“Lynda, can we can talk about it when I get home? I can explain what I know about what happened to your dad, then. Okay? I’ll call you before the flight, okay?”
“Mom, what do you know that I don’t?”
“I’m sorry I never spoke about it all with you. There are some details—I—I just need you to hold on, okay? I have to go. I’m coming to you.”
“Mom, hold on, one more thing!”
“Yes,” she says with trepidation in her tone.
What question doesn’t she want asked? What doesn’t she want to tell me?
“Mom, do you keep a spare key for the back door anywhere?”
She hesitates. “No… why?”
“It was the back door that was open.”
“I hid a spare outside before we left,” Ron says. “Just in case you got locked out. Didn’t you tell her, Annie?”
“I—I forgot,” she mutters. “I don’t know where my head was—”
“Where?” I ask, a cold chill running through me.
“Under the front windowsill on the porch.”
His words hit me at once.
The noises by the front window. Stevie crying, watching it that night.
“I have to go,” I say, standing and opening the back-kitchen door.
“Please stay with someone and be careful,” Mom says. “We’re on our way.”
Chapter 21
Blood red on the bathroom floor,
I’ve seen my share and so much more.
I jog to the front door, my heart beating, chest tight, and footsteps echoing down the hallway. I run past the living room alcove to the front door and swing it open to the dark grey afternoon with storm clouds rolling across the sky. I march to the windowsill and slide my fingers along the white smooth bottom ledge until I feel a cold, jagged bump.
Stokes steps out onto the porch as I pluck the key from its perch.
“Lyn, everything okay?”
My chest heaves as I stare at it and nod. “I think so, yeah.” I turn to him, shoving the key in my jeans pocket. “Sorry, phone call from my mom.”
He wraps his arm over my shoulders, leads me inside, and I finish what I started with Lucie and the keyboard. We create a beautiful, haunting melody together and after we nail down the song, Lucie and Royal say their goodbyes and leave to get dressed up for the show. Stokes joins me at the front door, pulling his keychain from his pocket.
Is he leaving me?
“Hey,” I whisper, glancing up the stairs where Cline went into the washroom moments before. “Are you leaving?”
“Oh, no, I’m just going back to my place to get my costume for tonight. Cline’s going to stay ‘til I get back, though. I’m bringing him his costume, too.”
I open my eyes wide and crane my neck back. “Can’t he just get both your costumes? What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I swear. I just asked if he could stay until I got back with our costumes because I want to give him something cool for his.”
I forgot to dye Samara’s dress blue and dirty. I don’t even want to dress up anymore.
“Okay,” I whisper. “I mean, Cline and I aren’t exactly buddies. This is going to be awkward.”
“But you won’t be alone. He will stay here. I promise I won’t be more than half an hour. Just let him drink and put some music on. Thirty minutes tops. Closer to twenty if traffic is good. We good?”
I can’t be so co-dependent, and it’s not like he’s leaving me alone, defenceless if something were to happen.
I nod, and he opens the door with a cute smile. “Plus, you have Stevie.”
She wags her tail at the mention of her name and I smile down at her. “See you soon.”
He walks out the door and I go to the living room and put on a jazz record before bringing the coffee mugs to the kitchen and letting Stevie out back. I take a step outside to join her but catch a glimpse of Carol in the Hilden’s back yard and hesitate. She’s on the phone with someone, crying. Did she know about Alex’s sick obsession with me? Was she as blindsided as I was?
I step back inside and close the door, watching her from the window. The music stops and I hear shuffling in the living room.
“Feel free to put on whatever you want,” I call.
I recognize the first notes at once. Haddonboro’s latest album—Away With You. Stokes sings his first part and Pascha chimes in. It must be so hard for Cline to hear her voice—to hear me sing her songs.
“Do you want another beer? I’ll bring you a cold one,” I call.
Maybe I’ll have a glass of wine while I figure out what I’m going to do to pull a costume together.
No response.
I turn around and walk down the hall. “Cline?”
The living room is empty.
“Cline!” I shout.
“Yeah?” he calls from upstairs.
I walk to the bottom of the stairs, gripping the bannister, and turn back to the record player. “Did you just put on that music?”
No answer.
“Cline!” I shout. “Are you playing a joke? This isn’t funny.”
Someone was down here and changed the music. I’m not dealing with this anymore. Not the day to mess with me. I dash upstairs and the bathroom door is closed with light shining under the crack.
“Cline!”
“What?” he asks in a calm, aloof voice from just past the bathroom.
In my room? I walk down the hallway and as I stop in front of the doorway, he’s standing in the middle of my room with a frown and points to my bed. “What are those?”
My heart sinks. What’s on my bed now?
“Look,” he says, staring at the bed.
I frown and take a step into the room.
It’s the album cover of Away With You and a forest green notebook. Pascha’s. Is he mad I took it?
“It’s Pascha’s notebook. I picked it up by accident after my audition. And… that’s your album.” His stoic expression confuses me. “So you did change the music?”
“Did you just get the album? After you joined us?”
I start to shake my head, and then I realize,
