set looked like it was at least twenty years old: a dresser, two nightstands, two twin beds.One of the comforters was blue; the other was gray.A desk was covered with loose change and receipts and those little paper event wristbands and open (presumably empty) energy drinks.The top of the dresser had more of the same.Everything was organized around a massive television, from which various game consoles snaked out across the floor: a new Xbox, a new PlayStation, a Switch, even one of those VR systems that looked incredible and were way too expensive.(Although I’d dropped a lot of hints for Santa.) The closest thing to decoration, if you didn’t count all the bags of corn chips on the floor, was a pegboard festooned with hats and jackets.It smelled—just one guy’s opinion—like they needed to keep the door open.

Paul sat in one of those on-the-floor style gaming chairs.His face was blotchy, and although he wasn’t crying, his eyes were red.An energy drink sat on the floor next to him.He was playingThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which—no joke—might be the best video game ever created.Paul’s gaze flicked from me to Bobby to Keme and then back to Millie, and his color darkened.

“I said go away—”

“Be quiet,” Millie said.“Dash is going to help you.”

Zelda music played softly in the background.

“Uh,” I said.“I am?”

“I don’t need anybody’s help,” Paul said.“I’m fine.Now get out of here.”

“Paul got fired,” Millie said.

“Millie!”

“For stealing packages.”

Paul’s jaw dropped.

“And they’re considering legal action,” Millie said.“Pressing charges.”

“Shut up!”Paul scrambled to his feet and shut the door.In a marginally quieter voice, he said, “Do you want Mom and Dad to hear you?”

“Pressing charges?”I said with a glance at Bobby.

He shook his head.“A company can’t press charges, but they could make a formal complaint.I haven’t heard anything.”

“He works—worked—for CPF,” Millie said.“Clatsop Parcel and Freight.It’s seasonal work; normally, they do commercial freight, but around this time of year, they hire extra workers to help with all the holiday packages.But they said if Paul did a good job, they might hire him full-time.”

“I’m fine,” Paul said.“It’s not a big deal.I didn’t steal anything, and they can’t prove I did, and it was a stupid job, anyway.I’ve got better things to do.I’m going to do e-sports and go pro.”

The look on Keme’s face said what we all thought about that.

A question popped into my head, and I asked it without thinking about it.“What have you been doing since you got fired?”

A fresh wave of color mottled Paul’s face, and he gave me the lamest “Huh?”ever in the history ofhuhs.

“Your mom thinks you still work there,” I said.“She was talking about it at dinner.So, that means you’re not hanging around the house all day.Where are you going?What are you doing?”

“It happened yesterday,” Paul said.He dropped into the gaming chair and picked up the Switch controller.“And I was going to hang out with Ryan at Pirate’s Cove, but I couldn’t find my card, and he’s being a butt-munch about it.”

Pirate’s Cove Laser Tag and Mini-Golf was what entrepreneurial types called anadventure park, or anaction parkor a plain oldentertainment business.It was the only location of its kind in Hastings Rock, and from all appearances, it was doing quite well—not surprisingly, since we were talking about a significant tourist destination with unpredictable weather.

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