“Right. I remember Elwood talking about misfit monsters. But I still don’t quite understand what it is.”
“We meet to support one another,” Elwood said. “Sometimes, supernaturals face special challenges navigating a human-dominated world. Or sometimes it’s good for us to know we have a safe place while we grow and develop into the person we’re supposed to be, particularly if we don’t fit neatly into societal norms, whether those are monster norms or human norms.”
“But calling yourself a misfit monster? That seems kind of rude, doesn’t it?”
“It wasn’t my first choice.” Elwood shrugged. “But we voted and that’s the one that was chosen.”
“I like it,” Tulip said with a wide, open-mouthed grin that showed off her jagged teeth, as if to display exactly how much of a monster she was.
“And you were going to invite me? But I’m not a monster.”
“Meh. Magic, monster.” Tulip tipped her hand from side to side in a seesaw motion. “It’s all the same, really.”
“You’re new to magic,” Gideon said, drawing my attention back to him. “It wouldn’t hurt to know you have a group you can turn to for support if you need it.”
“That makes sense.” I nodded, even though I had no idea what I would say in a support group for monsters.
“We were wrapping up our meeting,” Gideon said. Then he looked around the room. “Unless anyone has anything elsethey’d like to discuss.” His gaze returned to me. “Including you, Declan.”
“About monsters and magic and stuff? No. About murder? Yes.”
I swore everyone in the room except Az and Elwood leaned forward.
“What did you find out?” Tulip asked. Her teeth were even pointier now.
“Oh! Do we have a new suspect?” Hazel’s legs—all eight of them—quivered. “Let me know if you want me to wrap them up in a web so you can interrogate them.”
“Let’s finish with the misfits’ meeting first,” Elwood interjected. “We’re here to help, and it has been a trying week. We need to take the time to take care of our mental health first.”
“It’ll be less trying once we know who the killer is,” Tulip muttered. “Then we should vote to decide what should happen to them.”
Elwood merely lifted his eyebrow at her. Then he turned to the vampire. “Mellgren? How are you feeling now?”
“I’m better,” the vampire said as he adjusted the collar on his shirt. “But I would like to suggest we still meet on our usual day and time this week.”
“Of course.” When no one else spoke up, Elwood nodded. “Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight. And please reach out any time if you feel you need it. That’s what we’re here for.”
Then everyone twisted in their seats to look at me again. On the far side of the room, the boards were turning around, as if on their own. Eugene must have been doing it, but I couldn’t see his shadowy form from where I was sitting.
“This afternoon when we were looking over Eugene and Tulip’s murder boards…”
“We have murder boards?” Sandy asked, spinning in his seat to look at the work that’d been done. Both boards were now turned so that all the information was visible. “Wow!”
“Right? That’s what I said when I saw them earlier,” I agreed.
Since I’d last seen the boards, a few more things had been added, like a bit of red yarn connecting Leon to the dagger that’d killed Jim.
“Very well done,” Hazel said. “But that red yarn is rather coarse and tatty. Why, it almost looks like twine.” She tutted. “I will get you something better to use. Something in a lovely natural fiber like cotton.”
“Well, we might not need the board much longer,” I said.
“Leon didn’t do it,” Gideon said quickly. He shot me an apologetic look.
“I know.” I sighed. “He was with Paula the whole afternoon when Jim was killed. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t murder Winston.”
“He said he was attending an online auction that night.”
I paused as I considered that. “And you believe him?”
