Shelter in Place (Page 58)

“Yeah, I do.”

Simone shifted to sit cross-legged on the sofa. “I ran into my archenemy from high school. She was golden and beautiful and had breasts. I was brown and gawky and ordinary.”

“You were never ordinary.”

“That’s what I saw in the mirror that night in the bathroom. I thought, Why can’t I be beautiful like Tiffany? She’d come into the theater with the boy who’d just dumped me for her because I wasn’t ready to put out. Heartbreak, humiliation, with the intensity you can only feel at that age. World over.

“Then it happened. The boy who’d dumped me was dead. Tiffany was shot in that young, beautiful face. Now, years later, she confronts me—another bathroom, in the universe of irony. She said ugly things, and for whatever reason that few minutes of ugliness made me start looking and listening. Not for her. For me.”

“I couldn’t stop looking and listening,” Reed told her. “I don’t think it’s an obsession, but I’ll cop to mission. I followed every story, put together files. It never seemed right, or complete. They barely had a brain among them, and the only one with a brain? Why didn’t he go after the girl he blamed for ruining his life? There had to be more, and I wanted to know what it was.”

“And you were right,” Simone added. “The ‘more’ turned out to be Patricia Hobart.”

“Yeah. That made sense, in a sick, twisted way, once we—they,” he corrected, “went through the things she had to leave behind in her rush to rabbit. She was, like, fifteen at the time of the DownEast. Already a psychopath, and a smart one,” he added. “Really smart even at fifteen. Smart enough to hide her nature. But before she shot me, before it made that sick, twisted sense, I followed everything. Essie did, too. One of the ways she did—and I did? We get alerts whenever anyone who was there that night dies. Any reason.”

So she understood the look on his face, just for that second. “Who died?”

“He was mall security. Took a couple of bullets that night. Went back to work when he recovered. A seriously good guy.”

“Did … Did she kill him?”

“I’m going to say yes. No proof, not yet. And she’s good,” he added as he pushed up to pace. “She’s damn good. She’s been in the wind since she shot me. Not a damn trace. Now Robert Kofax is dead because she laced his drink on a beach in Bermuda.”

“Bermuda?”

“I don’t know why he was there—I’ll find out. I just got the alert: his name, COD. Cause of death,” he explained.

“She found a way,” he continued, “because that’s her mission.”

“She’s killing survivors? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Finishing what she started—because she left enough behind to prove she started it. She planned it—hadn’t quite finished the plans. Her brother got impatient. My theory, anyway.”

She lost some of the color the cold had pumped into her cheeks. “Mi’s a survivor. My mother, my sister. Me. You.”

“Mi got some press, but she didn’t give any interviews. The same with you. Your family didn’t get a lot of attention. I think she’s after ones who did. But you and me? We got through to nine-one-one. First and second callers. You should be careful, and you can believe I’ll be watching for her.”

Anxiety churned in her stomach. “The island’s mobbed in the summer. Day-trippers, vacationers, summer workers.”

“I’m going to be chief of police. Every cop and first responder’s going to have her photo. I’m going to have it posted in every fricking shop and restaurant and hotel. On the ferry. I’m not saying she won’t try to get here, but I think, for now, she’s after easier targets. And if she tries to come here, it’ll be to finish me first. I shot the bitch.”

He didn’t sound affable now, Simone thought. He sounded hard, tough, and very, very capable.

“I think I want something stronger than coffee.” She rose. “How about you?”

“I wouldn’t say no.”

She opted for wine, a full-bodied red, and poured two generous glasses.

“Now I haven’t just upset you. I’ve scared you.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know how I feel, exactly. Unnerved, you bet. I’m not brave. I wasn’t brave that night.”

“You’re wrong about that. You didn’t run screaming, and there wouldn’t have been any shame if you had. But you did the smart thing. You hid and called for help. I’ve heard the nine-one-one call. You held it together. That’s bravery.”

“I didn’t feel brave, and I haven’t since. But … Come up to my studio. I want to show you something.”

“Like etchings?”

She smiled, didn’t feel quite as unnerved. “Not in the least.”

“I keep striking out with the beautiful artists in this house. I have to try another tactic.”

But he went with her. “I can arrange for a cop—a girl cop—to stay with you tonight if you’re worried.”

“No, but thanks. I’ve always felt safe in this house. She won’t make me a victim again. I know her victims.”

In the studio he saw dozens and dozens of sketches pinned to boards.

He knew them, too.

He knew the faces, the few she’d created with clay.

“I started with her. Tiffany.” Simone picked up the small bust. “I did her before.” She turned the bust. “And after. It, I thought, would be a kind of purge for me. But it didn’t turn out that way. You’re one of the reasons.”

Fascinated, he watched her. “I am?”

“The night of the party, I talked to Mi up here, showed her these two faces. I talked to you. More, I listened to you. And since …

“She survived,” Simone said, and set the bust down again. “But she’s not grateful. I hadn’t been, either, not really. That’s what struck me. I lived, and instead of being grateful, I wanted to pretend it never happened. What does that say about the ones who died? Was I saying they never happened?”

She took a long drink. “‘Proof of life,’ you said that night, about Emergence. About Tish. It struck me, it rang the damn bell. So, I’m—in my way, I guess—giving them all proof of life.”

He looked at her now, at that face, not just because it made his heart thump, not just because she made his blood swim. But because he felt a kind of awe and respect.

“This is bravery.”

She closed her eyes a moment. “God. I hope so.”

He stepped to the shelf, carefully lifted one of the busts. “I knew her. Angie—Angela Patterson. She was so damn pretty. I had a real thing for her.”

“Oh. You were in love with her.”

“No, but I liked her a lot.” He thought of the kiosk, the blood, the body. And looked at the face, young, lovely, just on the edge of flirty. “I talk to her mother a couple times a year. This? This will mean the world to Angie’s mother.”

“I want to create a memorial, all their faces. People shouldn’t forget who they were, what happened to them. You could help me.”

“How?”

“I want to include the people who’ve died since, because of that night, or because of Patricia Hobart. You could help me.”