43 - Mysteries//Lea

"Shut up," Lea said.

"Excuse me?" Alejandra shouted.

"I said, shut up," Lea repeated. "Unless you're blind, I think you can tell that nobody in this room wants to leave Paradox City to some crazy old lady because of something we did."

"We need to come up with a plan," she continued. "And we can't do that with you screaming at us to leave every five seconds."

"That's right," Paxton agreed. "With sixty hours for the seal to break, we can surely manage something."

"Right," Nora said, standing taller.

"Agreed," Navy said.

"Fine," Alejandra said fiercely. "Play with your lives, but I'm not staying for this."

"Nora," she said, kneeling slightly so she was at eye-level with her younger sister. "I'm going to get our grandfather. I'll be back for you in a day, then we're leaving."

"I'm not leaving," Nora said defiantly.

"We'll see about that," Alejandra said. She stood up straight, gave them all a bitter look, and quickly left the house.

"Good riddance," Navy said.

"Of course you would think that," Paxton said, clutching the Mooar Shee closer.

"We were hardly getting anywhere with her jutting in every two seconds," Deanney said, looking to Lea for support.

"She's right," Lea said. "Now Paxton, we need to know if the Mooar Shee has anything on stopping the Witch Maiden."

"I don't think there's anything in here that's cut out that crystal clear," he admitted. "Though if we read between the lines, there's bound to be something."

"Can you find it?" Nora asked.

"I can translate and do math," Paxton said. "But I don't have much in terms of analytical skills."

"That's easy enough to solve!" Deanney said, almost jovial. "Navy will help you."

"What?" both Paxton and Navy exclaimed.

"Next to his whackjob boss, Navy is the most devious strategist in all of Paradox City. I'd help out myself, but I still feel like I got hit by a truck," Deanney said. "I need to take some pills, then a nap."

"Ditto," Waco said, leading the woman upstairs.

As he did, he turned back to look at Lea and gave her a wistful look. All she could do was nod back, hoping that the next time they saw each other they would have a solution.

-HEIST_OFF-

"Do you know why I became the Marigold Phantom?" Deanney asked nobody in particular once she'd sorted herself out. "Why I was so keen on Nora's case from the moment Mr. Foley called me?"

Night had crept up on them, but nobody looked sleepy. They were all on edge, waiting for Paxton or Navy to emerge from the study with a clear-cut solution.

In the meantime, Nora had settled in her spot on the couch, watching the news. Though it was night, the pure darkness of the Witch Maiden's seal swirled around in juxtaposition to the sky behind it. It was actually darker than night itself.

With Nora occupied and Deanney not willing to speak, Lea found herself thinking about the strange sounds she'd been hearing ever since she'd come into contact with the Noiz.

It wasn't just the music she heard as it synched with her, they all heard that. It was the subtle sounds she heard as her friend's Volume went up, or the subtle nuances she heard in the loud drone of the Noiz's ascent.

She was glad that Deanney had changed her mind and started up a conversation, because thinking about everything that had happened was driving her crazy.

"No," Nora answered. She lowered the volume on the TV but her eyes never left the screen.

"It's the whole reason I wanted to become a private investigator," Deanney said. "I wanted to find out the mystery of Paradox City, why my father's ice cream always tasted different from what it was supposed to."

"Really?" Nora asked incredulously, finally giving Deanney her full attention.

"Yes, really," Deanney said. "My father said it was okay, but I couldn't let it go. From that, I came to love mysteries."

"I couldn't imagine that it was all because of that yellow lucky charm he kept on his desk," Deanney said. "The yellow Noiz, sitting there all along."

"I can't believe it was something that simple," Lea said. "Lacombe's Creamery has been a part of Paradox City for so long."

"So when Navy showed me Paxton making the purple Noizmaker, I knew I could make my own," she explained. "I was going to take the rest of them from Mick, use them to make Paradox City normal."

"Why?" Lea asked, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Yeah," Navy agreed as he walked in alongside Paxton. "Why?"

"Exactly," Deanney said. "When I was fighting Mick, I had the strangest thought; 'this is the sort of thing that can only happen in Paradox City'. It made me realize that was why my father was okay with his weird ice cream."

"Now, we have to save it," Deanney said. "So it can be even weirder in the future."

"I think that sums up all of our feelings perfectly," Navy said. "Though I should mention that he is still the mayor and therefore Mr. Foley to you."

"The greatest leader on Earth, how could we forget," Paxton said derisively.

"Paxton!" Nora said, pratically leaping off the couch. Lea quickly darted to her side, more worried than excited. "Did you find something?"

"Define 'something'," Navy said.