Page 25 of Retool

I honestly didn’t have anything to say to that, so I spun back around in my seat and faced forward.

Bobby, who was wise as well as handsome and strong, chose not to say anything.

I, on the other hand, said in a low voice, “Do I sound like that?”

“Not at all,” Bobby said.

“Is this how you feel when I get dragged into these things?”

“How do you feel?”

“Like I want to send them to bed without supper.Slash, I want to murder them.”

Here’s the thing about Bobby: he’s not petty at all.But right then, he had the hugest grin on his face, and he didn’t try to hide it.

Tap, tap, tap.

“Did you, like, have any ideas?”Charlie asked.“Of what we could do?To help, I mean.”

“We’re not helping them,” AJ said.“We’ll figure it out on our own.”

“Every man must live or die by himself,” Thatcher said.

That did it.I spun around in my seat again.“You absolutely willnottrample all over an ongoing investigation.Do you understand me?”And because I knew, from years of dealing with Keme, how well that command would go down, I decided to add a little manipulation into the mix.“How about this?There’s something you can do that would be a huge help.”

“What?”Charlie asked.

“What?”AJ asked in a different tone.

“I think I could help the most by doing whatever you’re doing,” Thatcher told me.

I pulled out the conference schedule I’d picked up the day before in my author packet.“What I want you to do is see if you can figure out why Vivienne was at the grotto last night.Like, was there an event, that kind of thing.”

Charlie nodded eagerly.

AJ folded her arms and said, “Are you serious?”

“That’s easy,” Thatcher said.“Just look at the schedule.”Charlie reached for my schedule, but Thatcher snatched it first, scanned it, and said, “Author one-on-ones were at seven.”

The pizza-protective nerds from the night before had told me the same thing.But I said, “Vivienne was there almost an hour before seven, though.And why would she be having her one-on-ones out at the grotto?”

Thatcher surrendered the schedule to Charlie, who examined it more carefully.

Fiddling with one of her ear piercings, AJ said in a tone that conveyed a conviction of my complete incompetence, “Because they can have their one-on-ones wherever they want.”

“She probably got there early,” Thatcher told me.“Man, I can’t believe you needed us to figure that out for you.”

“Let it go,” Bobby murmured.

“But they—”

“I know.You tried.Let it go.”

“Don’t talk to anyone,” I said.“Don’t go anywhere alone.And don’t annoy, antagonize, bother, or otherwise make nuisances of yourself, because let me tell you: killers donotlike that.”

Charlie nodded agreement.

AJ said, “Nobody likes that.”