“I thought it was boarded up after the whole guy getting murdered in there?” Jasmine said.
“I didn’t get to that page of the To-Do list yet, okay?” Nick snapped.
Brian rolled over and knocked on the wall. “Tommy? Are you in there?”
There was a beat of silence and then a faint, “No.”
Sesame stepped up to the wall. “Tommy Hemsworth, you get your handsome behind out here right now!”
“Sesame? Is that you?” Tommy called back.
“Ofcourseit’s me! What are you doing hiding in the walls?”
Nick opened the dining room door just as the hutch in the hallway swung open. Tommy emerged, still wearing his pajamas from the previous day. He had a sloppy homemade bandage made out of some kind of silky white material with what looked like little skulls wrapped around his forehead.
“I knew it wasn’t a ghost!” Jasmine said. She slapped Kellen in the chest, and he doubled over on a groan. “Oh, right. I keep forgetting about your ribs.”
“I didn’t know where else to go. Nick and Riley said you didn’t go shopping, and then Gunther showed up here with a finger.”
Sesame gasped. “Gunther was here?”
Josie sidled up next to Riley. “I’m assuming Gunther is the goon?”
“I panicked and climbed out the bathroom window,” Tommy continued, taking his wife’s hands. “I wanted to call you, but my phone was here, and I didn’t have your number memorized. So I hid next door on the third floor, but it was so cold. Plus, I got hit in the head with a couple of roof tiles, so I ended up sneaking back over here to hide.”
“Is that ladies’ underwear on your head?” Josie asked.
“I thought it looked familiar. Mrs. Penny has a pair just like that,” Riley said.
“I needed a bandage, and it was the only thing I could find that would stay put,” Tommy explained.
“Was that you crawling on my bed while I slept?” Jasmine demanded.
“No, I swear! I stayed in the secret passageway the whole time. Except for when I needed to go to the bathroom or make a snack.”
“I really need to install that security system,” Nick muttered.
“You poor thing,” Sesame crooned to her husband. Then her shoulders went tense. “Did you say Gunther brought afinger?”
Tommy nodded vigorously. “I think it was Wilson’s.”
“Oh no! What’s he going to do with only nine fingers?”
“Nothing, seeing as he’s dead,” Kellen snapped.
Sesame’s face drained of color. “W-What do you mean dead?”
“I saw it. Aunt Lurlene and Uncle Royce. They shot him. I didn’t want to tell you,” Tommy admitted. “I didn’t want you to be an accessory after the fact.”
“That’s when you followed me here?” she asked.
He nodded vigorously. “I was already going to tell them that I was going after you. But when I walked in and saw what they’d done, I realized you were right. I was an idiot. I should have listened to you.”
“No,Iwas the idiot. I didn’t trust them after I told them about the initial results from the trial. I should have made you come with me,” Sesame said.
“Not to break up this touching moment,” Kellen said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “but you both knew the murder victimandyou know the man who delivered part of his body to threaten you?”
They nodded.
