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She turned to me and shrugged. “I don’t. Does it look like I do? Cool.”
I snorted a nervous laugh.
“Here. Let’s unpack this box of supplies,” Krista suggested, lifting a cardboard box onto the nearest bed. “That I know how to do.”
“On it.”
We tore into the box and pulled out a few first aid kits, some inflatable pillows, and a bunch of ice packs that needed to be chilled. While I worked, I felt the twins’ gazes on me, but when I looked over again, they’d gone back to their freaky darting-eyed communication.
“So who’s the hottie? I saw you come in with him.” Krista nodded toward Liam and the mayor, who were talking over the girl’s head near the door. The mayor gestured toward her office and gently took the girl from Liam’s arms. Liam watched them go until the door closed behind them, and I breathed a sigh of relief. In five minutes the girl would be done longing for her mom. That was something, at least. At the moment, I was sort of longing for mine, just like I did whenever something awful or confusing happened. But my mother had died over four years ago, well before the rest of us had ever heard of Juniper Landing. At least I knew she was safe somewhere in the Light. She would never be a part of this insanity.
“Only you would ask that at a time like this,” I said, half joking.
Her blue eyes widened. “Like you didn’t notice? Please.”
“His name’s Liam Murtry,” I told her.
“He saved, like, a dozen people,” Krista said, looking him over appreciatively from across the room. “It’s like Superman’s arrived in Juniper Landing.”
“Yeah, he seems pretty perfect. Which probably means he’s a psycho ax murderer.” I meant it to come out as a light quip, but my tone entirely missed the mark. Who could blame me, though? I was turning out to be a seriously bad judge of character.
Krista fixed a sort of probing look on me.
“What? First my favorite math teacher kills me,” I said under my breath. “And then I fall in love with the guy who’s taken it upon himself to shift the entire balance of the universe?” I shook my head and took the last roll of gauze out of the box, then ripped the bottom of the box open to flatten it. “From now on, I’m not trusting my instincts about anyone.”
I cast a cautious glance over at the twins again. Their temples were still locked, their lips still moving. They gave me the heebie-jeebies, which meant they were probably the loveliest people I’d ever meet in my life. Well, my afterlife.
“I still don’t know how everyone is so convinced that Tristan betrayed us,” Krista whispered. “I mean, it’s Tristan. He can’t be the bad guy.”
“Then where is he, Krista?” I snapped. “Why doesn’t he come back and plead his case?”
How could he have done this to us? What could have made him turn on innocent people? On my dad? On me?
Krista was just opening her mouth to respond when her mother and Officer Dorn stepped up behind her. The mayor’s thin lips were set in a grim line.
“Girls,” the mayor said. “We need to talk.”
I didn’t trust the mayor. Which was only fair, because I was pretty sure she didn’t trust me. As Krista and I followed her back into her octagon-shaped office, Joaquin and Dorn fell into step behind us. Good. I felt safer with Joaquin at my back.
I glanced over my shoulder at Darcy to make sure she was okay and saw her wrapping an elderly man’s ankle with a bandage, chatting with him and smiling. Once we were all inside the office, Dorn pulled the door shut behind us, and the chaotic din of the clinic softened to a dull, continuous hum.
Dorn stood in front of the door, his eyes sharp on me, his hands clasped before him like a Secret Service agent. Krista and I stood awkwardly in the center of the room, while Joaquin walked over to a leather chair and sat down in it casually, like he owned the place, his ankle resting on his knee. Outside the windows, the storm raged over the ocean, darker and darker clouds gathering. A broken tree branch, its jagged golden insides exposed to the rain, scratched an even tempo on the windowpane behind the mayor’s right shoulder.
“What can we do for you, Madame Mayor?” Joaquin asked, folding his arms behind his head.
She shot him a look full of venom, to which he merely cocked an eyebrow, then she sighed. “This has gone entirely too far.”
“Nothing like a good disaster to mobilize the local politicians,” Joaquin quipped.
“This is not a joke, Mr. Marquez!” she spat. “It’s high time we find Tristan and Nadia and find out what the hell is going on around here.”
“Oh, so now you believe us?” I asked. The mayor had refused to hear a word against Tristan. She didn’t want him to be guilty, so she hadn’t listened. I didn’t want him to be guilty, either, but I knew what I’d seen. I’d seen the guilt in his eyes when we found his stash of tainted coins, and I’d watched him flee.
The mayor’s eyes narrowed at me. “I’m not saying I think Tristan is guilty, but he has been here longer than any of the rest of us. He knows things about this island that none of us could possibly know. If anyone has the answers, it’s him. Is there still no sign of him or Nadia?”
Joaquin and I shared a hesitant glance. He sat forward, rubbing his hands against his thighs.
“We did find something,” he said slowly. “In a cave near the bridge. They were staying there. Very recently.”
