Page 87 of Don't Cross Mo Ellery

And that the alderman knew where I lived.

It wasn’t an idle threat.

Cran knew Merle could make people disappear.

The vibes just keep piling up! If only I could find some freakingproof.

I can feel Merle’s presence at the back of the office, and as I reach out to grab the pickled okra calendar, I see that my hand is shaking. I’m not being as cool about all this as I planned.

And I’m not the only one who notices.

“Hey,” Tasha says softly and turns my chin so we’re forehead to forehead. “What’s really going on, Mo?”

Shit.

I didn’t mean for this to be a whole thing. It was just going to be a teeny tiny forgettable lie along with some light calendar forgery. But now I feel miserable, and that teeny tiny lie is taking up all the space between us. Not even the lieitself; it’s the fact that I lied to her at all. If I want to actually date her, I have to stop lying.

And I do. I really want to date her. Desperately. Which is also kind of a revelation.

I have to fix this.

Time to bring the walls down for the second time today.

“Don’t be mad,” I say, keeping my voice quiet but talking fast, soI don’t chicken out. “I haven’t been totally honest with you. I’m not here to find Cran’s last words.”

“Aha,” she says softly. “I thought it might be—”

“I’m here because ofClaudia, who is dead from legit murder.”

Tasha blinks rapidly. “And Claudia is...”

“Was.Wait, let me back up real quick. Claudia was bribed andthenmurdered—but she never got the money. I have it. Temporarily. I put it inside a statue in Claudia’s basement. But it’s Tond’s money—that’s Cran’s brother, Tond—and if I can keep Tond safe, I get to keep the money. As a payment, not a bribe. I’m not someone who takes bribes, that’s one thing you should know about me.”

I pause to make sure that sinks in, but it’s hard to tell because Tasha’s just frowning at me. I try to take things a little slower. “To keep Tond safe, I have to figure out who killed Claudia, which I know istechnicallyoutside the scope of my crossing guard duties, but it’s also kind of a public service if you think about it that way? Especially since the gas company is apparently full of hit men, and...” I take a deep breath for this last bit. “All of the clues I’ve found are pointing to—I’m very sorry to say this—Merle.”

She squints at me.

“What I’m saying,” I whisper, “is that Merle merldered—uh,murdered—Claudia.”

I feel like I laid it all out pretty well, but Tasha still looks confused.

“I... I-I thought...” she stammers. “I thought you wanted to talk about our relationship.”

“Oh,” I say.“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Like a—”

“Like a ‘what are we’ or perhaps a ‘do you have time for a relationship’ type conversation.”

“Oh.Wow. Yes. You know what? Let’s do that instead. We can circle back to murder.”

“I’m at work, Mo.”

I nod, deeply relieved that she’s not dumping me, even though I lied a teensy bit. I totally made the right choice to tell the truth afterward. “We’ll stick to murder for now. Relationship talk later.”

“I don’t want to be rude or anything,” she says, “so I’m asking this in the least stigmatizing way I possibly can: Is it possible you have been prescribed a medication that you aren’t taking?”