He could rot in there, Riley thought, peeling away from the door. But I’m not going to rot in here.
She picked up the clothing pole from the closet and wrapped her towel around one end. She used the toweled end to push the rest of the glass out of the window, then pressed hard against one of the wood slats, praying that it was as old and rickety as the rest of the house.
“Janie, are you ready? Come out here!”
Tim was knocking on her door.
“One second!”
She dropped the pole down on her bed and balanced herself on the metal headboard. She could feel the cool wind from outside sweeping over her face, reddening her cheeks. But the pole hadn’t budged the board tacked over the window. So Riley did the only thing she could think of. She pulled the sleeve of her new shirt over her hand and picked up a shard of the broken glass. Even through the cotton shirt, she could feel the sharp, mangled edge. She slid it in her pocket and jumped off the bed, going for the door at the same time Tim opened it.
“What took you so long?”
Riley kept her shoulder against the door so he couldn’t push it open any wider.
“Nothing,” she said, winding a hand through her wet mess of hair. “I was just looking for a hair tie.”
“You used to always wear it in pigtails.”
Riley wanted to tell him to stop. She wanted to tell him that he had no right to those memories, no right to images of her and the things she did. Instead, she shoved her hands in her back pocket, running her index finger lightly over the glass in her pocket.
She followed Tim out the front door and stopped cold when she saw his car in the driveway. The front left bumper was scratched and smattered with dings, and a small crack spider-webbed across the bottom of the windshield.
“You—you—”
She couldn’t say the word. She couldn’t say “You hit Shelby” without tearing the glass shard from her pocket and going for his neck. But if she did that, even on a surprise attack, he could easily overpower her, and even if she did get away, where would she go? The few houses that looked lived in were set well back from the road, well back from this house. There were vines and overgrown shrubs everywhere, but he knew what was out here; she didn’t.
Tim opened the car door for her and she slid in, sitting gently to protect the glass. Once he shut her door, she slid it from her back pocket and into the front. Riley’s stomach roiled when the car engine rumbled. Her saliva was sour, and she fought back angry tears, not caring when Tim hit the door lock button and she was trapped inside.
“So you’ve been watching me a long time then?”
“Not that long. Only a few weeks, maybe a month now. You weren’t easy to find.”
“So you stayed around Crescent City?”
He nodded, turning away from the old-fashioned looking sign that said, Granite Cay Downtown Historical District—Food! Shopping! Fun!
“Why aren’t we going that way? It said ‘food.’”
Tim shrugged her question off. “There’re too many people downtown.” He poked Riley in the ribs. “I don’t want someone stealing you away again.”
Bile itched at the back of her throat. No one is going to find me here. No one is going to rescue me. She thought of her parents, of never being able to see them again.
“I thought you said they were going to leave me.”
Tim’s jaw stiffened. “I don’t trust anything about those people.”
Would they even come for her? She gritted her teeth. Deputy Hempstead had found her here once; he would find her again. Right?
“Did someone help you?” She thought of JD, her stomach starting to quiver. “Did someone help you find me?”
“No.” Tim swung his head as he guided the car toward a bank of strip malls—and passed them. “What do you mean?”
“There is a boy,” Riley started, shocked at what she was sharing. “His name—his name isn’t important. He lives—was living—across the street from me. He watched me.”
Tim frowned. “I know that boy. He wasn’t helping me. He wanted to hurt you.”
“What?”
“I was at your house one time. I was looking into your windows—just to make sure it was really you, Janie, and he was there too. He yelled at me. He told me to go away because he didn’t want me to help you.”
Riley blinked, confused. “JD chased you away?”
“He didn’t want me to help you.”
She looked out the window, silent, until Tim pulled into the parking lot of a small restaurant, set aside by itself on the outskirts of town.
“Ready?”
He kept a hand clamped around Riley’s upper arm, guiding her into the restaurant. “Remember, if you act up, they’re going to take you away again,” Tim murmured into her ear as the waitress led them through the nearly empty restaurant. “They’ll make you disappear.”