they lied, Lea. They lied to the police. Didn’t you wonder why I was in there being grilled for an hour?”
“I was getting ready, dear. I thought you wanted to go out and have a good time. This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
“You’re not even listening to me. Those boys you brought here-”
“I know how you feel about them.” Her voice suddenly sharp. “You’ve made it perfectly clear.”
“We’ve got a real problem, Lea. Can’t you understand that?”
“I understand that your
“No. No, that’s not the problem. They are liars and thieves and. . and God knows what else.”
She startled him by grabbing the front of his shirt with both hands and tugging it hard. “They’re
He pried her hands off him as gently as he could. Her eyes were wide with anger. Her shouts had been like animal growls.
“We’ll talk about it later, okay, sweetheart? Okay? Let’s go out and have fun and get drunk and enjoy ourselves. Okay?”
She nodded, but her glare didn’t soften. “Okay. Let’s go. Let’s go have fun.”
53
“I want that one.” Elena stabbed a finger at the laptop screen. “Just a tiny black-and-red flower. Subtle, see?”
Ruth-Ann brought her face close to the screen. “Too subtle. It’ll look like a birthmark or a mole or something.”
Elena gave her friend a shove. “No, it won’t. It will look like a perfect little flower.”
“Where will you put it?” Ruth-Ann demanded. “On your butt?”
They both laughed.
“On my ankle,” Elena said. “Right here.” She touched her bare ankle with one magenta fingernail. Then she scrolled down the screen of tattoo designs. “Which one do
“I don’t want color,” Ruth-Ann said. “I don’t like the colors. I just want black. There. Look. Those Chinese letters. What does that say?”
“I don’t read Chinese,” Elena said.
“There’s a caption. Read the caption,” Ruth-Ann leaned closer. “There. Yes. That’s the one I want. In English it means
Both girls collapsed laughing. The laptop started to slide off Elena’s lap. She caught it before it fell to the floor.
Ruth-Ann shifted her weight on the edge of the bed. “Can you imagine? All these people walking around with Chinese tattoos, and they think they say
“No.
They laughed some more.
Yes, they were a little giddy tonight. Elena felt more excited to see her friend than usual. Sure, they’d had sleepovers before. But not since the murder in the driveway.
Ruth-Ann’s parents kept calling from L.A., telling Ruth-Ann she shouldn’t spend the night at Elena’s, “just to be on the safe side.”
But Ruth-Ann persuaded Mrs. Ellison, the woman hired to take care of her, that Mark and Lea weren’t ax murderers, and her parents were being extra strict only because they felt guilty about being away in L.A. for so long.
And so here they were, picking out tattoos online and texting boys in their class, and laughing a lot. They pretty much had the house to themselves on this Friday night. Roz had retired up to the attic with Axl. The boys were in their private house out back. Mark and Lea had gone to see friends in Sagaponack.
“How about a cute ladybug?” Elena asked, returning to the tattoo thumbnails.
“Lame,” Ruth-Ann said. “Why do you want a bug crawling on you? Hey, Elena, think your parents would let you get that tiny flower tattoo? Your dad says kids should do whatever they want, right?”
Elena snickered. “That’s total bullshit. No way they’d let me get a tattoo even if you needed a microscope to see it. We’re fourteen, Ruth-Ann. You know what that means.”
“No. What?”
“It means anything we want to do, we’re not old enough yet.”
Ruth-Ann thought about that, chewing her bottom lip. “Hey, you’re right. You got it. That’s exactly what fourteen means.”
They tapped on their phones for a few minutes.
“Look at this.” Elena shoved her phone into Ruth-Ann’s face. “This photo Roshanna sent me. Roshanna kissing her dog. Look. With tongues.”
“Eeuw.” Ruth-Ann made a face. “Which one’s Roshanna?”
That made them both laugh. “You’re cruel,” Elena said.
Ruth-Ann nodded. “It’s my best quality.”
Elena heard a sound. She glanced up to see Daniel and Samuel in her bedroom doorway. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey, guys.” Daniel mimicked her words like a parrot.
“You’ve met Ruth-Ann, right?”
“Hi. What’s up?” Ruth-Ann poked Elena and whispered, “They’re totally cute.”
“What’s up?” Daniel echoed. They stepped into the room, their blue eyes catching the ceiling light.
They wore matching denim cutoff shorts. Daniel had an orange T-shirt with a bright yellow sun on the front pulled down nearly to his knees. Samuel had a black sleeveless T-shirt that revealed his slender, pale shoulders.
Daniel held up something in his hand. A brown wallet. “Pa left his wallet on the floor in his office.”
“Well, just put it back on his desk,” Elena said.
Daniel nodded. “I’ll do that.” He tucked the wallet into the pocket of his shorts.
Elena clicked her laptop shut and set it beside her on the bed. “What’s going on in your private little kingdom out back? You’re not doing anything bad back there, are you?”
“You’ll be wanting to come see,” Daniel said. He kept his eyes on Elena, as if he was trying to tell her something.
“I don’t think so,” Elena replied. “Ruth-Ann and I are kind of busy here.”
The boys stepped up to the bed, walking side by side, their faces blank.
Elena felt a tremor of misgiving. “What do you guys want?”
“Want to see our friend Roshanna tongue-kissing a dog?” Ruth-Ann offered. She reached behind Elena for the laptop.
“No. Don’t show them that.” Elena wrestled Ruth-Ann away. “They’ll enjoy it too much.”
She expected the boys to laugh or at least smile at that, but their stony expressions didn’t change.
“You’ll be wanting to come with us now,” Daniel said, so earnest and innocent at the same time, she had an impulse to hug him.
“And why would we want to do that?” Elena demanded.
“Does your brother ever talk?” Ruth-Ann offered, her eyes on Samuel.
“I’m the quiet one, don’t you know,” Samuel said.
“I’m quiet, too,” Ruth-Ann told him.
Elena poked her in the ribs. “Shut up. When are you ever quiet?”
Ruth-Ann laughed.
Daniel took Elena’s hand and tried to tug her up off the bed.
