The Inmate (34)

“All right,” Tim says. “Let’s do this.” He looks down at Josh, who is watching him with big eyes. “I don’t know if I can handle this by myself. Do you think you could help me?”

“Yeah!”

He seems even more excited about fixing the sink than he was about cookies.

_____



I spend the first five minutes watching Tim and Josh anxiously, but then I realize how boring it is to watch two people fix a sink, so I go to the living room to read. There’s a lot of loud banging and intermittent running water, and at one point, I swear I hear both of them laughing.

About an hour later, Tim comes out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on his blue jeans. Josh follows a second later. “Mom, we fixed it! Mr. Reese fixed the sink!”

Tim’s face breaks into a smile. “Actually, Josh here did most of the work. I was just sort of watching.”

“And you helped me tighten that bolt.”

“That’s true. I did do that.”

Josh beams at Tim. “Now you can fix the doorknob upstairs that keeps falling off. And I’ll help.”

Tim’s smile falters. “Uh, well…”

I stand up from the couch. “Josh, Mr. Reese is too busy to fix everything in our house. And it’s getting late.”

Josh’s face falls. He looks like someone told him his dog just died. “Oh.”

“But I can come by tomorrow,” Tim adds. “I mean, if it’s okay with your mom.”

“It’s okay with me.” My eyes meet Tim’s. “If it’s okay with you.”

“It’s okay with me.”

Josh looks between the two of us, his face scrunched up. “So… are we fixing the doorknob?”

“Sure,” Tim says. “Tomorrow, okay?”

I send Josh off to get ready for bed while I walk Tim to the door. I honestly didn’t think I was going to see him again after the talk we had. But now it seems almost forgotten. Although I’m sure Tim hasn’t forgotten.

We pause as Tim steps outside. “Thanks for doing that,” I say.

“No problem.” He looks at me for a moment, contemplating what to say next. “You were right, Brooke.”

“I was? About what?”

“He is a good kid.”

With those words, Tim turns around and starts on the path back to his own house.





Chapter 23


ELEVEN YEARS EARLIER




I jerk awake. My eyes fly open, and it takes me a second to remember where I am. I am at Shane’s house, and he’s lying in bed beside me, still breathing deeply. But I heard something. A scream. I’m sure of it.

I look down at my watch. It’s three in the morning.

“Shane.” I shake his bare shoulder until his eyes crack open. “I heard something.”

“Huh?” He rubs his eyes with the back of his hand. “What’s wrong?”

“There was a—”

And then we hear it again. A bloodcurdling scream, except this time I can clearly make out a word being screamed:

“Brooke!”

Shane sits up straight in bed, suddenly as wide awake as I feel. He throws his legs over the side of the bed, and he jumps into his pair of baggy blue jeans. He throws a T-shirt over his head, while I’m struggling with my skinny jeans. He is still in his socks when he reaches for the bedroom door.

“Where are you going?” I ask anxiously.

His gaze darts down to the doorknob. “Somebody was screaming downstairs. I need to check it out.”

“Not without me.”

There is no way he is leaving me alone in this room. I button up my jeans and toss on my sweater.

“You should stay up here,” Shane says. “It might not be safe.”

“I want to come.”

Shane opens his mouth to protest again, but the words are drowned out by another scream:

“Brooke!”

We get out of the room and run into Kayla and Tim at the top of the stairs. They both look like they’ve thrown on their clothes as hastily as we did. I wonder what they’ve been doing in there. Hopefully, mostly sleeping.

“You heard that?” Tim asks. Kayla is clinging to his arm.

Shane nods solemnly. We all look downstairs, and even from the second floor, we can see that the front door is wide open. Droplets of rain are dampening the carpet right inside the door.

“Chelsea,” I murmur.

It had to have been Chelsea who screamed. Because it wasn’t Kayla and it wasn’t me, so Chelsea is the only one left. But why would she call my name? Why wouldn’t she call for Brandon if something was wrong? Unless…

If Brandon did anything to hurt her, I’m going to kill him.

Shane starts down the stairs first, taking them two at a time. Tim goes next, and I’m third. Kayla hangs behind, a distant fourth. I don’t blame her. She’s not great friends with any of us, and if there’s trouble, she probably doesn’t want to get involved.

Shane reaches the front door first. He hangs onto the door frame, leaning out onto the small porch. Then he sees something that makes his eyes go wide, and he takes a step back.

And then I hear sobbing.

Tim gets out onto the porch second. He reacts much the same way Shane did. By this point, I am frantic to find out what’s going on. I nearly trip over my feet getting to the front door. And then when I get outside…