Page 17 of Burned

Sadie should have known something was up when she’d gone to pick Carys up and the girl sat sullen and quiet all the way to the mall, not uttering a word. Even when Sadie tried to draw her into conversation, she was rebuffed. At the mall, the teen acted as if she didn’t want to be seen with Sadie and lunch was another disaster. Carys started at her the entire time as if she was some space anomaly every time Sadie lifted her fork. The pig noise the girl made was the final straw.

Pushing her plate away she stood up and grabbed her bags. “You can’t say I didn’t try. If this is how you want it to be, then so be it,” Sadie had said through clenched teeth in her frustration.

“Why should I bother getting to know you better when you’ll be gone within a few months anyway.”

“If that’s what you’d like to believe that’s fine. But what happens between your father and me is our business.”

Carys had glared at her. If looks could kill, Sadie would have melted into a puddle right then and there like the Wicked Witch of the West.

“Since you don’t want to be here, I might as well take you back home.”

On their way out, Carys stopped. “Wait, I want to check out something in the electronics store.”

Sadie glanced at her watch thinking if she could drop the holy terror off in the next fifteen minutes she could salvage the rest of her Saturday and visit her sister. “I suggested we go there earlier, but you weren’t interested.”

Carys shrugged. “Well, I changed my mind. It’s a free country isn’t it?”

Sadie rolled her eyes and counted to ten so she wouldn’t lose her temper. She’d never been close to choking someone in her life but decided this little battle wasn’t worth the fight. Besides, she didn’t mind browsing through some items herself.

That’s exactly what she’d been doing when Carys bumped into her when she walked by causing Sadie to drop her bags.

“Oh, I’m so clumsy. Let me help you with those bags.”

Sadie was pretty sure the kid was up to something. “Don’t worry about it. Accidents happen.”

They bent down and picked up all her bags. Some of the items had fallen out which Sadie hastily put back in. She’d had enough for one day. “I think we should go, Carys. I’m really tired and I’m sure there’s something else you’d rather be doing.”

Carys grinned as she handed Sadie one of her stray bags. “Yes. There are a hundred things I’d rather be doing.”

Sadie wanted to punch the kid right in the teeth. Tight-lipped, she managed to not snatch the bag and took it with enough calm that would have made Gandhi proud.” As she walked out the exit, however, the alarm went off.

What the hell?

Out of nowhere, a plain-clothed security guard approached her. “Ma’am I’m going to have to check your bags.”

“I’ll wait for you outside, Sadie,” Carys said in a sing-songy voice as she practically skipped away.

Sadie didn’t have anything to hide so she handed her bags over. When the security guard went through her department store bag, he produced a CD. A CD she had not put in it.

The guard put his arms on her shoulder. “You’re going to have to come with me, ma’am.”

“But that isn’t mine. I didn’t put that there. I swear.”

“If I had a dime for all the times I’ve heard that, I’d be a millionaire by now.”

“I don’t give a damn about what other people did, I’m telling you the truth.”

The man seemed unimpressed. “You can tell your side of the story to the police.”

Tears sprang to her eyes. “The police? But I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Come on, lady.” As he guided her out the store Carys was nowhere in sight.

Now here she was in the security booth with a pimply faced teenager who didn’t look old enough to have grown pubes. The bored looking plain-clothed guard wore a badge that read Smith while another guard sat in the corner with his arms folded. Both menseemed uninterested in her pleas of innocence.

Smith shook his head. “I don’t know why you people think you can get away with taking stuff that doesn’t belong to you.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know what the hell you mean by you people, but I didn’t take anything.”

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