She narrowed her silver eyes. "My name is Erin. Miss Stein to you, tiger. And to your disloyal friend there. Only people Ilikeget to call me Phaedra."
Whatever her name was, Erin was shockingly beautiful. She was at least six feet tall and she was the first person I'd ever met who really deserved the term 'willowy.' Her long wavy hair was red, but nothing like mine. Hers was a true scarlet, the brilliant color of summer poppies and poisoned red apples. In her flowing white dress, she looked like she could have been the model for an illustration of a nymph in an ancient book of fairy tales: beauty, grace, and an ethereal presence.
And then she started talking, and the image was shot to heck.
Wait.Whatdid she call me?
"Disloyal? How am I disloyal? It's because I'm loyal to my friends that I'm here in the first place!" I looked from her to Nigel. "I'm not accusing you of anything and would never in a million years think you would be involved in a murder. It's just that we want to help Lorraine, and we thought you might know something about what happened back then. Who Earl owed money to, that sort of thing."
Nigel sighed, and his entire body drooped. "Okay. Sure. I didn't keep any of the records, though. Just wanted a clean sweep. I wrote off the bad debts, closed the club, and never looked back. A couple of years later, I opened the dance studio."
Erin's eyes flashed silver fire. "And, for all these years, he has taught dance to generations of ungrateful Dead End children. He won't let me drown the ones with no talent, or even the rude ones!"
With that, she threw out her hands in a "ta-da" gesture.
Jack's eyes narrowed. "You're right. What a hero. He keeps you from murdering children," he said in a deceptively calm voice, the one that usually preceded snarling and shifting and running and screaming.
Jack was very protective of children.
I put a hand on his arm. "I'm sure she was kidding," I lied, trying to keep the peace.
I wasn't sure of it at all. There had been too much regret in her eyes when she'd said Nigel wouldn'tlether drown anybody.
"Tea," Nigel rumbled, his expression slightly desperate. "Tea now, and questions, and you'll see that I don't know much, if anything, about Earl leaving town all those years ago."
"Or not leaving town," Jack said steadily, speaking to Nigel but staring Erin in the eye.
"I've drowned kitty cats before," she murmured, baring a mouth that seemed suddenly to be filled with a lot of sharp teeth.
Jack's answering smile was just as deadly. "Try it. Tigerslovewater."
"Tea would be great!" I burbled, and then I headed for the kitchen, hoping to defuse the situation before they started trying to kill each other.
They had completely renovated the kitchen since I'd been there last, and it was gorgeous. Cream-colored walls and copper appliances and accents combined to make a room that was lovely and cozy all at the same time. But the crowning glory was the waterfall.
I stopped dead and Jack, probably still glaring at Erin, ran into me from behind.
"Wow," I breathed.
The entire far wall of the kitchen had been magically (or by seriously great plumbing) transformed into a gentle waterfall that splashed into a pool that ran the length of the wall and was maybe four feet across.
I had no idea how deep it might be. I mean, it was a kitchen, but Erin—Phaedra—was a Naiad. And Naiads were nymphs of the sources of fresh-water: springs, fountains, streams, rivers, and lakes. For all I knew, the pool went down to some subterranean aquifer.
I swallowed, suddenly more worried about Erin's threats than I had been.
Nigel, meanwhile, had filled a kettle from the sink and put it on the stove to heat. He turned and caught my open-mouthed stare.
"Ah. Phaedra's folly." He smiled fondly at his deadly wife, who'd just slid past me to enter the kitchen and cross to her husband. "The water makes her happy. Happy wife, happy life, am I right?"
I didn't know how to respond to that.
"Yes, Tess," Erin/Phaedra purred. "You should know how important it is to keep the monster you love happy."
Next to me, Jack stiffened almost imperceptibly. Just enough to let me know he'd considered her words to be a hit that had struck home.
Nigel blew out a breath and put an enormous arm around Erin's shoulders. "Enough, my love. Tess was as sweet as a button in my classes, and I have learned that a child's personality forms the core of the adult's. She isn't here to harm us, but to help a friend."
"But—"
