Tall, Dark & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel #1)(11)

Madison could only stare and nod. “Good. Well, let’s get you to your rooms.”

Chapter 2

She ran her fingers over the quilt that covered her queen size bed and looked around her new room. It was very large, beautiful, spacious and all hers. It overlooked a large backyard. Their old trailer overlooked a tire factory and smelled horribly. This room overlooked an apple orchard and swimming pool. This was like the Ritz for her. Even sharing an adjoining bathroom with a strange man didn’t dampen her good mood.

Grandma swore the man was nice, clean and hardly ever home. He was only home to shower, which Grandma admitted he did two or three times a day. The man was a shower addict as she liked to put it. He was also a detective for the state police and was assigned locally.

For the past two years the detective rented his room and her room, but had lived here for three. He couldn’t tolerate sharing the bathroom with anyone and hated having anyone close by. He needed peace and quiet. The three people that rented the room before he took over it were anything but quiet. As soon as the last one moved out he informed Grandma that he was paying for it so that it would remain empty.

A week ago Grandma asked the man for a favor. She needed the room for her granddaughter. The man knew about the situation and was sympathetic. After promising that Madison was a quiet, respectful woman he agreed. He seemed to think that any woman who raised her siblings and put herself through college deserved a chance. His only stipulation, everyone leave him alone. He was a loner.

Grandma said he was nice and helped her out, but didn’t talk to anyone and didn’t join the rest of the house for meals. Grandma liked the detective. He helped take care of troublesome renters in the past and as a thank you Grandma made sure that everyone left the detective alone.

It was more than fine with Madison. Their rooms were on the back addition of the house above the large storage room her Grandmother used to store everything from her old motorcycles to extra tables. They were well away from the rest of the rooms which meant peace and quiet. They also had their own entrance off their short hallway that connected their rooms to the main house. Her grandmother was really going out of her way for her.

There was a room near her mother that was open, but Grandma was trying to give her some freedom and a much needed break. The kids were forbidden to come to this section of the house out of respect for the detective. That’s what Grandma said. In truth, it was probably for her as well. She understood that Madison came here not out of desperation, but out of love for her brother and sister. One which she hoped that she could save.

She walked back to her laptop computer and scrolled down. “Finally,” she mumbled.

Last week she discovered that her mother memorized her account number and password. She transferred two hundred of Madison’s hard earned dollars to her own account. She had a feeling Jill helped her, seeing how both of them came home later that night in matching outfits. If her grandmother hadn’t stepped in she would have pressed charges.

This was probably why her grandmother made the statement about her money in the living room. Madison asked her grandmother without giving too many details to open an account for her at the local bank. She did and thankfully set up online access for the account. Grandma thought of everything. Now she just had to make sure that Jill and Candy didn’t get their hands on her new debit card or account information.

It was still midmorning by the time she was done bringing her things up. She liked having her own entrance. She didn’t have to haul her meager possessions through the house and up the stairs and down the hall like everyone else.

She took another look around her room. Not surprising that it was dusty since no one had used this room in two years. Their small hallway could use a bit of a cleanup as well, she decided. Both areas smelled dusty. Her neighbor as she liked to think of him asked Grandma not to allow anyone in this part of the house. Her Grandmother readily agreed. She felt a man should have his privacy. Well, a police detective should at least. Madison had a feeling that Grandma didn’t feel the same way about her other renters. There were five in total counting her neighbor, two women and three men.

“Damn it.” She forgot to find out her neighbor’s name. She had no plans of bothering him. He wanted to be left alone and she wanted to feel alone. She sighed on the next breath. “Oh well.” She got over things easily. It was the only way to tolerate Candy and raise two children.

“Now let’s see, she said the vacuum cleaner was in the closet.” She opened her closet and nodded. Sure enough it was there. “And the cleaning supplies are in the bathroom.” It still felt weird that she was sharing a bathroom with a strange man, but beggars couldn’t be choosy. It was a new experience, she told herself.

She opened the bathroom door and gagged. It was a new experience all right. The bathroom looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned in years, two probably. She pulled the top of her shirt over her mouth so that she could breathe while she made her way to the window above the toilet. She yanked it open, desperate for fresh air.

With that done she slowly turned around and took in the horror. This was a massacre on hygiene. The room smelled of mold, mildew, body odor, dirty clothes, public toilet and dozens of stale cardboard air car fresheners. The combined odor was vomit inducing. She looked around the room. Hanging off every available surface was an air freshener. Some looked pale and old while others looked bright green. That explained the car smell.