Page 81 of Deja Who
“Sure I did. Why wouldn’t—hey. Hey!” He grabbed her elbow and planted his feet, though the mayor could move him if she was inclined. The mayor could toss him into a pile of garbage if she was inclined. “Please, stop sprinting and explain this to me. What’s the big deal? Why wouldn’t I believe Nellie? Leah did.”
“Yeah, well, theproblemwith that is that Leah’s a little too close to theproblem.”
“Okay, I appreciate the emphasis onproblem, but I’m new to the story, here. You’ve got to give me more,” he begged, “and standing still, please. Me, I go slow when I think, that’s the kind I am.”
“Okay.” She shot him an annoyed look, doubtless wondering at the relevancy of going slow. “Theproblemis that Nellie Nazir set the standard for unreliable narrator.”
He blinked and absorbed that. “She lied?”
“Unreliable narrator doesn’t necessarily mean lying. She could have believed it herself. Or convinced herself that if it wasn’t true right that minute, itwouldbe true.”
“Okay... I have faith you’re gonna get there eventually, so I’m hanging in.”
People streamed around them as they again stood in the middle of a public sidewalk discussing lies and murder. “I think she lied about the agent being out of the house. I think he was right there with her. And I think Leah didn’t catch on at the time because she had plenty of other shit to worry about. Which brings me to the ‘baaaad shit’ part of our program.”
“No, it’s good shit!”
She peered up at him. “I think you’re getting too much sun. It’s bad shit.”
“Cat, don’t you get it?” Archer was so excited he danced the mayor in a little circle, right there outside Burger King. “The cops will check his alibi and know it’s bullshit. They’ll have him!”
“I know. Stop spinning me.” The mayor was growing pale, which was alarming as she normally had a healthy tan from all her time in the park. “They’ll have him. And the thing about that, Archer, is that heknowsthey’ll have him.”
“Oh.”
“So he knows he’s almost out of time.”
“Oh!”
Without another word, Archer whirled, stepped off the curb, ignored the bus about to kill him, flagged a taxi, then leaped out of the way of the bus about to kill him.
“Cops!” Cat yelled after him, but he didn’t see, didn’t hear, didn’t turn. He was climbing inside the cab, totally focused on getting to Leah. “Cops would be a good thing now!”
The taxi never slowed.
