Page 16 of Desire
I smiled at her now that we were face-to-face. However, her expression hadn’t changed froman intense frown.
“Not that I’m aware of,” I said. “I just have a few questions for them.”
“Are you a police officer?”
I shook my head. “An investigator.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied me more intensely.
I pressed my hand over my heart. “By the way, I’m Holly Henderson.”
She hesitated. “I’m Nel Banks.”
My hands were getting cold, so I shovedthem into my coat pockets. “Did you know the Greers?”
“Not in the personal sense. They were strange people. The girls were always in and out of the house, but they never talked to anyone in the neighborhood.”
“Oh, then they were loners?”
“Very much so. But my daughter used to have some dealings with one of the girls.”
Excitement raced through me. I’d thought I wouldhave to knock on several doors to inquire about the Greers. It was looking as if that was no longer the case.
“Oh yeah? Do you think your daughter would mind talking to me about the Greer girl?”
Nel narrowed an eye. “I don’t want my daughter to get caught up in any trouble.”
“I promise you that won’t happen. I’m a journalist. I won’t print her name. I just want to know ifshe could point me in the right direction.”
She grunted thoughtfully. “You want her to be a deep background source.”
I grinned from ear to ear, impressed she knew how to speak the language of my trade. “Yes. That’s exactly right.”
Her body seemed to relax some. “Well… Alexia, my daughter, doesn’t live here anymore. She used to be in the dark, but now she found the light.”Nel must’ve read my expression because she explained, “Drugs.”
“Oh.” I nodded. “Good for her.”
“Yes indeed.” The hard-earned memories of going through hell with an addicted child moistened her eyes. “Today, she works as a librarian in New York City.”
I knew the genuine warmth in my heart was reflected in my smile. “That’s nice to hear. Congratulations.” I turned to glare atthe house the Greers used to live in. “I know what the darkness feels like.” A chill ran over me, and it wasn’t because of the cold.
Nel Banks invitedme into her house so that she could make a call to her daughter, Alexia. Nel was a divorced woman who made her residence with three cats. The more comfortable she became with me, the more she began to reveal about the Greers. For instance, she would only see the girls and a man she assumed was their father, but never a mother. Sometimes, thefather would pull up into the driveway late at night with only one girl in the car. Often, it appeared as though no one was home at all. The Greers had an intimidating way about them, which made it easy for them to keep to themselves.
“Nobody wanted to bother them,” Nel said.
She also revealed that she’d learned years after Alexia’s sobriety that her daughter used to meet one ofthem in the woods to get high. Nel had never asked her daughter to elaborate, because the drugs were behind Alexia, and she hadn’t wanted to stir old memories or cravings. However, she believed Alexia was strong enough to talk about the past today.
“Sometimes she volunteers at treatment programs to mentor young girls who are battling addiction,” Nel said before placing a call to Alexia,who agreed to speak to me in person. It was Tuesday, so we planned to meet on Thursday in the East Village, near the library in which she worked.
I wanted to canvas the area to talk to more neighbors, but I was quickly losing interest in whatever secrets Randolph and Amelia Christmas had kept. Plus, not only was Jasper marrying Julia Valentine, but he’d given her a promotion. As I pluggedmy meeting with Alexia into the calendar on my cell phone, I wondered how often Jasper and Julia had sex.
“Screw him,” I huffed. I would never let his big fat penis get anywhere near my pussy ever again, and I meant it.
Right?
I groaned at my feeble vow to erase the one man my body desired even at that moment as I reached for my seat belt. My cell phone rang, and just likethat, my hope that it was Jasper calling to beg for forgiveness filled my head.
I turned on the engine and pressed the button on the steering wheel to answer the call hands-free. “Hello,” I said as I finished strapping myself in.
