Page 8 of Against the Clock

Once we were done, we helped clean up while Sandra sat down with Rosie and ate her breakfast.I washed the dishes while Quinn dried them, not bothering to look at me.Everything about her felt oddly robotic this morning, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“What do you have going on today?”Mike asked as he put the leftovers in the fridge.

I looked over my shoulder and found him watching Quinn.Her shoulders stiffened before she turned slightly to answer him.

“I have a couple of errands that I need to run.”

“Like what?”he pressed.

“Personal stuff.”

“Momma is going shopping for new clothes for me,” Rosie volunteered, smiling as she took a bite and chewed.

“New clothes?For what?”Sandra asked, joining the conversation.

“School,” Quinn said sharply, gripping the plate in her hand so tightly that I worried she might break it.

“I thought she had enough school clothes?Besides, school will be out in a few weeks.”

“She just needs new clothes, that’s all.”

“Did they implement a new dress code?”Sandra wondered aloud.“You would think that they would wait until the new school year starts before they do that.I mean, you can’t be expected to buy a new wardrobe for her when she’ll be out on summer break soon anyway.Who knows if she’ll even fit in the same clothes when she goes back.”

I could feel the tension radiating off of Quinn as she dropped the plate and didn’t bother to try to catch it.

“Enough!”she yelled, her fists clenched by her side.“I’mbuying her new clothes becauseIdon’t want her wearing skirts and dresses to school anymore.It’s my choice.My decision.I’m 38 years old; I don’t need anyone bossing me around or trying to tell me what to do.”

She turned around and met Rosie’s eyes that were welling up with tears.

“I can’t wear my pretty dresses anymore?”Rosie cried.“Do I have to dress like a boy now?”

“No, sweetie,” Sandra said, pulling her against her chest.“We all just need to calm down for a moment and figure things out.Why don’t you go clean up and get that syrup off of your face before Charity gets here?”

“Okay, Grandma.”

Rosie padded down the hall to the bathroom while the kitchen filled with silence.

“What in the world is going on, Quinn Marie?”Sandra asked, standing up with her hands on her hips.

“It’s nothing, Mama,” Quinn sighed, leaning against the sink.

“Then why are you not letting her wear dresses and skirts anymore?”

She took a deep breath and ran her hands down her face before answering.

“Her teacher showed me a video yesterday when I went to pick her up.It was of the kids playing during recess, but when she zoomed in, there was a man across the street watching them.He was leaning against a black van with dark windows.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Sandra whispered and covered her mouth.

“That’s not the worst part,” Quinn said quietly, looking down the hall to see if Rosie was heading back.“The teacher said that the only kid he was watching was Rosie.”

I felt the air rush out of me.Mike was sitting at the table with his jaw clenched and fists tight.I knew the feeling—I wanted to find whoever this bastard was and smash his face as bad as he did.

“I know that this is your job, honey,” Sandra said softly, “but making her wear pants isn’t going to stop whoever this is from looking at her.”

“I know,” she whispered.“I feel helpless right now.I don’t know what to do or how to protect her, which is really fucking frustrating given that I do this for a fucking living.I work for the FBI in the child exploitation task force—I literally see this stuff every day, yet I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s always different once it hits close to home,” I assured her, though I had no idea.I had been a sniper in the Marines, so nothing ever hit too close to home for me.

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