Page 42 of Such a Quiet Place
CHAPTER 14
IHADN’T GONE OUT AGAIN.Not since arriving home to realize someone had been inside. I’d remained in my room, behind a secondary locked door, knowing that neither could truly keep me safe.
I stared at Tate’s note on the message board again, then slammed the laptop shut as Ruby appeared, coming down the staircase. Her steps slowed when she saw me, sitting at the kitchen table. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Just tired,” I said, the image from the photo that had been left in the foyer last night seared into the back of my mind. Someone had gotten into my house while I was out, and I hadn’t slept, and now there was this: a collision between a party that no one would cancel and the sudden return of Ruby Fletcher, fear and paranoia commingling at critical levels.
“Well?” she asked, pouring herself a coffee from the pot on the counter. “Was I right?”
I shook my head, not processing.
“About last night,” she continued, taking the seat across from me. “Run into anyone else out there? We can compare your notes to my guesses.”
She felt so close. My eyes drifted to her lips on the edge of the coffee mug as she took her first sip. Trying to remember that day in the courtroom.Thank you. Fuck you.
“No,” I said. “There was nothing to write down. It was quiet.”
She raised an eyebrow, reached a hand for my wrist, and flipped it over, exposing the fragile skin there. I could feel the blood pulsing. “What’s the matter?” she asked, leaning closer.
I felt boneless, my arm limp in her grip, not sure what I could trust—my memories, even; my perception of events. The words she might’ve spoken in the courtroom. The knife she kept under her mattress and the threatening pictures left inside. Whether she was afraid or someone to fear.
The way she’d sneaked in here the first day, barefoot, with no warning. The fact that Chase believed she’d tried to break into his house, the missed calls from her lawyer, and this sudden thought that maybe she had taken my car and gone absolutely nowhere. That she’d been here all along, watching. That she’d had fourteen months to let things fester, and now she was back for a reason.
“Ruby,” I said quietly. “Ruby, you can’t go to that party today.”
You can’t be here at all.
Her eyes narrowed, and her face became impenetrable, nothing but hard angles and flat expression. “You know what no one does around here? Talk to each other face-to-face. Ask questions or demand answers. It’s contagious, the way people act to save face.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “Smile on the surface, and whisper something else to the police. Cut someone out of their lives and pretend she never existed.”
I held my breath, held my expression still, refusing to look away. Not knowing whether she was speaking with generality or specificity.
“I’ve been ignored for a long time, Harper.”
I thought of Charlotte and what she would say. Chase and what he would do. What I was truly afraid of. “You can’t go,” I said. Direct and to the point. “Don’t go.” A plea instead.
She pushed back her chair slightly so the wooden legs cried against the tile floor. “Is this coming from you or them?” she asked.
I swallowed around the dryness in my throat. “It’s coming from me,” I said.
Her eyebrows shot up, like I’d surprised her. But she stood abruptly, turning away. “Don’t worry,” she said as she opened the fridge, pulling out the containers of fruit, placing them beside the bottles of red wine lining the back of the counter. “I won’t show up empty-handed. Wouldn’t want to be a bad guest, would I?”
I WAS GOING TObe sick. The last time I’d felt this ceaseless nausea, this unstoppable force heading my way, was in the days leading up to the trial. When I knew I’d have to face her and everyone else. I was barely able to eat the entire week.
Margo was right—a party was a bad idea. I couldn’t tell whether their insistence on the party was fueled by stubbornness, or animosity, or naïveté, but as the day progressed, the setup began, undaunted.
I had no control over Ruby Fletcher. I was naive to think I ever had.
From my bedroom window in the early afternoon, I saw Javier and Chase carrying the white folding tables from Javier’s garage. I heard the sharp pop of bang snaps being tossed in the street, and someone yelping with delight.
I needed to stop this.
Downstairs, Ruby had the music on too loud, so the entirehouse seemed to vibrate with the beat. She was mixing a second pitcher of sangria and didn’t seem to notice when I left.
I stepped outside to the sound of laughter, could smell the lingering smoke drifting from Charlotte’s driveway, where her daughters stood barefoot on the edge of the dry grass, tossing bang snaps onto the pavement.
Molly darted across the hot asphalt, and Whitney tossed one at her feet, both of them laughing as she leaped out of the way, smoke rising in her wake.
Music was already carrying from around the corner, probably the pool.
