by Makenzi Fisk
“Come on.” I lean over, pull the handle and shove the passenger door open.
“Yay!” Beth hops in, climbs over the seat and buckles up in back as if she does this every day.
“Whose—?” Nina is still frozen so I give her a prod.
“Well, your sister is all ready. Maybe we’ll go without you.” I reach for the door.
“Come on Neeeeena!” Beth sings out. Her short legs flutter kick the back of my seat and I elbow it, hard. She stops.
Nina meets my eyes, and then slides in. She pulls on her seat belt, stares at mine.
“Fine.” Even though I don’t see the point, I buckle up too. “Let’s go get a Slurpee!” I holler. Beth squeals in delight. I squawk the tires when I take off and she screams like she’s on a carnival ride.
I park a block away from the 7-11 and we walk to the store, Beth suspended like a pink Yo-Yo trick between us. Inside, Nina pretends she doesn’t want anything but her sister sure does. The bossy brat gives me step-by-step instructions to mix her swamp water Slurpee. Cherry, lemonade, blue raspberry - in that exact order, so that the layers are equal. Then she wants a curlicue of cola on the very top. I narrow my eyes at her. They are both watching so I have to pay with what’s left of Albert’s twenty.
We load the kid into the car with her drink and cruise the back alleys real slow so she can count trashcans. Nina looks over at me and a hint of smile curves the corner of her lips. I make sure I brush her fingers when I hand her a beer from my pack.
It’s my science experiment. It never ceases to amaze me how something so simple can make her pupils dilate like a junkie. She clutches the can in both hands and takes a polite sip but I know she will ask me to finish it. I grin at my power and she smiles back. I pop the tab on the second one for myself.
I enjoy driving, especially a big boat like this old Chrysler. In this, I’m a shark hunting the back streets for Barb’s car. It’s only a matter of time before she comes up for air and I can finish what I started.
“Is that beer?” In the back seat, Beth the brat has noticed. “Daddy says no beer for kids.” She giggles. “Except one time he let me have a sip after he hugged me really hard on his lap. I’m glad Daddy is back.”
Nina’s face pinches. I hate when she’s like this. This kid in the back will ruin our whole day with all the talk of their dad.
“If I had money, I would take her and run away,” she hisses. Fists clenched around her beer, she takes a long swallow and her nose wrinkles. She still can’t stand the taste.
I think about her problem for a minute. “I know how you can get rid of him.”
Her head snaps around on her neck and she stares at me. “What?”
I wonder if she didn’t hear me the first time so I say it louder. “I know how to get rid of him, for good.”
Nina’s eyes swivel to the kid in the back seat, who is not paying attention. “You’re not talking about—”
She’s not ready. My great idea is out of the question for now. I need a more subtle approach. “I mean, I know how to get money from him and get him to leave you alone.”
“Are you suggesting blackmail?”
“Black, green, red. Get the mail!” Beth chimes in from the back.
“Shhh!” Nina holds a finger to her lips. “Let’s talk later.” She likes the idea, I can tell. This could be a way for us both to get some extra cash. She turns around and puts on her happy face for her sister. “Let’s go to the water park!”
“I don’t have my bathing—”
“Let’s go in our clothes this time. Lots of kids do, and we’ll be dry by the time we get home. Mom won’t know.”
Frowning, Beth considers this for a moment. The excitement proves too much to handle and she smiles. “Okay. Like daddy says, it will be our little secret.”
When Nina turns her face back around, I see murderous anger in her eyes. Maybe my idea is not out of the question. When she gets mad, she’ll do anything I ask.
I pull the car into the lane opposite the big concrete and plastic water park. Beth runs across the road without looking and Nina yells after her but the kid is too fast, and too excited, to pay attention.
The park is full of soaking wet, screaming children and Beth blends right in. She skips over the spritzers and dashes past suspended water buckets seconds before they spill over.
There are no unattended purses so I veer away from the swooping gulls at the picnic tables and choose a spot outside the concrete perimeter. Nina sits on the grass beside me. Her stiff posture tells me she’s still upset. She’s going to be cranky and destroy my whole day if I don’t fix this.
“Will you clip my toenails?” I kick off one flip-flop and waggle my toes at her. “I tried but you see how that turned out.”
“What?” It’s as if I asked her to walk on the moon.
“I know you have trimmers somewhere.” I poke at her pocket. She fusses over her nails all the time and sometimes even carries fingernail polish, as if she’d be stuck on a desert island any moment with bad nails. “I’ll tell you my idea if you do it.”
“Fine.” Her eyes darken as if a cloud blocked the sun. “Go rinse your feet first. They smell like old man, and they’re dirty.” She grins at me, but her eyebrows keep their frown. I don’t know what that means, but I’m getting my nails trimmed, so what do I care? Albert is stinky. At least I get that.
I chase Beth through the sprinkler for a few minutes to wash the old man stink off. She shrieks when I make monster noises and then backs into a picnic table.
“Stop!” She holds her hand out like a school crossing guard.
I growl and dig my fingers into her ribs, to prove that stop signs won’t work on me. A gull zips between us with someone’s stolen french fry in his beak and I jerk my body out of his path. Birds have always freaked me out.
“That hurt!” The brat puts her hands on her hips and glares at me. “You’re supposed to stop when I say stop!”
“I was only tickling you.”
“You’re doing it mean!”
I make a scary face and show her my teeth before I back off. It’s the friggin’ gulls I really want to escape from. Someone left their spilled fries all over that picnic table and the birds are swarming like piranhas.
I rejoin Nina on the grass, one foot in the air to advertise clean toes. She produces a nail clipper from the pocket of her shorts, I knew she had it, and takes my heel in her hand. My skin crawls but I don’t dare move or she’ll clip off my toe.
“I hate my father so much that sometimes I think about cutting.” She does a quick visual check on Beth who has her butt positioned over a spritzer, squealing loud enough to break eardrums.
“Random.” I quip, but she’s not amused with my sarcasm.
“I’m serious. I hate him.” She twists the tiny attached file sideways from the nail clipper.
“What are you gonna do?” I laugh. “Scratch yourself to death?”
She pivots the file back in and throws it on my lap. “Finish your toes yourself.”
“Hey, j.k.” I say, and then clarify. “Just kidding. Wow, who peed in your cereal this morning?”
“My mom always takes him back. Every. Single. Time.” She takes the clipper back and finishes my nails. The last one is crooked but I let it go. “You know what he did to me. Now he’s after my baby sister.”
Beth is not really a baby any more. She’s a spoiled little shit. I’m pretty sure if I say that out loud I’ll piss Nina off so I roll onto my belly beside her. “Leave it to me. I’ll make him stop.”
“How?”
I don’t like the way she’s looking down at me so I get up and look her in the eye. “I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”
The skin around her mouth tightens.
“And don’t cut yourself. That’s stupid.” I mean it. Cutting is for pussies. I came to that conclusion after I tried it with my knife. I still have the scar on my thigh. What was the point? Why hurt yourself when what you really want to do is hurt
someone else? I’m a problem solver. It’s one of my better qualities.
Nina needs to understand how much better it feels after you get rid of your problems. I mentally tick off the ones I’m proud to have solved. One, my mother’s screaming face sinking into the bog. Two, the meddling church lady blown to hell on her back porch. I snicker. Three, nosy Gina at the Stop ’N Go.
Can I count that one since she didn’t die? Well, I bashed her head in and torched her store, so that’s close enough. My grandfather hasn’t croaked from the poison yet, but I don’t have to see him any more, so that worked too. My father is in jail forever for some shit he never even did. Then there’s Barb, my half-solved problem. Next time I burn down my problem, I’ll wait until I’m sure she’s dead before I do my victory dance. I remember Barb’s terrified eyes staring at me from the crack in her doorway and hide my smile from Nina. I don’t want her to think I’m not taking her daddy issue seriously.
“It’s just that sometimes…” she trails off.
Someone has dropped a ballpoint pen in the grass and I reach out for it with newly trimmed toes. “Here, give me your arm.” I grab her by the elbow and draw a line of skulls that look more like black spiders. She twitches when I get past her elbow but I hold firm until the line snakes from wrist to armpit. “There.”
She holds it out to examine my work and the corner of her mouth curves up. She has been sitting in the sun too long and her nose is pink under her freckles. I don’t know if she likes it or if she has heatstroke.
“Let me do you.” She whips the pen from my fingers before I can protest and draws a stylized sunburst with squiggly rays on the inside of my wrist.
She doesn’t let go and I don’t want a line of stupid sunbursts all the way up my arm. I’ll go insane before she’s done. “Where’s Beth?” I say. I can’t take any more of this touching shit today.
Her head pops up like an alarmed deer and she runs off to retrieve her sister. Beth is over by the picnic tables again, coaxing the birds with someone’s discarded french fry. Disgusting. Nina gets her to drop it and hauls her by one hand over to the shade. The kid wiggles like a minnow on a hook.
Redheads are not like me. I tan eventually but they keep on burning all summer long. Nina and her sister are sun-fried and that’s going to be their mom’s first clue that they snuck out today.
I’m doodling on the sole of Beth’s shoe when a white cruiser with lights on top and a long black stripe marked Police rolls past. It’s at the alley where I parked the car when the brake lamps glow. It backs up and the cop inside holds a microphone to his mouth. Damn. Our ride home is gone. Watching intently while I draw swirls joined to squares, Beth doesn’t see it, but Nina does.
“We have to run for it!” She jumps to her feet, dragging Beth along.
I take Beth’s other hand and pull them both back down to the grass. “Relax. They don’t know we have anything to do with it.” I roll to my side and prop my head on my hand, giving me a clear view of the action.
Beth imitates me and I’m annoyed so I change position and sit up. She does too. “Why is the policeman looking at your car, Lily?” She pokes me on the back of the hand with a chubby finger.
“Well, it wasn’t really my car.”
Nina draws in her breath and holds it. Her eyes go from me to the police car, and back again.
“It was my friend’s car and I’m done borrowing it so he is going to return it for me.” All true, except the friend part.
“Oh.” She pokes me again and I give her an elbow. She thinks I’m playing with her, but I’m just annoyed. I shove her hard and she topples onto her back. She comes up laughing, like Nina did when I shoved her in the pool. Two of a kind, they like it rough.
“It’s getting late. We’d better go.” Nina yanks Beth up so quickly her feet leave the ground. It’s probably a good thing she stops this shoving game now before the kid ends up crying. She’s no match for me. “We have to get home.”
“I’m telling mom you and Lily drank beer.” I thought the brat would have forgotten about that by now, but here she is, threatening me.
“No, you won’t,” I counter, and she puts her hands on her hips in a repeat of her earlier standoff at the picnic table. “I’ll hold you under the waterfall bucket with your mouth open.”
Nina’s round eyes stare at me as if I’m an alien.
“J.k!” I say quickly. “I’m just kidding.” I extract the roll of candy I swiped from the store and wave it in front of the brat’s face. Her eyes light up. I snatch it back before she tries to grab it. “Nah-ah! Only girls who can keep secrets get candy.”
“I really like candy.” Her stubborn duck feet point sideways.
“You have to promise not to tell or I’ll cut your eye out.”
“Lily!” Nina’s steps between us.
“I mean, cross your heart and hope to die.” I laugh like I was kidding the whole time.
“Huh?” Beth looks utterly perplexed and afraid to take anything from me. “I don’t wanna die!”
“She means pinkie swear.” Good old Nina, translating into four year old lingo. She hooks Beth’s pinkie with hers and they exchange a serious nod.
“Fine.” I mimic the serious face and hand over the candy. “Are you gonna share?”
“Nope.” The little shit skips away from me, smug in her knowledge that I won’t strangle her in front of Nina.
“We need to get home before mom wakes up for her night shift.” She’s too young for the worry lines that crease her forehead.
As far as I’m concerned, their mom is the least of their worries. It’s the dad, Mister A-1 Electrical, who needs to be taken care of. I trace the outline of the knife I carry in my pocket. I’m pretty sure I can distract him.
CHAPTER 13
“How was your meeting?” Erin was waiting on the back step for Allie when she got back. Wrong-Way Rachel glowered beside her, miserable in her kitty harness. Allie picked up the cat and ruffled the hair behind her ears.
“It went well.” Allie gave her a modest smile. She’d had a poor night’s sleep and woke with a punishing headache this morning. It had taken effort to clear her mind and focus. When she’d started her presentation, she’d sensed a room full of closed minds. Many businesses were resistant to change, especially when they didn’t understand the benefits.
She had taken her time and was thorough in explaining the technical side, using layman’s terms whenever she could. In the end, their energy changed as their minds opened to the new possibilities and she knew they were on board. This was a big contract and would be a jumpstart for her new business. She promised to outsource some of the work to local contractors, and that was the piece that had turned the presentation around.
After a catered lunch and rounds of smiles and handshakes, she tucked the signed papers into her case. She presented Erin with the bottle of de-alcoholized wine she’d bought. They could celebrate with a nice dinner later.
“I was sure you’d nail it.” Erin took the bottle. “Let’s put this in the fridge.”
She released the cat from her harness and brought her inside. Rachel disappeared immediately.
“I’m glad you feel better. I was worried this morning.” Erin pulled her into her arms and two-stepped across the kitchen. She kissed Allie on the corner of her eyebrow. “You barely slept. Did you have nightmares all night?”
“I had nightmares? I don’t remember.” Hazy images filed by in a macabre slide show. A knife. Stabbing. Slashing. Blood running dark and red across pale skin. Seagulls. Were these things in the past? A possible future? Were they happening now? She had no idea and they made no sense. Perhaps they were simply someone’s random thoughts. She had fought to push them from her mind all the way to her meeting. Now Erin was bringing them back.
“You said Lily’s name.”
“Oh?” Memories solidified. The dreams were about Lily. She was sure of it. Erin deserved to know. “I do remember something. I think Lily has a new underling. I feel hate.
Fear. I see a knife, blood, awful things.”
“Has she hurt someone?” Erin snatched the truck keys from Allie’s hand. “Do we need to go?”
“No,” Allie laid a calming hand on her arm. “There is nothing we can do right now. I think these might be Lily’s thoughts I feel, not her actions.”
Erin sat at the table and arched her neck back. “I can’t find that evil monster. After you left for your meeting, I went to the motel Barb told me about. I circled the entire neighborhood and kept an eye on the place but she’s never there.”
“But I had your truck.”
“She looked so desperate that I lent her my bike.” Leaning on the doorway, Ciara’s grin told Allie everything. She’d probably gotten fed up with Erin pacing the kitchen and told her to take the bicycle to do whatever it was she so badly needed. Allie could imagine Erin pedaling Ciara’s hipster bike as fast as it would go, her binoculars and notepad bouncing in the flower basket. Surveillance on a bicycle, despite the amusing visual image, was probably more covert than in Erin’s big truck. Erin was fit. She could ride for miles.
“You’ll find her,” Allie said. “But not today.”
Erin put a hand on her shoulder. “I understand that you don’t want to intrude, but you can’t work from the kitchen table any more. You need a real office.”
Allie nodded. “And a faster internet connection.” She turned to Ciara. “Do you mind if I have a couple of techs install fiber optic cable?”
“Yay, new holes in the wall for mice.”
“Rachel is an excellent hunter.”
Ciara’s mouth twisted sideways and she laughed. “Fine, darling. Whatever you need. The storage room across from the bathroom could be an office.” Ciara patted Allie’s hand. “It’s bigger than it looks. You’ll see, once we move that junk to the shed.”
“I’ll carry junk,” Erin volunteered. “Let’s start tomorrow.”
“It sounds like we all had busy mornings. I know I need to unwind. Why don’t we go for a walk and you two can get to know each other better?” Allie glanced from Erin to Ciara.
Fifteen minutes later, the two women nearly jogged to maintain Allie’s brutal pace. “We should go this way.” Allie marched off the paved walkway and along a narrow trail through the brush at the water’s edge.