“Tea would be lovely,” I said.
Once in the kitchen, I took a seat at the breakfast room table. I had so many questions, but I wasn’t going to ask them. At least not yet.
How the heck could I not know that Abi had some kind of check-your-locks OCD?
You haven’t told them about not having a college degree.
Sure, but not having a college degree didn’t make me do something visible like check all the windows and locks when I returned home. I needed to change the subject, maybe ease into whatever had just happened. “I can’t believe how sexist that whole interview was.”
“Sexist?” asked Abi.
“Yes! She focused on Parker and Mitch! It was supposed to be an interview about the Mom Scouts, but she kept badgering me about Parker and then showed that video of Mitch, too. A GoFundMe? What is wrong with that man?”
“Oh, that,” Abi said absently.
“You don’t remember any of it, do you.”
Abi paused, her back still turned to me.
“I’m sorry I badgered you into coming with me. I had no idea that being on television would make you so uncomfortable.”
“It’s not that exactly.”
“Then what is it, Abi?”
“I don’t know. I just—” Her phone pinged, and she picked it up and texted something.
“Everything okay?”
“That’s just Zeke checking on me.”
I said nothing, waiting until Abi brought tea over. I absently dunked the bag in and out of the water even though I knew it was unnecessary. Maybe if I could manage to keep my big mouth shut, Abi would tell me what the deal was.
My tea steeped, and I had time to sip half of it before Abi spoke. “I have a hard time leaving the house, and I get really nervous when I’m away.”
I cocked my head to one side. What could she possibly mean by that? And how could she be a private investigator if she didn’t leave her house?
Abi sighed deeply. “When I was thirteen we moved to this swanky neighborhood in East Cobb. It was an early-release day at school, and I was going to stay home by myself for the first time ever. I was so excited about making macaroni and cheese and watching whatever shows I wanted to watch. I practically ran from the school entrance to our subdivision to the house, only when I got there the door was wide open. Someone had robbed our house. They took all the electronics, my dad’sgun, and my wallet. The one Mom had told me to leave behind because someone at school might steal it.”
Where was this whole story going? “That’s awful.”
Abi took a deep breath, and her eyes instinctively traveled to the alarm pad on the wall by the door that went out to the garage. “When I was in college, I thought this guy had broken into my dorm room. I came back from class early and found him eating a ham sandwich made with ingredients from my fridge. Turns out he was my suitemate’s boyfriend. I think I scared him more than he scared me, but it caused all those anxieties to bubble up again.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Abi wrapped both hands around her mug. “Remember how we moved here when the twins were one?”
“Yeah,” I said with a smile at the memory of the two beautiful babies. Dylan had been almost three, and I’d been ready to try for another baby myself.
Little did I know that would never happen.
“We moved here because someone broke into our house one day while I was at Target with the twins. I walked right in on him because I was so sleep-deprived I didn’t notice. We just stared at each other, and my life flashed before my eyes. Thank God he chose to run.Thatis the most scared I have ever been in my life. That’s why we moved here so I could be only ten minutes away from Zeke’s work. Then I installed the security system and added a few extra bells and whistles.”
“I don’t understand what that has to do with the interview,” I said.
“Vivian. I almost never leave this house.”
I thought about it, but I couldn’t even remember seeing Abi return from a grocery trip. At first Zeke had done all the shopping, but these days, Abi used a delivery service.
