But he's very kind."
There were illiterate vampires? Well, why not?Aloud Mary-Lynnette said, "Oh. Well, I guess it's one more person we can eliminate."
"Look, can we just brainstorm a minute?" Mark said. "This is probably crazy, but what if Jeremy'suncle isn't really dead? And what if-" At that moment, there was a crash from the front porch.
No, a tap-tap-crash, Mary-Lynnette thought. Then she thought, Oh, God . . . Tiggy.
Chapter 15
Tiggy.
She was running. Throwing the door open. Visionsof kittens impaled by tiny stakes in her mind.
It wasn't Tiggy on the front porch. It was Ash. He was lying flat in the purple twilight, little moths fluttering around him.
Mary-Lynnette felt a violent wrench in her chest.For a moment everything seemed suspended-and changed.
If Ash were dead-if Ash had been killed ...
Things would never be all right. She would neverbe all right. It would be like the night with the moonand stars gone. Nothing that anybody could do wouldmake up for it. Mary-Lynnette didn't know why-itdidn't make any sense-but she suddenly knew it was true.
She couldn't breathe and her arms and legs felt strange. Floaty. Out of her control.
Then Ash moved. He lifted his head and pushed up with his arms and looked around.
Mary-Lynnette could breathe again, but she still felt dizzy. "Are you hurt?" she asked stupidly. She didn't dare touch him. In her present state one blast of electricity could fry her circuits forever. She'd meltlike the Wicked Witch of the West.
"I fell in thishole, "he said. "What do you think?"
That's right, Mary-Lynnette thought; the footsteps hadended with more of a crash than a thud. Not like the footsteps of last night.
And that meant something ...if only she couldfollow the thought to the end... .
"Having problems, Ash?"Kestrel's voice saidsweetly, and then Kestrel herself appeared out of the shadows, looking like an angel with her golden hair and her lovely clean features. Jade was behind her, holding Tiggy in her arms.
"He was up in a tree," Jade said, kissing the kitten's head. "I had to talk him down." Her eyes were emerald in the porch light, and she seemed to float rather than walk.
Ash was getting up, shaking himself. Like his sisters, he looked uncannily beautiful after a feeding,with a sort of weird moonlight glow in his eyes. Mary-Lynnette's thought was long gone.
"Come on in," she said resignedly. "And help figure out who killed your aunt."
Now that Ash was indisputably all right,she wanted to forget what she'd been feeling a minuteago. Or at least not to think about what it meant.
What it means, the little voice inside her head said sweetly, is that you're in big trouble, girl. Ha ha.
"So what's the story?" Kestrel said briskly as they all sat around the kitchen table.
"The story is that there is no story,"MaryLynnette said. She stared at her paper in frustration.
"Look-what if we start at the beginning? We don't know who did it, but we do know some things about them. Right?"
Rowan nodded encouragingly. "Right."
"First: the goat. Whoever killed the goat had to bestrong, because poking those toothpicks through hidewouldn't have been easy. And whoever killed the goat had to know how your uncle Hodge was killed, because the goat was killed in the same way. And they had to have some reason for putting a black irisin the goat's mouth-either because they knew Ashbelonged to the Black Iris Club, or because they be longed to the Black Iris Club themself."
"Or because they thought a black iris would represent all lamia, or all Night People," Ash said.
Hisvoice was muffled-he was bent over, rubbing hisankle. "That's a common mistake Outsiders make."
Very good, Mary-Lynnette thought in spite of herself. She said, "Okay. And they had access to two different kinds of small stakes-which isn't sayingmuch, because you can buy both kinds in town."
"And they must have had some reason to hate Mrs. B., or to hate vampires," Mark said.
"Otherwise, why kill her?"
Mary-Lynnette gave him a patient look. "I hadn't gotten to Mrs. B. yet. But we can do her now. First, whoever killed Mrs. B. obviously knew she was a vampire, because they staked her. And, second ...
um...second . . ." Her voice trailed off. She couldn't think of anything to go second.
-240 "Second, they probably killed her on impulse," Ash said, in a surprisingly calm and analytical voice."You said she was stabbed with a picket from the fence, and if they'd been planning on doing it, they'd probably have brought their own stake."
"Verygood." This time Mary-Lynnette said it out loud. She couldn't help it. She met Ash's eyes and saw something that startled her. He looked as if itmattered to him that she thought he was smart.
Well, she thought. Well, well. Here we are, probably for the first time, justtalking to each other. Not arguing, not being sarcastic, just talking. It's nice.
It was surprisingly nice. And the strange thing was, she knew Ash thought so, too. They understood each other. Over the table, Ash gave her a barely perceptible nod.
They kept talking. Mary-Lynnette lost track of timeas they sat and argued and brainstormed. Finally she looked up at the clock and realized with a shock that it was near midnight.
"Do wehave to keep thinking?" Mark said pathetically. "I'm tired." He was almost lying on the table. So was Jade.
I know how you feel, Mary-Lynnette thought. Mybrain is stalled. I feel ... extremely stupid.
"Somehow, I don't think we're going to solve the murder tonight," Kestrel said. Her eyes were closed.
She was right. The problem was that MaryLynnette didn't feel like going to bed, either. Shedidn't want to lie down and relax-there was a rest lessness inside her.
I want ... what do I want? she thought. I want ...
"If there weren't a psychopathic goat killer lurkingaround here, I'd go out and look at the stars,"
shesaid.
Ash said, as if it were the most natural thing inthe world, "I'll go with you."
Kestrel and Jade looked at their brother in disbelief. Rowan bent her head, not quite hiding a smile.
Mary-Lynnette said, "Um ..."
"Look," Ash said. "I don't think the goat killeris lurking out there everyminutelooking for people to skewer. And if anything does happen, I can handle it." He stopped, looked guilty, then bland. "I mean we can handle it, because there'll be two of us."