Page 87 of Night Falls on Predicament Avenue
“Why?”
It was the burning question. The one Norah had always dreamed of asking Naomi’s killer. She just hadn’t imagined it would have been directed at Otto. That Otto would be some sick sociopath who kept girls locked under his toolshed.
Lyla’s comments that Naomi’s belongings had been down in the bunker came back to Norah. Had Otto kept Naomi there? For how long? She’d been missing for three months. Her remains had reflected that approximate amount of time.
“Why?” Norah asked again.
Otto rested on one of his lawn mowers. The atmosphere felt as though they were having a chat just like the good old times. But it wasn’t the good old times. Those times didn’t exist anymore.
He sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Well, there’s not a great answer to that, I suppose.” Otto was so calm, so resigned. Maybe it was his age. Maybe if he hadn’t been in his late seventies, he’d have reacted with intent to kill Norah. To protect his dirty secret. As it was, Norah wasn’t even afraid of him.
He was a feeble old man, stooped-shouldered and just ... pathetic.
“See, Naomi always liked helpin’ me, and I was the first one she told about that baby of hers.” Otto seemed almost proud of himself.
Norah tried not to be sick.
He went on, “Fact is, I’ve helped a couple young women in past years. You know, they don’t got anyone to help them through—some of ’em at least.”
Norah stared at him in disbelief. Wordless.
“There’s only been two ’sides Lyla. Lyla was homeless a few towns over from Shepherd. I met her one day about six months ago.”
“Two other women?” Norah repeated, ignoring Otto’s explanation of how he’d met Lyla.
“Yup, two. First one goes back a ways—a bit before you were born actually. Tried to get her help ’cause her brother was always knockin’ her around. So I had her come over one day, and I showed her the bunker. She decided to stay.”
Norah had a strong feeling it hadn’t been that compliant of a situation.
“Then she up and passed on one night. I brought her breakfast, and she’d used a sheet to—” he shook his head and gave Norah a sad look—“well, after that I learned not to put sheets on the bed for those girls. Didn’t want another gal hangin’ herself.”
Norah’s throat burned, and she swallowed back the need to vomit once again. “What about my sister?”
“Naomi?”
“Don’t use her name.” Hearing Otto say her sister’s name so casually—so normally—filled Norah with a ferocity she could scarcely comprehend. She looked around. There were plenty of tools. If she wanted to, she could take him out. Didn’t Naomi deserve that?
Otto didn’t seem to pick up on the violence that was swirling in Norah’s mind. The vengeance. The desire for justice. “Well, Naomi came over to help me, and I told her that the best thingto do is to get away and have her baby in peace. LeRoy Anderson was nothin’ but a loathsome bar-hopper, and he wouldn’t’ve made a good daddy.”
“She hadus,” Norah pointed out, glaring at him.
“Sure. An’ you’d have fussed and fretted until you made Naomi run away from all the suffocatin’ worry. And your parents? Churchgoin’ folk that they are, they’d have been praying for some sort of confession. An’ your aunt Eleanor would’ve only smothered Naomi. No, she was better off with me here. Where I could take care of her.” He dropped his gaze. “Only...”
“Only what?” Norah demanded.
“Well, you know your sister!” Otto scowled. “She’s so strong-willed an’ all. Kept trying to get away, until one night I told her I’d drive her home. We got in the car, and I realized then that she wasn’t ever goin’ to be happy. There was just no way. So I drove out to the woods and ... well, I made her happy.”
“You made her happy,” Norah repeated, her voice devoid of emotion.
“Yeah. I mean, eternal life and all that. Most of us are much better off dead.”
Norah’s scream of outrage turned into a bloodcurdling growl. She flew at Otto and slammed her palms into his chest.
The elderly man flipped over off the lawn mower and landed with a thud on the floor of the shed. He looked up at Norah in consternation and not a little fear.
She stood over him. “How dare you! That’s not how it works! You don’t get to play God and decide when someone goes! Naomi had her whole life to live! And we would have loved that baby no matter whose it was or how it was conceived. You twisted, narrow-minded—” Norah drew back her foot to kick Otto as hard as she could.
“Norah!” Sebastian’s voice broke through the shed, and Norah stopped. Her body shook violently. She lifted her eyes to see through the open shed door that Otto had left behind him. Sebastianrushed toward them. Ralph was close behind him, moving much slower and wobbling from side to side.
