Page 17 of A Hidden Past

Maybe he despised Lila too. Maybe he saw an opportunity and took it.

And I just gave him the best possible scapegoat. His lawyers probably make enough money to live here. They’re going to be all over the suspicious pool boy who returned to their home a day after spying on their daughter through a window and viciously murdered the poor girl for turning down her advances. Meanwhile, my bored public defender is going to tell me that I should plea no contest to murder in the second and get parole after twenty-five instead of life without.

God, this is bad.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Inohama’s housekeeper says. She makes sure to lift her eyes a little higher than mine so she can look down on me—after all, she’s a more important servant than I am—and finishes with, “that will be all.”

“Of course,” I say. “I hope to be of service to the Inohamas soon.”

I leave the house and check my list. Four houses down, two to go. Then I get to go home and try to convince myself not to use.

“Nathan? Nate?”

The voice startles me badly enough that I jump completely off the ground. I spin around and see Vivian Chase recoiling slightly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Lovely.

I feel heat climb up my cheeks and say, “No, it’s okay. I’m just… it’s been kind of a rough day. Um… what are you doing here? I mean…” I mean exactly what I said, so I just let my voice trail off instead of trying to think of something more polite.

“I was looking for you. I heard about what happened. Are you okay?”

There’s no sultriness in her expression. The seductive, early-middle-aged goddess act she wore the other day is gone. There’s only genuine concern. I’m so desperate for actual human contact that I almost melt down in front of her, but I pick up on something that gives me serious pause.

“How did you hear about it? It happened four hours ago.”

She gives me a smile, and some bitterness leaks into her compassion, though that bitterness isn’t directed at me. “That’s an eternity in a neighborhood like this. To directly answer your question, though, the cops came by and asked about it. Then they asked if I knew you.” her smile turned just a touch flirtatious, and she added, “They were very interested to know why I invited you into my house. It took a while to convince them that all we did was share a glass of lemonade.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” I manage a smile of my own, but only for a second.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I open my mouth to say no, but the flirtation and bitterness is gone, and I want nothing more than to say yes.

But I still say, “No. I mean, thank you. I really appreciate it, but I still have two more pools to clean.”

“How about after? Dinner, at my place?”

I really should say no. I might only be nineteen years old, but I’m not stupid. The sultry look has come back into her eyes now. She’s trying to hide it, but she’s not doing a very good job. If I go to her place for dinner, I’ll be staying for dessert, and I don’t mean cake and ice cream.

“Yeah,” I reply. “That sounds good.”

She smiles again, and I feel another rush of heat. “Okay. I’ll see you later, Nate. Don’t worry about going home after work. You can shower at my place.”

I try not to think about what else I’ll be doing at her place. I don’t succeed.

But for a moment, at least, I have an image of a living woman in my mind and not the images of two dead girls.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Nate? Nate is that you?”

My first instinct hearing that voice is to once more fantasize about leaving this damned neighborhood and driving the van back to the lot at Best Pool Cleaners with a thank you very much but also fuck you very much. It’s like every single worst thing that could possibly happen to me has to happen in the last twenty-four hours.

“Holy shit, it is you! Damn, son, when did you start lifting? You look like Thor!”

I turn to Marco Delgado and smile. “When did you start eating donuts all day? You look like Sumo Sam.”

Marco laughs and throws his arms around me, wrapping me in a tight bear hug. “Damn, bro, where you been? I haven’t seen you in years!”

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