saw it parked below. There was someone sitting inside, but it was too dark to make him out, and all she could see was an arm dangling out the driver’s window, cigarette in hand.
For a moment Jillian had thought it might be her dad, because he had always smoked cigarettes, but then that didn’t make much sense. Dad had moved to Idaho with his new girlfriend four years ago and didn’t seem all that interested in staying in contact with Jillian. So why would he be parked outside her apartment building?
But whoever it was, Jillian got the sense that he was watching her. And she didn’t like it. It made her feel kinda crawly, like she had spiders inside her blood.
So she made sure that both the window and her curtains were shut, even used a clothespin to seal the gap between the curtains, then promptly tossed off her school uniform and climbed into the shower.
She knew she should have told her mom about the car, but she hadn’t. Every time she thought about it, Craig had been there. Craig was always there.
Now here the car was again. Parked outside Carl’s Liquor Store.
But why? Did he live in the neighborhood?
“That’s it,” she said to Suzie. “That’s the car I told you about.”
Suzie looked at it. “The Rambler?”
“Is that what it’s called?”
Suzie nodded. “My uncle has one just like it. He collects old cars.”
“Does he live around here?”
“He lives in New Jersey, dumbo. You know that.”
“I thought maybe he moved or something,” Jillian said. “Who do you think it belongs to?”
“Probably some hobo. Come on, let’s go.”
But Jillian wasn’t ready to go yet. Curious, she started toward the car.
“What are you doing?” Suzie asked, sounding a little nervous.
“I wanna look inside.”
“What?” She sounded alarmed now.
“Just a quick look,” Jillian said. “I’m not gonna get in or anything.”
“What if somebody catches you?”
“I’ll tell him we thought it was your uncle’s car.”
Moving up to the driver’s window, she took a look inside. The seats had rips in them and the ashtray was hanging open, overflowing with funny-looking cigarette butts. Jillian had never seen yellow cigarettes before.
Then she noticed a crumpled pack lying on the passenger’s seat. It had some kind of foreign language written on it.
There was a locket dangling from the rearview mirror. It looked like it was open, but the reflection from the window made it kinda hard to see, so Jillian bent down a little to get a different angle.
Inside was a photograph. A really old one, from the looks of it. A faded black and white. Jillian had seen pictures like it in her history book, from back when cameras were first invented and everybody stared into them like they were possessed by the Devil or something.
The girl in the photograph looked that way, too. Was probably about fifteen or sixteen, with curly black hair and really big dark eyes. Her skin looked brown, like she’d spent a lot of time in the sun, and she had a shawl on her head.
She was probably one of the most beautiful girls Jillian had ever seen. And there was something familiar about her. Like maybe she was somebody Jillian had known once.
The girl looked like a gypsy. At least the gypsies Jillian had seen in the movies. And Jillian wondered if she was the driver’s great-grandma or some other relative, long dead, because if she was still alive, she was bound to be as wrinkly as a sun-dried fig.
Jillian squinted at the photo a moment longer, then stood upright and moved to the rear passenger window. Nothing in the backseat or on the floor except for a crumpled McDonald’s bag that looked like it had been there for weeks. Jillian was about to move on when her attention was drawn to a familiar sight in the back windshield.
That was weird.
Down in the bottom right corner was a Big Mountain parking sticker. One that said: EMPLOYEE.
Craig had one on his car, too. So whoever was driving this old heap worked for the same company that Craig did.
Jillian suddenly got an oogy feeling. Could the driver of the car be Craig himself? She’d never seen him with a cigarette, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a smoker.
But why would he be driving this old hunk of junk? And how could he have been in the car sitting outside her bathroom window when she knew very well that he’d been in the living room with Mom?
No, somebody else drove this car, somebody that worked with Craig.
And then a sudden thought occurred to Jillian.
Could Craig have hired someone to follow her? To watch her? To maybe even…
No, that was crazy.
Or was it?
What if Craig wanted Mom all to himself, wanted them to be a team, so he could spend night after night on the sofa with her, watching The Fall Guy or whatever crummy TV show he felt like watching? Wouldn’t it be nice not to have Jillian around to make a stink about it?
She knew there was a reason not to like the guy. Him with his happy smiles and free passes to Big Mountain. Maybe that’s why the place had made her feel so creepy. Maybe whoever he’d hired had been watching her even then.
She tried to think back to the night they’d gone there, trying to remember when she’d first gotten that feeling. Mom and the TV hog were off doing their own thing, while Jillian and Suzie rode the Log Jammers and the Big Mountain Express and just about any other ride they could get on. Craig had given them VIP passes, so they were always able to go to the front of the line without having to have a wheelchair or a cane.
By the time they’d gotten off of their fifth or sixth ride, they had decided to get some cotton candy and sit down for a while. They found a bench across from the Miner’s Magic Mirror Maze, and that, she realized, was when she’d gotten the feeling. The creepy feeling that someone was watching her. Someone inside.
Could it have been the guy from the Rambler?
“Come on, Jillian, let’s go,” Suzie said. “Somebody’s gonna come.”
Suddenly feeling creepier than she’d ever felt before, Jillian decided that her friend was right. It was time to go and they’d better go right now. She turned and headed back toward Suzie, grabbing her friend’s hand when she reached her.
She wanted to tell Mom about Craig and the Rambler and about how she thought he might be trying to kill her. And the sooner she did, the better she’d feel.
“Race you home,” she said to Suzie. Then they broke away from each other and ran.
2 6
“ This is ridiculous,” Jake said.
Pope turned sharply. “You promised not to interrupt.”
“Come on, Danny, are you really falling for this nonsense?”
Pope looked at McBride, but she hadn’t stirred. Although she had been responding to his questions clearly and without hesitation, there seemed to be a part of her that wasn’t even aware he was asking them. In fact, she was so deep into her trance, so immersed in the world of this little girl, that he thought it might be tough to bring her out again.
“I just told her partner to take a hike,” Jake continued. “Maybe it’s time I suggest she do the same thing. You hear me, McBride?”
“Knock it off, Jake.”
“Who does she think she’s kidding? A mysterious car? A gypsy girl? Another goddamn house of mirrors? She’s making this stuff up as she goes-”
