“Oh, you!” Starr said and flapped her hand once at Laura. “Are you hungry, Melissa?”
“No, ma’am.”
Starr studied Melissa’s face. “Hmm. I guess it’s hard to eat when your stomach is doing flippity-flops of uncertainty and you’re trying to figure out if what you’ve done makes you a bad person or if you are a good person just doing bad things.” Starr closed one eye and glared harder. “You have a dark, dark cloud over your head, little one.”
“Fucksticks! You were telling the truth!” Laura slapped her thigh. “She was telling me about all these people she killed, but I didn’t believe—”
“Zsa, zsa, zsa! Shh! Give me a minute of quiet. Let me see …” Starr brushed Melissa’s hair behind her ear and leaned in, like a doctor doing an eye exam.
Anya appeared behind Starr—her upper body to one side s
