“The murderer,” Penny says—looking all too pleased about it, considering that murderer is still at large.
“If that’s true,” Agatha says, “then we need to tell the Mage about all of this. Immediately.”
66
PENELOPE
All right, fine. It was probably a mistake to bring Agatha.
But it had gone on too long, all this tension between her and Simon. I didn’t want them to go all year without sorting it out.
And I thought maybe a good mystery might distract her from—well, from everything else. I should have remembered that Agatha doesn’t appreciate a good mystery.
And also that she’s the world’s worst snitch.
“We have to tell the Mage,” she says, crossing her arms and then her legs. “You all know it.”
She’s doing her best not to look at either of the boys.… I also should have thought through their whole love-triangle dynamic before I dragged Agatha to Baz’s house. But their whole love-triangle dynamic is so persistently stupid, you can’t blame me for blocking it out.
“Agatha,” I say, “we’re just starting to make some progress here.”
“Towards what?” she asks. “Infiltrating the numpties?”
“We could just talk to them,” Simon offers. “Can numpties talk?”
“Barely,” Baz says. “And what are we going to ask them—‘Lose something?’”
“We’re going to ask who hired them to kidnap you,” I say.
“They might not feel co-operative,” Baz says. “My aunt did kill a few of them.”
Simon looks horrified. “Your aunt murdered numpties?”
“In self-defence!”
“Did they attack her?”
“In my self-defence,” Baz says. “Are you really taking their side? They held me hostage for six weeks.”
“Your aunt should have asked for help!”
“If you’d have been there, Snow, all the numpties would be dead.”
“Maybe.” Simon sticks his chin out. “But it wouldn’t have taken six weeks.”
“So we’ll interrogate the remaining numpties,” I say.
“We will not,” Agatha says. “We’ll tell the Mage and let him handle this—it’s his job to handle it. We’re talking about kidnapping! And murder!”
“Look here, Wellbelove,” Baz says. “We’re not going to the Mage. We’ve all already agreed.”
“Well, I didn’t agree.” Agatha looks furious, and also fed up, and also I think she was supposed to be home two hours ago.
Simon puts his hand on her shoulder. “Baz, she’s right. A lot has changed. We know about Nicodemus now, and we’ve connected your mum’s murder to your kidnapping—”
“No,” I say. “We’re not going to the Mage.”
Simon looks surprised. “Penny, come on. Why not?”
“Because Baz is right, Simon. The Mage isn’t in any mood to help the Pitch family right now. And he’s right that we all already agreed not to involve the Mage.”
Agatha huffs.
“I know you didn’t agree, Agatha,” I say. “But you also don’t have to be part of this.”
She huffs again.
“I mean, you don’t have to be part of this from now on. I’m sorry I dragged you here.”
“I need to get home,” she says. “It’s Christmas Eve.”
I look at my watch. “Damn. My mum’s going to hit the roof. We’ve got to go. We’ll regroup on Boxing Day, yeah?”
The boys nod, both of them staring at the floor.
There’s not much to gather up. Baz goes to get our coats. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of his house—or even dig into the library. I went to the bathroom a few times, but it’s just down the hall, and it seems like a modern addition. (There’s a Japanese toilet in there with comforting music and a seat warmer.)
Agatha pulls on a soft white hat and a matching scarf. “Come on, Simon, didn’t you bring a coat?”
Simon is still sitting on one of the couches, thinking too hard about something. Probably about killing numpties. He looks up. “What?”
“Come on,” Agatha says. “We have to go.”
“Go where?”
“We came to get you,” she says.
He still looks confused. “To take me back to Watford?”
Agatha furrows her brow. (She’s going to have a vicious wrinkle there someday, and I’m going to laugh about it.) “Just … come on,” she says. “It’s Christmas Eve. My parents will be glad to see you.”
Simon smiles like somebody just handed him a huge present. Baz is standing behind him, grimacing. (Irritating love-triangle dynamic.) I think Simon is right; you really can see Baz’s fangs sometimes through his cheeks.
Baz clears his throat, and Simon looks back over his shoulder.
“I…,” Simon says. “Well, actually, I feel like maybe I should keep working on this numpties thing.”
Merry Morgana, does Simon actually realize that getting back together with Agatha would be a terrible idea?
“Simon.” Agatha is staring hard at him, but I’m not sure what she means by it. I don’t think she wants to get back together either. She’s probably just tired, and tired of ignoring each other.