“One more step, and I’ll throw.” Myra’s words were quiet enough to be swallowed by the general murmur of the crowd.
“It fell over. It just fell over,” the woman repeated.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I said.
The big bosses arrived, telling everyone it was an accident and not to worry. Two beefy guys in security uniforms corralled the crowd. Another employee, who appeared to be in management, showed up and escorted the dealers, still wide-eyed and shaky, off to the private elevator.
Maintenance arrived and righted the table.
One of the many security cameras would have caught what happened. I might be able to push my way in until someone let me see it. But this was tribal territory, and I didn’t have authority here.
I walked over to Myra. She was casually pointing a carrot at Xtelle, who was just as casually ignoring her.
“Any idea?” Myra asked.
“Earthquake seems to be the contender.”
“It wasn’t an earthquake.”
“I know.”
“Delaney!” Xtelle stomped her foot and charged over to us, narrowly missing a man with a walker who was making his slow way toward the exit. “Pay attention to me!”
“You know what would be great?” I asked Myra, taking great pains not to look at Xtelle.
“What?”
“If she had a mute button.”
“Oh, yeah. That’d be really great. But you know what would be better?”
“What?”
“If she had a go away button.”
“Nice.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Xtelle’s nostrils flare and her big glossy eyes burn with pink fire. She growled—a weird sound coming from a unicorn—and muttered something that sounded like, “Fine, we’ll do it the fun way.” She trotted off, shedding invisible pink fire and glitter over everything she passed.
“Since when did she do the fire thing?” I asked.
“Since when did she do the show up here thing?” Myra replied.
“She was in my car just outside Otis. I think she’s following me.”
“Really? Following you? I never would have guessed.”
“All right.”
“Do you think that’s why she keeps shouting at you?”
“Har-har.”
“Do you think that’s why she keeps demanding you pay attention to her? Following you,” she mused. “Golly, you really are an amazing detective, Delaney.”
“This is so funny you should sell tickets,” I said.
“What does she want?” she asked. “Bathin again?”
