"Shh." He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, and she subsided, sending us one last warning glare before turning to get mugs down from a beautiful, natural-edged wood shelf.
"Please tell us about Earl," I said once we were all seated. The wooden table was sized for ogres and nymphs, so I felt a little like a kid sitting with the grownups. But the tea was sweet and deliciously spicy, and Nigel was smiling, so I relaxed a little.
Jack had maneuvered us so that we werenotsitting in the chairs with our backs to the pool, which told me he wasn't completely convinced by Erin's show of truce. Also, he wasn't entirely unconcerned about who—or what—might come up out of the pool.
I shivered and hid my reaction by blowing on my tea before taking another sip. "Nigel, we don't think—would never think—that you had anything to do with Earl going missing or, or—"
"His death, if that skeleton really is even his," Jack said.
"Exactly. I just, it's just that Lorraine is like another aunt to me, and I can't bear it that she's in jail for something we all know she could never do," I said, putting my ogre-sized mug carefully down on the table with both hands.
Nigel blew out a breath. "Well—"
Erin leaned forward and cut him off, pinning me with her gaze. "Your tiger knows very well that everyone—every single creature on this planet—is capable of murder under the right circumstances."
"Not Lorraine," I said stoutly, but beneath my automatic defense I thought about some of the situations I'd been in over the past year.
Could I have killed someone?
I realized I wasn't thrilled with the answer.
Could I kill someone to protect the people I love?
Yes. Yes, I probably could.
I was going to have a lot to talk to Pastor Nash about the next time I saw him.
"Let's put that aside for a bit," Jack said. "Can you tell us anything about Earl? Why he might have left town? Why somebody might have killed him, in case that skeleton is really his?"
Nigel nodded slowly. "Yes. Well, mind, this goes back half a century and even an ogre's mind loses some details after that long."
He smiled at me and reached out one huge hand, as if to pat mine, but I quickly pulled away. He looked puzzled, then hurt, and then realization crossed his face. "Ah. Yes. I knew of your… gift."
I shrugged, feeling vaguely guilty as I usually did when I pulled away from people I knew and liked. "I'm not sure exactly how it works. So far, if I've touched someone when I was a child, it's like they're immune to my gift. So my aunt and uncle, Lorraine, Eleanor, Molly, and lots of others—I don't see anything when I touch them. And so far it only ever happens the first time I touch someone, so I feel like they're safe. And I remember giving you lots of hugs, and the times you had to put bandages on my knees—"
Nigel grinned at Jack. "Is she still… occasionally less than graceful?"
Jack's lips quirked. "Delicate as a feather dancing in a summer breeze."
"Hey! Right here!" But I had to smile. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I'm probably safe to touch you, for those reasons, but there's no guarantee with magic. And… and there's nothing I hate more than to see the death of someone I care about. So, I'm just careful."
By the end, my voice had dwindled to something small and miserable. Jack took my hand and squeezed.
"I understand, Tess," Nigel said gently.
But Erin rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Does your talent even work on supernaturals? Did you see the tiger's death?"
"Yes," I snapped. "Yes, I did. His first death. And I saw the death of a ghost I touched too. So, yes, if you're asking, I would more than likely see your death if you touched me. Sodon't."
She gave me a speculative glance but didn't jump across the table at me or anything.
Nigel cleared his throat and stared down at his mug. "To get back to the subject at hand, yes, Earl owed money. To me, to Beau, to Lorraine aside from what he owed her for his treatment of her, and to many of those who gambled here. If you're asking me who might have been angry enough or hated him enough to kill him, the answer is fairly easy."
He looked up at us. "Everybody who ever met him. And you can put me at the top of the list."
7
"He was a horrible man," Nigel continued, a growl skittering beneath the surface of his words, suddenly reminding me that I was the only human in a room filled with…
