Page 98 of A Better World

That night, she waited until Russell was asleep, and slowly climbed out of the bed. She was surprised to find the door to his study locked. In the darkness, she walked the perimeter of the house. Sunny was out wandering and followed her, looking for food, even though she’d caught a struggling mouse between her teeth. It wriggled as she toyed with it, sucking it into her mouth, letting it climb out again.

Russell’s office window wasn’t locked, but the ink-wash screen inside it was. She banged it out, breaking it away from the frame and setting it aside, then gently lifting the window.

The ledge was about shoulder height. She hoisted herself, swinging first her right leg, then her left, and pulling herself through. She closed the window behind her, made sure the screen was hidden by the hedge. Sunny watched, her doll eyes shining, the mouse now still.

The room was a mess—piles of paper, crumby plates, and cups everywhere. She opened Russell’s laptop, tried her birthday as his passcode. It stayed locked. She tried his birthday. Didn’t want to risk trying a third and making the system lock.

She picked it up, left the study, crept up the stairs, and held it over sleeping Russell’s face. The screen pinged with recognition, then unlocked. Russell stirred and sat up.

She wished she’d thought this out better.

“What are you doing?” he asked. His voice was colder than she was used to, but then again, she’d broken into his work computer in the middle of the night.

She set the screen on his lap. “I’m trying to figure out what the hell’s going on.”

Russell shut the screen. “So am I. What the hell’s going on, Linda?”

“Idiopathic leukemia and Omnium. I think there’s a connection. Gal’s kids, who have it—I saw them at the Parson Mansion.”

“Honey, you were high,” he said, his voice still groggy.

“Okay, fine. They weren’t there and I’m crazy. I never used to be crazy. But suddenly, I’m crazy?”

Russell threw back the covers. “I didn’t say that. I’m saying you can’t break into my system. Just ask me if you want to know something.”

She felt a little ridiculous. “I know you. You’re hiding something.”

“If I saw two little kidnapped kids at a party, I’d notice it. If I thought Omnium was killing people right now and there was a way to stop it, I’d stand up.” He said this with shining eyes, with conviction.

“I want to believe you. I really do,” she said.

“Then believe me.”

“I guess right now I’m feeling trust but verify, Russell. I’ll be satisfiedif you do two things for me. I want you to run a tox screen of the river water, and I need you to correlate the Omnium waste-processing centers with idiopathic leukemia incidence on a map. And in the absence of that data, all cancers and autoimmune diseases.”

His face reddened. She couldn’t tell if it was impatience or something more. “I will if you keep this between us.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re touchy. Haven’t you noticed? You screamed at a party the other night. You accused these people of kidnapping. Now you’re going after their miracle product. Let’s keep a lower profile.”

“You’ll run the test? You’ll do the mapping?”

He sat up, covers over his knees, screen pushed aside. “We won’t find anything. I promise you we won’t. But I’ll look.”

“Can you get the results to me before the Winter Festival?”

He smiled at her, a peculiar smile that twisted his lips but didn’t change his face. “Yeah. Okay,” he said, in a way that made her feel humored. “But even if you are right and they’re doing something criminal, what does screaming about it help?”

“You’re conceding I might be right?”

The smile was gritty, somehow. Like sand or dirt had been rubbed into it. “I don’t see any evidence. But like you said, you never used to be crazy.”

Tears burned her eyes. She couldn’t tell whether they were the good kind she’d felt with Josie, or the bad kind that had plagued her lately. “You swear to God you’re not keeping secrets?”

“I swear on our kids,” he said.

On their kids? She was horrified. That started her waterworks, the bad waterworks. “If you say that, I believe you. I have to.”

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