Lies We Bury(66)

“I do too. I knotted all the croissants today.”

“Shhh, keep your voice down. Knotting a bracelet is different from a rope around two human feet.”

“It’s not it’s not.” I shake my head. “It’s the only way! You leave first. I’ll make more rope, make a figure eight over feet and hands, knot it, then run out and meet you.”

She shakes her head. “We can all do it together.”

The man moans. His hands move behind his back grabbing at air and we all freeze.

He stops moving.

“No, Mama,” I whisper. “Now is the chance to go, like Mama Nora.” I love her and my sisters enough and I’m the best at rope-making just like Petey the Penguin. Maybe better than Mama Rosemary.

I push on her arm to get her to move but she shakes her head again. Then Twin blinks like she just woke up and grabs Mama Rosemary’s arm.

“We have to, we have to go. Now!” Twin whisper-yells.

Mama goes for my hand but I step away and Twin pulls Mama harder toward the stairs. Lily holds on to Mama’s nightgown and goes, too.

Mama Rosemary looks at the man then the door then the man. He smells like the whiskey Mama doesn’t like. She moves faster than I’m ready for and she holds my hand so tight it hurts but I tear away. “No, Mama!”

Twin keeps pulling her up up up the stairs and Sweet Lily follows sucking her thumb. Mama Rosemary’s eyes go big and wide at me. “You come right outside after you’re done tying, understand? We’ll be back to get you with the police. Once you’re out, do not come back in here, do you hear me? Wait out front.”

“I’m gonna miss you,” I whisper. My throat feels like burning and I choke on my cries.

Mama’s face is wet. “We’re going to see you real soon, baby. Then we’ll all go and live together and never worry about bumping into each other again. Okay?”

I pull the sheet from under the storage bin. Sit down against the wall as far away from the man as I can and start tearing more strips.

Mama springs back down and grabs my chin while Twin helps Sweet Lily get up the stairs. She looks me strong in the face and says, “We’ll be right outside, darling.” Then she touches the end of my nose like always and gives me a kiss.

“You stay on the wall until you’re ready to add on to the rope.” Excitement makes her scary and I nod fast.

She goes to the door where my sisters are waiting then reads a paper and pushes the buttons on the keypad in just the right order that we never could do before. Beep beep beep beep beep-beep. The handle makes a sound then Mama grabs down and pulls. Air comes into the basement all light and clean.

The three of them turn and look at me. Mama speaks again and it sounds like a whisper: “I’ll be right back.” Her voice shivers like she’s cold. She lifts a hand to me then walks through the door. The door stays open but their noises disappear.

Sadness makes me heavy all over. Like a big black blanket that Mama always says isn’t real. Worse than I ever felt before. I lean against the wall next to Sweet Lily’s drawing of a cow and pretend it’s a dream and I’ll wake up in between my sisters again.

A cough breaks through my make-believe. The man is waking up. Moving side to side against the ropes. Loosening around his hands and even more around his feet.

I tie the three strips together tuck the knot at my feet and start braiding. Over under. Over under. Over under.

I think back to the Petey the Penguin episode and how it ended. Bruno the Polar Bear got loose and he and Petey became friends. But that won’t happen here. Petey was too nice.

Staring at the man as he jerks this way and that I know the truth.

I’m not a nice little girl.





Twenty-Six

Four Alarm appears more depressed in the evening shadows, and I hardly recognize it from when I was last here. It’s been a week since the body was discovered. The police officers loitering out front are long gone.

The marketing director from the Post whose headshot I took said the first person to report a crime often has more to do with it than they let on. What if it’s the same thing for the first location of a crime?

A breeze skates across my neck as I stand before the white writing on the window. I check beside me, scan the parked cars, then look toward the corner of the street where it shifts into residential housing.

“Claire?” Topher stares at me from the doorframe. His black hair flops over and across wide-set brown eyes. An apron reaches his knees.

“Hey. Thanks for the quick text reply.” I follow him inside.

“Of course. Happy to help. Watch your step; I can’t find the Wet Floor cone.” He points down at the glossy checkered tile. “No one else wanted to come out tonight? Or is the night shift pretty laid-back?”

“Busy day at the station. No one else was free.”

He leads me through the dark hallway. Customers lounge in leather booths and on barstools, looking out the window onto the darkened street.

In an itch of paranoia, I turn to the glass and catch a flick of long black hair disappearing from view.

Karin? Has she been following me? Since I went to see Chet in prison or before?

“Claire? We need to move if you want to go down again. I got a table waiting for fresh glasses.” Topher peers into the restaurant dining area, looking for someone. “My manager’s on break, but I can let her know you’re here if you need anything. Detective—what was your last name again?”