Every Last Fear(34)
A run-down muscle car tears out from one of the roads, music blaring, dust flying. Teenagers scream out the window, and an empty beer can hits the side of the mail truck.
CINDY
Why didn’t I leave too? Someone needed to stay to take care of our dad. And it’s not usually like this. The kids have just been showin’ off since you all arrived with your cameras. Maybe you could do me a favor and turn off your camera for a minute.
In the distance, the muscle car has doubled back and is racing toward the Hub. Cindy leans inside the mail truck and retrieves what looks like a jar full of nails. She walks to the road and empties the jar.
CINDY
You deliver people’s mail, you learn a lot about them, and I’ll tell you, most of the people round here have no room to judge anybody. And if you try to run me outta my own town, it’s gonna cost you, and it’ll be a helluva lot more than four new tires.
CHAPTER 20
OLIVIA PINE
BEFORE
“Please, Mommy, I’ve gotta go.”
Liv looked in the rearview of the rental car. Tommy was wiggling around in the car seat, making a show of grabbing himself to let her know he was serious.
“We’re almost to Aunt Cindy’s house. Do you think you can make it, buddy?”
Liv had just hit Main Street in Adair, Nebraska. It hadn’t changed. As promised, it was a main strip with a hardware store, a diner, an old-time movie theater, a drugstore. Adair wasn’t a depressed farming community like many in the Heartland. Most of the town worked at Adair Irrigation, the country’s largest manufacturer of water management systems. A factory town surrounded by cornfields.
They’d left Adair under the cloud of Danny’s conviction. It had been a quiet ostracism, fueled more by whispers than overt scorn. But then Netflix released the documentary, and the whole country seemed to turn on Adair, revitalizing and intensifying the town’s contempt for the Pines. The last thing Liv wanted was to stop anywhere she’d be recognized. But based on Tommy’s red face and squirming, she had no choice. She knew Parker’s Grocery had a public restroom, so she veered into the lot.
“I’m stopping, jelly bean. Hang on.” The store had a new sign but was otherwise the same as when Liv was a girl. Her father would take her to Parker’s every Saturday to buy candy, at least until the cavities sprouted and her mom put an end to it.
Holding Tommy’s hand, she walked quickly inside. Liv’s stomach clenched when she saw the woman behind the register. Danielle Parker hadn’t changed much either. Still heavyset with eyes that were too close together, and a perpetual scowl. Liv walked head down to the back of the store to the public restrooms, Tommy trying to keep up with her long strides. She clasped the restroom door handle, but it was locked. Of course it was.
“Wait here, sweetie. I need to get the key.”
“Quickly, pleaassse,” he said, nearly bursting.
Liv went back to the counter. “Hello,” she said, forcing a smile. “Could we have the key to the restroom, please? My son is about to have an—”
“Bathroom is for payin’ customers only.”
Liv paused a beat. She looked Danielle in those narrow eyes. With no time for a standoff, Liv jammed her hand into a large plastic container near the register, removed a fistful of hard candy, and dropped the colorful assortment on the counter.
“Five-dollar minimum,” Danielle said.
Liv was about to lose it, but she looked back and saw Tommy doing a pee dance. “How much is the whole container?” Liv asked, gesturing to the plastic jug of candy.
Danielle made a face like she was doing a complicated math problem in her head. “Twenty bucks,” she said.
Liv dug into her handbag and smacked a twenty down. “Can I have the key please?”
Taking her sweet time, the clerk retrieved a key that was connected by a string to a large plastic slab, and slid it across the counter.
Liv snatched it up and rushed to the bathroom. She unlocked the door, and Tommy ran inside, yanking down the front of his pants and squirting indiscriminately until making it to the bowl.
When he was done, he let out an audible sigh of relief.
“Feel better?”
He gave a wide-eyed nod.
Liv considered the urine all over the toilet seat and floor. She should leave it for the witch out front. But that was all she needed, Danielle telling everyone she’d vandalized Parker’s. She cleaned up the mess and dropped the key on the counter on their way out. But before reaching the door, Liv stopped. She marched back to the counter and scooped up the giant container of candy. She could feel Danielle’s glare burning into her as she and Tommy left the store.
“Welcome home,” she whispered to herself.
CHAPTER 21
Liv pulled the rental car into the driveway and frowned at the scene. The house, her childhood home, was in a state of disrepair. The hedges were in desperate need of trimming. Shutters crooked, paint peeling.
Cindy met them at the door. She, too, showed signs of neglect. Her hair had a two-inch band of gray at the part. She wore polyester pants with a threadbare cardigan.
Liv’s older sister had never been one to primp, and when they were kids, many wondered aloud how the two could be related. In high school Liv had been the town beauty, voted Irrigation Queen three times in the sexist pageant held every summer. She’d inherited their late mother’s delicate, faintly aristocratic features. Cindy was their father’s daughter. Big boned. A wide face and nose.