Thatcher gave me a sneer that was somewhere between pity and contempt.“What do you know?You’re just jealous.”More slowly, enunciating clearly, he said, “We went for a drive.”
Margaux hoisted her bag and started for the door.“There you have it.”
Chapter 20
After Margaux left, Thatcher scurried away—probably in hot pursuit of his new agent.AJ and Charlie tried to stick around, but I sent them home, with firm orders for AJ to make Charlie rest.
And once they were gone, I sat in that empty multipurpose room and felt sorry for myself.
I don’t know how long I was there, but eventually, a woman in an enormous skirt and a Mickey Mouse cardigan poked her head in and told me they needed the room for game night.I got to my feet and left.To be fair, she was nice enough to invite me to join them.
To my surprise, dark pressed up against the conference center’s big windows, and the halls were mostly empty.The day’s official programming was over, it seemed, and everyone was off having fun—or, if they were like me, lying down in a quiet room after way too much peopling.I wandered down the abandoned hall, passing a table stacked with empty pizza boxes—my friends from the other day, maybe—a fallen scarf, a tube of lip gloss, an empty tote bag.There was something post-apocalyptic to all of it.Expectations to the contrary, I’d never been all that excited about stories like the Rapture—I didn’t necessarily want to live in a world where all the people were gone.(God knows I didn’t want to be in charge of everything after they left.) But there was something weirdly pleasant about the sudden absence of people in that moment.
I was passing the bar when someone whistled.
A few small groups occupied tables and booths in the bar, but it appeared that most of the conference-goers had left for other watering holes.Julian sat at a two-top, one hand raised to flag me down.I gave a weary wave back.I wanted to keep walking, but Julian would come after me, so I headed for his table to tell him tonight wasn’t a good night.
“Hey, there he is,” Julian said, and he got out of his seat and came around the table to pat my arm.“Whoa, what’s up?What happened?”
“Uh, you know, it hasn’t been a great afternoon.I think we might have to reschedule.”
“God, I’m sorry.What happened?Here, sit down.Tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t think—”
“You’re upset.”And to my surprise,Juliansounded upset.“What’s wrong?”
I let him guide me into the chair, and before I could think about what I was doing, I started to tell him all of it: my (to borrow Margaux’s word) bumbling attempt at an investigation, and the confrontation with Margaux, and Thatcher’s lie.
“And you know what?”I said when I finished.“I know the worst part is that—that she’s getting away with it.If there’s even something for her to get awaywith.And I hate that Thatcher lied.I mean, how shortsighted do you have to be to believe that lying for Margaux is going to get you the career you wanted?But I can’t even deal with that right now, because I feel like such an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot,” Julian said.
“Ha.”
“You’re not.”He leaned across the table and put his hand on my forearm.“You’ve worked harder on this investigation than anyone.”
“To prove I’m innocent,” I said.“In case that wasn’t clear.”
Julian shook his head.“Because you care about people.And because you believe in justice.And those are good,powerfultraits.”
“Yeah, well.”(And I fully admit that at this point, I was veering into a real pity party.) “It looks like I’m not exactly TV detective material.I mean, you can’t have a show based on all the murders I solved when I biff the big one.”
“You didn’t biff it,” Julian said.“It’s ongoing.You had a setback.”He frowned.“Where’d you learn all this negative self-talk?”
“Uh—Sesame Street?”
Julian laughed.“God, and you have a sense of humor too.”He almost sounded despairing about that fact.“Why are you so hard on yourself?Look at what you’ve done.Look at everything you’ve accomplished.My God, Dash, you outsmarted Vivienne Carver.You’ve faced down psycho killers—”
“I don’t know about ‘psycho’—”
“—and you’ve kept your friends and family safe, and you’ve done all of it while writing this amazing book.I mean, is there anything youcan’tdo?”
“Fold the laundry.It’s going to give Bobby a stroke one of these days.”
A grin glowed on Julian’s face.His hand still lay on my arm.But he said, “Bobby needs to check his priorities.”
“I’m pretty sure Bobby’s always got his priorities in line.I’m usually the problem.”
