“I … I work for her.I’m her sitter.I take her places.When you saw me Tuesday, I was getting her dry cleaning.”
His scowl deepened.“Why are you in Madison, working as a sitter for an old lady?You were in college, getting your music degree.Why aren’t you doing something with it?”
Because my life had fallen apart, along with my family, when he killed Pirate.But he didn’t get to know all that.
“Things changed,” I said simply.
“Why are you working here?”His tone was demanding.
I wasn’t afraid of him, but Iwasafraid of the family.
“Grissele hired me.She had come to the diner I was working at and offered me the job.I didn’t know who she was.”Or I’d never have taken this job.
“When?”
“The Saturday after Thanksgiving.”
He let out a humorless laugh and shook his head.“Bastards,” he muttered.“The day before I got here.They didn’t trust me.”
He wasn’t talking to me—at least, it didn’t seem like it.
“So, she knew who I was when she came to the diner?”
He nodded.“Yeah, she knew.Grissele wouldn’t have offered this job to some stranger in a diner.This is her only living relative other than her immediate family.Her parents are dead, and Glenda is all she has left of that side of her family.You were placed here so that the family could watch you while I was in town.”He shook his head again and leaned back.
“Why are you back in Madison?”he asked me then.
I wasn’t telling him that.
“Because I needed a new start.I …” Pausing, I thought about what I was comfortable telling him because I had to give him some reason or he’d keep asking me.“It was time I moved out of my father’s house.My stepmother didn’t want me there, and I didn’t want to be there.”
“Your parents divorced?”
I stiffened.“My mother is dead.”
For a moment, there was a flicker of pain in his eyes.“I’m sorry.What happened?Was she sick?”
Yes, but not the way he meant.
“She drowned,” I told him, not wanting to give him the details.
We sat in silence for a few moments.The text from earlier today came back to me, and panic tightened my throat.
“You need to leave,” I told him.“I got a text earlier, warning me to stay away from you.I didn’t know how they had my number since it’s a phone that I only use for contact with Glenda when she needs me.But I guess that’s cleared up.”
He stood.“Where’s the phone?”he asked.
I pointed to the dresser across the room.
He immediately went over to it.“What’s the password?”
“I don’t lock it.”
He opened it up and began tapping at things and going through it.“Fuckers,” he muttered.“They’re tracking you.”
I didn’t ask who.I knew.
“It doesn’t matter.All I do is go places for Glenda.”
