Mina, I hate that sort of thing. I already told you. Trev and Kyle are already sitting in a booth when we get there. Angry Burger is busy, packed with college students home for the weekend, a big group shooting pool in the corner, Corona bottles stuffed with lime wedges clutched in their free hands.
Hes Pete, she says, and I smile, because that pretty much sums it up. Her boyfriend has tranquil down to an art form. Ive got some yoga flows he put together for you. She eats another fry. Did you keep up with your practice?
I nod. Charles let me bring my mat and blocks. But I couldnt have the strap. I guess she was afraid Id hang myself or something. Its a lame attempt at a joke that leaves a gaping hole of awkward silence between us. Macy sips her iced tea, looking at me over the glass. I tear a fry in half and squish it between my fingers just for something to do.
Anything else for you girls? Just the check, Macy says. She doesnt even look at the waitress, keeping her eyes on me. She waits until the womans behind the counter.
Okay, Sophie. No more bad jokes. No more small talk. Time to tell me the truth. I feel queasy, and for a second Im so full of dread, Im afraid Ill be sick. Shes the only person left who hasnt heard my truth. Im so afraid shell do what they all did: Blame me. Refuse to believe me. It takes every shred of strength Ive got left to force out: What do you want to know? Lets start with why you supposedly relapsed two weeks after getting home from Oregon.
When I say nothing, she taps her fork against the edge. When your mom called and said they found drugs in your jacket, I was surprised. I thought wed worked through all that. I could have understood your relapsing if it had been after Minas murder. But this The pills were in my jacket at the crime scene, so they had to be mine, right?
Mina didnt do drugs. Im the one with the history. Im the one whod barely been clean six months when it happened. Im the reason we were out there in the first place. Thats what everyone says. I cant hide the bitterness in my voice. Macy sits back in the booth, lifts her chin, and peers at me, a sad sort of knowing in her face. Im more interested in what you have to say.
I You The words stick in my throat, and then its like shes pulled a plug inside me. A garbled sound wrenches from my mouth, tight and incoherent with relief. Youre going to listen to me? Youve earned that from me, Macy says. But you didnt visit. You never wrote. I thought that you Your mom. Macys mouth flattens. She has that look in her eye that she always gets before she goes off on a job. A coiled tension thats dying to leap out. This has been hard on her, she continues.
She trusted me to get you clean, and she feels like Ive failed. Plus, when I found out shed sent you to Seaside, I may have said some things.
What things? I bitched her out, Macy explains. And I shouldnt have, but I was angry and worried. I asked her if I could go. I love you, babe, but youre her kid, not mine. I had to respect her wishesshe is my sister. So you stayed away. I stayed away from you, Macy says. But I didnt stay away from the case. I sit up straighter. Whats that mean?
Macy opens her mouth, but closes it when the waitress stops by our table, setting the bill down. You girls take your time, she says. Let me know if you need any boxes.
Macy nods her thanks and waits until the waitress is off taking another order before turning back to me. Your mom had made her mind up about what happened to you. But I was the one who got you clean. I spent more time with you last year than she did.
And I couldnt do anything for you while you were at Seaside, but I knew how much Mina meant to you. And I knew that if you had any information about her killer, you would have come forward, even if it got you into trouble. I couldnt shake that feeling, so I put some calls in to a few old friends from the force, asked around, got my hands on the reports, and the head detectives take on things didnt click.
Even if you and Mina had been out there to score, why would a dealer leave the drugs? Thats evidence. The killer shot Mina. He couldve easily shot you, too, getting rid of both witnesses, but he chose to knock you out. That tells me it wasnt random; it was targeted.
And if he planted the pills on you, that means it was planned. Something close to relief starts to uncurl inside me. Everything that shes saying is everything that Ive thought, over and over, while Ive been locked away.
Why did he leave me alive? Why did he plant the pills? How did he know enough about me to plant the right pills? I didnt know the pills were in my pocket, I say. I swear. He must have put them there while I was unconscioushe was gone when I came to.
And Mina was I have to blink hard and swallow before Im able to continue. I had to stop the blood. I used my jacket, but it wasnt I left it there, after she. It wasnt until Detective James came to the house that anyone even mentioned drugs. Then it didnt matter to Mom or Dad that my tests from the ER came back cleanthey wouldnt listen to me.
No one would. Im listening, Macy says. Tell me what happened. Why were you girls out at Bookers Point in the first place? We were going to our friend Ambers party, I say. But halfway there, Mina said we had to take a detour to the Point. That she had to meet someone for a story she was working on. She was doing an internship at the Harper Beacon. When she wouldnt give me any specifics, I just figured it was an errand for her supervisor, or maybe an interview someone had to reschedule.
I didnt want to make the tripit was way out in the boonies, and Amber lives on the other side of town. But Mina was I cant say it, that I couldnt ever deny her anything.
My hands shake, rattling the ice cubes in my glass. I put it down carefully, knotting my fingers together and studying the table like the answer to everything is hidden between the glitter in the Formica. I havent talked about this honestly since the police first questioned me. Charles tried her hardest, through broken furniture and weeks of silence, but Id twisted the truth to suit the person she thought I was.
With Macy, Im finally safe. Shed yanked me back from rock bottom once, and I know shed do it again. But Im not at the bottom anymore. Ive found my footing in that precarious middle place, the gray area where you trade addiction for something almost as dangerous: obsession. I saw him before Mina did, I say. I saw the gun in his hand. I saw he was wearing a mask. I knew I knew what he was going to do. I knew there was no way I could outrun him. But Mina might have. I shouldve yelled at her to run.
She couldve gotten away. She wouldve at least had a chance. Theres no way to outrun a bullet, Macy says. He wanted to kill Mina. That was why he was there. You couldnt have stopped him.
Nothing couldve. He said something to her. After he hit me, I fell, and as I was blacking out, I heard him. He said, I warned you. And then I heard the shots and I I couldnt hold on anymore. When I woke up, it was just us. He was gone. My hands are shaking again. I tuck them underneath my thighs, pressing them hard against the red vinyl booth. I told Detective James all of this. I told him to talk to the Beacon staff. To ask her supervisor what shed been working on.
Did he check her computer? Or her desk? She wrote notes on everythingthey have to be somewhere. Macy shakes her head. He talked to everyone, Sophie. Minas supervisor, her fellow interns, even the cleaning lady. He dragged in every known dealer in three counties for questioning, along with most of the kids in your grade, but didnt find anything to warrant further investigation.
Along with a witness testimony that waswell, shaky. She fiddles with her fork, looking up atme. Without any fresh evidence or a miraculous confession, itll be dismissed as an unsolved drug-related murder, and thatll be it. I feel sick inside and grit my teeth. I cant let that happen. Macys eyes soften. You might have to, babe. Read Online Download.
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