Page 75 of Sky Song
Cricket dropped into a narrow armchair she otherwise rarely used. Looking around her home, she could see no sign Lyle had ever been here. He left everything undisturbed.
“I’m not sure. He doesn’t tell me much. That’s his thing. Because he doesn’t want to lie.”
Surprise flashed briefly across Paloma’s face and her features softened. “I see.”
Cricket chuckled. “That makes one of us. Because I fail to see anything. Nothing makes sense anymore. I don’t even recognize myself.” Her thoughts turned briefly to the lab and how she willingly smuggled Lyle inside. Twice.
“Do you know why Lyle’s is interested in you?” Paloma probed.
“You mean, besides my irresistible charms?”
“So, it’s that kind of a relationship?”
Cricket laughed bitterly. “I don’t know what kind it is, and if there is one. Like I said, nothing is what it seems.”
Paloma scooted closer by sliding on her butt on the floor.
“Let’s think logically.”
“Let us.”
“Lyle came to Meeus for the symposium.”
“Yes.”
“Is he a medical doctor?”
“I don’t know.”
Paloma flipped her heavy fringe of hair away from her eyes. “You’re not helping, sister.”
So, now she was a sister. Cricket smiled with sad irony. She wished Paloma and she had a chance to develop a simple next-door-neighbor friendship like all normal people. Why did it have to be some stupid subterfuge and illegal mystery that brought them together?
“I really don’t know,” Cricket said. “But I highly doubt he is.”
“So do I.” Paloma chewed on her lip. “But he’s interested in the hospital, in the records. What did he tell you to convince you to help extract them?”
“He didn’t have to do a lot of convincing. I… agreed to take him on my own.”
“Why?”
“Because things at the hospital suddenly got bizarre.” She told Paloma about Igor’s death and Kim Creek’s disappearance. She told her about Yanet and the supply room door, about her suspicions regarding Dr. Nura. And after she finished speaking, she added, “I want someone to know all of this. I may be going mad - time will tell. But if I’m onto something, and if I disappear like poor Kim, maybe you can let my mother know. There’s no one else.” She found a small slip of paper and scribbled mama’s contact address.
Paloma accepted the slip, a puzzled frown forming under the fringe that fell back in its customary place, obscuring her forehead and most of her eyes.
“First of all, I don’t think you’re going mad. But what you told me is a lot. I need to think about it.”
Cricket sat down next to Paloma on the floor. She so wanted Paloma to agree with her, to prove to herself she wasn’t completely lost to her own imaginings. “What if I’m overreacting, and it’s no more than a garden-variety office intrigue, Dr. Nura hating on Kim, Kim hating on everyone?”
“A Rix alien wouldn't have come from outer space to snoop around for an office intrigue.”
Cricket had nothing to say to that.
“Where does he usually stay?”
Cricket rubbed her face before repeating once more, “I don’t know.”
“Does he… spend nights at your place?”
