by Sofie Ryan
“He’s very good at internet searches,” Mr. P. said with a completely straight face.
Mac was taking Mr. P. home and dropping some of the boxes at the shop. Rose was coming with me and we had everything else.
Socrates had stayed with us, eating liver-flavored cat treats and watching us pack things up with the typical bored indifference of a cat, while Debra talked to Tim.
“Do you want us to hang around?” Mac asked.
I looked over at Debra and Tim again. Debra’s arms were folded and she’d taken a step back. She was pretty much done. “No, go ahead,” I said.
They had only been gone for a couple of minutes before Debra headed back toward Rose and me. Her shoulders were rigid, her lips pressed tightly together.
Socrates lifted his head to look at her and she reached over and stroked the top of his head.
“Are you all right?” Rose asked, gently.
Debra hesitated then nodded. “I am. Could you do me a big favor and take Socrates home with you? Please? I want to go take a second look at that apartment.”
“Of course I can,” Rose said. “Take all the time you need.”
Debra gave her a quick hug. “Thank you,” she said. She headed for the door and I watched Tim watch her. Part of me felt a little sad for him and part of me thought he should have moved on a long time ago.
We were partway home when out of the corner of my eye I saw Rose patting her pockets.
“What did you lose?” I asked, glancing over at her.
She squeezed her eyes closed for a brief second. “I left my phone behind,” she said. “I remember setting it on the table to get the carrier for Socrates and now I don’t have it.”
“Not a problem,” I said, looking for somewhere to turn around.
Rose let out a breath. “I’m sorry. I’m acting like a doddering old lady today.”
There was a small convenience store ahead on the left. I pulled in, turned and started back to the arena.
“You do not dodder,” I said. I didn’t actually know what the word meant, but it seemed to imply being old and feeble and Rose was neither. “You could text Mac for me so he knows I’m running a little late.”
“I can do that,” she said. “And I’ll call Cleveland so we can get in. He should still be there.”
Cleveland met us at the main doors into the show space. We had both cats with us. It didn’t seem like a good idea to leave them in the car.
Rose thanked him profusely. “Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said. “You probably don’t wanna know some of the places I’ve left my cell.”
My phone rang just as we stepped out onto the floor. With close to half the tables down, the space looked even larger.
“It’s Nick,” I said to Rose. “I better take this.”
She patted the side of the carrier bag slung over her shoulder. “Socrates and I will go find my phone.”
“Hi, Nick,” I said. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to be the first to tell you that the state fire marshall’s office will officially rule in the morning that the fire that killed Christine Eldridge was arson. It’s a formality, but I wanted you to know.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“We’ll find out who did this. They won’t get away with it.”
“I hope you’re right.” I heard someone call his name in the background.
“I gotta go,” he said. “And I am right. We’ll get him—or her. I hate that someone used an old lightbulb and a handful of ketchup-flavored potato chips, of all things, to end someone’s life.”
I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
I heard a voice in the background again. “Nick, what do you mean—” I didn’t get to finish the sentence.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” he said and was gone.
I stood there with a buzzing sound in my ears. An old lightbulb and a handful of ketchup-flavored potato chips. I hadn’t heard Nick wrong. I looked around for Rose, but the first person I spotted was Tim. He was folding and stacking tables on a wheeled cart. I remembered Debra mentioning that he and Christine had always helped with the takedown after a show.
Tim started the fire that killed Christine. Tim. I stared at him. I couldn’t seem to look anywhere else. As if he could somehow feel my gaze fixed on him, he turned around and looked in my direction. I should have looked away, but I didn’t.
And then something changed in his face. I saw a brief glimpse of . . . awareness. He knew I had figured it all out.
Rose was looking under a table halfway between us. I couldn’t leave her there. I started toward her even as Tim did the same. His legs were longer, but he was trying to make his movements look casual. I, on the other hand, didn’t care how frantic I looked and I was just a few feet closer than he was.
I got to Rose first and grabbed her arm. “I found it,” she said, holding up her phone.
“We have to get out of here.” I pulled her toward me.
She frowned. “Sarah, what’s going on?” she asked.
Tim closed the last of the distance between us. He seemed bigger than the last time I’d seen him. “Go ahead. Tell her what’s going on,” he said. His expression was anything but friendly.
I put Rose and Socrates behind me. “Rose is going to go now,” I said. “She doesn’t know anything.” I was surprised that my voice didn’t shake. I could feel my knees trembling.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Rose said in her best teacher voice. “One of you tell me what’s happening.”
“Just go, Rose. Please just go,” I said, keeping my eyes locked on Tim.
He was bigger, but I could charge him. He wouldn’t be expecting that and it would give Rose time to run.
Suddenly his hand darted out and he tried to grab my arm. I managed to twist out of the way and push Rose backward. It put a bit more space between us and Tim. Elvis hissed and showed his claws.
“Tim started the fire,” I said.
Rose was stunned into silence for a minute. “No,” she said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“He did it.”
“But . . . but why?” she asked. “Christine was your friend.”
He clenched his jaw. “I didn’t mean for Christine to die,” he said.
I took two more steps backward, which moved Rose back as well. If I could manage three or four more steps without him noticing I could push Rose in one direction and lead Tim off in the other.
“All I wanted to do was damage Christine’s apartment so Debra couldn’t stay there. If she just spent more time with me I know she’d love me the way I love her.” He held up one hand. “I know she said we’re just friends, but that will change if I just have time to work on her. That’s all I was trying to do when I started the fire. Christine wasn’t even supposed to be home.”
I moved us back two more steps. I knew I had to make Tim mad enough to chase me and not Rose.
“Debra isn’t going to love you,” I said. “First of all, you killed her best friend. And second, you can’t make people love you. They either do or they don’t and if they don’t you suck it up and move on.” I took one more step backward.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tim said. His body almost seemed to vibrate with suppressed anger.
“Debra doesn’t love you.” Where had everyone gone? If I screamed, would anyone hear me?
He shook his head. “That’s not true.”
“She doesn’t and she’s never going to, Tim. Just give it up!” I tried to sound disdainful instead of scared.
“No! No! No!” His voice kept getting louder each time he said the word. He pulled his hand back and in a split second of focus I knew two things: I knew he was going to hit me and I knew no one was coming to save us.
“Run!” I yelled at Rose, giving her a push to one side.
She stumbled, but she scrambled around the side of the closest table. Instead of slapping me Tim shoved me hard against the table. The edge of it cracked hard against the back of my skull as I went over and I slid to the floor like my legs had been kicked out from under me. Elvis jumped out of my arms. And Tim went after Rose.
My stomach pitched. Tiny flashes of light, like fireflies, danced around the edge of my vision.
Rose kept the table between her and Tim.
“Hurting Sarah and me won’t help anything,” she said to him.
I struggled to get to my feet. For some reason all of a sudden the floor kept tilting down to the left. And there was blood on the table. Where had that come from?
“Christine was supposed to be in class,” Tim said stubbornly. “Every Tuesday night she goes to a class.”
“I know that,” Rose said.
How did she manage to sound so calm?
Tim hauled a hand back over his hair. “Why didn’t she just go and study at the library like a normal person?” He moved forward and Rose slipped behind another table.
Elvis was nudging my leg as though urging me to stand up. I couldn’t. It was impossible to stand up when the floor had such a dramatic slant. How were Rose and Tim managing to stay upright?
I started to crawl toward them. If Tim went after Rose again I’d sink my teeth into his leg, I decided. The idea struck me as both brilliant and hilariously funny. I had to bite the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t laugh and clue in Tim that I was coming to get him.
Tim was telling Rose about the first time he saw Debra back in high school. Rose still had a table between them. I kept crawling. As I closed the space between us, I saw that he was wearing heavy jeans and a pair of lace-up Timberland boots. How was I going to bite him?
I needed another plan. I grabbed the edge of the table closest to me and pulled myself upright. The floor seemed to wobble as though we were on a ship out at sea in a storm.
I looked around. There was a metal garbage can maybe two steps away. Elvis had jumped onto the tabletop at some point and Socrates was out of his carrier, sitting next to Rose’s elbow, fur fluffed up, tail lashing through the air. I thought I saw the cats exchange a look and wondered if maybe I had a concussion. Tim turned around, realizing that I was behind him then. Both cats launched themselves at him, claws barred, yowling.
Tim yelled, flailing his arms at them. I grabbed the lid from the garbage can and swung it with all the strength I had left. I caught him right across the back of the head. He swayed like a spindly birch tree in a windstorm and went down, unconscious. My legs gave out and I dropped to the floor, still clutching the lid of the trash can.
Rose rushed over, crouching beside me on the floor while both cats climbed on top of me.
“I took out the trash,” I said to her. That seemed even funnier than the idea of biting Tim had so I said it again.
Then I passed out.
I didn’t find out until much later what happened next. Rose called 911 and Cleveland. The latter rushed in and restrained Tim with his belt before he came to. The police came, along with Mac and Mr. P. An ambulance took me to the hospital.
It turned out I’d been right. I did have a concussion. They kept me all night. Mac slept in a chair on one side of the bed and Rose in one on the other. I woke up sometime after midnight and tried to send them home, but they wouldn’t go and I fell asleep again halfway through arguing with them.
I was trying to convince Mac to get me a cup of coffee and Rose to get me my clothes the next morning when Liz breezed in with Charlotte and Avery.
“Good morning, toots,” she said. “You’re being discharged and you’re going to stay with Charlotte.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I wanted to go home.
She pointed one finger at me. “Don’t bother wasting what little brain function you have at the moment arguing.”
“Make Rose go home and get some rest,” I said. I knew Liz was the one person who could make that happen.
“She’ll be coming home with me,” Liz said.
“I’m all right,” Rose said, pulling herself upright in her chair. She wasn’t fine. She had dark circles under her eyes and lines I’d never noticed before around her mouth.
Liz was unfazed. “Rose Jackson, I am perfectly capable of tucking you under my left arm and carrying you like a baby pig. Don’t make me prove that to everyone.”
Rose looked away first. “Fine,” she said. “There’s no need to make a fuss.”
Avery looked at me. “Did you really whack a guy with a garbage can lid?” she asked.
“Yes, she did,” Rose said. “She saved both of us—and Elvis and Socrates.”
I reached out a hand and caught one of hers, giving it a squeeze. “Rose distracted Tim and so did Socrates and Elvis. It wasn’t just me.” I suddenly realized I didn’t know where the cats were.
“Debra is looking after both of them,” Mac said as though he had read my mind or more likely the look on my face. “They’re fine.”
“How is she?” I asked.
Rose looked away for a moment. “Heartbroken,” she finally said.
The nurse came in then with my paperwork. Charlotte helped me get dressed and Mac pushed the wheelchair the nurse—and Liz—insisted I needed.
Mac reached for my hand before we pulled out of the parking lot. “I was so scared when Rose called.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. I had to swallow down the lump in my throat before I could speak.
He shook his head. “You don’t have anything to apologize for,” he said. He almost smiled. “I can’t believe you hit Tim over the head with a garbage can lid.”
I did smile. “It worked out better than my first plan probably would have.”
“Which was?”
I laid my head back against the seat. “Biting his ankle.”
He looked at me, unsure whether to laugh. “And you changed your mind because?”
“He was wearing boots.”
His eyes were suspiciously bright. He leaned over and wrapped his arms around me. “I don’t even want to think about what I would have done if anything had happened to you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I said, my head settled on his shoulder. He felt so warm. “I’ve been hanging around Rose so much, my head is as hard as hers.”
“Remind me to thank her,” he said.
It struck me there was a lot I needed to thank Rose for, too.
Mac drove me to Charlotte’s house, holding my hand all the way. Everyone else went with Liz.
When we got to Charlotte’s, Mr. P. and Jess were waiting. Jess had brought clean clothes and Elvis.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said, pulling me into a hug. “How about from now on you spend Sunday watching Netflix and eating takeout like the rest of us?”
“Thank you for taking care of Rosie,” Mr. P. said. He took hold of both of my hands and kissed my cheek.
“She took care of me, too,” I said. “We’re kind of a team.”
He smiled. “And a very good one, too.”
Mr. P. and Avery made pancakes. We all gathered around Charlotte’s dining room table to eat. I was hungry. Apparently you can work up an appetite swinging a garbage can lid and getting concussed.
“Next time Bangers and Smash are in town, you should audition,” Jess teased.
I pointed at her with my fork. “You joke,” I said, “but I had a certain finesse with that garbage can lid.”
Every time I even looked for something Avery jumped to her feet. She brought me another pancake and a second cup of coffee and syrup and a fork after I dropped mine.
“You don’t have to wait on me,” I said.
To my surprise, she flung her arms around me. “Thank you for saving Rose,” she whispered against my hair, “and thank you fo
r saving you.”
After we’d eaten, Liz looked around the table. “Go home,” she said. “All of you.” She fixed her gaze on Mac. “Including you. Because if you’re here Sarah will stay up making gooey eyes at you. Plus you look like hell.”
Mac kissed me in front of everyone. “I’ll be back,” he said.
“Love you,” Jess mouthed, and went with him.
Mr. P. gave my arm a squeeze.
Rose took my face in her hands. “I am so glad you’re in the world,” she said softly.
“Back at you,” I said.
Avery was already in the kitchen, likely doing the dishes on her grandmother’s instructions. Charlotte had just gotten Elvis a second bowl of what looked like chopped roast beef.
“Whatever you need, just say the word,” Liz said.
I nodded very aware of how much love there was around me.
“Wagons ho,” she said to Rose and Mr. P. Then she looked back over her shoulder at me. “Love you.”
I grinned at her. “Yeah, yeah, everybody does,” I said.
Chapter 21
Debra and Socrates came to see me after lunch. Socrates climbed onto my lap and nudged my hand with his head. I scratched behind his right ear. “You were fantastic,” I told him.
“Mrrr,” he said, then started to purr.
“I’m so sorry,” Debra said. Her eyes were red and her voice was raspy.
I shook my head. “No. None of this is your fault. Not what happened to Rose and me and the furballs, and not what happened to Christine.”
“If I’d made it clear to Tim a lot sooner that I didn’t feel about him the way he felt about me, none of this would have happened.”
Having seen the man’s obsessiveness up close I didn’t believe that. I put my hand on her arm. “Don’t do that,” I said. “Don’t pick up other people’s stuff. You have enough of your own to carry around. The only one responsible for what Tim did is Tim.”
* * *
* * *
A few days later, everyone arrived for Thanksgiving. Gram was in charge of the meal, but we gathered at Charlotte’s because there was more room.