Page 44 of Spooked

But if the car was still there in the morning, I’d climb out of the window and vanish again.

I barely slept that night.

In the morning, the car was gone.

* * *

“Here, have this.” Mr. Vale used one elegant forefinger to push his coffee across the desk toward me on Monday morning. “You look as if you need it more than I do.”

“Really, I’m—” Another yawn came before I could stop it, and Mr. Vale folded his arms in a “see, I’m right” gesture. “Thank you.”

I took a sip, and the beverage was a little on the cool side, but he hadn’t complained once since his confession about Carissa Dunn two weeks ago. Now we only spoke with either a camera or a witness watching over us, and I’d actually begun to enjoy my job. It wasn’t the emergency department, but it was a million times better than being chained to Karam’s kitchen sink.

I’d also begun wearing make-up again. If video of me was going to be used in a court case, I at least wanted to look pretty while I gave Mr. Vale’s wife the metaphorical finger.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Just tired, that’s all.”

“Busy weekend?”

On Saturday, I’d done the grocery shopping, and yesterday, I’d visited the laundromat and then gone out to catch a movie by myself because the occupant of the apartment next door was using power tools and I couldn’t hear myself think.Rules of Playhad just won an award, so the theatre put on a special showing with themed snacks, which had seemed like a good deal, but I hadn’t expected the movie to be quite so scary. I’d jumped right alongside Violet Miller and spilled most of my popcorn, and maybe the residual fear was why I’d been so nervous about that man in the car last night?

Or maybe not.

It wasn’t as if I could call the cops, was it?

While my big brother, Raj, had followed my father into the family business, my younger brother had joined the Springfield PD. Not only would I be on the missing persons list, but Vimal would also be monitoring every available channel for any sign of me. If I popped up on his radar, then he and Raj would be dispatched to bring me home.

This morning, I’d packed extra clothes into a backpack and put them in the trunk of my car. If the watcher was there again this evening, I’d keep on driving.

“I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Is something worrying you?”

Everything was worrying me. The stranger outside my apartment, Meera’s relationship difficulties, the thought that this new life I was building could fall apart in a heartbeat.

The fear that I might have to leave and never see this man again.

In hindsight, Mr. Vale had been absolutely right. Things had been much easier when there was space between us.

“No?”

“Liar.”

His tone was mild, but his assertion was confident. He knew I wasn’t being truthful with him.

“It’s probably nothing. There was a man in a car outside my apartment last night, and it felt like he was watching me. But I went to see a horror movie yesterday evening, so I was probably overreacting, and—”

Mr. Vale already had the desk phone cradled against his shoulder, his mouth set in a hard line as he stabbed at a button.Speed dial one.

“Carissa, do you have a man monitoring Meera?”

I couldn’t hear the response, but anger clouded those blue eyes of his, and they turned a shade darker.

“Was he outside her apartment last night?”

A pause.

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