Page 29 of Nobody's Fool

“Oh right, right.”

“Hold up,” Driver Girl adds. She has these intense blue eyes that bore holes. “You said you thought she was dead.”

“Yes,” I reply. “Worse, I thought maybe I was responsible for her death. I’ve lived with that guilt and worry for twenty-two years. As for stalking and ghosting or whatever, I have no interest in her in that way. It was a long time ago. I’m happily married. We just had a baby.”

I show them a photo on my phone of the three of us. Molly had set her phone up with the timer and then she used some app that created a cheesy rainbow background like we used to get at Sears department stores as kids.

The girls in unison, almost as though they’d practiced it, say, “Awwww.”

“So cute!”

“Adorbs!”

They take my phone from me and pinch-zoom the photo to get closer in.

“Is that your wife?”

“Yes,” I say.

“She’s so pretty.”

“She is,” I agree.

“Does she know you’re here?”

“Yes. We don’t keep secrets. I just need answers. Molly—that’s my wife’s name—she gets it.”

They all share looks, not sure what to say next.

“Please,” I say. “I just need answers. I don’t mean anyone any harm.”

The girl on the far right says, “But you don’t want to go there.”

“They aren’t nice people,” another adds.

“My mom said it’s an old mobster’s place,” Girl Three says, “and they shoot anyone who tries to get to him.”

“No,” Far Right Girl says, “it’s some rich Russian guy who wears a lot of chains.”

Driving Girl signs and sits up. “Excuse me, Gardenia?”

One of the women in pink scrubs comes out from behind the circular IV bar. Driver Girl motions toward the IV in her arm. Gardenia attaches it to a metal IV stand with five wheels on the bottom and two hooks at the top. Driver Girl rises and gestures for me to follow her.

“As you can see,” she tells me, glancing back at her friends, “the family that lives there works hard on maintaining their privacy.”

“So they aren’t rich Russians or mobsters?”

“No.” She looks down, chews on her lower lip. “But they have good reason to want their privacy.”

“That being?”

“The family has suffered a lot of tragedy. The woman you saw. Your girlfriend from Spain.”

“What about her?”

“How old is she?”

“Around my age.”

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