Page 80 of Aberrant Monsters
“Yep, let’s get this over with.”
“It takes less than two minutes,” he said. “Relax.”
He put the lid down.
There was enough room above me that I didn’t feel like I was being suffocated, but it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. I counted in my head. The lid cracked open at one hundred.
“All done.” Quentin held out his hand to help me out.
I dressed quickly, expecting to feel his gaze on me, but he was busy with his laptop inputting data or whatever needed to be done.
“The information has been submitted. If there are any issues, they’ll alert me.”
I slipped my sneakers back on. “Have you heard back about the contract?”
“No, but I have a meeting with Genevieve tomorrow night, so I’ll ask then.”
There was one more thing. “I want to switch things up and look at the newest eldritch breaches first. I think I have more chance of finding them, and we can work our way back. Otherwise by the time we get to the recent ones they could be as hard to track as the one we’re struggling to catch right now.”
“I agree with you,” he said. “That was my recommendation also, but it was vetoed by Genevieve.” He chewed on his cheeks for a moment. “I’ll speak to her tomorrow.”
“Thank you. In the meantime, I have a Real Deal case to work on.”
He sat back with a small smile. “Ah, the haunted house.”
“You know about that?”
“Archie was telling me. The one on Woodling Track owned by the Huntingdons.”
“That’s the one.”
His gaze grew unfocused. “There was a haunted house once a long time ago. I remember playing there. I think it might have belonged to me…” He trailed off, staring into space.
“Quentin?”
“Let me know how it goes.” He smiled brightly. “It sounds like a fascinating case.”
I waited for him to say something else, but he was engrossed in whatever he was typing into his machine and his weird comment of a moment ago was forgotten.
“Okay, I’ll see you later.”
I left him to it, closing the door to his quarters behind me and heading back to the east wing and Nandi.
She’d be awake now, and I couldn’t wait to tell her about the gravestone and the rose.
* * *
Nandi wasn’tin her room. The bed was neatly made and the air smelled like lemon and lime bodywash, which meant she was up and showered and probably in the kitchen scoffing her face.
I found her exactly as I’d imagined, shoveling scrambled eggs into her mouth while Uncle Fred fried bacon.
Archie grabbed me a plate when I entered and placed a cup beside it. “Just filled the teapot up. Nice and hot.”
I joined them and filled my cup with the delicious brew. “I’ll take some bacon, Uncle Fred.”
My uncle slapped a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me. “There you go,” he snapped. “At least you’re alive to eat it.”
Eeek. I slowly looked up at him. “You heard about last night.”
