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"Hello, Clementine," I drawled.
"You're supposed to be dead!" she hissed again, then turned and fixed her cold, angry glare on Dixon.
He stared at me in horrified shock for a moment before his gaze snapped over to Clementine. I hadn't thought it possible, given how much self-tanner had soaked into his skin, but his orange face actually paled and took on a sickly, sallow tint. He swallowed once, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down like a fishing lure that was stuck in his throat.
"But - but you saw her!" he sputtered. "I killed her! I killed the Spider! I blew her face off!"
"No," I snapped. "You killed a woman who had on the same dress as I did. Nothing more. Her name was Jillian, and she didn't deserve to die like that. "
Eva sucked in another breath at the revelation of Jillian's fate. Apparently, so much had been going on in the rotunda that Eva hadn't realized that Jillian wasn't there, just like Owen hadn't.
"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time," I said, for Eva's benefit. Then I stared at Clementine. "Your nephew there was just too dumb to realize that he'd killed the wrong woman. Maybe if he hadn't shot her in the face so many times, he would've seen his mistake before now - and you would have too. "
Anger stained Clementine's cheeks, her hazel eyes narrowed, and even her hair seemed to curl tighter with wrath, but she didn't respond to my taunts. Instead, she stared at me for the better part of a minute, her sharp gaze taking in my hacked-off ball gown, the belt around my hips, the black boots on my feet, the blood spattered all over me.
"You look like you've been rode hard and put up wet," she said. "Not what I expected from the mighty Spider. "
I shrugged. "Well, I do aim to please, but as you know, my plans for this evening were interrupted. I'll give you this, you don't do anything halfway. Robbing the entire Briartop museum and holding Ashland's finest at gunpoint at the same time is no small feat. You should give yourself a pat on the back. You've earned it. "
Clementine grinned. "My mama always said, why steal one million, when you can steal two. Or a hundred, in this case. "
I snorted. "Give it a rest. You're not stealing a hundred million. "
She cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, why is that?"
"Because you're planning to blow all of that pretty art to smithereens. "
Dixon blinked. "How do you know that?"
I stared at him. "Because in addition to the one I stole from the bridge, I also found a bomb hidden underneath one of the moving trucks. My guess is that the three of you were going to load all of that art and all of the other giants onto those trucks, then blow them all sky-high when they crossed the bridge. That way, all your men would be dead, and everyone would think that the three of you were too. "
Clementine kept staring at me, but Opal and Dixon shared a nervous glance behind her back, confirming that I was right.
"No, the only things the three of you ever planned on leaving here with were that tube from the vault and all of the jewelry you took off the hostages," I said. "Pry the gems out of their settings, and they're a lot easier to fence than well-known pieces of art. Since the jewelry wasn't in the moving trucks, I'm willing to bet that it's down here somewhere. "
Opal's head snapped to the right. I followed her gaze and realized that there was something else tied up to one of the slips in the very back: a small speedboat. I could just see the glint of a silverstone case that had been propped up in one of the seats.
"I'll take that as a yes. "
Nobody said anything, and the only sound was the steady rush of the river flowing around us. Finally, Clementine barked out a laugh.
"Well, maybe I was wrong to be so hasty in my previous judgment about you being so disappointing," she said. "Because you certainly are clever. "
"I do try. "
Yeah, I was preening a little bit, but only so I could give Owen as much time as possible to get into position to rescue Eva. I didn't want the giants to remember that he was out here somewhere and realize that all my blustering was just a ploy to distract them from his rescue attempt.
Clementine's face hardened. "Enough talk. Why don't you hand over the tube before I tell Dixon to blow the girl's head off?"
Dixon grinned and waggled his gun at me. I looked at him a moment longer, not giving any hint about the waterlogged figure I saw climb up one of the ladders at the very back of the boathouse, sneak over to the outer circular path, and head in his direction.
Since I had a knife in my right hand, I reached down with my left and slowly slid the ebony tube out of the pouch on my belt. I held the tube up high and then slowly turned it around, making sure that Clementine saw the flash of Mab's sunburst rune on the smooth wood.
Her eyes narrowed, and she studied me a moment longer.
"Put it on the ground, and roll it over here," she said. "Real easy-like. Or the girl dies. "
I slowly bent down and did as she asked. The tube hopped and skipped across the stone, heading toward her. Clementine raised her foot, then brought her boot down gently on top of the tube, stopping it. Still keeping her eyes and her gun on me, she bent down and picked up the tube.
