Dark Streets, Cold Suburbs by Aimee Hix

Author:Aimee Hix
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: CVR04032018;what doesn't kill you;what doesnt kill you;aimee hix;amee hix;amy hix;mystery;mystery book;mystery fiction;mystery series;willa pennington;private investigator;pi;willa pennington pi mystery;willa pennington pi mystery series;dark streets cold suburbs
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2018-12-12T15:55:30+00:00

Chapter

13

We were home in time for Aja to be put to work helping with the salad. I got a pass to take a shower and change into clean clothes. Nancy’s subtle suggestion was that maybe I needed to think about getting some new, more professional clothes. She was right, as usual. I took a quick shower and dressed as tidily as I could in jeans and a t-shirt then headed upstairs.

They must have missed the whine of the step because Nancy and Aja were talking about me when I hit the top of the stairs. Chopping sounds erratically clicked through under the words. I stood at the top of the stairs eavesdropping, like a good detective does.

“No, I don’t know that I’d use the word normal for Willa, either. She’s so much more than normal.” Moms rock.

“Yeah, but it was weird. I thought it was just a joke until I saw this look that Detective Boyd gave her. It was kind of sad and kind of proud at the same time.”

“Okay, this isn’t exactly a secret but it’s not something we talk about all that much. When Willa was little before she came to live with her dad, they didn’t have a lot of money. Acting is a really rough living. They were always moving as Leila chased work. They moved a lot. One day while they were at the theater they got locked out of the apartment because Leila hadn’t paid the rent for … a while. The landlord put their stuff out on the street and when they got home most of it was gone. Including a baby quilt Arch’s grandmother made when Willa was born.”

“Oh no,” Aja said.

I pressed my head against the wall. It was shitty having a seventeen-year-old pity me.

“Willa loves her mother and she’s too loyal to admit it, but she’s never forgiven her for that. Willa’s mee-maw had died earlier in the year and Leila wouldn’t let her fly to South Carolina for the funeral because Arch couldn’t afford to fly both of them. So … anyway, it wasn’t too long after that Willa decided she wanted to live with her dad.”

“How old was she?”

“Not quite ten. Arch and I were engaged then. She had some birthday and Christmas money saved and put herself on a bus headed east. Leila was in a panic when she called Arch to tell him about the note Willa had left her.”

“That’s so horrible. She was just a little kid.”

“Sweetheart, Willa has never been a little kid. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Chronologically, yes, but emotionally, no.”

“I guess she got here okay. I mean, obvi.”

“Arch lived at that bus station until she arrived two days later. She said she’d stuck close to a woman and I guess everyone assumed they were together. We got this story as she sat at the table eating. Her little legs didn’t reach the floor, and it took everything in me not to cry in front of her.”

I heard her sniffle and I fought back my own tears.

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