“I can’t see how, but they must be related,” Roux said.
“I say we start with the nagas who attacked us,” I suggested, mostly because it seemed like the easier place — emotionally — to begin.
Which said a lot, because those beasts had scared the hell out of me.
“Nasty things, those nagas,” Bene said.
I replayed the incident in my mind. “When I yelled at one to get off my property, he said, ‘Not yours for long.’”
Mina frowned. “Implying…what? They’re after the château?”
Bene scratched his chin. “Well, considering you can’t make off with an entire building, and assuming no one has made a cash offer for this place…” He looked at Mina.
“Sometimes, I wish someone would.” She sighed, then shook her head. “Just kidding. And, no. No one has expressed interest in buying the château.”
“I guess that means scaring you two off to clear the way for someone else,” Bene concluded.
Killing us offwas more like it, I feared.
“That would never work,” Marius declared. “No one scares Mina, and anyone stupid enough to try would never get past us.”
“No one scares Gen either,” Roux murmured.
Or, wait. Was I picking up on an unspoken thought?
I glanced over a moment too late to see whether his lips had moved or not.
Either way, my heart fluttered a little.
“Oh, I get scared, all right,” Mina muttered.
“Well, you can be pretty scary yourself,” Bene said agreeably. “Especially when you do that frowning thing.”
“What frowning thing?” Mina protested.
He pointed at her face. “That.” Then he pointed at me. “Gen does it too. It’s scary as hell.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I decided.
Mina gave me a long-suffering look that said,How little you know.
“In any case, the nagas took off,” Roux said, keeping the discussion on track. “And a few hours later, Claudette was murdered.”
I folded my hands tightly. I’d had Roux to help me, plus Bene and Henrik. Claudette had had no one.
Roux nudged me, indicating my glass, then his.
I gave a weak chuckle and took a sip of his. Rum beat water at this point.
“So, we’re back to how — or if — those two things are related,” Mina said.
“Anything new about the murder?” Roux asked.
Mina nodded glumly. “Clement called me about twenty minutes ago.”
I jutted my jaw. Of course he had. Why call me, the pertinent eyewitness?
Deep down, I knew Clement was a good man. He cared about justice, and he mourned for Claudette. He’d been snippy with me, but that showed how hard he’d been hit by Claudette’s death. So I could forgive the way he’d treated me today.
