“Go ahead and keep the sweater if you’re cold,” adds Josh, before turning back to his notepad. “Anyway, we were saying. You’re very unpopular in Astley.”
“Right,” I confirm, knowing he’s not trying to be mean. Just wanting to get all the facts written down neatly in his little notebook.
“That means a lot of people might want to kill you.”
“Right,” I say again, confirmingthatuncomfortable thought.
“But they didn’t kill you. Just your parents. Which points to whoever did it caring just enough about you to spare you, but not enough to spare your parents.”
“Right,” I say a third time, the nerves in my stomach picking up.
“All of that points to Quill Nelson, your ex-asshole of a boyfriend. Who it seems has a lot of complicated feelings aboutyou post-relationship.”
If you only knew…
“He paid for your hotel suite,” says Josh, continuing to jot things down in neat bullet points. “And gave you a credit card and a stack of bills. Did he try to give any explanation to that, by the way?”
“Nope.”
I really am an idiot, because I could have spent some of my time with Quill trying to get clues instead of… begging my bully for sex like the world’s biggest idiot.
“Right.” It’s Josh’s turn to utter that word while frowning. “I guess you were terrified of him.”
Sure.I bite down on a denial as he continues.
“Anyway, we also know that he told you to stay away from Devil Tower.”
I nod, having given him that morsel of information, without, of course, breathing a word about what Quill was doing to mewhilehe was threatening me.
“This means,” hypothesizes Josh, “that Devil is likely involved. And so are its soldiers who go around killing people for them.”
I nod again, my legs bouncing a mile a minute, but I still down the rest of my mocha frappucino.
“Officer Jones was on your case before suddenly telling you it was a murder-suicide or suicide pact. But then he died, presumably killed in the same way your parents were, but it was covered up, just like your parents’ death was—his colleagues called it a suicide.”
My legs stop bouncing for a moment as I massage my head. It feels like it hurts from trying to assimilate all these random, apparently interconnected-but-not-quite clues.
“I can always guess the endings of my books,” I huff out. “I feel like the answer is right there, and if this were a novel, I could easily guess at it. But right now…”
My voice trails off hopelessly.
“We don’t know if any of this stuff isreallyconnected,” nods Josh in agreement, “but it sure feels like it. So let’s just say for a moment it is. Why did Quill Nelson pay for your hotel?”
“To protect me.”
The words are out before I even think them, and I blush painfully as Josh raises an eyebrow in surprise. But then he jots down my sentence in a bullet point.
“From what?”
“Uhm.” I wrinkle my forehead in thought. “Maybe he didn’t just want me to keep my nose out of his business. Maybe he’s worried about Devil being danger—”
“Hold on,” cuts in Josh excitedly. “He told you to keep your nose out of his business? That means he’s involved with Devil. Maybe he’s even–”
“A Devil Soldier.” I nod, realizing I might have left out an important piece of information. “Yeah, he is.”
Josh is so excited he actually starts bouncing his own legs. “Piper! I think I’ve figured it out. Quill might not be the murderer, but a Devil soldieris. They didn’t hurt you because they were loyal to Quill.”
My brow clears as I listen to his theory. Yeah, that makes sense. No matter how Quill feels about me, I suppose he wouldn’t be particularly pleased if I did bite the dust. Given how he spent seventy grand trying to protect me.
