Hervé escorted me to my car and lingered while I stashed my supplies in the trunk. I let out a sigh, feeling decidedly defeated.
“You know this is how it works, Lily. The spirits aren’t known for their clear signs. You need more pieces of the puzzle before things start to fall into place.”
“I know. It’s just that... Well, Sailor’s in jail.”
“Sailor? What for?”
“He’s the main suspect for this murder.”
“Thismurder? The one in room two seventeen?”
I nodded, glumly.
Hervé paused for a moment, as if searching for the right words. “I don’t know Sailor well, Lily, but I know this: I felt the sensations in that room. Sailor is notcapable of that degree of violence or unbridled ambition. Whatever was in that room with Tristan wasn’t some normal guy caught up in the moment.”
I almost laughed. Talk about a good news/bad news scenario. The good news: My fiancé wasn’t a murderer. The bad news: The murderer was an ambitious psychopath and I had to track him down.Oh, goody.
“Anyway,” I said, ready to change the subject, “did you get your invitation to the handfasting?”
“It’s on my calendar. Selena dropped by my shop today—she’s so excited to be in the wedding. She said something about trying on bridesmaid dresses with you tomorrow.”
Dangitall.I had totally forgotten. Another lapse in memory. This wasn’t like me. “Yes, of course. I’m looking forward to seeing her.”
He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “You’re confident you’ll be able to spring Sailor in time for the nuptials? I’d hate for her to be disappointed.”
“We’d all be just a tad disappointed. And anyway, I don’t have any other choice. Sailor didn’t do this, Hervé. I just have to find out who did, and figure out how to prove Sailor’s innocence.”
“Exonerate Sailor and find the real killer. How hard could that be, right?” Hervé chuckled, his voice sonorous.
“That about sums it up.”
A siren wailed in the distance, and several people emerged from the theater next door. Show must be over.
“If I can help, you know where to find me. But, Lily, you mentioned your grandmother’s coven is on their way into town. Couldn’t they be of assistance with this sort of thing?”
“They’re taking a rather circuitous route. Besides, they’re all in their seventies and eighties, so I’m not sure how helpful they’ll be with the actual running-after-a-murderer part. Also... mymotheris on that bus.”
He nodded sagely. “Mother issues. They’re the worst.”
I smiled. “My familiar said that very thing this morning.”
His eyebrows rose. “Your pig talks?”
“I... might have interpreted that. You know how it is.”Watch it, Lily.Only Sailor, Aidan, and Selena knew about Oscar’s true form, and it was best that way. Since I had started feeling at home, making friends, creating family, I had been letting my guard down.
Or was it more than that? I had been losing track of conversations, talking to myself, letting things slip.
I sneezed.
“Coming down with something?” Hervé asked.
I shook my head.
“My wife swears by zinc and echinacea, but personally, I think industrial-strength DayQuil’s the only thing that works.”
“Thanks. But I’m not getting a cold. I don’t get colds.”
He chuckled. “Of course not. But if you do, DayQuil’s the ticket.”
