“You might need to run things around here for a few days. A family emergency has come up and I might have to leave town.” She hoped he wouldn’t ask where she was going. She’d already lied to him too many times. Lying, she was sure, didn’t get easier with practice.
“Anything serious?”
“Just family stuff.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Kitsap County
Fifteen years ago
The parking lot of the Secure Crisis Residential Center was mostly empty, though Lainie knew that there would be fifty cars shoehorned into the lot by the time she departed after seeing her sister. She parked her hideous green Toyota Corolla (“Nagasaki’s revenge,” she frequently said, making a dark joke of the car’s unfortunate paint color) and went inside. Daniel Hector was the only guard on duty and he signed her in. He led her to the craft room where Tori was sitting next to a Victorian dollhouse. She stood.
“I knew you would come. I knew I could count on you, Lainie.” Lainie embraced her sister; this time she felt a slight hug in return.
“I love you, Tori.”
“I know you do,” she said, tears coming to her eyes. Coming, but not falling.
“I need you to do something for me.”
“What? What can I do?”
“I can’t take it anymore. I’m going crazy. I’m going to die. I need to get out of here.”
“You will get out. You’re almost there.”
“I want out today.”
“Of course you do. I want you out.”
“I want you to take my place.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You heard me. You owe me.”
“I don’t owe you that.”
“You do.”
“I’m leaving now.”
“I’ll tell.”
“No one will believe you.”
“Is that what this has come to? That you think no one will believe me because I’m the bad twin? You’re so effing perfect?”
“I never said that.”
“You don’t have to. Everyone else does. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of you, Dad, prison, Port Orchard.”
“Look, I know you are hurting. I wish none of this ever happened.”
“Wishing something doesn’t make it so. Just one day, Lainie. Can’t you give me one freaking day?” She looked at a pair of scissors.
“Cut my hair like yours.”
“I won’t,” Lainie said.
“You really want to go there? You were driving that night. It was your idea to take the car, not mine.” An intensity came to Tori’s eyes, replacing anguish.
“I’ll tell. Don’t think I won’t. Don’t think for one second that I won’t do whatever it takes to get what I want.” Lainie could feel her heart pound. She didn’t know what to do. Should she get up and run, or should she stay and reason with her twin? “You made an agreement.”
“I lied,” Tori said. Lainie pushed back on her chair. She could feel her legs wanted to rise up and lift her, but they didn’t. For some reason, she stayed.
“Are you lying now?”
“I get that it’s a risk, but you’re going to have to take a chance. Or I’ll ruin your life. Goody-goody Lainie’s not so good after all.”
“Just one night?” Tori picked up the scissors and slid them across the tabletop.
“Here, cut.” She swiveled in her chair, her back now facing her sister. Reluctantly, Lainie reached for the scissors.
“I didn’t think they could have sharp objects in a place like this.”
“Start cutting,” Tori said.
“You’d be surprised what goes on in here.”
Wearing Lainie’s clothes, blue jeans, and sweater over a long-sleeved T-shirt, Tori O’Neal spun around in a circle as she and Daniel Hector left 7-Pod and her sister. It was part fashion show, part makeover, and a celebration of freedom. Hector nodded approvingly.
“She’ll never tell,” Tori said.
“Do whatever you want with her.” The corrections officer smiled, his uneven teeth stained by chewing tobacco.
“Wish I could have you both at once.”
“You can pretend,” she said. He handed her Lainie’s purse and car keys from a storage locker behind the counter.
“She did a nice job on the cut, Tori,” he said, as she started toward the door.
“I know you were worried about that.”
“Lainie, officer. I’m Lainie.”
“Right.” He reached down and turned on the video camera mounted in the craft room above a painting of an Old English cottage.
Mikey Walsh’s trailer wasn’t hard to find. Tori went down to the boat launch across from Al’s Grocery on Olalla Bay and asked around. She didn’t say she wanted to score some speed, but a man on a chopper figured that’s what the pretty blonde with the ugly car wanted. She pulled into his long wooded driveway, to the mobile home that was one or two winter seasons away from falling into the soggy soil of South Kitsap. She let herself inside and found Mikey on a ratty sofa watching CNN.
“I didn’t take you for a news buff,” she said. Startled, he looked up.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?”
“I’m here to talk to you.”
“I don’t have nothing to say to you. Get out of my house.”
“This isn’t much of a house and you don’t have anything to say,” she said.
“I’m going to do the talking.”
“What do you want?” Mikey stood. He wore ratty Levi cutoffs, a tank top, and athletic socks. He smelled of beer and body odor.
“I’m here to make you a promise,” she said.
“I don’t want anything from you. Your sister is in jail and we’re done.” Tori didn’t correct him. She was Lainie.
“You think my sister is trash, don’t you?”
“She is trash. She’s a freak.”
“Like I said, I’m here to make a promise.”
“What kind of a promise?”
“I promise that you’re a dead man if you ever, ever, ever talk about what you saw.” His eyes flashed defiance.
“You mean how she killed that kid?” She took a step closer. Tori refused to give an inch of ground to that piece of garbage standing in front of her.
“You want to die, too?”
“You’re some stupid girl. I’m not afraid of you,” he said, backing off a little. There was a coldness
