Page 23 of To Die For

Her face flushed angrily. “You’re just sayin’ that to make me feel better.”

“No, I’m just telling youmyexperience.”

She glanced at him, her irritation transformed to curiosity. “What do you mean?”

“I lost friends in combat. Friends who were closer to me than my own family. And I processed it differently than others did.”

“How can friends be closer than family?” she asked.

“Depends on the friends and the family, doesn’t it?” he said bluntly.

“I… I guess so.”

“What happened to your parents, andyou, is hard, complicated. There’re no easy answers and no right or wrong way to get through it.”

“So, you… you think I will cry at some point?”

“My guess would be yes, Betsy, you will. Maybe harder than you ever thought possible,” he added quietly.

She turned away from him and leaned her face against the car window. She looked, to Devine, like the loneliest little girl in the world.

“So the guardianship is a go then, I take it?” he asked after a bit.

“Let’s hope so.”

“Did you talk to him about what happened to your parents?”

“I’m tired. And I need to get out of these pants and shoes. My mom bought them a while ago and I’ve… grown some. They’re cutting off my circulation.”

The rest of the drive back was made in silence. Devine didn’t really know how to break through the walls he sensed had formed around the girl.

She went right to her bedroom and shut the door.

Saxby, smelling like a potent combo of menthols and Listerine, said, “Talk to me.”

“She went, they ate and chatted, and that was it.”

“That’s it? Really?” she said, clearly disappointed.

“What did you expect? A shoot-out?”

She slumped on the couch, reached for her purse, and extracted her pack of smokes. She slipped a cigarette between her lips. “I don’t know. Something, I guess.”

“Do you have skin in this game, Agent Saxby?”

She shot him a withering look. “Meaning what? I’m her temporary guardian. That’s it.”

“And yet you seem to me to be overemotional about this whole thing.”

“Don’t pull the hysterical female crap with me, Devine. And I can feel for a young girl who’s heading for a fall.”

“But you don’t know that to be the case.”

“Oh, please.” She pulled a slim chrome lighter from her purse and lit up.

“Can you smoke in here?”

“So I pay the fine. Who gives a shit? The whole place needs a good smoking out. Might kill some of the damn germs.”

---