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‘I cannot believe you live in a house like this,’ Leesha sniffed, looking around appraisingly but pretending not to. It’s exactly what George did the first day he was here, too.
They were following me upstairs, as I concentrated on not dropping my haul. Izzy had had a lot to say about that, too. Mainly, that I was fat and eating myself into an early grave.
Hear, hear.
‘Why not? You knew I was rich.’
‘Yeah, but rich is one thing. This place is like a palace. I feel like there should be security guards or something. Is that chandelier pure crystal?’
I had a chandelier? Oh, apparently I did. One hanging right there on the hallway ceiling, which I walked past every day of my life.
I should take more notice of things.
‘Uh, nope? I don’t know. Why would I know that?’
‘What are all these trophies for?’ she asked, peering into one of my dad’s many trophy rooms. I had none of my own, naturally.
‘My dad played football at college. Now, he teaches a college team of his own. They’ve won a few things.’
And paid for our house and cars.
‘Right! He destroyed his knee, didn’t he? Real bad injury. I remember that,’ Izzy nodded, gazing at a photo of him as we passed.
‘Yeah, that’s because I told you- wait, no I didn’t. How did you know that?’ I asked sharply, dropping my cookies. Yep, shouldn’t have taken them.
‘I saw it. David went to the game with his brother, so I followed. I hate football. It was so boring up until that moment.’
‘Well, I’m glad my dad’s life-changing injury brought you some joy. Oh my God, you’re older than my dad. That’s so weird.’
‘Mmhmm. Now before I get even older, can we finally get on with ruining David’s life forever?’ she asked, as we finally reached my bedroom. I dumped my anti-apocalypse haul on the bed and readied myself. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
‘Okay, first of all, Leesha-’
‘Oh my God, you have a balcony?’ she screeched, immediately flying over to it.
To it, not over it, unfortunately.
‘Yeah, anyway-’
‘Oh my God, you have a hot tub in your backyard?’
Ah, yes, the lesser used hot tub. Only recently used by Stacy, and I could do without thinking of that, thank you very much. George frowned, heading over to Leesha.
‘Where? I swear, I’ve looked over this yard for the last six months and I have not seen it.’
‘Right here, right under the balcony. Blink and you miss it kinda deal, I guess.’
‘Great. Anyway-’ I tried again, to be immediately foiled. Even Izzy got in on the action too, heading over to stare at a damned glorified rock pool.
‘Why is it there? Why not over there in the sun, or next to the trees?’ George critiqued.
‘You studied Ancient Civilizations, not modern ones,’ I reminded him, annoyed. ‘My dad built it, anyway. It was a gift for my mom after their honeymoon. They’d gone to Fiji, on a private island, and my mom loved it so much that- why am I telling you this? Just get over here now, all of you.’
They took one last look at the stupid puddle before finally coming back into the sanctity of my room, thoroughly irritated. Make that four of us.
‘What?’ Izzy snapped.
‘Leesha, David had a reason to kill Izzy, so what did you do to get yourself killed?’
Sure, I could have asked it a different way, but where was the fun in that? After her encyclopedic knowledge for curses had been established, she finally settled for a glare.
‘I didn’t do anything. He was following me home.’
‘That’s right!’ Izzy agreed, pouncing on her reason. ‘I saw him. He was walking home and he had his eye on her.’
Ah, there we go.
‘You mean he lived close to Leesha and he was innocently walking home?’
Leesha shot me a glare, and began walking randomly around my room, totally not annoying me.
‘No. I was on a date, and afterwards, this David guy followed me and killed me.’
I closed my notebook shut and patted it.
‘Well, that’s all the information I need, thanks. Can you be a bit more specific on all of that?’
She whipped her head around so hard, her locs would’ve taken her eyes out if she’d been alive.
‘This is difficult, alright? You think I want to be in this position? I am dealing with stuff you wouldn’t believe,’ she shuddered.
‘You think I want to be in this position?’ I countered. I tried to soften my temper, since George was giving me one of his frowns. Man, was it hard. ‘Look, I know neither of us want to be here. But the only way to stop this is to give me all the gory details so I can go ruin David’s life for real. Start again.’
George’s frown deepened. What? I tried.
It worked a little, anyway. Leesha tugged at her hair again and walked around even quicker.
‘Like I said, I was on a date.’
‘Where?’ I asked. She was wearing a pretty similar outfit to George, and from what I could see, she wasn’t wearing makeup.
‘A sports bar. Leo’s. You heard of it?’
Um, sure.
‘Totally. Wait, don’t you have to be 21 to go to a sports bar?’
I could’ve sworn she was around my age. And she looked it.
‘According to my fake ID, I am 21,’ she shrugged nonchalantly.
I shared a baffled look with George. Where do you even get a fake ID from? And why am I so uncool that I don’t know about this? Truth be told, I was kinda jealous. Fake IDs would’ve saved me a lot of trouble over the years.
‘Right. So, hot date at a sweaty sports bar. What happened then?’
I jotted down bits of info as she gathered her thoughts.
‘My mom walked in and saw us. She hit the roof. She doesn’t approve.’
‘Of what?’ I asked, looking up.
‘Drinking or dating. Her mom is super conservative,’ Izzy butted in. I was surprised it’d taken her so long, actually. She loves the sound of her own voice. Unfortunately, it makes me want to puke.
‘Then, why was she at a sports bar?’ George asked. Izzy turned on him and snarled.
‘I don’t know!’
‘Alright. Sorry for asking,’ he mumbled, stricken. I doubted he’d be asking anything else.
‘Leesha?’ I sighed, taking up the mantle.
‘What?’
‘Why was your presumably sober mom at a bar?’
‘I don’t know, does it matter? Maybe she saw me through the window or something.’
I don’t like it when lucies don’t know something. Usually, that means they’re lying, or I’ll end up lying. Since it appeared that I’d be getting that answer a lot, I let it go for now.
‘Okay, moving on. You had the date- who with, by the way?’
‘Andy.’
‘Andy who? I don’t know your friends. How old is he? Where can I find him?’ I groaned. I could feel my cells starting to rapidly age as I spoke. What was I, a miracle worker?
‘Why do you need to know?’ she barked.
‘Because he could be a witness and at the very least, he can validate your story.’
‘You don’t believe me?’ she asked, offended.
‘As a general rule of thumb, no, I do not believe you guys. George can back me up.’
Surprisingly, he did. I think he was still shook up by Izzy’s random attack.
‘Yeah, she has a point. I’ve seen her make a fool of herself because lucies didn’t tell her the full story.’
Thanks, I think?
‘Who’s Lucy?’
Oh dang, here we go.
‘I call you guys lucies. Short for translucent people.’
Leesha stared at me.
‘Moving on,’ I said. ‘Your mom came into the bar. What happened next?’
‘We had a huge argument that I do not want to get into right now,’ Leesha stated, adding yet another thing to the list of stuff she didn’t want to impart.
You know, this attitude from lucies really cheeses me off. I’m supposed to be helping her, and I quite honestly could care less about her, dead or alive. Yet, I’m being treated like a torturer or something. I’m not a damn mind reader.
‘Great. Just like everything else you’ve not told me. What exactly do you want me to do here? Do you want me to catch your killer or not?’ I asked bluntly.
Her jaw set, she looked about ready to punch me. She couldn’t hurt me no matter how hard she flailed, but I tensed anyway.
‘What kind of question is that?’
‘A valid one. If you’re not helping me, why should I help you?’
Her nostrils flared. Boy, I’d really peed her off. Izzy, sensing blood, silently stomped over and joined her. Remembering her earlier rage, George unconsciously stepped back, closer to me. Okay, that was unprecedented. He was actually on my side for once. Granted, it was because Izzy was a worse person than me, but still.
‘Believe me, Andy and my mom have nothing to do with it. Trust me,’ Leesha implored, trying to soften the atmosphere.
Uh, nope.
‘I do,’ I smiled. George narrowed his eyes. ‘Okay, tell me what happened after you left Leo’s.’
‘I was walking home. Well, charging. I was mad at my mom. And upset. She embarrassed me in front of Andy! It was the single most humiliating experience of my life. I felt like I wanted to die, I really did. And then-’ she gulped, risking a glance at Izzy. Like a dog on a bone, the dead girl jumped.
‘David happened! I was following him, like I’ve done for the past thirty years,’ she hissed, shooting a glare my way. ‘I saw him follow her down an alley.’
‘Why the hell were you walking down an alley at night, alone?’ I sighed. How stupid have you gotta be?
‘What are you, my mother?’ Leesha frowned. ‘Look, I know, it was stupid. But I wasn’t really thinking. I was super pissed. Then, I heard a noise behind me. And even more stupidly, I stopped.’
Stopped talking too, but I kinda got the gist. In case I’d left my brain to pickle in a jar somewhere, Izzy decided to be super helpful and relive Leesha’s last moments for her. With relish.
‘David came out of nowhere. He was so calm. I’d been watching him the whole time, and I knew what he was about to do. He’d spotted her as she’d left the bar, and he’d kept her in his sights. He had one hand in his pocket the entire time, stroking the pantyhose.’
‘Is that a euphemism?’ George spluttered, grossed out. He risked a glance at his own pantyhose.
‘No, idiot. It’s what he used to kill me. My own pantyhose,’ she grumbled, folding her arms. ‘They were beautiful. I’d been making out with Chuck in his car and I’d taken them off, and he’d scratched them and they tore. I’d saved up for months for them. I was furious with him. I broke up with him right then and only forgave him, like, two years later.’
The three of us from this era gave her the weirdest looks. George sought me out.
‘Uh, we are talking about those sheer sock thingies that cost like, five bucks, right?’
‘Sadly, yes. She’s just unhinged.’
Izzy stretched her hands out to strangle me, which was kind of an insult, when you think about it.
‘So, Izzy. You were talking about someone other than yourself, before you talked about you again. Can we get back to Leesha? She’s more important right now.’
You know how some communities collect rainwater for energy? Wouldn’t it be great if you could do that with people’s steaming rage? Izzy could power the whole world.
‘This isn’t over,’ she seethed. Noted. ‘David has kept my pantyhose in his pocket ever since he killed me. He killed Leesha here the same way he killed me, and with the same pantyhose. He did it without hesitation. You know what that means?’
It was a Saturday night and he was worried someone would catch him at it?
‘It means he’s no stranger to it,’ she said before I could butt in with my stupid logic and rationalizations.
‘Yes, he killed you,’ I gently reminded her. Whoops, out come her talons again.
‘I haven’t spent every waking moment following him, you know. I’ve watched my family and Chuck. I watched my friends, my funeral, my memorials-’
‘Did you see a point at any of them?’ I groaned.
‘My point is, I don’t think we’re his only victims,’ she said with a flourish.