Page 60 of Girl, Reborn

The old woman preened like a bluebird inspring. ‘Aren't you a charmer? But yes, I couldn't have done it without mycontractor. A real artist, that one. Mind like a steel trap and hands thatcould shape stone like it was clay.’

Ella's pulse kicked into overdrive. Thiswas it, the thread they'd been scrabbling for. She shot Luca a loaded glanceand saw her own heightened focus reflected back. They were locked on now, twodogs on a scent.

‘He sounds like a real find,’ Ella said,keeping her tone light even as her gut churned with dread. ‘We'd love to pickhis brain, if you have a name. Just for our records, you understand. Gotta dotthose bureaucratic i's and cross the t's.’

‘Of course, of course. Red tape, I getit.’ Riley braced her hands on the arms of the chair, levered herself up with agrunt. ‘Hang on a minute, I've got the original blueprints around heresomewhere...’

As the old woman shuffled over to a sidetable crammed with papers and tchotchkes, Ella's foot resumed its manic tapdance. They were so close, the answer almost close enough to taste. If shecould just get that name, that crucial missing piece.

‘Aha!’ Riley straightened up with atriumphant grin and a roll of yellowed papers clutched in one knobby fist.‘Knew these old things were squirreled away here, just needed a bit ofdigging.’

She tottered back, plopped the bundle downon the coffee table between them. She slid off the ancient rubber band,gingerly unfurling the pages like a sacred scroll.

Ella and Luca bent over the blueprints. ToElla's untrained eye, it looked like a foreign language, all swooping lines andarcane symbols. But it was clearly the work of a master, each angle and joinplanned out with loving exactitude.

And there, in the bottom corner, a loopingscrawl that hit her like a nail gun to the eyeballs.

Contracted Builder: Seth Baxter.

Distantly, she heard Luca sayingsomething, keeping up the casual patter, but the words washed over herunheeded. Her mind was already spinning out, latching onto this new name. SethBaxter. Was this their man?

‘Seth Baxter,’ she said, fighting to keepher voice level. ‘He a local fellow?’

Riley nodded, all benevolent Grandmadoling out wisdom. ‘Oh sure, the Baxters were around here for generations. Saltof the earth types, you know. Good, churchgoing folk. Seth’s sister was one ofmy best pals. Seth, though, he's always been a bit different. Quieter. Moreintense-like.’

Something in her voice, a catch hiddenbeneath the gossipy flow. Ella pounced on it like a cat on a waning mouse.‘Sounds like you know him pretty well.’

‘Oh, well enough, I suppose. Our familiesgo way back. I've known Seth since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.’ Herwatery blue eyes took on a faraway cast, peering back into a history Ella couldonly guess at. ‘He's had a rough go of it, poor boy. Especially this last yearor so.’

‘How so?’

Riley sighed, a sound like October windthrough bare branches. She suddenly looked every minute of her considerableage. ‘It's just been one thing after another, you know? First the drought,crops withering in the fields, the land turning to dust. Then that damned fooldam going up, siphoning off what little water we had left. Half the town up andleft, no way to make a living anymore.’

The trickle turned to a stream. The gearsturned. Pieces clicking into something resembling a picture.

‘And Seth, he what? Lost his livelihood?Got squeezed out with the rest of the little guys?’

‘If only it were that simple.’ Riley tookoff her glasses and polished them on her cardigan. ‘No, Seth, he had rootshere. Stayed put when others ran. He had his sister to think about, you see.Jessie. Bright little thing, a real green thumb. She'd taken over the familyfarm, poured her heart and soul into that place.’

Ella didn't need to be psychic to seewhere this was going. That cold stream was a river now, dread pooling in hergut. Beside her, Luca went preternaturally still.

‘What happened to her?’ Luca asked softly.‘Jessie?’

Riley's chin wobbled, and tears sprung torheumy eyes. ‘Oh, it was awful. Just awful. She fought so hard, you see. Triedeverything to keep that farm running. Even with the drought, the dust, thewhole town turning into a tinderbox. But it wasn't enough. It was never goingto be enough.’

Riley swiped at tears that hadn’t yet comebut no doubt would in a few seconds. ‘When the bank foreclosed, I thought thatwould be the end of it. Heartbreak, sure, but they'd bounce back. They alwaysdid, those two. Thick as thieves, they were. But Jessie, she... she couldn'tsee a way through. Couldn't face another day in this godforsaken dustbowl.’

‘What did she do?’ Ella’s mouth was as dryas the cracked earth outside.

The old woman suddenly crumpled. ‘PoorJessie, she walked straight into Gullywash Creek with stones in her pockets.Seth found her, you know. Just floating there, like an angel fallen to earth.Hasn't been right since. Not that anyone could blame him.’

The bottom dropped out of Ella's stomach.Suicide. The great motivator, the final push over the brink into madness. Howmany times had she seen it, the corrosive grief eating away at the mind likeacid? She'd stood over the bodies, pieced together the shattered lives leftbehind. It never got easier. And now Seth Baxter, unmoored by loss, set adriftin a world turned to salt and ash.

‘When?’ she croaked. It felt like herthroat was stuffed with wet cement. ‘When did this happen?’

Riley shook her head. ‘Eight, nine monthsback? Maybe more. Time, it loses meaning when you get to my age. But I rememberthe service. Closed casket. And Seth, just standing there, still as a stoneangel. Not a tear on him, but those eyes... Lordy, I'll never forget thoseeyes.’

Eight months. The words tolled in Ella'shead like a funeral bell. Eight months for the grief to curdle, for thehelplessness to alchemize into rage. Eight months to plan, to build, to set thegears of vengeance whirring.

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