A while later, the shadows had changed, deepened, and now the room was dark. I wasn’t sure I’d slept. I didn’t know where I’d been. Someone was knocking at the door.
“Dashiell, dear,” Indira called through the wood. “Would you mind opening the door? We’re all a bit worried about you.”
I thought about ignoring her. But that had never worked with the Last Picks, so I said, “I’m fine. I just need some time alone.”
“Did you hear that?” Millie said. It was like she was standing right next to the bed, by the way. “Did you hear his voice? He’s definitely NOT FINE.”
“I am fine,” I said. “I’m totally fine. I’ll be down for dinner.”
The strained silence on the other side of the door told me I’d made a mistake. I glanced at the clock. It was after nine, which seemed impossible—had I really spent all day in here?
Apparently so, because now my brain told me that my bladder situation was approaching a nuclear meltdown.
“Dash.” This time it was Fox. “Indira made you—well, she made you pretty much everything. There’s a hamburger. There’s a quesadilla. There’s eight-cheese pasta, because remember you told her that four cheeses weren’t enough? And where are we at on the cakes?”
Indira’s answer was muffled.
“We’re up to five,” Fox announced with an overabundance of cheer. “Don’t you want to know what they are?”
Before I could stop myself, I asked, “Is one of them spice cake?”
“Yes, one of them is definitely spice cake.”
“Is one of them peanut butter cheesecake?”
“Uh, sure.”
“What about the apple one that she makes in the skillet?”
“I guess you’ll have to come see,” Fox said.
That part wasn’t quite as appealing.
“Besides,” Fox added, “Millie is going to cry if you don’t let us make sure you’re okay, and you don’t want Millie to cry, do you?”
I did not. I had the feeling that the phrase “gale-force winds” would be involved.
When I opened the door, the three of them were standing right outside my room: Indira’s face was grave; Fox was aiming at cheerful and landing closer to manic; and Millie—
Millie burst into tears as soon as she saw me. “Oh Dash,” she wailed (and one of my ear drums ruptured in the pressure differential), “YOU’RE SO SAD!”
She crashed into me with a hug, her tiny body shaking against me.
It was strangely easier to deal with this than with—well, with everything else. I patted her back. Then I rubbed her back. Then I patted her back some more. I made soothing sounds. I said all sorts of idiotic things like “Don’t cry,” and “Everything’s fine,” and worst of all, “I promise I’m not sad, Millie. Really.”
And as I did, I had nowhere to look but at Keme. He sat on a sideboard, bare feet swinging in the air as he glared at me, his expression set to death-by-incineration.
Finally, Millie calmed down. She hugged me one final time and stepped back, wiping her face.
“Deputy Salkanovic said you might be in shock,” Indira said, but it was more of a question.
And Fox, with a disturbingly keen look in their eyes, added, “And Bobby’s not answering his phone.”
“Dash,” Millie asked, “what happened?”
So, I told them: Nate, and then the Jeep dying, and then Deputy Bobby. As much as I could tell them, I guess. Because there were parts of it—what I hadn’t said, what I’d wanted to say—that I kept buried. Because they didn’t matter. They never had, I realized. It had all been in my head.
Millie started crying again, of course.
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as it seems,” Indira said, rubbing Millie’s shoulders. “You had a disagreement, that’s all.”
Fox couldn’t quite meet my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Dash.” And then, in what must have been a last-ditch effort: “But that’s good news about Ali, isn’t it? I mean, she’s on the run, which means she’s hiding from something. And someone tried to kill you again, which is very promising. Maybe next we can—”
I shook my head. “I’m done with that. Deputy Bobby was right: it’s none of my business, and I shouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place.”
Fox looked like they wanted to argue about that, but after a moment, they shut their mouth.
“Let’s go downstairs and have something to eat,” Indira said. “We’ll all feel better after we get some food in us.”
“I’m not hungry,” I said.
Millie let out a sob.
Fox glared at me.
Keme’s feet stilled in the air.
Indira’s eyes were wide, as though I’d slapped her.
