Fear Thy Neighbor (74)

She had a thousand questions, the uppermost being: Who the hell took her last night, and why?

Dozing off, Ali startled when she heard someone banging on the door.

“You okay in there, kid?” Tammy called out.

“Yeah, hang on,” she said. “Be right there.” She should’ve given Tammy the code before she left, but she hadn’t thought to do so. Easing out of the tub, she limped to unlock the front door.

“Dang, you scared the beejeezers outta me when you didn’t answer my knock,” Tammy said, both arms full of shopping bags from Publix.

“Sorry. I drifted off in the bath.” She laughed. “I’ve got no other place to lay down.”

“I’ve got some beach chairs in the trunk of my car. I’m gonna bring them in as soon as I get these groceries put away.” Tammy took charge, and Ali let her. She really trusted her. She’d proven to be a decent woman, very caring, and Ali would not let her kindness go unrewarded.

“I can’t thank you enough for doing this,” she said. She thought back to all those years ago, when she’d met Violet on the bus going to Atlanta, and tears filled her eyes. She thought about Violet’s kindness, and what it had cost her.





Chapter Nineteen


“Thought you’d lost me, didn’t ya?” he said, closing the hospital room door, then sliding a chair underneath the door handle.

“Get out of here before I scream!” Alison said. “I’ll call the nurse, and they’ll call the cops!”

“I don’t care. Do whatever you want! See what you did to me?” He pointed to the bloody gauze on his neck. “You’re gonna pay for this. You’re lucky I didn’t bleed to death. If Dad hadn’t found me and doctored me up, I’d be six feet under, and it’d be all your fault. You’re gonna be locked up for attempted murder!” His shrill laughter sounded more like a girl than a nineteen-year-old guy.

“I wish I had killed you!” she shouted as loud as she could. The drugs in her system slowed her thinking, but she knew she had to get out of here before he actually finished what he’d been trying to start ever since she came to live with the Robertsons. He was their biological son, dirty-minded and dumb. He couldn’t add two and two if his life depended on it. Alison called him an idiot every chance she got, and for this, he decided she should pay for her words with her virginity. She’d managed to fight him off, but the stupid idiot didn’t give up easily.

He laughed again. “Dad’s at the police station now filing charges against you. I can’t wait to see your skank ass locked up for the rest of your life. You think you’re better than the rest of us, don’t ya?” He walked over to her bed. She inched as far away from him as she could without falling out of the hospital bed.

“I am better than you and your trashy family. I hate all of you!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, adrenaline giving her more strength than she’d had a few short seconds ago. She jumped down, nothing but the bed between them.

“We’ll see about that,” he said before jumping on the bed, then jumping off on the same side. She screamed as loud as she could.

“Alison, dear, I’m here. Open the door,” said Violet from the other side of the door. “I’ve brought clothes for tomorrow.”

“He’s here! Call security!” Alison yelled at the top of her lungs.

Forcing her against the wall, he yanked her hospital gown off in one swift motion. Naked except for the cast on her arm, she tried to cover herself with her one good hand. He looked at her as though she were nothing more than a piece of meat.

The door flew open. Violet ran toward him, trying to pull him away from her. He tossed her aside, her head slamming against the hard tile floor.

Alison screamed as loud as she could. She was unsure how long it took for security to find her. When they swarmed her room, he tried to run.

“Don’t move,” said one of the members of the security team. In a matter of minutes, Roy Lee Robertson was handcuffed, then led out of the room by security. Alison crawled across the floor to where Violet lay, blood pooled behind her head. Alison wrapped her one good arm around her, feeling the life leave her body.

Wanting to die with Violet, she screamed until a team of doctors gave her a shot to knock her out.

Two days later, still in the hospital in a state of semi-shock, Alison was able to tell the police what had happened—all of it. What had led her to leave the foster home, and the worst part of all, how much Violet had done to help her. And now Violet was dead.

The only bright light in this dark ending was that Roy would be locked up for a very, very long time.





Chapter Twenty


“It’s all good, kid. I’m just glad I was there to help. No telling what woulda happened if you didn’t have the guts to crawl outta that horror hotel.” Tammy opened Ali’s fridge, then stepped back. “I’m gonna wipe this down before I put anything inside,” she said.

Ali managed to get the disinfectant and a roll of paper towels, handing them to her one at a time. As Tammy wiped down the inside of the freezer, she told her about the fish guts someone had left.

“That’s the sign of the killing bucket.” Tammy stopped and turned to face her.

“What?”