Page 81 of The Hitchhikers
He took an angry inhale of his smoke. “I don’t need you sitting there judging me. My whole life people have looked down on me. I was the dumb kid who worked at the marina and was never going to make anything of himself. Well, they’ll remember me now.”
“For killing Jenny’s parents. What happened that night?”
“You think I’m going to tell you?”
“I want to understand. Her parents obviously weren’t keeping you apart. If you did it so she could inherit money, you wouldn’t have run away, and it doesn’t seem like you tried to cover it up. Was it revenge? You didn’t like how they treated you?”
“Jesus. You’re ruining my vibe.” He motioned to her glass. “Finish that.”
She took a few more swallows of whiskey, stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray. She didn’t think Simon had even noticed that she’d only taken a few puffs after the first one.
“I’m hungry now,” he said.
With the conversation clearly over, she got to her feet. While she heated the frying pan, she buttered both sides of the homemade bread she’d found in the bread box and spread mayonnaiseon the inside with the cheese. She served Simon, then sat across from him.
He took his first bite of the grilled cheese, nodding as he chewed. “It’s good.”
Alice hoped he ate quickly so she could get back to Tom. She was sick from the smoke and liquor and the long day. She just wanted to go to sleep.
“What’s next? After you fix the truck?” she said.
He tapped his head. “Still working that through.”
“But you are leaving us behind, right? You can travel faster.”
He kept eating, staring off to the side toward the back door, his eyes with a flat, glazed look. Maybe he already had a plan. Maybe he didn’t want any witnesses left. The whiskey churned in her stomach. He could shoot them all. He could do so many terrible things.
He looked back at Alice. “I’ll think about it.” She waited in silence while he finished his meal. When he’d taken his last bite, he stood up and wiped his fingers on his jean shorts.
“Time for you to go back in the hole.”
She got to her feet, wobbling for a moment. The whiskey had made everything worse. She couldn’t shake the feeling of dread. She needed to say something more. To convince him to leave them behind. But she was out of time. He pushed the table out of the way and lifted the hatch to the basement. When her head had cleared the opening, the hatch slammed down above her.
CHAPTER 29JENNY
Jenny stared at the bedroom door. Would Simon come to bed now? She didn’t know what she would say, or if she wanted him to know that she’d heard everything. He’d talked and talked, before he put Alice back into the basement. Jenny had gone down with Simon when he first opened the hatch.
It was dark and creepy, probably crawling with spiders. Simon said the others would be more comfortable because they didn’t have to be tied up. Still, it was a basement and they had to use buckets. She told herself they wouldn’t be in there long, but she didn’t know.
Simon hadn’t answered Alice’s question about whether he was going to leave them behind, and he hadn’t answered Jenny when she’d asked the same thing earlier. She liked having Alice with them. She knew things. Grown-up things. But Simon always wanted Alice around too.
Jenny didn’t like that as much. It made her feel useless.
Simon had never told Jenny that his mom made him special grilled cheese sandwiches. Maybe he felt lonely tonight. Maybe she should have stayed with him, but the smell of his cigarettes had made her sick, and she didn’t like his slurring words and unfocused eyes.
Jenny hadn’t told him all the things Alice had said about thefight at the church. She didn’t want Simon to think she didn’t believe him. Truth was, she didn’t know who to believe.
Simon was walking around in the kitchen now. The fridge opened. Then more footsteps, and the back door creaked open and slammed closed. The house was silent. Jenny waited a few moments, then slipped out of bed, careful not to bump the rifle and the shotgun that he’d placed near the bed. They were leaning against the wall. Simon had left them loaded with the safety on. The ammunition was stacked near them. It felt like he was preparing for a shootout.
She didn’t like that feeling either.
She walked to the window, pulling the curtains to the side, and stared at the dark shape of the barn. Simon hadn’t seen the phone when he went out with Ruth to feed the animals. Jenny had stood at the living room window then, waiting for him to come back angry or suspicious. But he hadn’t, which meant it was still out there.
Jenny flexed her feet, rose up onto her toes, feeling the familiar stretch of her arch. She used to love pirouetting. Her mind would blank out while her body took over. Her muscles and limbs knew what to do. She didn’t have to think. Jenny used to be good at not thinking about a lot of things. She could go to school and the studio, but inside, she wasn’t there. She wasn’tanywhere.
Now her thoughts were loud. That night. Her mother.
Simon.
