Page 71 of Road Queens
“Everything you just said sounds made up.”
“Well, Sidney, I can assure you it isn’t. See, Sean agrees with me, he’s nodding.”
“He’s probably still light headed from the mack you put on him, and who careswhathis head is doing? Can we stay on topic? Just once, just to see if we like it?”
“Iamon topic. This, all of this, it’s like the severed feet that keep washing up on beaches.”
Sidney groaned again. “Oh God, not the severed feet again.”
“Whaaaat?” Cass raised an eyebrow. “I missed this.”
“Count your fucking blessings.”
“I’ve missed your know-it-all nonsense,” Cassandra said, and Amanda wasn’t sure if it was a compliment disguised as an insult or vice versa.
“Your own fault, Cassandra. For about twenty years—”
“Now you’ve done it. Now you’ve got her giving a goddamned lecture about severed feet. And we all have to hear it. And it’s gross. It’s just so incredibly gross.”
“—forabout twenty years, severed feet kept washing up on UK beaches. Not corpses—feet. And not partial feet—the entire foot, still encased in a shoe. Everything else, gone. And nobody could figure out why. Divers in trouble? Sharks chowing down but spitting out feet?”
Cass smiled. “Because sharks are known for beingsuchpicky eaters.”
“A serial killer chopping his way through a cruise ship? A sign of the coming apocalypse?”
Sidney raised her hand like she thought Sonny’s workshop was first-period American history and she needed to be called on. (Ironically,the only time she ever raised a hand in AH was to use the bathroom.) “I still say it’s that last one.”
“Hush, Sid. Anyway, big mystery—except not really. Not once you understand modern shoe designs and how bodies break down in saltwater.”
“Please tell me you don’t have pictures of that on your phone. Also, please don’t take out your phone.”
“Oh, Cass, you know she does. And you know she will.”
“Will you two nix the interruptions?” Amanda cried. “I know your babble makes sense to you, but it’s just another reason why side conversations are rude.”
“Another reason?” Cassandra asked.
Sidney let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine, fine, keep grossing us out with a lecture no one asked for and no one has time for due to pressing matters like the bike-shaped elephant in the room.”
“So it turns out that when a corpse hits bottom, scavengers go to town on the body buffet. And they’re lazy; they prefer soft tissue. So they nibble through ankle ligaments, and eventually, the foot breaks off from the body. Since it’s in a sneaker, it floats. Since it floats, it’s carried by the tide. Since it’s carried by the tide, it eventually washes up: severed feet in near-perfect condition thanks to superior shoe design and lazy-ass scavengers.”
“Nope. Apocalypse.”
“Whateverthe reason for all the strange feet, it’s moot.” Cass was shaking her head so hard that Amanda was getting a headache just watching. “You guys. You guys have done enough. More than, in fact. I left town because I got us all in trouble and needed distance. I’m back fewer than three days, and you might be implicated in a homicide investigation.” She paused and Amanda heard her gulp. “I n-never should’ve come back.”
“Don’t say that, Cass,” Sidney said, giving Cassandra her standard sideways hug with no eye contact. “It’s a mess, but it’s not your mess.Well, it kind of is, but it’s not yourfaultprobably. Even if it is, you’re gonna fix it, maybe.”
“The world lost an angel when you decided not to go into social work, Sidney,” Amanda said, and was more than a little proud that she managed the observation with a straight face.
“My point,Cassandra, since nobody’s talking to Amanda, is you shouldn’t have to face any of it alone. Haven’t I always said so? Though that husband crack was below the belt, you rotten bitch.”
“It’s true.” Amanda nodded. “About the crack and about how Sidney always said you didn’t have to be alone. If I’m gonna be honest—”
“I’m not sure I’m up for more honesty,” Cassandra said in a small voice.
“—I’m sorry to say I had no plans to track you down.”There, let that sink in for a few seconds.
She couldn’t, was the thing. Tracking her down would mean admitting she was incomplete without Cassandra Rivers. And she couldn’t put her pride aside and admit that, because Cass clearly didn’t feel the same way. How could she, when she had removed herself so entirely from their lives that she’d turned herself into a ghost?
