Page 57 of Shiver

“Thank you, Mama,” she said softly and sipped another spoonful of soup.

“Tell us what you’ve been doing. How did you end up all the way down in Louisiana?” she asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

“I move around a lot.”

“Why is that?” her papa asked, breaking his silence.

She didn’t know how to answer him.

“You came home for a reason, didn’t you, Devy?” His voice, deep and penetrating, touched her as no other could. He always seemed to be able to see inside her mind, to know what she was thinking. Why hadn’t he been able to see the truth, that she hadn’t killed Tommy?That she wasn’t sick?

After that horrible day, she hadn’t been able to do anything to please him. As if she’d been damaged in some way. On that count, she supposed he was right. She had been damaged, and she still was. The negative thoughts churned away inside her, bringing with them fatigue and sorrow.

“I came home hoping you would help me.” Her eyes locked on his. She’d always believed if she could only have made it home that day, he would have helped her, he would have saved her. But she hadn’t been able to find her way.

She was home now, but she couldn’t be sure if he’d be able to help her, and she knew for certain that no one could save her. Not even Riley.

Hewas coming, and there was nothing any of them could do to stop him.

Chapter 22

Devra stoodat her mama’s kitchen window and stared into the forest she’d loved to play in as a child. She tried to peer through the thick green shrubs and oversize ferns, past the trees covered with moss, but she couldn’t see ten feet into the forest. Anyone could be out there…watching. Waiting.

“Devy, come back to the table and finish your soup,” her mama insisted as if nothing were wrong, as if they hadn’t been out of her life for fifteen years. She looked to her papa, then back to her mama again. How long would they sit there acting as if nothing had happened? Acting as if they hadn’t tossed her away, never to be thought of again. Devra sat down, unsure how to broach the subject that brought them there.

Riley took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “That sure was wonderful soup, Mrs. Miller.”

“Thank you,” she said smiling. “Devra used to help me make it all the time, before…”

Before you sent me away?

She wanted to ask them why they’d done it, demand answers. But she couldn’t, not while Riley was there. She wasn’t ready for him to know she’d spent five years in a mental institution. She didn’t want him to look at her like her papa did, as if she were crazy.

Her mama’s cheeks flushed. “What do you do for work? How do you make your living? Tell me everything about your life, Devy.”

“I need to find out what happened to Tommy, Mama. That’s why I’m here.”

Her mama scoffed and looked away. “We don’t need to bring all that up again. That poor child. God rest his soul.”

“We do need to bring it up again. The man who killed him…he’s back. He’s coming for me.”

Her mother’s face turned ashen. Her grasp on her lemonade glass tightened as her hands began to tremble.

“I know you didn’t believe me,” Devra continued, pushing forward even though she could see her mother’s distress. “After a while, I wasn’t sure I believed me either. When I left,” she glanced at Riley, who gave her an encouraging nod, “that is, when I moved to Seattle, I attended college and tried to make a life for myself. But it happened again, a woman was killed. I moved to Portland, then San Francisco, Miami, and finally New Orleans. Everywhere I went, I dreamed of death. And all the women in my dreams were killed.”

“Please, Devy, I can’t go through all that again. I just can’t. They’re the devil’s work, these dreams.”

“It doesn’t matter what they are. He kills women who look exactly like me.”

“Enough!” Her papa roared, and grasped the table so hard, the tablecloth bunched beneath his fingers.

Devra stared at him, refusing to yield. “The man who killed Tommy follows me everywhere I go. He kills people. Now he’s after me.” She picked up a daisy out of the milk glass vase and threw it on the table. “He leaves me messages. Daisies and Raspberries. My only chance to beat him is to find out the truth about what happened here fifteen years ago. About what happened to Tommy, before it happens to me.”

Her parents looked at each other, a silent message passing between them.

“What is it? What haven’t you told me?” She pressed.

“How dare you come here and speak to your mama and me about such things? After everything we did for you, after all you put us through.”

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