Page 29 of Wham Line

Under other circumstances, the look on Nalini’s face would have been comical.Her jaw sagged.Her long, thick eyelashes batted furiously.I had a horrifying moment when I realized her default defensive maneuver was to flirt, and now she was going to try it onme.

But then she recovered herself and stammered, “Th-the bathroom.”

“Do you want to try that again?”

“I went to the bathroom.I didn’t even know—” For a moment, emotion swamped her, and her eyes filled with tears.“I didn’t know.When I came back, everything had gone wrong.”

“What do you mean, gone wrong?”

She blinked to clear the tears from her eyes, but some of the emotion still made her voice raspy as she said, “Mal.I don’t know why someone would—” Her shoulders slumped.“He was sonice.”

“Was he?”Nalini was too busy trying not to cry, though, and I wasn’t sure the question mattered.I gave her another second and asked, “What about after?”

Sniffles.

“After everything that happened?”I said.“You didn’t come back to Hemlock House.”

“Yes, I did, but I was extra quiet because it was late—”

“Nalini, don’t lie to me.You spent all night checking in with Keme to make sure Indira wasn’t home yet.Where were you?”

“I was upset,” she said.“I don’t know.I went for a walk.”

“The whole night?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Yes, I went for a walk.All night.”She glanced around, wiped her eyes, and said, “I have to get back to work.”

She disappeared into the kitchen, and I leaned back with a grunt.“That was a load of horse plop.”

(You get the general idea.)

“Fine,” Bobby said, although his tone conveyed the impression that it was anything but fine.He disconnected his call and tapped the screen of his phone again.

“Nalini lied to us about where she was last night,” I said.“And she said something uber suspicious.”

“Uh huh,” Bobby said as he put the phone to his ear again.

“She’s definitely hiding something.”

Bobby nodded and held up a finger.

“I mean, when someone says, ‘everything had gone wrong,’ it kind of gives the impression of nefariousness and general villainy, right?Bobby?”

“I’m on the phone,” he said.“Yes, do you carry lotus flowers?Can you order them?Okay.Okay, thank you.”

“What’s up?”I asked.

Bobby said something you can’t say in a public restaurant.(I mean, you can, but they definitely frown on it.) And then he went back to his phone.

“You need lotus flowers?”I asked.

He tapped something on his screen, pushed a hand through his hair, and held the phone to his ear again.

I opened my mouth to ask one of those questions upon which strong relationships are built—in this case:Did you hear me?