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terrific way to get arrested. “Okay.”
    “She had a bunch of great ideas, actually,” he added, clearly warming to the subject. When had he and Tina become BFFs? They had a lot of nerve going from roommates to really close friends right in front of my eyes like that. All that time in Marc’s trunk, maybe the fumes were getting to the poor woman. “We’re still figuring stuff out, but there’s time. I mean, none of us are going anywhere.”
    “True,” I allowed. It should have been depressing, but I thought it was comforting.
    “Plus, Sinclair paid off my student loans.”
    “What?” I squawked. I wasn’t annoyed, but I was definitely surprised. Sure, Sinclair had the dough to spare, and he wasn’t miserly, but it’s not like he and Marc were especially close. Even if the answer to “why did he do that?” was “why not?” why wouldn’t he have said something? It wasn’t a secret or anything. Right? “How’d that happen? He just walked up and gave you a check?” That could have been an interesting conversation to eavesdrop on.
    “Actually I’m not sure it would ever have occurred to him,” Marc explained. “He’s a big-picture guy. Stuff like student loans slips right under his radar. But that’s exactly the kind of thing Tina keeps an eye on. She’s a details girl.”
    “She is, even if she hasn’t been a girl in over a century.”
    “Yeah, but a lady never tells . . . anyway, I’m pretty sure it was her idea and once she brought it up, Sinclair thought it was a fine plan. He’d never miss the bucks, and it must have appealed to his sense of . . . not justice, exactly. Compensation?”
    “You mean like in a ‘sorry my wife made you a zombie in a horrible dystopic future that probably won’t happen now, thanks for being such a nice guy about it, and don’t spend it all in one place’ way?”
    “Well . . .” Marc giggled a little. I loved that sound. It was such a cute, breathy noise out of a guy who was one hundred percent masculine. “Pretty much, yeah. So . . .” He pointed to the freezer. “I wanted to do something extra nice for Tina’s birthday.”
    “Her birthday!” I cried, mystery solved, and now delighted instead of startled. Sure, I hadn’t had a clue her big day was this week. And sure, that wouldn’t surprise Tina. Or anyone. But I knew when I had done wrong and was adult enough to make amends. Nothing would prevent me from making this slight up to her. Tina did so much for me and I did . . . uh . . . next to nothing for her. We needed a party! We needed a plan! We needed to remind Laura that this was about my making amends and Hell would have to wait just a bit longer until I solved Jessica’s problem and threw Tina a party and my God, this might be the greatest day of my life.
    It also answered my “wonder if Marc had to pay off his loans” question.
    “Okay. I’ll get back to that in a minute. I’ve still got to track Jessica down—”
    “I can’t believe you’re even doing that. It hasn’t been very long since the Incident.”
    I shuddered. “Don’t talk about that. Don’t even think about it.”
    “I don’t want to,” he admitted, “but it haunts me. I’m pretty sure it’s going to for a while.”
    I shook that off. This was no time to get sidetracked by something besides the thing I wanted to sidetrack me. The Incident was days in the past. If people would quit bringing it up, we could all move on.
    “ Anyway , once I get with her, then I’ll get back with you and we’ll plan the centennial of Tina’s eighteenth birthday, or whatever it is. I promise I won’t forget.” I was already headed for the door. “You can count on me!”
    Marc was staring after me. “This is as motivated to get to the bottom of mysterious happenings as I’ve ever seen you.”
    “Thanks.” In a seizure of generosity, I ignored the implication.
    “I mean, being killed didn’t do it. You still sort of stumbled around fucking things up