by JB Lynn
The journal didn’t reveal much. In it she talked about what shows she was watching on TV, how much she missed Marlene, and how glad she was to be away from Mom. As my eyes followed her familiar handwriting, I heard her voice in my head.
“I’m not going to be crazy like her,” teenaged Darlene pledged. “I’ll love my family and take care of them forever. I won’t be like Teresa, or Aunt Loretta or Aunt Leslie, hiding in helplessness, or sex, or drugs.”
Tears burned my eyes as I read her condemnation of her family members, not because I thought her words were unduly harsh, but because they were so wise for someone who’d been so young.
“And I won’t be like Maggie or Aunt Susan, taking on responsibilities that aren’t theirs, letting the needs of others leech the life out of them.”
I closed the journal to think about that for a minute. Had I been doing this caretaking thing for a lot longer than I’d realized?
My breath caught in my throat. She’d been on-the-money with her assessments of Teresa, Loretta, Leslie, and Susan. It would make sense that she was right about me too.
A wave of hopelessness hit me.
“What?” God whispered softly in my ear. “What’s bothering you?”
“This is going to kill me,” I whispered back.
DeeDee sat up, ears perked and quivering. “Maggie die no.”
“She didn’t mean literally, you imbecile,” God groused.
“What did you mean, sugar?” Piss asked, watching me carefully with her good eye.
I shrugged.
“Maggie die no,” DeeDee repeated.
I hoped she was right.
Chapter Fourteen
In addition to bringing along my big, scary dog, I brought the know-it-all lizard and the Southern Belle cat to my meeting with Jack.
We met in the diner parking lot.
“I’ll drive,” he said.
“My car is already covered with pet hair,” I countered.
Acquiescing, he climbed into the passenger seat. God was hanging from the rearview mirror, Piss was on the small shelf that met the rear window, and DeeDee had her head stuck between the front seats.
I don’t know what Jack thought when faced with the whole menagerie because he kept his thoughts to himself. I admired his restraint.
DeeDee sniffed his leather jacket. “Rawhide?”
“It’s not a snack for you,” I warned.
Looking slightly alarmed, Jack handed me a sealed envelope. “Ready for this?”
“You bet,” I said with more conviction than I actually felt. I ripped open the envelope and read the slip of paper inside. The address it gave was in a town about forty minutes away.
My finger shook as I punched the info into my GPS system.
“You sure you don’t want me to drive?” Jack offered.
“Yes.” I said, knowing it would give me something to do.
“So,” Jack said after I’d pulled onto the highway. “I hear your parents are on quite the crime spree.”
“Spree?” I’d only heard of the cone caper.
“Well, they robbed one guy for ice cream money.”
“I heard.”
“And another for some quarters to play the claw machine.”
I shook my head. “They didn’t hurt anyone, did they?”
“Nope, but your dad has some mad skills with the claw machine. He won your mom a teddy bear on the second try.”
“How romantic,” I drawled drily. I concentrated on the road when I felt him studying me, but finally I had to ask, “Thinking the apple can’t fall far from the tree?”
“Wondering how you stayed so normal.”
Considering I talked to animals and killed for cash, I was pretty far from normal. I told him that. “I’m not normal.”
“No,” he agreed. “Exceptional.”
I glanced at him to see if he was teasing me. He appeared serious.
Swallowing hard, I glanced at the GPS wishing it would say we were closer to our destination than we actually were.
An uncomfortable silence settled in the car, but soon we arrived at the specified address supplied by his mask-wearing source. Out of habit, I parked a few doors down.
Jack raised his eyebrows at that, but didn’t comment on it. “You ready to do this?”
“I hope so?” It came out sounding like a question.
“No one’s forcing you. We can turn around right now and I can come back and check it out on my own.”
“No.” I reached for the door handle. “After all, I brought my big, scary dog.”
Together, Jack, DeeDee, and I walked up to the house. It looked normal enough. Cute even, with its white picket fence, tire swing and hearts, cut from construction paper taped to the windows.
But I was supposed to believe that it held the answer to one of the biggest mysteries of my life.
“I need you to stay quiet,” I whispered to DeeDee, grabbing her collar.
Just as I did, two little girls came running out from behind the house.
I gasped when I realized they were the twins that I’d found the picture of in my mother’s room.
They let out squeals of delight when they spotted DeeDee.
They rushed toward us.
Jack and I shared a worried look. This wasn’t how we’d imagined things going down.
“Can we pet him?” one of the girls asked.
“Can we?” the other repeated.
“Sure,” I said, “but she’s a girl.”
“What’s her name?” the girl in a pink coat asked, reaching out to stroke the top of the dog’s head.
“DeeDee,” I answered.
“DeeDee,” the girl in a purple coat repeated, petting her ear.
“Movement,” Jack said under his breath, jerking his chin in the direction of the house.
I looked up in time to see a second-floor curtain falling back into place. Someone had seen us.
“Is your mommy or daddy home?” I asked.
“Daddy,” pink coat replied.
“Does he like dogs?”
“Oh, yes,” purple coat enthused.
“Do you think he’d like to meet DeeDee too?”
The girls nodded in tandem.
For a moment, they reminded me of Marlene and Darlene at that age. So innocent. So in tune with each other. A tightness settled in my chest.
“Let’s introduce them,” Jack said, taking the lead and moving toward the house.
I followed closely behind with short jerky steps since I wouldn’t take my hand off of DeeDee’s collar. The last thing I needed her to do, especially since there were kids in the vicinity, was to make any sudden movements.
Jack was reaching for the doorbell, when the door flew open.
A medium-built man with long hair and smile lines framing his mouth stepped out. His eyes widened when he looked at me, but then he focused on his children. “Hey there. What are you up to doodlebugs?”
“We met DeeDee,” pink coat announced.
“She’s nice,” purple said.
“Well hello there, DeeDee,” the man said, lowering his hand in front of the dog so she could smell him.
“Hello,” DeeDee panted. But he couldn’t have known that.
“Aren’t you a beauty.” He stroked her fur before straightening. “Can I help you folks?” He looked at Jack while he spoke.
Jack shrugged. “We’re thinking of buying in the neighborhood and figured we’d take a look around.”
I didn’t know why he’d chosen to lie, but I decided to follow his lead. “Do you like it here?”
“It’s okay,” the man replied noncommittally without looking at me.
“Good schools?” I asked.
“They’re okay.” The man shifted his weight nervously. “Time to come inside girls.”
“Bye, DeeDee,” they said simultaneously as they ran inside.
“How’s the crime rate?” Jack pushed as the man practically slammed the door in his face.
“Maybe
he thinks we’re casing the joint,” I joked weakly.
Jack frowned. “He’s hiding something.”
“Yup.” I began walking back toward the car. “Come on.”
“That’s it?” he asked. “You came all this way and you’re just going to give up?”
“All this way?” I mocked. “It was a forty-minute drive not a thousand-mile trek against the frozen tundra.”
I let DeeDee into the backseat.
“Besides,” I continued, meeting Jack’s gaze across the top of my car. “Who said anything about giving up? I just don’t see any reason to stand in their yard and freeze. We can watch them just as well from the heated car.”
“A stakeout?” Jack asked incredulously.
“Unless you’ve got a better idea.”
“No, ma’am.”
We both got in the car, I cranked the heat, and five sets of eyes watched the house.
Less than ten minutes later my plan paid off.
A silver car pulled into the driveway. The driver got out and turned to scan the area.
I gasped.
I knew that face.
Chapter Fifteen
Even with the distance between us, I knew that handsome man.
I knew his bright blue eyes, cleft chin, and head full of wavy, chestnut hair that almost reached his shoulders.
I also knew that in that moment, I knew I wanted to kill him.
Without thinking, I threw the car into gear, gunned the accelerator, and set us on a collision course with the driver.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jack bellowed as I pressed the gas pedal to the floor.
“Getting answers,” I vowed through gritted teeth, though I doubt he heard me over the roar of the engine.
Hearing the engine, the driver turned in our direction.
I knew from his expression that he recognized my car. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t make out what he said.
“Stop!” Jack yelled, putting his foot on the dashboard as though there was some magical brake pedal hidden within. “Stop!” he screamed like someone on one of those death-defying rollercoasters, throwing his hands up to shield his face from impact.
To his credit, the driver held his ground.
I stomped on the brake, causing the tires to squeal and the car to fishtail.
Piss let out a terrified yowl that made my eardrums vibrate.
The car jerked to a stop.
Throwing it into park, I didn’t even check to see if the occupants were okay, I just jumped out of the car and ran up to the man I thought I could trust.
“You could have killed me, Maggie,” he said with a smooth smile that wobbled just a bit around the edges.
“I should kill you.” I poked at his chest hard enough that I still felt his sternum even through his down coat. “What the hell are you playing at?”
“I need you to trust me on this one, Maggie.”
“Trust you?” I shrieked. “Why the hell would I trust you?”
Hurt flickered in his gaze. “Because we’re friends?” The last word sounded uncertain, as though he knew he’d irrevocably broken any bond we might have shared.
Dimly aware that Jack and the animals had emerged from the car, I shrieked, “Friends don’t lie to friends.”
“Just calm down.” He reached for me.
And I decked him.
Just laid him out with a single punch.
Okay, maybe I didn’t knock him down or anything, but I did send him stumbling back against his car, nursing his jaw.
“I hate you, Zeke! I hate you.”
“Stop it, Maggie,” God boomed from where he sat on the cat’s back.
I turned to glare at the lizard. “He lied to me.”
“Okay,” Jack soothed, thinking I was talking to him. “But if you keep hitting him, he could have you arrested.”
“Friend?” DeeDee asked, confused.
She didn’t understand the depths of the betrayal, whatever that betrayal was, that my old friend had committed. She just knew him as someone who’d once lived at the B&B.
Zeke swayed on his feet. “I didn’t lie to you, Maggie.”
Jake grabbed my wrist as though to prevent me from taking another swing at the other man. I tried to shake him off, but he wouldn’t let go. I considered striking out at his eyes, nose, throat, or groin, but he hadn’t done anything to warrant that kind of attack.
Instead, I turned my attention back on Zeke. “What the hell are you doing here?” I pointed at the house. “And why does my mother have a picture of the two girls who live here?”
Zeke shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry, Maggie, but I can’t tell you that.”
I lunged at him, determined to wring the answers from his scrawny neck, but Jack dragged me backward. I tried to pry his fingers off my wrist.
“C’mon,” Jack protested. “Violence never solved anything.”
“That’s what you think,” I practically spat at him. “Bite him, DeeDee. Bite Jack.”
“Bite?” she snarled.
Piss, hair raised, claws flexed, she jumped between the Doberman and my captor. “Don’t you dare. Maggie's done slipped her tether and that fella is doing the right thing.”
DeeDee eyed the cat’s claws worriedly.
“You’re acting worse than Katie,” God boomed from where he sat on the cat’s back.
Someone laid on the horn of the car that Zeke had driven. The loud noise startled us all.
I tried to see who had pressed it, but the windows were tinted too dark.
I grabbed for the door handle, but heard the distinctive click of locks slipping into place.
Frustrated, I pounded on the window.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Zeke said quietly. “Hit me instead.”
He stepped close enough for me to sock him again. I pulled back my arm to punch him, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Instead, I slumped weakly against Jack.
“Never again asking you to come along for anything,” the reporter whispered in my ear, while holding me upright.
“You can’t be here,” Zeke said. “It’s not safe.”
“Safe for who?” Jack asked.
“Everyone.”
“How long have you known?” I asked Zeke.
He looked away.
“Known what?” Jack asked.
“She’s alive,” I told him. “Darlene’s alive.”
Jack’s grip on me tightened. “How can you be so sure?”
Before I could answer, the father of the twin girls burst out of the house and ran toward us, carrying a rifle.
“Now you’ve done it.” Jack yanked me closer to him. “You’re going to get us shot.”
“DeeDee, Piss, in the car,” I ordered, hoping that would protect them from the gun-wielding man.
The dog, confused enough as it was, took off for the car, but Piss stayed where she was.
“Listen, buddy,” Jack said to the man. “We don’t want any trouble. Everyone needs to just take a breath and calm down.”
“Red coats coming,” the man yelled with a crazed fervency. “Red coats coming.”
“One if by land, two if by sea!” God yelled enthusiastically.
“Listen!” The man pointed at the sky with his gun.
I wondered if he was hearing voices or something. All I heard was the distant whomping sound of a helicopter.
The man ran past us and down the road.
“Onward into battle.” God grabbed the cat’s collar and kicked her. “Giddyup!”
Instead of behaving like a noble steed, the cat shook herself, sending the lizard flying.
Landing on the ground, God moaned, “Sensitive skin.”
Jack’s grip grew slack around my wrist, as he watched the father keep running. “Somehow I don’t think that’s good.”
