I didn’t have time to contemplate any of it, though. Practice was not going well.
The team’s focus was all over the place—certainly not on the field. We had a big game Friday, and my patience was wearing thin. More than once, I had to step back and take a breath to keep from laying into one of the kids. As it was, they’d already spent a good portion of practice running laps.
None of us were in a good mood.
“Hey, Coach,” Coach Lewis called.
I whirled around and opened my mouth to snap at him. Not that he’d done anything wrong. My fuse was just short.
“Yeah?” I managed.
“Someone’s here asking for you. He’s out front.”
“Who?”
“Says his name is Sean.”
Sean? What the fuck did that guy want?
I nodded in acknowledgment and yelled at the team to get back on the field and run the last play again.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to Coach Lewis. “Don’t let them keep messing around.”
“No problem.”
I walked around the side of the building and through the opening in the fence. Sure enough, there was Sean, dressed in a dark coat and jeans with a gray hat on his head.
“Sorry to bug you at work,” he said as I approached.
I crossed my arms. “What do you want?”
He held his hands up. “I’m not here to cause trouble. There’s something I thought Penelope should know, but I figured it would be best if I didn’t contact her directly.”
“What is it?”
“It’s probably nothing, but I noticed a car on the street in front of the house a couple times. Seemed weird. It’s not one of the neighbors, you know? So the other day, I went out there and looked. I recognized the lady. It was that painter guy’s wife. The one who died.”
“Morris?”
“Yeah. His wife. Kinda looks like a skeleton. It’s why I remembered who she was.”
Gina Morris did have a bit of a skeletal face.
“So, you think you saw Edwin Morris’s wife outside your house?”
“A couple times at least. Maybe three.”
“Why do you think that has anything to do with Penelope?”
He shrugged. “Maybe it doesn’t. But she knew them, at least a little. No idea why that woman would be looking for Penelope, but I couldn’t think of any other reason she’d be parked on my street, sitting in her car.”
Thatwasweird.
“That’s all she did? She didn’t come up to the house or anything?”
“Not while I was there. She never came to the door. Just sat out there. I thought maybe she was looking for Penelope and didn’t know she’d moved. But then why not come to the door and ask for her? The whole thing weirded me out, which is why I figured she should know.”
“Thanks.” I didn’t like Sean any more than I ever had, but I respected him for coming to tell me. It was the right thing to do. I stepped closer and held out my hand. “I appreciate it.”
