The Woman from Planet X by Kirsten Weiss

Author:Kirsten Weiss [Kirsten Weiss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: misterio press
Published: 2022-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“I know this may sound odd coming from a woman with a UFO in her roof, but I’m starting to dislike that flamingo.”

A tour bus drove past on Main Street, and I waved away the fumes, feeling a headache coming on. The heat seemed to condense and intensify the smell of the exhaust.

On the sidewalk, Arsen cut a quick glance at me and grinned. “You’ve gotten used to having the most oddball attraction in Doyle, a town full of oddballs. Is Nowhere making you insecure?”

Bailey trotted between us.

“Not about Wits’ End,” I said, fanning myself. Didn’t they have clouds in Nowhere? “And I’d be perfectly happy if Doyle was less weird.” I shook my head. “And where did you learn all that art world jargon?”

His tanned skin darkened. “Uh. My aunts. They went through a salon phase.”

“Salon?”

“Artists’ salon. They imported artists for mountain weekends, and I got to play butler. They even made me wear a tux.”

A burble of laughter escaped my throat. “Sorry.” Arsen would look incredible in a tux, but I knew he’d hate every minute of it. And after all the time we’d known each other, I loved that he could still surprise me.

He grasped my hand. “Forget my nutty childhood. I can tell something’s bothering you. And not the flamingo.”

“Actually, I keep imagining…”

“What?”

That something awful will happen and we’ll lose each other, or just grow apart. That we were too good together, it wasn’t real, couldn’t last. And who was I to deserve such happiness? “That the flamingo’s winking at me,” I said.

He chuckled. “I keep seeing that too, out of the corner of my eye.”

“I know, right? Whenever I’m not quite looking at it, it seems to wink.

“It must be something in the design that creates that illusion.” He rubbed his thumb along my hand. “And our case?”

I squeezed his hand lightly. “The problem isn’t the case, it’s Lilyanna. Mr. Gomez doesn’t know how much trouble she may be in, and I have to respect her wishes and not tell him. But what if we can’t help her? I mean, you’ve helped her by getting her that lawyer—”

“She’s fired him.”

I stopped short beside the giant can of peas. “What?”

“She said she couldn’t accept his help, not for free, not if I was paying for it. And she gave me a payment plan for what I’m out for her bail.”

“Darn her sense of ethics.” I bit my bottom lip. “She’s in real trouble without good representation.”

“Would you have accepted the gift if you knew us as well as she does?”

“In other words, not well at all?” I sighed. “No.” Lilyanna and I were alike in that regard. My muscles tightened. And that wasn’t the only way we were alike. I wasn’t going to let anxiety creep back into my life. “We have to figure this out.”

“We will.”

But how? We’d been stumbling around Nowhere talking to whoever’d give us the time of day. It wasn’t efficient. I wasn’t sure it was effective.

He took my hand. “What we need is a break to regroup.

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