Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(27)

“He was watching me.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Since I moved in. He was watching me at Cathy’s house, too.”

“What about before?” Hayley didn’t elaborate. Everyone in their little circle knew what that meant—before the shooting or after the shooting. It was all still too raw for there to be anything else.

Unsure if Lizzy had heard her, she reworded the question, “How long has he been watching you?”

“I think forever.”




Lizzy didn’t want to call the police, and she didn’t want to talk about it. But she damn well refused to put Kitally and Hayley in danger, too. Packing my things is becoming an all too familiar event, she thought as she scrambled around the bedroom, gathering her belongings into one big pile in the middle of the bed.

“Please don’t leave,” Kitally said for the tenth time.

Lizzy shoved everything into the suitcase and zipped it shut. “Don’t you get it, Kitally?”

“No, I guess I don’t. Everything has been so much better since you’ve been staying with us. It feels like a family, living here with you guys. I like it.”

Lizzy walked into the bathroom, gathered her toiletries into a pile on the sink, and then came back into the bedroom and looked around for something to put it all in. “I never said I was going to be staying indefinitely. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” she muttered as she searched through the closet for her backpack.

Once that was done, Lizzy exited the closet and found one very dejected young woman standing marooned in the middle of the room. She walked over to Kitally and placed her hands on her shoulders. “Kitally, listen to me. You don’t understand. I can’t put your life in danger. I just can’t do it. If something happened to you because of my living here . . . how am I supposed to live with that?”

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand,” Kitally said. “We need each other. All three of us need each other. God forbid, not forever, but now. Right now.” She took a deep breath, then released it. “You could leave,” she went on. “Hayley could leave, too. I could get hit by a car tomorrow and die. We all know shit happens. But what good would your leaving have done me then?”

Lizzy dropped her hands from Kitally’s shoulders.

“And what about Hayley?” Kitally asked. “She’s been out trolling the streets of Sacramento every night since Jared was kill—” She stopped herself midsentence.

Lizzy moved to the window. “His sister believes he’s going to make it,” Lizzy said.

“What about you? What do you believe?”

“I know what needs to be done. At least I thought I did. His sister and his parents are hanging on tight to the belief that Jared will make it . . . They still have hope.” Lizzy put a hand to her chest. “What if they’re right? Maybe I just haven’t hung on to enough hope to bring him back.”

“Hopes and prayers are important, but they don’t bring people back to life.”

Lizzy peered out into a vast expanse of nothingness. And that’s exactly what she felt. Nothing. She felt nothing. Not scared. Not sad. Not anything. Her therapist was right. Something was wrong with her.

She was defective. Broken.

She was surprised when she realized Kitally was still talking.

“And then you moved in,” Kitally was saying, trying to sound cheerful. “Since then, Hayley’s been sticking around more. I think it’s because she’s worried about you.” Kitally laughed. “Imagine that? Hayley Hansen worried about another human being? It defies logic and understanding. And yet it’s true. I’ve seen it, and I know you’ve seen it. You can’t leave us. Not yet. Certainly not tonight.”

Lizzy expelled a breath as she turned back toward Kitally.

“If we split up,” Kitally went on, “we’re all more vulnerable. If you’re really concerned about my well-being, you’ll stay. I’m not saying that you need to protect me, but we’re all better off with each other.”

“I’ll stay for now,” Lizzy told her. “But you, young lady, better watch your back, because if something happens to you under my watch, I’m gonna be pissed.”





CHAPTER 19

The next morning, Lizzy poured herself a cup of coffee and then took a seat at the kitchen table, where she’d already placed her notebook. Hayley was hunting for leftovers in the refrigerator while Kitally stood at the stove, whipping up omelets for anyone interested.

“We’ve got another case,” Lizzy announced.

“Another workers’ comp case?” Kitally asked.

Lizzy shook her head. “Our first missing dog case.”

“Seriously? Someone wants to pay you to find their dog?”

Lizzy nodded. “It’s a purebred. A pug.”

Hayley grunted.

“I can do it,” Kitally said. “I just sent in the completed file for that Baxter woman with the supposedly debilitating back and neck injuries from her spill in the ladies’ room. I got some great pictures of her jumping her horse.”

“Good job,” Lizzy said. “All the information you need to get started on the missing dog case is in the office under PUG. The woman is frantic and she’s convinced that someone took him right out of her backyard. She said he’s an indoor dog that never leaves her sight except to do his business in the yard once in the morning and once at night. If that’s true, then whoever it was had a very short time frame in which to take the dog.”