“Now, I know some people would start by saying ‘There’s bound to be a logical explanation,’ but I think we can skip ahead.” He glances at me for permission.
“Totally.”
He writes the wordTHEORIESat the top of the page, followed byTRAINED MONKEY.
I point at the circle he’s drawn next to the first entry. “That’s your top theory?”
“They’re highly intelligent and have excellent motor skills. The monkey steals the EpiPen and runs. Case closed.”
“It’s a kleptomaniac monkey?”
“Or it was attracted to the sparkly letters.” He draws another circle below the first, adding the wordCORVIDnext to it. “Crows,” he explains, when I give him an odd look.
“Do all your theories involve animals?”
“I’m working through them in logical order.”
“Okay, Dr. Doolittle. What about Zenobia?”
“Claude’s cat? Nah. She has plenty of her own toys.” He passes me the pencil. “Go ahead. Show me what you’ve got.”
I draw a star below his entry to be different, adding my idea next to it.
Felix squints at my handwriting. “What’s a slapwelder?”
“Sleepwalker.” I may not be an artist, but my printing isn’tthatbad.
“Nice.” I suspect he’s kicking himself for not coming up with that one. Somnambulism is a favorite plot device around here. He holds his hand out for the pencil, adding a circle beneath my star before scribbling two words.
“Hypnotized slapwelder?” I frown at him, and not because he’s mocking my penmanship. “What does that even mean?”
“Like when you hypnotize someone and get them to do a robbery for you while they’re out of it.”
“Ah. A day in the life of a criminal mastermind.”
“Do you want to try?”
“I’m not letting you hypnotize me.”
“You think I know how to hypnotize people?” Felix grins at me, like I just put him on a magazine cover under the headline World’s Most Hypnotic Man.
“I didn’t say that. But I could feature you watching a video on YouTube and then deciding to use me as a guinea pig. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“That would have been amazing. I have so many regrets right now.” His eyes narrow in concentration. “I need a stage name.”
“The Great Distracto?” I tap the page in front of us. “What’s next?”
He turns to a new page, writingSUSPECTSacross the top.
“I think we should look at everyone,” Felix says. “No playing favorites or holding back because someone is—”
“A grandparent?”
“Or one of us.” The pencil pendulums between us.
“You think I stole the EpiPen?” Iamthe only other person who was living in this unit at the time. Is that why Grandma Lainey gave herself up—so Detective Ortiz wouldn’t look at me?
Felix taps me on the top of the head with the pencil, like I’m being knighted. “No. But we might as well be thorough. It’s better than overlooking something because we assume we already know everything there is to know about a person.”
