Page 86 of Love Me Fierce

Nothing happens until 7:06. My porch light comes on and Vivian steps out. I don’t remember her leaving the house, but I was in the backyard starting the fire around that time.

Two minutes and eleven seconds later, she returns, holding Mateo’s coat. Which makes sense. I don’t remember seeing that coat before we went outside to roast s’mores.

I let the rest of the footage play, but a detail from Vivian’s trip outside acts like a distraction. What took her so long to get Matty’s coat?

The Ring footage is set to record only motion-activated events, like someone coming to the door or when the outside lights get triggered. Because of the breeze, birds and other animals, people walking by, those lights come on for reasons that don’t necessarily indicate an intruder. But I note the times when they do: after Vivian’s back inside at 7:08 and before I escorted her back out at almost nine, the lights over my garage come on three times. I send Zach a text with this info. I’ll get more official later.

I set my empty glass of water aside and dig out Vivian’s keys from her purse, then return to my driveway. The garage opens, flooding my driveway with light. Down the street, a dog starts barking. Inside my garage, I move bikes and our recycle bin to make room, then get behind the wheel of Vivian’s Kia. There’s a hint of her scent here, and little personal details I can’t help but drink in. The tube of pomegranate lip balm and a pack of spearmint gum resting in the little cup below the stereo, a crack in her dashboard from sun exposure, maybe from her time in California. The blank rental application form on the passenger seat.

After scooting the seat back, I turn the key and the kid’s music she likes to play for Matty fills the car. I turn the knobdown, then drive her car into my garage and shut off the engine. When I step out, I give the backseat a quick scan. Besides Mateo’s booster, a handful of wrappers in the seat pockets, and two library books, it’s empty.

Once I’m back inside the house, I check the lock on the patio and the windows, then climb the stairs. When I peek into Logan’s room, it’s dark and the slow rhythm of his breathing tells me he’s asleep.

When I finally slip beneath the covers, I stare at the ceiling, knowing that sleep won’t be as easy for me tonight.

Did Vivian bring this on? What else is she hiding from me?

Chapter Twenty-Four

EVERETT

Logan returningto school is the only dose of normalcy in this mess but it’s not enough to keep my thoughts from spiraling. As soon as I’m in my rig, I call Zach.

“Hey, I was just going to check in with you.” His son Curren chatters in the background, along with the hum of a laundry machine, which makes sense since he’s not on shift until ten today.

“It’s Shawna Farrell,” I say over the rain pattering on my windshield.

“What? Did you get a confession?”

I give him the summary of what Vivian told me while I cruise out of my neighborhood.

Zach whistles. “You think Shawna was fishing for intel in the grocery store?”

“That she showed up in the wine aisle with an empty cart is interesting, since Shawna doesn’t drink alcohol.” Something I mistakenly read as a sign of maturity.

“Huh.” Curren yells in the background, and I wait through a pause. “How would Shawna know Vivian and you were hanging out?”

“I’m not sure. But she’s pretty resourceful.” Could I have given something away that day I picked up Logan?Like stars in my eyes after leaving the nurse’s office.

“And she has a history of being psycho,” Zach says.

I keep my suspicions about Shawna’s possible breach of school privacy laws to myself, for now.

“Let me run with this,” he says. “I’ll keep you posted.”

“Thanks, Zach.”

When I get to my desk ten minutes later, my concentration is shit. I stare at the beige walls of my cubby. Though Zach has doubts, I’m 100% sure Shawna came to my house last night and spray-painted Vivian’s car. Whether it’s to get some sort of revenge or just to get my attention I don’t know, and I don’t care.

The bigger question is if Shawna also trashed Vivian’s trailer. With the independent and somewhat flexible schedule Shawna juggles between three schools, she could have disappeared in the middle of the day for a few hours.

I make a note to share this with Zach.

Unease pinches my gut, and it’s not the meager breakfast I managed to scarf down. I don’t like how I handled things with Vivian this morning. I was frustrated, and afraid the worries I’d set aside about Vivian had been justified after all.

If Shawna’s behind the break-in and the spray paint, it’smyfault. I brought this on.

Not some truth Vivian kept from me.

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