Page 22 of Hard Evidence
A groan escaped.“Please, don’t remind me.”
“I’m going to remind you every day, just in case you somehow forget that men are bad news.Apart from Kevin, obviously.He’s okay.”
“How was the bachelorette party?”
“I mean, I don’t think I did anything too embarrassing.How could I when there was no alcohol, no strippers, and no fun?”
“Let’s take that as a positive.”
“I guess.”Saylor sighed heavily.“No matter how much time I spend here, I’m not sure I’ll ever fit in.Tillie, where did you get that?Candy isn’t breakfast.Hang on a sec…” Her voice was muffled as she gently chided her little girl.“Go on then, give me the juicy details.Did you cut up his shirts?”
“No, I drugged him with Benadryl and snuck out of the house.”
“Go you.”
“The drugging part didn’t even work.May cause drowsiness?Bullcrap, he was hot on my heels.If I hadn’t gone to the wrong shelter first, he’d have caught me.”
“Did you get Shiro?Tell me you got Shiro.”
“They snuck him out the back door while Ridge was busy whining about property laws.”
“So where are you now?”
“Virginia.”
“And where are you heading?Not back to Alabama?”
“No way.I was planning to go to South Carolina, maybe farther, but the junker I’m driving broke down in Pennsylvania, and I’ve been nursing it along ever since.It needs a new radiator, but I can’t afford a new radiator, so I’m going to look for waitressing work.”
I tried to sound happy about that, but really, I felt like sobbing.
“How much does a radiator cost?”
“More than a thousand bucks.”
Saylor gasped.“Yikes.Did you find somewhere to stay?”
“Not exactly.”
“Oh, Jessie.Tell me you’re not sleeping in your car?”
Should I tell Saylor how stupid I’d been?I didn’t want to worry her, but I also didn’t want to lie.
“I thought I’d found a room to rent, but it fell through.”
“That sucks, but as long as you didn’t hand any money over…” She hesitated, and a note of horror crept into her voice.“You didn’t pay any money, did you?”
“The girl was real convincing.But I’ll be okay, I swear.I’ll be fine.”
Jessie Packer, survivor; that was my new moniker, and I wore it with relief.
“I’m going to wire you some money.I just need to get dressed… And take Tillie to school.And I have a dental appointment, and possibly a little car-crying to do in between, but then I’m going to wire you some money.Get a motel room, okay?”
“No, no, no.”Between bailing her little brother out of his gambling problem and helping Kevin’s mom with her medical bills, they didn’t have any spare.“I have a place to stay tonight.”
“Really?”she asked suspiciously.“Where?”
“Uh…”
