eb93c43e214c621f9157c05b4b6a6878

“Oh?” said the young man, confused. Then he smiled. “Mrs. Gumieniak, then. And I must congratulate your husband on his good fortune.”

“I’m not married, actually,” said Sukey.

“Okay…”

“It’s Mx, actually,” said Sukey finally, seeing how uncomfortable the warden was becoming, and wanting to end his misery.

“Mix?”

“That’s right. And you are…”

“Louis de Ferr?. Mr. Louis de Ferr?. And I’m not married either.” His grin widened. “Perhaps I could take you out for a drink, Mx. Sukey?”

“I would like that,” said Sukey, much to our surprise. “Give me your number and I’ll call you.”

And while the two of them got acquainted, we decided to withdraw and lick our proverbial wounds. So far we still hadn’t really hit on anything substantial, and the case seemed as far removed from being solved as before. Or even further, now that we were running out of suspects.

Just as we reached the craft services table, where a lot of fine food was spread out for the cast and crew to fulfill their appetite, Odelia made to put away her notebook and noticed she’d accidentally grabbed a piece of paper along with it.

“Isn’t that…” I said.

“Yeah, it’s the parking ticket,” she said, glancing back to Sukey, who was still chatting with the traffic warden. “I must have grabbed it off the table when I took my notebook.”

“Cheeky,” I said.

“I should probably give this to Amalia.”

“Or you could put it in the trash,” I advised.

She nodded, and then helped herself to a cheese croissant, and us to a few pieces of chicken. I have to say I was extremely grateful, and so was Dooley. I’d developed quite an appetite since breakfast!

CHAPTER 31

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Odelia had arranged to meet Chase at the convention center where his conference was taking place, to have lunch and discuss the case. Or lack thereof.

The convention center was on the other side of town, and on the drive over, Dooley took this opportunity to grill me on a topic that had clearly puzzled him.

“Max? Why did Sukey refer to herself as Mx. Gumieniak and not Mrs. or Miss Gumieniak? Is it because she’s of mixed race?”

“No, it’s because Sukey identifies as non-binary, or so I understood them to say. So Sukey is not a man or a woman but neither.”

“But… how can a person not be a man or a woman? She looked like a woman to me.”

“Yes, but they don’t identify as a woman.”

“But… I don’t understand.”

“It is a pretty complicated subject,” I allowed. “But Sukey clearly feels they are neither, and wants to be addressed thusly.”

“They?”

“Yes, her pronoun isn’t he or she but they. So they were talking to us just now and they clearly took an interest in traffic warden Louis de Ferr?, who identifies as male.”

Dooley took this all in, and so for the next five minutes was quiet as a mouse. Then he said,“Is this like when Brutus thought he wanted to be a dog?”

“Well, something like that, I suppose.” It hadn’t taken long, though. A couple of visits to the dog park and Brutus had decided he wanted to be a cat, after all.

Dooley gave me a curious look.“So how do you think I should identify, Max? As a he or a she or a they?”

“Whatever you think feels best, Dooley.”

More hard thinking ensued, and finally he announced,“I think I like being me.”

“Then just be you, Dooley. That’s fine.”

“Are you going to be you or someone else?”

“I think I’ll be me. I feel fine the way I am.”

“Okay.” Another thought must have occurred to him, for he frowned. “So… do you think Marion is also a they? Or is she a she?”

“I think Marion is a she. Otherwise she would have told us.”

“And what about her boyfriend B?bel? Maybe he’s a they, too?”

“Let’s just wait and see, shall we?”

“I don’t want to see him—ever. Even if he is a she or a them.”

“Of course,” I said. “You don’t have to meet anyone you don’t want to, Dooley.” Though I had a feeling it would be good for him to meet Marion’s significant other. If only to get over this minor or major infatuation he was suffering from. But I decided not to mention any of that. It would only serve to upset him, and I didn’t want that.

At the convention center, Chase had already selected a table at the restaurant, a nice spot near the window, from where we had a great view of the nearby park, where people were busy walking their dogs or themselves.

“And? How did it go on set?” asked Chase the moment we’d taken a seat: the humans on chairs at the table, and Dooley and I on the windowsill.

“Okay, so I talked to Sukey Gumieniak, and they claim they had no idea that Astra was staying at the hotel.”

“They?”

“She identifies as non-binary.”

He nodded.“So you thought Sukey might have felt threatened by Astra—trying to take away her part.”

“Yeah, but they claim that wasn’t the case. Their part was safe, even if Astra would have negotiated her return to the show.”

“But if Astra was planning to return, Amalia might have felt threatened,” said Chase, “since she’s the big star now, in Astra’s absence.”

“Which is exactly what I thought, and of course Amalia doesn’t really have an alibi, and she would have known about the knife.”