Page 89 of Last Witch Attempt
“She’s in the right.” Aunt Tillie pushed herself away from the table and stood. “The soup was good. You’re improving,” shesaid to Marnie. Then she looked back at me. “You don’t get to decide who is and isn’t worthy.”
With that, she turned on her heel and flounced through the swinging door. I watched her go, momentarily confused.
“She’s tired,” Mom explained. “She was out looking for Millie all day. I don’t think it went very well.”
“She was odd,” Landon said. “She didn’t even give me any grief about my diet.” He almost looked disappointed.
“I thought it wasn’t a diet,” Gunner challenged. “Chicks go on diets.”
“Do you feel there’s something wrong with being a chick?” Scout, her tone icy, asked.
Gunner realized his mistake and sent his girlfriend a charming smile. “Of course not. In fact, I wish I could be a chick sometimes.”
“I’ll make you a chick if you really want to be one,” Scout offered, a gleam in her eyes.
Gunner shifted on his chair. “I’m good.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Chicks are awesome, though,” he insisted.
Scout rolled her eyes. “Eat a cookie, Gunner.” She turned back to me. “You’re pretty thoughtful. You’re not letting what Tillie said get to you, are you?”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t Aunt Tillie.”
“It sounded like her.”
I continued to stare at the swinging door.
“It looked like her,” Scout added.
It might have looked like her, but that no longer meant anything. “That was Millie.”
“What are you talking about?” Mom demanded.
“She sat in the wrong chair. She said Marnie was getting better as a cook. She talked about being shoved in a box and took it personally. That wasn’t Aunt Tillie.”
Mom’s gaze swung to the door. “Holy crap, you’re right! That was Millie.”
“Should we go after her?” Stormy asked.
I shook my head. “She’s already gone.”
“How can you know that?”
“She only came to lunch to placate Mom. She was here for something else. She likely has it and is gone.”
Silence descended over the table.
“Besides,” I added, “we don’t know what we’re going to do with her yet. We need to talk to Aunt Tillie.”
“How do we know if we’re dealing with the real Aunt Tillie?” Marnie asked. “She just fooled all of us.”
“Only because you didn’t think to look for Millie.” My mind drifted back to the night we’d found the bodies. “This isn’t the first time she’s been in the inn. She was here the first night. I talked to her in the lobby. That’s why I was confused when Mom said she was in the family living quarters.”
Realization dawned on Mom. “Oh, geez. What do we do?”
“We can’t do anything. Aunt Tillie has to deal with her. Or with us. The naiad has to be the priority. She’s killing people. Millie is just looking for an escape.”
