Page 19 of Wham Line
Bobby turned toward the coach house, but as I followed him, the front door flew open, and Millie rushed out.
“NALINI DID IT!”She stopped to gulp air.“Nalini did it!She KILLED that man!”
“Hi, Millie.Nice to see you too.”
“What do you mean?”Bobby asked.“Why would she—”
Millie’s face changed, and she squeezed Bobby in a hug.“Oh my God, Bobby, I’m so sorry about your mom.”
For a moment, his face was like ice about to melt—the way the color and texture change.He stood awkwardly for a moment as she continued to hug him, and then one hand came up, and he stroked her hair.“It’s okay, Millie.Thank you.What’s this about Nalini?”
“I have PROOF!”Millie said as she stepped back and pulled out her phone.“She didn’t come home last night, and she kept texting Keme to ask if Indira WAS BACK YET.”
The outrage—and volume—of those last words suggested they were somehow the proof in question, so I said, “That’s it?”
“Dash, she DIDN’T COME HOME.You know what that means, right?”
“I know what it means in, like, a rated-R sense, or like one of those HBO movies you can only watch after your parents have gone to bed, but—”
“IT MEANS SHE WAS DESTROYING THE EVIDENCE!”
“That seems like a stretch.”
Millie’s stare suggested new levels of disbelief for my stupidity, but she rallied.“Look, I took pictures of the messages.‘Is my auntie back yet?’‘Just checking if she’s home.’‘Do you know when she’s supposed to be back?’”
“Right, okay—”
“If she wasreallyworried about Indira, why wasn’t she at the sheriff’s station?Or if she didn’t want to do that, why not come home and wait here?Why would she keep texting unless WHATEVER SHE WAS DOING WAS A SECRET SHE DIDN’T WANT INDIRA TO KNOW ABOUT?”
This ear-shattering conclusion wasn’t as airtight in my opinion as Millie’s, uh, gusto seemed to imply.
But Bobby was the one who said, “Did Keme ask where she was?”
“No,” Millie said.And then, with a look that seemed to take in both of us, she added crisply, “He’s a boy.”
“But why would she want to kill Mal?”I asked.“She was working for him.She seemed to like him.”Althoughlikewas a bit of an understatement, with all the giggling and touching I’d seen.
“Because something HAPPENED,” Millie said with obvious frustration at mylackof gusto.“Something we don’t know about.”
“I don’t know—” I began.
“If she DIDN’T kill him, then WHERE WAS SHE?”
“Where’s Nalini now?”Bobby asked.
“She went into town,” Millie said.A hint of a blush rose in her cheeks.“I told her Keme went to hang out at the surf shop.”
“Let me guess,” I said.“Keme isnothanging around at the surf shop.”
Millie burst out, “She won’t leave him alone!And Keme’s such a boy that he doesn’t even know what’s going on.”
I had my own thoughts about how much Keme knew—or didn’t—but I kept them to myself.
“We’ll take this into consideration,” Bobby said.“If you notice anything else, please let us know.”
Millie looked oddly gratified.Then she turned a disappointed glance in my direction, as though my failure to be appropriately enthused about these revelations suggested a more fundamental lack in my character.Then she bounced back into the house.
As we started toward the coach house again, I said, “You don’t seriously think Nalini did it, do you?”
