“And the guy?”
Ephraim noted her flat expression as she focused on the road in front of her. “The usual. He was gorgeous, had all the right things to say to pull me in and then we moved in together. I wanted marriage, he wanted someone who’d give him space.” Ephraim could see the air quotes in her words. “When I started complaining about him being out in the evenings and spending the money I was squirreling away to take a couple of college classes, he started hitting me.”
“How long did it last?”
“I let him hit me twice. After the first time, I thought, oh it’s a fluke. The second time I packed my stuff and went to a friend’s house. The only problem was he didn’t want to break up.”
Ephraim glanced down at his clenched fists and slowly relaxed them until he was gripping his knees. She was small, too small to suffer a strike from a man who outweighed her.
“When you moved here did he follow you?”
She shook her head. “He was in prison by then.”
CHAPTER 6
They arrivedat the first house by nine that morning. Ephraim watched Sophie approach the garbage cans at the end of the driveway and start to push down bags in the overflowing can. “Hold on, I can do that.” He got the bags down far enough in the cans for the lids to close and then looked at her. “I’m helping, remember?”
She gave him the side eye before heading to the car and unlocking the trunk. As he hustled to take the large bucket of cleaning supplies from her he remembered her last comment. The old boyfriend was in prison. Due to her testimony or something else?
She unlocked the door and he followed her into the bottom floor of a two-story stilted beach house on the second row away from the shore. When he saw the front room, he stopped in his tracks. “Good Lord. What happened here?”
She laughed, “Probably a group of college friends, maybe a bachelor party.”
Every surface in the living area was covered with cans, empty bottles, and assorted junk food packages. “And the garbage can was full?”
Sophie shrugged. “Some people use these rentals as frat houses, I think. I’d be surprised if the police didn’t have to do a stop to address noise.” She walked into the kitchen space, separated from the living area by a long bar. He shoved a pizza box out of the way and leaned over the counter to look for himself. The floor had spots of dried liquid on it and the sink was full of dishes with a fly lazily buzzing around it. The bottom of the refrigerator held opened bottles of mixers, as well as beer and a couple of juices. When she opened the refrigerator freezer, Sophie laughed. “Here are all the leftovers. Pizza rolls, taquitos, cheese sticks, along with an opened bottle of tequila with about an inch of liquid inside. Yep. College guys.” She shut the refrigerator and then headed into a room off the kitchen.
One of the bedrooms had the sheets in a pile on the floor but Ephraim didn’t think it was from someone being conscientious. It looked like the person inhabiting the bed may have ended up on the floor as well. The other bedrooms, including the one holding three sets of bunk beds, had been used and would need a lot of cleaning, if the scent of vomit was any indication.
They ended the walkthrough on the patio where Sophie shook her head at the sight of a palm tree split in the middle, one huge frond touching the ground. She took a photo and sent a text to the owner of the rental. “He’ll have to get a tree guy out here to take care of that. I hope he doesn’t have to take it down.”
“What do you think happened?” Ephraim picked up the edge of the frond and looked under it. No sign of cut marks. “You think the storm did that?”
She shook her head. “There are no other signs of damage in the yard or on the house. I think somebody probably tried to climb the tree and was too heavy.” At his look of disbelief she laughed. “These guys lose every inhibition when they come on vacation. Most of the time it’s not a big deal.”
Ephraim shook his head. He’d never lost his control, even at his worst. “Okay, what’s first, boss?”
“Laundry.”
They stripped beds and gathered towels and started a load of laundry before Sophie went into a bedroom and began clearing trash from the area. Ephraim helped, flipping or turning mattresses. When Sophie offered him a pair of gloves to use when cleaning the bathroom his comment about being manly and not needing them quickly turned to “gimme” when he saw the things stuffed in the jacuzzi jets. At his expression of disgust when he left the bathroom and pronounced it ready for inspection, she laughed. “You get used to it.”
They worked well together, he noted, as he helped her make up beds using the freshly laundered and dried sheets. When his brain wanted to go on about compatibility, he started humming the army fight song to distract the thoughts.
Sophie sighed and stretched when they finished the living room. “Now for the kitchen.” She led the way to the kitchen area and started tossing items into the trash, every now and then placing something on the counter instead. Ephraim watched then made the connection. Eggs, kept. Sealed containers, kept. Unopened drinks, kept. Anything opened, she tossed.
“What will you do with the stuff on the counter?” he asked and started opening drawers to find a bag or box to load them in.
“The things I don’t want to take home I’ll donate to the food pantry. Most of the frozen items go to the youth program at my church, there’s always hungry kids in the after-school program. The rest,” she shrugged, “I leave for the next renters.”
“Like the hard liquor,” he’d noticed the unopened bottles of bourbon and gin in the small cabinet provided.
“Yep. I have a bottle of vodka at home that I use to make vanilla extract and to disinfect, if I have to, and an occasional bottle of wine. But I’m pretty much a teetotaler.”
“Don’t like the taste?” he pressed, sensing something more to it.
“Don’t like the results. My dad is an alcoholic. He hasn’t drunk in over fifteen years, but it’s still there,” she tapped the side of her head. “And my ex was also a mean drunk.”
“Gotcha.” He indicated the now full grocery bags of items. “Do I need to empty these so you can go through them?”
