On the Night She Died: A Quarry Street Story Read online

  Still not sure what to do for him, Rebecca tugged him down onto her bed, turning them both so she could spoon him. Her arms around him, her chin on his shoulder. She listened to his breathing smooth. She slipped her hand up to his chest, feeling the thrum and beat of his heart, too fast at first, until it also settled.

  “He’s a good old guy. He lost his wife a few years ago. He had a son, but I think he died, too. He never talks about him, but there was a picture on the mantel. Young kid in an army uniform.” Tristan’s voice, low and shaky, cut off.

  He was crying. She didn’t know what to do or say to him. So she said nothing and only held him. When he turned on the bed to bury his face against her, Rebecca ran her fingers through his hair, over and over again, until he stopped shaking.

  “I don’t want him to die,” Tristan whispered into the base of her throat.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  He held her tight, but said nothing else. Eventually, the steady in-out of his breathing told her that he slept. Carefully, Rebecca pulled away to turn out the bedside light. In the dark, she gathered him close to her again. She breathed in time with him. If she dreamed, she didn’t remember it, and when she woke to the absence of him in her arms, she wondered if he’d ever been there at all.

  Chapter 14

  Jenni

  Then

  The Sterns and the Harrisons had been in the habit of moving back and forth between the only two houses there at the end of Quarry Street, so Jenni wasn’t shocked when Niko showed up and let himself into the house. He tossed her one of the cookies in his fist.

  Jenni caught it, barely managing not to crumble it although she was in the middle of painting her nails. She ate it anyway, because she wasn’t about to pass up one of Babulya’s cookies. She eyed the daytime soap she’d been watching.

  "Jerk, you made me mess up my polish."

  “Bitch,” Niko said.

  It was the standard comeback they all used, not an insult. Jenni rolled her eyes. "Where's your brother?"

  She regretted asking the moment the words slipped out of her mouth. If she’d been suspecting that Niko and Allie were harboring sexy feelings for each other, it could be reasonable to think that Niko might suspect the same of her and his brother. She didn’t want anyone to know it, but especially not Niko, who would certainly tell Allie. Allie would then pester Jenni about it, and what would Jenni be able to tell her? Nothing. She would never be able to say a word.

  Niko shrugged. "I think he went over to Kim Lee's house."

  Jenni flinched. Kim Lee had been crushing on Ilya since seventh grade. She was always trying to spread rumors about Jenni. Nobody ever believed them, because Kim Lee was known to be a big fat liar. If Ilya was fooling around with her, Jenni might literally puke.

  Niko flopped onto the couch beside her and propped his feet on the coffee table, but first snagged the remote to change the station. He laughed at her cry of protest and held the remote up and out of her reach.

  "Jerk," Jenni muttered again, then fixed him with a steady look. He’d thrown Kim Lee in her face. She could do a little of the same. "Allie isn't home, by the way. She stayed after to do something for the play."

  Niko looked caught. So he did like Allie. He gave an exaggerated shrug and turned toward the TV screen. "Why do you think that matters to me?"

  The pager on Jenni's hip beeped and she grabbed for it with a small, secret grin, studying the number on the small black screen. It was code, one of the dozens of strings of numbers that meant full phrases. She held the pager to her chest for a moment. Did a little seated dance. Steve. She hadn’t heard from him for a couple weeks. He never contacted her when he was on the road.

  I want to fuck you.

  Niko strained to catch a look at the pager. "Got a boyfriend or something?"

  "None of your business, buttstain," Jenni said, but she was distracted. Paying too much attention to the message on the pager to notice that Niko was close enough to snag it from her grip.

  "Give me that, shithead!" Jenni swept the pager out of his hand and punched him on the arm for good measure.

  "Sorry," he muttered. "You don't have to be such a bitch about it."

  "Fuck you, Niko." Her heart pounded. Had he seen the message? Even if he had, it wasn’t any of his business. He had no idea who it had come from. Her stomach churned, twisting at the idea of being caught.

  Without another word, Niko got off the couch and left the room. Jenni stared after him. He’d definitely seen the message and interpreted it. He might tell Ilya. Well, that wouldn’t matter. If Ilya asked her about it, she didn’t have to tell him anything about it. Or she could tell him everything.

  Swiftly, she typed in the code 6-9999999 — get in line.

  Breathless, she waited to see what he’d reply. It felt empowering, this flirting. The back and forth. Being pursued. It was a recent development, his chase. The tables were turning, and although Jenni didn’t know exactly why or how it had happened, she liked it.

  In the beginning, serving him coffee and sometimes a few small white or blue pills passed along with the check, Jenni had flirted with Steve the way she flirted with all the customers. A bright smile, a toss of her hair. Sometimes, she’d lean over a little too far when pouring the coffee, and even though she never let her tits hang out of her waitress uniform, the men never, ever failed to try and look down the front of her dress. Men were predictable. She’d learned that right away.

  Steve hadn’t been so predictable. Dark hair. Dark eyes. The scruff of a dark beard feathered with silver. He hadn’t smiled or tried to joke with her. He’d simply, one night, jerked his head toward the parking lot and described his truck.

  She hadn’t gone with him that night, but two weeks later, after he’d “tipped” her enough to get a couple pills from her supply, she had gone out after work to see him standing next to the big rig. Smoking a cigarette. Waiting for her? She’d thought so, but wasn’t sure. She’d climbed inside the cab of his truck and let him kiss her. Let him do more than that, too.

  He wasn’t like the other truckers who came to the diner, because Steve was a local. His truck was only ever in the lot on his way out of town, or maybe on his way back in. Sometimes, he showed up at the diner in his black Camaro. Sometimes, he even took her for a drive in it. But the only times they ever fucked around were in the cab of his truck.

  Jenni never asked why Steve didn’t take her home. She wasn’t sure she’d have gone with him, if he’d asked. Doing it this way kept it in a certain place, made it a certain type of thing. Only now, Steve was making more of this whatever-it-was.

  345987 — I’m horny

  She rolled her eyes.

  335, she typed. You’re crazy.

  She was the crazy one, though. Playing with fire. He’d already put his hands on her, too hard, too much, when once she’d refused to go down on him. He’d been sorry after, or said he was, but the truth was that she hadn’t minded. When she was alone, Jenni looked at the bruises he left and felt her heart pound. They were proof of…something. She didn’t quite understand what or why, but something big, vast, beyond her.

  “I want out of this place,” she’d told him the last time they’d been together.

  “So,” Steve had said, “let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  Maybe tonight she’d take the roll of cash she’d been saving, put it in her pocket. Leave everything else behind. She’d get in Steve’s truck with him and get out of here, just like he said.

  Maybe.

  Chapter 15

  Jenni

  Then

  It was so cold, Jenni could see her breath. Looking at the stars overhead, she wondered if it would be worth making a wish. She wished Ilya had sat next to her at the battered picnic table in the Stern back yard, the way Allie and Niko were sitting. Instead Jenni and Ilya sat as far apart from each other as they could get.

  He hated her, or he wanted her to think he did. Well, sometimes she hated him, too, even though she loved him