“Your life, guys you dated, people you work with. I need to get a sense of your routine and start compiling a list of possible suspects. And I’ll need a detailed account of what led up to you running.” He reaches over and brushes his knuckle across my cheek. “And you’re too tired to do that now, so just close your eyes, sweetheart. We’ll talk when you wake up.”
“I’m not too tired to tell you my routine because it’s exactly that. I wake up, go to work, and come home. Although now, I don’t have a work to go to, because I got fired.”
“Why did you get fired?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, embarrassed. “I’ve been losing sleep and having panic attacks, and my work was affected by it.”
“What did you do for work? Did you end up being a nurse like you wanted?”
“No. I’m a CNA.”
“What’s that?”
“A certified nursing assistant. I actually love what I do…or did, working in a nursing home.”
“So what happened?”
He makes it seem like I have his full attention, even though he’s driving and focusing on the road. He always made me feel like what I said mattered…like I mattered. “I missed a shift because I overslept once. Another time I thought I was being followed, so I drove around until I the car behind me was gone,but then I got stuck behind a train and was late. Stuff like that.” I shrug, not sure how to explain the rest.
“And…? What aren’t you telling me?”
“One of my patients has a grandson, his name is Vito. He creeped me out and I tried to stay away from him when he was visiting, which was like, all the time. One of the other aides complained about it and I got written up. That on top of the other stuff is what got me fired last week.”
“That’s bullshit. If someone is making you uncomfortable, you shouldn’t be forced to be around them, Annie. Did you tell your boss about him?”
I twist the ring on my finger. “Yeah, but again, it was just a feeling. He didn’tdoanything threatening. I’d catch him staring, and he’d get super close to me when he talked. He’d bring me and his grandma lunch at least two times a week. She would ask me to eat with them and she was so sweet and I didn’t want to upset her, so I’d sit with them. It was weird and gave me a bad vibe, But like the cops, there was nothing my boss could do without some kind of proof Vito was actually harassing me.”
“That is harassment.”
I’m not going to argue with him about semantics. “So last night, my co-worker who is also a friend, asked me to meet her at a club for a drink. She was upset I was fired, and I normally don’t go out, but I did because I was upset, too. It was stupid, though.”
“Why was it stupid to go out with your friend?”
“Well, because of the…stalker, or whatever.”
Ben scoffs. “It’s not stupid to want to live your life, Annie.”
Joan Wick meows her deep, troubled meow because she hates being in the car. I reach behind me and scratch her nose though one of the holes in her carrier to calm her down.
“So last night you met your friend at a club. What happened that made you run?”
I sigh and face forward. Then close my eyes and tell him everything as it plays out in my head…
I was dancing, my hands in the air, giggling a tipsy giggle, finally having fun for the first time in years. It was amazing. But then that chilling paranoia iced over my pebbled flesh and froze me to the spot. Eyes were on me, I could tell. I felt them all the way across the club. And then it wasn’t imaginary because a pair of hands encircled my waist.
I spun around, and without even looking to see who it was, I shoved them away. Vito, of all people, held his hands up and raised his voice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
We were the same height, so I was looking right into his bloodshot eyes. How long was he here? Was he the one watching me? “Um, hi,” I said, annoyed.
He tucked some greasy hair behind his ears and scratched the back of his head. The black lights made the dandruff glow as it landed on his shoulders like a dusting of snow. “I was hoping I could talk to you for a minute.”
Shari sidled up next to me. “Vito?”
“Yeah. Hi.” He shifted side to side. If I hadn’t seen him do that multiple times before, I’d have thought he was acting suspicious, but that was his normal creepy. “I apologize for interrupting, but I just want to talk to Annie.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t until I saw you just now.” Someone bumped into him, and he gritted his teeth. “Look, it’ll just be a minute. It’s about my grandma. Please.”
