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This time when the laughter faded, the energy in the car was different. Theo shifted around, angling his body toward them for the first time. The concern in his face was transparent as he said, “Look, I’m sorry about your friend. And I’m glad Auggie was able to help, but I don’t think the safe, responsible thing to do—”
Auggie coughed, “Dad,” into his fist.
A crooked smile zigzagged across Jem’s face.
But Theo didn’t smile. He drew a deep breath and seemed to try to calm himself. “I’d like our part in this to be over. If there’s something else we can do—if you need us to do some research, for example, then we’d love to help. But not this.”
This, Tean intuited, meant being out in the dark, sitting in the car, watching an organic poultry farm while a potential murderer did who knew what to the birds. It meant the danger of involving themselves in trying to find a murderer when the police weren’t interested in doing their jobs. It meant, Tean understood—because he had felt an echo of what he saw now on Theo’s face—putting Auggie in danger, or letting Auggie put himself in danger.
“Of course,” Tean said. “Jem, let’s go.”
“Wait, you didn’t even see it,” Auggie said, and he threw a look at Theo. He reached back, took his phone, and made several quick passes with his finger. When he held the screen out toward them, Tean saw the post that must have caught Auggie’s attention.
I emailed THE BITCH again, and she ignored me AGAIN. I’m done waiting for her to do THE RIGHT THING and be a DECENT PERSON. She’s a BITCH and she’s always going to be a BITCH and I’m going to do whatever I have to do to show the world that she’s a liar. She’s part of the problem. People like her are the reason NOBODY IS SAFE. If she won’t do THE RIGHT THING, then I only have one option left. TRUTH is unstoppable, which means I’m unstoppable. See you at IHCPA, BITCH.
It had been posted the week before the conference.
“Jesus Christ,” Jem said.
“Are we sure she’s talking about Yesenia?” Tean asked.
“Yeah, the further back you go, the more there is.” Auggie pocketed his phone. “In some of the early posts, she calls Yesenia a bitch, and then, after that, it’s always just ‘the BITCH’ in capital letters. I’m guessing Yesenia must have blocked her, because I can’t find any posts from Una on her Facebook page. But I get the feeling Una wasn’t lying about contacting her.”
“See you at IHCPA,” Tean said.
Jem shook his head. “Any clue what she’s doing here?”
“Killing chickens,” Theo said, and it was impossible to tell from his tone if he was joking.
“There’s nothing on her social media profiles about this place,” Auggie said. “She does videos on TikTok, and she’s got Instagram and Twitter, but it’s all versions of the same thing—reposting material from Birds Aren’t Real, as well as her own, um…content.”
“Batshit rants,” Jem said.
Auggie flashed a grin and nodded.
“All right,” Jem said. “Sounds like we’ve got our killer.”
Theo shifted in his seat, but he didn’t say anything.
“What?” Jem asked. When Theo didn’t respond, Jem said, “She clearly has a thing for Yesenia. A fixation, or whatever you want to call it. She showed up at the conference, like she promised. There’s all that weird shit about being unstoppable. I mean, you can’t tell me that’s not a threat.”
Theo didn’t say anything.
“Will you just tell him already?” Auggie said. “Or I’ll do it for you, and I’ll do a bad job, and you’ll have to jump in and correct me.”
After a long moment, Theo said, “You’d do a bad job on purpose. Your memory is perfectly fine.”
“It’s because I’m young. And virile. I’ve got a mind like a steel trap, not one that has gone mushy like the oatmeal a certain someone eats every morning to—uh, you know what? I forgot what I was saying.”
Theo fixed him with a look for a few long heartbeats. Then he glanced at Tean and Jem. “People who believe in conspiracy theories aren’t typically violent.”
“And you learned all about this by being a high school English teacher,” Jem said.
“I learned a few things by teaching a unit on conspiracy theories for the last five years and reading a lot—and I mean a lot—of terrible research papers. And no, Jem, I don’t consider myself an expert on it. I’m simply telling you what I know. Then we’re going to leave. If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, we’ll skip to the next part.”
Auggie opened his mouth, but Tean spoke first, “No, please. Whatever you know could be helpful.”
Jem made a discontented noise, but he quieted when Tean nudged him. Tean considered his husband for another long moment. It wasn’t like Jem to react this way to people—to create friction, to antagonize. Oh, sure, Jem could be a little shit when he wanted to, and he knew how to get under people’s skin, to make them too angry to think clearly. But ninety percent of the time—ninety-nine percent of the time—Jem’s way of engaging with the world was to smile and nod and charm everyone around him. So, what Tean couldn’t figure, staring at him now, was why Jem seemed to have his back up about Theo.
