The Girl Is Murder by Haines Kathryn Miller

Author:Haines, Kathryn Miller [Haines, Kathryn Miller]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2011-07-19T07:00:00+00:00

I WAS SOBER BY THE TIME I got home. I expected to find the house dark, but a light was on in the parlor. As I passed through the room on the way to the stairs, Pop cleared his throat.

“Iris.”

I turned and found him in his office, the door wide open so he could observe my comings and goings.

“Do you know what time it is?” he asked.

His tone was icy. Above his shoulder the clock tattled that it was one-fifteen.

“Just after one.”

“And what made you think that that was an appropriate time to stay out until?”

I wasn’t quite sure how to take the question. Was he mad? Seriously? “You didn’t tell me to be back at a specific time.”

He left his roost and came around to me. He had his leg on. Had he just returned from somewhere, or was he getting ready to go someplace? “That’s because I thought you knew better. I’ve been worried sick. I went to that boy Paul’s house and neither he nor his sister knew where you were.”

Had Pearl squealed on me? Seriously?

“I told you—a dance.”

“With who?”

“Some other friends from school.”

“And just where was this dance?”

My mouth fluttered. My impulse was to lie and I wasn’t sure where that was coming from. I’d never overtly lied to Pop before. Well, except for telling him who I was with that night. “It’s a club called the Savoy.”

“And just where is this club located?”

I hoped by giving him part of the truth, I might squeak by. “Lenox and 141st Street.”

“Harlem?” asked Pop. I shrugged, like I wasn’t sure what neighborhood we’d been in. “I thought it was a school dance.”

“I never told you that.” He couldn’t fault me for his assumptions.

“What’s that on your mouth?”

My hand went to my lips. Suze’s lipstick smeared my fingers red. “Just lip cream.”

“You’re too young for that.”

For what, I wanted to ask. Wearing makeup or having half of it kissed off me? “A friend loaned it to me,” I said. “Everyone there was wearing it.”

“Have you been drinking?”

How could he know that? “I …”

“My God, Iris. What’s come over you? Staying out to all hours, lying about who you’re with, wearing makeup, drinking. And Harlem? What could’ve possibly possessed you to go there?”

My mouth fluttered open but no sound came out. I couldn’t tell him I was searching for Tom. Not yet.

“Who gave you the booze?”

“I … I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I didn’t know if you were alive or dead.”

It was strange to hear him being so paternal and scared. About me. On the one hand, I was touched to find out that he cared, but on the other, it struck me as very inconvenient. “It won’t happen again, Pop.”

“You better believe it won’t. From here on out you go to school and you come home. That’s it.”

“I said I wouldn’t do it again. How was I supposed to know there were rules?”

“Because you live on Planet Earth. What fifteen-year-old

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