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“And you need to stop looking at him through your damn vagina,” she countered. “Start thinking with your brain here, O. Not even hissisterwants to be around him.” Pointing at me, she demanded, “Did you evenaskher why that is?”
With a groan, I shook my head. “Thalia’s too protective. She only ever says good things about him. And then diverts the conversation the rest of the time.”
Jay snorted. “Probably because she’s too scared of what he’ll do to her if she says anything bad.”
“Then why does she neveractscared? Huh?” I demanded, completely over this conversation. It seemed to be another repeat of the beach, and I didn’t need to hear it again. “She’s the most vivacious, spirited person I know, bursting with buoyant, dramatic vigor. I mean, she’s a big avoider of questions. It’s kind of hinky how noticeably she won’t answer some things I ask. But never, not once, has she been fearful,especiallywhen it comes to Damien.”
“Really? Hmm…” Jay tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Maybethat’swhat’s going on, then.” Stepping closer, she lowered her voice to ask, “Do you think maybeshekilled the aunt, in defense of her brother?”
“Oh my God,stop!” I said, scoffing at her ridiculousness, even though…okay…Somethinghorrible had to have pulled the siblings apart, and the aunt was dead, and Thalia wouldn’t say shit about any of it.
Jaylani’s eyes widened suddenly as she gripped my arm because her idea seemed to grow merit in her head.
“Just hear me out here,” she said. “Thaliabeing the killer would explain why she doesn’t want to see her brother anymore. I’m not sure if I’d be able to lookyouin the eye after I had to kill someone for you. I’d totally do it, sure, but you gotta admit…” She shrugged out a wince. “It’d change things between us.”
I shook my head. “Except Thalia’s no more a killer than Damien is. She’s way too…innocuous. Besides, Damien would never let me room with a murderer.”
Unless it was an accident. Or in self-defense.
Ugh, this was bad. Jay was beginning to drag me into her crazy conspiracy theories right along with her.
Somethingwasfishy between Damien and Thalia, though.
“Okay, so maybe shecouldhave,” I admitted, going along with Jay’s hypothesis just for the heck of it. “But it’d have to have been a total accident. I can’tsee herpurposelytrying to harm someone.” Then, I snapped my fingers. “Except, no. That doesn’t make sense. Why would Damien want to hunt down murderers to this day if he already knew who’d done it?”
Jay merely shook her head. “Wow. These Archer siblings really have you…” When her words trailed off abruptly, and a blank, thoughtful expression filled her face, I slumped in defeat.
“Oh Lord. What now?” I muttered.
She gripped my arm—hard—and sent me the oddest, eeriest glance I’d ever seen before. “You said it was their auntwho was murdered, right?”
“I mean…” I winced. “I think so. That’s my guess, anyway. Damien only said it was someone close to him and that he was the one who found the body. And their aunt’s the only family member Iknowwho’s died since she’s who left the apartment to them. He said his parents are retired and living in Arizona, so…yeah. It’s gotta be his aunt. Right?”
“The aunt…” Jay confirmed slowly, shifting her head up and down in serious thought before she added, “whose place you’re currently living in.”
The uncanny way she watched me made me pause and straighten. “What’re you saying?”
“Did good ol’ Damien ever happen to tell youwherehe found this dead body?”
As a shock of cold rushed up the back of my neck and made my arms prickle with goosebumps, I slowly answered, “No.”
“Huh,” was all she murmured as if she knew a secret.
I started to shake my head insistently. “No. Don’t youevensuggest it.”
“You know that haunted tour on Bridleway that Raina invited you to go on with her?”
“Yeah…?” I started slowly, not liking where this conversation was heading.
“Well, that place where they paused on the tour—saying it was haunted by some college girl who was murdered there—was a brownstone…somewhere right around where you live.”
I blinked once. Then twice. “Somewherearoundwhere I live?” I started slowly. “Or was it the very brownstone I live innow?”
“I have no idea,” she confessed, biting her lip. “They all look the same to me, and it was a year ago…and dark out. It could’ve been a different apartment five blocks away…or the one you’re in now. I honestly couldn’t say.”
“Jay!” I screeched and slapped her arm in outrage. “Oh my God. Why didn’t you say something the day we saw the vacancy sign in the window together?”
I mean, someone merely dying there would’ve been bad enough, but…the idea that they’d been murdered and were still hanging around…
