Page 53 of Little Shattered Dreams

“I have, but it was in self-defense.”

“Figures.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with Quinn’s death. I was just as surprised as you were when I found her.”

She pulled her cardigan tighter across her chest and sighed. “It’s like Kelly said. You think it’s one of us, don’t you?”

“It makes sense, don’t you think? It’s a gated retreat. No one came in or left the night Quinn died, except Grace, who went home for the evening.”

“Who told you that—Calvin?”

“He did. We’ve also been over the security footage from that night.”

“Yeah, well, it still doesn’t mean one of the staffers was responsible.”

“The other night when you found me in Quinn’s room, you were so protective of her, a woman you’d just met,” I said. “Why?”

She broke eye contact and looked away. “I don’t know. I felt bad for what happened to her, I guess.”

I wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who’s shown so much concern for a person they didn’t know,” I said.

She glanced at me as if trying to decide what to say. “I stopped by Quinn’s place a few times to see if she needed anything, just like I did for you. She always invited me inside. She’d offer me tea or coffee. She made me feel like we were friends, even though she didn’t know a thing about me.”

“What did the two of you talk about?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’m just curious,” I said.

“I’d rather not say what we discussed. They were private conversations.”

“I get it, but it would be helpful if you told me. Even if you tell me what she said to you.”

“Why should I?”

“Look, I’d like to think you had nothing to do with Quinn’s death, but you’re not making it easy.”

She leaned back and ran a hand through her hair. “My break’s over soon. I should get going. About Quinn and what happened to her … it wasn’t me. I liked her. I mean it. She didn’t treat me like a worker. She treated me like a person, like someone she wanted to get to know. It was sweet. It’s amazing how much small acts of kindness can mean so much when you’ve lacked them all your life.”

Lacked them all your life.

I wondered if it was the reason she’d resorted to stealing.

“I understand everyone who works here has been in trouble with the law at some point,” I said.

“You wouldn’t know a thing about what we’ve been through. You show up here in your fancy car with your fancy family and fancy friends. I’ve been on my own since I was thirteen.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need an apology, not from someone like you.”

Someone like me.

Someone she’d predetermined she couldn’t connect with even if she tried.

Quinn, on the other hand, had made no attempt to hide the damage from her past. The outburst she’d had in the group session was a spectacle, even if she hadn’t intended it to be one.

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