waved a rattle near his face in a move to distract him from a box of sugared rings that held his full attention.
“Melissa Belmont.” I left my cart askew and raced toward her.
“Tish. Hi.”
She looked close to tears as she glanced around, probably looking for spies.
“Andrew, what’s the matter, baby?” I reached for my church buddy and stuck him on my hip. I kissed his head. The scent of baby powder and formula niggled at a dormant female instinct. I looked at the girl clinging to the front end of the cart. “And how are you, Miss Hannah?”
She let go with one hand long enough to give a little wave.
I turned to Missy. “My grandfather says you’re having a tough time. How are you holding up?”
Tears started to roll. “Not very good. Bad, in fact.” She wiped at her cheek with the back of one wrist. She put out her arms to take Andrew. “I can’t talk to you. That jerk of Drake’s will be back any minute. If he sees us together . . .”
I held Andrew closer. “What’s going on, Missy? Why are you still there? Why don’t you just get out?”
She put a hand over her mouth to hold back the squeaks. When she regained her composure, she rushed to fill in the details, whispering with her back to Hannah. “They took away my car keys. They won’t let me use the phone. If they see me with anyone, they threaten to hurt that person. Anything I do, one of them goes with me. The worst thing is, Drake swears if I try to take the kids, he’ll kill me.” She collapsed into her hand again. “I feel like a prisoner in my own home.”
I blinked, incredulous. “You don’t just feel like one, you are one. Who’s here with you today?” I glanced behind me, pinpointing the convex mirrors in the corners of the store.
“Bill Stigler. They call him Stick. But he just dropped us off out front and said he’d be back in an hour.”
I looked at the layers of canned goods, coffee, cereal, and diapers in her cart. “How long ago was that?”
“About twenty minutes.”
My brain started churning. “Let’s switch carts. I’ll go through the checkout, load up the groceries, then pick you guys up around back. There’s an exit by the restrooms.”
“Are you crazy? Drake’s serious. He’ll kill me.” Her hands wrung together.
Puppa had said sometimes a murder could be made to look like suicide. All Sam and I had to do was keep our eye on Missy and she’d be safe. They weren’t going to do anything crazy as long as there were witnesses.
I switched Andrew to my other hip. “We’ll keep you indoors for a while, just ’til they quit searching for you.”
Terror crossed Missy’s face. “He’ll never quit looking for the kids.”
“Come on. We haven’t had contact since that day at the library. They won’t think of looking for you at the lodge.”
“That’s the first place they’ll go. Why do you think they burnt down your shed? The day he was arrested it was all over town that you were the one who turned him in.”
Missy was right. They’d probably come nosing around my place. But we’d have several hours before they started the search—they’d scour Manistique first. And we’d hide Missy and the kids in the crawl space ’til danger passed. If all else failed, we’d turn to the pros.
“My grandfather will keep us safe.” I laid the confidence on thick.
She swallowed. Then she nodded. “Okay.”
“Good girl. We’ll get through this just fine.” I passed Andrew back to her. “Take my cart and look like you’re shopping. I’ll meet you out back in ten minutes.”
25
I headed straight to the checkout. The lady gave me a strange look when she got to the diapers and wipes, like I had no business being a mother. I played it cool.
“Those are for my nephew,” I said, stumbling over my fabrication. “He’s coming for a visit.”
She nodded and ran the canned goods past the laser. “How old is he?”
“Umm, almost two, I think.”
She barely glanced up as she held the cereal boxes to the barcode reader. “Those diapers are for six to twelve months. Are you sure you got the right size?”
“Ahh, yeah. He was premature.”
“Okay. If you messed up, you can return them as long as they’re not opened.”
“Thanks.”
She finished the last item and gave me the total.
My face flushed red as I scrambled to count my cash. “Oh my. Diapers cost a lot more than I thought. I’ll have to write you a check.”
“Sure, no problem.”
I scribbled the amount and signed the bottom. I passed it to her. The address box in the upper corner of the check practically blinked neon.
“You’re from Port Silvan, huh?” the woman asked.
“Yeah.” I didn’t elaborate.
“I’ve got relatives in Port Silvan. Maybe you know some of them—the Belmonts?”
I guzzled some air and ended up coughing. Belmont relatives? “Yeah. I’ve heard the name.”
“Here you go.” She passed me my receipt.
“Thanks.” I pushed the bagged groceries full speed toward the exit.
“Have a nice day.”
I was halfway to the sliding doors as she uttered the words.
My heart pounded in my ears as I started the Explorer. Abort mission. Abort mission, the rushing blood screamed. But all I could think about was Missy and her kids, held prisoner by a bunch of thugs. This was America. Nobody should have to live like that.
I pulled around to the delivery door. Missy sprinted out, Andrew and diaper bag in one hand, Hannah holding the other. The Coke deliveryman almost ran them over with his handcart.
“Sorry, sir,” I called through my open window. He disappeared inside the building. “Get in the back and lay on the floor.” I waved my arm to hurry them along.
They loaded up. At the slam of the door, I was off, heading back to US-2 like a getaway driver.
There was silence until we crossed the Manistique River.
“Mumma? How come we’re hiding on the floor?” Hannah’s tiny voice asked the question.
In a sudden flashback, the windshield in front of me morphed into the broad dash of my grandmother’s old Buick.
“Gram, how come we have to leave at night? Can’t we wait until tomorrow?” I had the voice of an eight- year-old.
Crickets chirped all around. Gram pressed me into the middle seat. Grandpa got in on my other side. He smelled of beer and cigarettes. Car doors slammed in the cool May air. The pointer slid to the D and the car moved forward in the blackness.
“There’s bad people here, Tish,” Grandma said. “Lots and lots of bad people. We’re leaving and we’re never coming back.”
“I want Mom.”
Grandma made a loud breath. “She’s dead. She killed herself. You’re going to have to live with that, just like the rest of us.”
“I want Mom.” My voice quivered and my face scrunched.
“You can’t undo what’s been done. Try not to think about it.”
I tried not to think about Mom being dead. And the harder I tried, the more the tears ran down my face and my nose leaked.
“Patricia Louise Amble, I can’t drive with you making all that noise.”
“Go easy on her, Eva,” Grandpa said. His words came out all jiggly, like they did when he drank too much
