Twice Bitten, Once Shy: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #5

Chapter 13

Cun Guan Chi

Captain Mel disappears into the Curd Queen, off to call the police. Ivy heads into the lounge to oversee breakfast while Jade pours a screwdriver. That leaves Zandra with Rev. Cash and pDano®. She can't shake either of them, no matter how hard she tries to ignore them as she leaves the upper level.

This fucking ankle. I can't outrun anyone.

A few attendees make their way into the lounge as Zandra shuffles by on her way down to the cabins. pDano® grabs a French toast stick from a tray as he follows closely beside Zandra. Rev. Cash, flanking pDano®, waves away two attendees wanting to talk with a quick, "all my blessings."

Save some of those blessings for me, rev.

Down on the lower level, the Curd Queen's attendees stir, eager to get the day started. The smell of coffee and the sounds of showers running leak through the cabin doors. Zandra reaches Cherry Peach's cabin and raises a fist to knock, but she pauses.

"Remember, Ivy said we're supposed to be discreet. If anyone gets wind of this, the entire event is fucked, and so is our money," Zandra says to Rev. Cash and pDano®.

Rev. Cash cracks his neck with a twist. "Not sure how you can think of money in a time like this. And mind your language."

Fuck you.

"This isn't a charity event, and you knew that when you came here," Zandra says. "If either of you want breakfast, this is your last chance."

"Last chance? Not sure what you mean by that. You know something about Ms. Peaches we don't?" Rev. Cash says.

Yes.

"No. It's that neither of you have done this before, and it's already been an eventful morning," Zandra says.

"I seen'd the menu," pDano® says. "Not sure I could eat even if I wanted to after what I seen'd just a little bit ago. Never seen'd anything like that before."

Are you getting paid every time you say "seen'd" or something?

"I heard you like French toast sticks, p-Dano-registered-R," Zandra says.

"Nah, not today," pDano® says.

This is so obviously a lie, I don't need to figure out whether pDano® is deviating from a baseline. Is this about following along so they can manage what happens next?

Zandra knocks on the door.

No reply.

Zandra knocks again and leans her ear against the door. It's hard to hear with the background noise from the rest of the cabins.

Rev. Cash reaches over Zandra's head and knocks—no, pounds—on the door. That gets a response.

"Yeah?" the faint voice of Cherry Peach says from inside the cabin.

"What do we say?" pDano® says in a whisper. "It's not like we can tell her about the murder from this side of the door."

Saying that "murder" word out loud is the opposite of being discreet, pDano®, no matter how quiet you whisper. Not that it's going to matter in a minute. It's pretty obvious, to me anyway, how this is going to play out, even if everyone else is suspicious. I'll get to that later. Right now, there's only one place to start.

"Can you open the door?" Rev. Cash says.

Cherry Peach waits a beat before responding. "I'm not ready yet."

Maybe she'd be more comfortable with me.

"It's Zandra. Can I come in?" Zandra says.

The door cracks open an inch. Cherry Peach's eye peeks through.