The Door to January by French Gillian

Author:French, Gillian [French, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Islandport Press
Published: 2017-10-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

The cops didn’t leave until nearly ten. Teddy went up to bed early and Cilla was on her way, dumping coffee dregs down the sink.

Natalie sat in the living room with her knees drawn to her chest, watching TV without seeing it. She listened to the sound of her aunt moving around in the next room, and then went to the doorway and said, “I’ll clean it up tomorrow. All of it.” She dragged her big toe over the linoleum, tracing the pattern. “You’ll never know anything happened.”

“It’s not important tonight.” Cilla put away the sugar bowl. “And I don’t want you touching any of that stuff without gloves. It carries disease, and we don’t know where . . .” She gave her head another one of those stunned, helpless shakes.

Natalie blinked back tears. “But . . . Teddy’s dad . . . I know he built the summerhouse and everything, and . . . I’m just really sorry.”

“Oh, hon.” Cilla pressed her palm over her eyes, seeming to mentally count to ten. “I wish you kids had told me what was going on. I don’t know what made you think keeping something like that to yourselves was a good idea.”

“Are you going to tell Mom and Dad to take me home?”

Looking conflicted, Cilla came over and smoothed Natalie’s curls down with both hands, cupping her cheeks. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

TV was no comfort, and Natalie pulled the afghan over her legs even though it was too hot for it. She tried not to think about Raisa’s things, which had been hidden inside a grocery bag underneath the cot and were probably smashed to bits now. Some darning needle she was. Some caretaker.

She wanted to be out on the nighttime roads with the breeze ruffling her hair, washing everything away, at least for a while. She didn’t believe Jason would come roaring out of the dark to chase her down. Why end the game so soon, when he had them right where he wanted them, feeling small and scared, cat and mouse and all that? It would almost be a relief to deal with him face-to-face at this point.

Natalie went to the guest room and turned on the AC, shutting the door behind her. Hopefully it would look like she was inside, asleep. She knew where Cilla kept the house keys. Turning the lock on her way outside made this feel like less of a betrayal.

The grass was dewy, soaking her feet. She retrieved her bike from the shed and switched on the light between the handlebars, then took off down Bailey Street.

The ride did everything she’d hoped. The tension sloughed off as she pushed up hills and took corners, passing only two cars on the road the entire time. Main Street was a slumbering snake curving down to the harbor; many of the streetlights had burned out, but she caught a glimpse of the Quik Stop sign and realized that she must have a destination in mind after all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.