Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(26)

Jenny dropped the bag of grain and walked toward Mr. Higgins, grabbing the axe from the wheelbarrow as she passed by. She marched through sawdust and shavings until she stood directly in front of him. Her hands shook as she stared him down, holding the axe in front of her chest, ready to raise the sharpened edge and strike him down if she felt the need.

Do it. Do it.

Jenny’s voice trembled as she spoke. “You think I don’t remember spending the night with your daughter, Jill, only to have you creep into the bedroom in the middle of the night so you could slide your dirty, filthy hands beneath my shirt and touch me?”

His bloated lips hung open. One of his big hands rose to them, then slowly fell to his giant barrel of a stomach. His wiry gray chest hairs curled around the buttons of his plaid shirt like the kind of weedy vines that were impossible to eradicate.

“I’m not the only one who knows what you did,” she continued. “Jill knows it, too. Why do you think your daughter moved away before she turned eighteen? She hated you. She was disgusted by her own father. I bet Bobby knows what you did, too. Probably the reason why he eats so much, anything to mask the pain . . . So he just eats and eats and eats.”

Mr. Higgins turned away and headed for the exit. His steps were slower than before and his shoulders hung low.

If you’re not going to kill him right now, at least add him to the list.

No. I’m not going to add him to the list. Sometimes living with the truth is worse than dying. “That’s right,” she called out to Mr. Higgins. “Run along now. And don’t you ever come back here again, or I will call the police and fill out a long-overdue report. I wonder what would happen if word got out? How many little girls in the neighborhood would come forth?” Jenny let the heavy end of the axe drop to her side and used her free hand to rub her chin. “I really do wonder.”

Even after Higgins left the barn, the putrid smell of him remained. She tossed the axe back into the wheelbarrow, ignored the deafening clang, and then headed through the barn door back toward the field.

She had a body to take care of and pigs to feed.





CHAPTER 18

“What’s wrong with Lizzy?” Kitally asked. “Is she going to be all right?”

Hayley followed the direction of Kitally’s gaze. Lizzy sat on the edge of a cushioned chair in the darkened living room, leaning forward as she stared out one of the many floor-to-ceiling windows. It was dark out. A couple of spotlights dotted the landscaping, shedding light on countless oak trees with crooked, outstretched branches. Beyond the oaks, grass, and mossy rocks was a creek. If you stood anywhere near the property line, you could hear the steady trickle of water.

Hayley stepped into the room with her.

“Somebody’s out there,” Lizzy said as she approached.

Hayley walked past Lizzy and stood inches from the window, peering into the night, trying to see what Lizzy saw, figuring it was most likely Lizzy’s imagination getting the best of her again. This wasn’t the first time she’d caught Lizzy staring into the darkness. And it wouldn’t be the last.

“I don’t see anything.”

“To the right of the biggest rock. I can see the faint outline of his head and shoulders.”

Kitally joined them. “What are you guys looking at?”

“Lizzy thinks she sees someone out there.”

“I don’t think I see anything. He’s right there, mocking me.”

“Who is it?” Kitally asked.

“I’m not sure, but I’ve had enough. I’m going to find out.” Lizzy pushed herself from the chair.

Kitally followed her to the French doors leading to the backyard. She glanced back at Hayley, who merely shrugged.

Hayley watched the two of them walk outside and make their way across the grass toward the back of the property until they separated and slipped into the trees and she could no longer see them at all.

The moonlight against the trees tricked her, making shadows out of air.

And then she saw it—an undeniable flash of movement in the trees between the points at which Lizzy and Kitally had entered the woods.

She stood still, unblinking, daring whatever it was to move again. Somebody or something was out there.

And then it did move. It was a man, openly skirting the edge of the trees for a moment and then taking off into them.

She ran for the open door.

She was halfway across the grass when Kitally burst from the woods.

“Did you see him?” Kitally asked. “I thought he went this way.”

“Where’s Lizzy?”

They looked at one another. They both knew: she’d gone off after him on her own.

Shit. Hayley charged into the woods with Kitally on her heels. They weren’t as impenetrably dark as they’d seemed from the house, but they were plenty dark enough. She tripped over something, caught herself, then nearly fell again before finding a trail that weaved through the trees along the creek. Then, after maybe half a minute, the two of them popped out of the woods and there was Lizzy, standing in the middle of the street with her hands on her knees, breathing hard.

“Which way did he go?” Hayley asked.

Lizzy pointed into the utter blackness of the denser wooded area across the street.

“What was he doing out there?” Kitally panted.