I Scream, You Scream
Page 23
When Finn stepped back, he looked at me, eyes narrowed and appraising. I prayed I didn’t look as miserable as I felt.
“Emily and I met when I lived in Minneapolis,” Finn offered.
Her smile widened into an almost girlish grin. “Many years and three moves ago. Back in my wild grad school days.”
Finn held up a hand in protest. “Not that long ago. And not that wild.”
They both laughed, and I forced myself to join in. No matter how long ago they’d been together, their relationship was more recent than ours. And certainly more wild. Emily Clowper had known Finn as an adult, as a self-sufficient man, a person I’d only recently met.
I tried to find something clever to say. “How convenient that fate landed you both in the same Podunk town,” I said, then cringed. Even to my ears, my words sounded bitter. “I mean—”
A piercing scream rang through the room, echoing off the high ceiling and leaving an unnatural stillness in its wake.
Alice.
My legs were moving before my brain even finished the thought, but still I was three steps behind Bree as she sprinted across the tile floor of the atrium in her tight dress and hooker heels. I sensed movement behind me, others running toward the cry of distress, which had now settled into a keening wail.
Ahead of me, Bree took the half flight of steps from the atrium into the main body of Sinclair Hall two at a time, then disappeared through the heavy oak doors propped open for the festivities.
I took the corner onto the first floor in a blind panic and nearly fell over Bree, who’d come to a dead stop, staring in horror at the scene in the hallway.
Alice, our baby girl, stood beneath the harsh fluorescent lights, face the color of chalk, her prim white cotton dress shirt covered in blood.
1 For a more mild ginger experience, you can substitute 1½ ounces of crystallized ginger, sliced thin, for the fresh. If you use crystallized ginger, which has sugar on it, reduce the sugar in the recipe from ⅔ cup to ½ cup. If you want even more ginger heat, make the sauce the day before you serve it and refrigerate overnight.