Drip, drip, drip…
Maybe I was so fixated on it because it was easier to think about the toupee than all the rest, like Mellgren talking about human blood or Gideon hitting something when he stuck that oversized spatula into the beer or Grady hauling out…
I shuddered. Nope. My brain wasn’t ready to go there yet.
So, I fixated on that awful, ugly toupee.
When Elwood parked behind the Mystic Menagerie, the misfits followed him straight inside. No one even talked about going home. But I needed a minute to breathe in air that didn’t smell like hops and death. Gideon stayed with me, which I appreciated. I didn’t want to be alone right now. And then Licorice circled overhead, and that settled me even more.
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. And another. By my third one, I felt like my brain was coming back online again.
“Wait…” I spun around, scanning the shadows. “Where’s Eugene? Shit, did we forget him?”
I really didn’t want to go back to the brewery again to collect him.
“Don’t you remember? He left a while ago…” Gideon said, squeezing my hand.
Nope. I didn’t remember that at all. “But… how?”
Gideon shrugged. “Hitched a ride with one of the people who left after the police shut the brewery for their investigation.”
“Huh.” How had I missed that? I thought I was handling finding my third dead body since moving to Ravenstone prettywell, all things considered. Perhaps I was more overwhelmed than I thought.
“Hey, are you okay? You look a little green.”
Yeah, well… I was a little queasy. The coffee I’d guzzled on the way to the brewery wasn’t helping, but I’d never admit that to my over-protective boyfriend. He might suggest I cut back on my coffee consumption or something equally ridiculous.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“Liar,” he said, pulling me into his arms. “But it’s okay to be upset.”
I leaned into Gideon and closed my eyes.
“Do you really think someone killed Roy?”
He sighed and pressed his face against my head. “Yeah. I do.”
I squeezed him tighter. “So there’s no chance that he tripped and fell in?”
Gideon didn’t say anything because we both knew it wasn’t an accident. Someone had fastened that lid on the vat, and it hadn’t been Roy.
“Come on,” Gideon said, rubbing my back. “Let’s go inside and see what the others are doing. Then I’ll call Alvin about getting some food brought over here.”
I sucked in one last breath—this one was full of Gideon’s scent, which soothed me more than just about anything else—then I nodded. “Okay.”
We found the others in the meeting room at the back of the store.
Az was already there. Gideon immediately approached the demon and asked, “How is Perry?”
“Shocked, but he’ll be okay,” Az said. “I told him you’d check in with him later.”
Gideon nodded.
Then I realized something had changed in the room since I’d been there last.
“Holy shit,” I muttered. “Eugene’s been busy.”
I couldn’t believe he’d put together an entire murder board already. And he’d upped his game from the last one he’d done when Winston was killed. Things were even color-coded!
