“But we have a telescope.” Molly nods, smartly.
“No drones in the sky?” Kail asks.
Almost as one, we all ask, “Drones?”
“You know.” He leans over to stroke the red tabby. The cat purrs, loudly.
I decide to be the explainer. “No, we don’t know. What’s a drone in the sky?”
He scans us all, frowning. “It’s something I think I read about, an overseas thing. They fly and can take videos and stuff.”
“Okay. We don’t have them yet.” Molly and Ron nod, agreeing with me. “Sounds awesome though.”
“Yeah. It would be, when you get them. We. When we get them.”
Do I say the searchers might be looking for the dead guys? I glance at Kail, who now has a cat on his lap. That they are dead, no. “Those men ran that way. Kail scared the fff… Umm, the bejesus out of them by chasing them. They may have had an accident up there?”
“Anything else?” Molly’s eyebrows pop up as she drinks.
One, two three. Do I do this? Whole hog? I have no plan, and these two… I study my neighbors. I have a hunch they are good at that—the planning business. “If you won’t spread this outside here, unless I say to, I will tell you more.”
“We can zip our lips, Miss Hailey. The gossip! Please.”
“Okay. Okay.” I inhale, hold my breath, then release it.
I spell out everything I think is relevant, except Kail’s murders. The man at my back door, they already have the goss on him. I tell them Clay confessed and threatened me, sent those two men. That I want revenge. The precise words on the notes from Dad, about the institute making frankenstructs, and that he said there is a cache. Everything, except my reawakened sex life.
I eye Kail as the last words spill from me. Some of this will be new to him, though I was going to tell him. If he ever betrays me, it would be a thousand times worse than if Molly or Ron do, for he is the cause of this new happiness.
The McCluskers look at each other, then Ron harrumphs. “That was quite something, Miss Hailey.”
“Yup. Sounds like Clay can get charged with some nasty thangs if we can get evidence,” Molly says.
I add, somewhat plaintively, “Do you think we could get the Weirdos involved?”
“In what way,” Ron asks.
I shrug and probably look pained. “I don’t know? It’s not a Large Hadron Collider strange thing.” There goes my plan again.
“Oh, that doesn’t matter!” Molly sounds excited. “They would love to hear about this, so long as Kail comes along and talks too.”
Fuck.I glance at him and he’s frozen. “Maybe?” I twist up my face. “Kail?”
“Sure. I can watch and think about it. From a very dark corner.”
“That will do for starters.” Ron nods. “Talking would really aid your cause, though.”
Which is how we organize an emergency meeting of the Weirdos for the following night, at the old Laramie house, which is apparently down the street, deserted, and belongs to Molly and Ron’s friends. Deserted, as in they haven’t been seen for several months since someone became ill and departed to get specialist treatment. Molly has the key and responsibility for keeping an eye on the property.
“Not the Maelstrom this time?” I ask, as we rise from the table, excluding Ron who reverses out on his chair.
“No.” Ron shakes his head. “For all sorts of reasons.” At my eyebrow raise, he adds, “Possible breakage of laws. Possible alarm over Kail, if the general public spot his odd appearance. That we don’t want the institute to easily track us, surveil us.”
“Okay. All…good points.” Now this is why I am crap at planning.
25
THING ONE
