Page 42 of The Vacancy In Room 10

“Ms. Abbott,” the voice of an officer says, and he actually sounds kind, but probably only because he’s witnessing someone having a complete mental breakdown.

“These are mine,” I snap, not looking up, just determined not to lose these, too.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. We were informed you assaulted someone at the Eldorado earlier tonight. There are dozens of witnesses, so I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you to come with me.”

I don’t fight anymore. I don’t say anything at all. I’m entirely defeated and exhausted. I hear the click of the handcuffs around my wrists and feel the cold sting of the metal.

“Don’t worry! We gotcha, girl,” Jackie hollers out the window of the minivan as they escort me into the back of the cop car, and I’m arrested. Headed to jail and not back to The Sycamores where Callum is waiting for me—where right now I am supposed to be doing the unthinkable.

17

ANNA

The next morning, I wake up to a soft tap on my front door. When I open it, I’m surprised to see Rosa standing there, toddler on one hip and a sheen of sweat already forming across her forehead in this insufferable heat.

“Ms. Anna, hi. I’m sorry to bother you so early.”

“It’s okay, um...is something wrong?” I ask.

“No, well. Yes. It’s Cass. She went to jail.”

“Uh...okay. Why...what happened?”

“She pushed a girl into a big cake and then broke into her ex’s house and pulled all his plants out of the ground,” she says, and I try not to laugh, but it sounds absurd.

“Oh, I’m...sorry,” is all I can think to say.

“It’s just that...” She pauses and glances down to the pool deck, then back to me. I see Jackie fanning herself, and Crystal on her phone. Barry’s there, too, holding a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and shifting his weight from foot to foot. “The bond is $500, and none of us have that much money.”

And I realize they want me to bail her out. The woman laughing in Henry’s painting, who I spend half the night thinking about. It’s even more absurd now, but I want to talk to her. And if she’s a captive audience in my car, this might actually be the best possible scenario.

After a cursory Google search, it wasn’t hard to find lots of information on Mira Medford, and I had planned to show up at her job this morning. Facebook showed me she works at the Dairy Queen on Park, so I called last night and asked for her, and they said she wasn’t in until tomorrow morning. Bingo. I plan to catch her not only unawares, but in public for the best shot of not getting a door slammed in my face and gleaning at least some response or information from her. But Cass is at the top of my list, too.

“You want me to bail her out,” I confirm.

“I’m so sorry. She’ll pay you back. It’s just... I mean, maybe not right away...”

“It’s fine,” I say.

“Really?” Rosa says, looking surprised.

“Yeah, just give me the info, and I’ll do it.”

When Rosa turns to give a thumbs-up to her waiting friends, they all break into applause and cheers. I’m a little embarrassed, but I take down the details and head out to the Santa Fe county jail.

As I’m waiting for her to be released after the paperwork is complete, my phone pings with a text from Callum apologizing for being weird last night. I decide to call him back instead of texting because everything in the world seems off to me, and if he realizes he was acting strange, then why? What is actually going on here?

“Callum, hi. Sorry. I’m driving, so I thought I’d just call instead,” I lie. “Cass was arrested, so I’m here seeing about bailing her out,” I say, testing his reaction.

There is dead silence on the other end.

“Hello?” I ask.

He starts to say something, but his voice cracks, then he clears his throat and tries again. “Arrested? Wha—what do you mean?”

“Last night, I guess. In the city, at a hotel is all I really know.”

Silence again. “Holy shit—for... I mean, what was she arrested for?” he asks with a shaky voice.

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