Ruby looked at me, but saw nothing. She asked questions I couldn't answer. I turned the key around and around in my pocket, praying for Crom's phone call to end, and for him to return. But he didn't. It felt like my belly was a bowl, and someone whisked together the noodles and ice tea into a foamy kind of sick. The air buzzed with the cameras from outside. My heart beat, I flushed, sweaty and alert, aware of all these sensations and that they were, strangely, completely without odors.

I did the only thing I could do. I stood up like a shot, and interrupted Ruby and her face and gaze and questions. "I don't think the mayor killed Tank," I said. "And if she did, it was a terrible accident."

At this moment, Crom reappeared. We all looked at one another until he spoke. &q...

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