Page 14 of Haven't Killed in Years

“Elyse Abbington—that girl from the family Abel Haggerty killed. Do you remember her?”

Of course I remembered her. What would really get this party started, though, was if she remembered me.

Nine

I looked to Dominic. Whywas Elyse Abbington there? What was happening? Was this a trap?

Dominic reached out and grabbed Porter’s arm to settle him. “Hey, quiet.”

“What?” Porter was not there to be scolded.

“She’s a human being, you know,” said Dominic, “not a sideshow attraction.”

“Why is she here?” I asked, barely audible, ventriloquist style, struggling to move at all.

“Jake said she doesn’t mind,” Porter insisted. “She likes to talk about it.”

“Jake’s full of shit,” said Dominic. “He’s probably trying to cause a scene.”

“How do you know her?” I asked with more volume, trying to put the pieces together without sounding accusatory.

“She’s Jake’s girlfriend. I think that’s why the stuff about Abelreally struck a chord with me. You know, because I know her. It hits so close to home.”

Hitting close to home was right. She must be the girl I saw climbing out the window. There was a reason I had felt so compelled to watch her.

The last time I’d seen Elyse Abbington, she was eight years old. She was rail thin back then and always filthy. Her parents didn’t pay much attention to their kids and Elyse used to wander uninhibited all over the neighborhood. No one wanted to play with her; she was too little and always had snot all over her face. She was that kid.

“Will you introduce us?” Porter asked.

Dominic sized him up. “Are you going to play it cool?”

“Obviously,” Porter said, brushing him off.

Dominic turned to me. “What do you think?”

“I’d like to meet her,” I said, trying my best toplay it cool.

Porter took hold of my arm and practically yanked it out of its socket. “She’s on the fire escape.”

Porter lifted the curtain and heaved himself through the window first. Dominic held his hand out for me and I used it to climb through next.

She just sat there on one of the metal-grate steps. She wasn’t filthy anymore. Her nose was snot-free. She was beautiful and haunting and dark—all of the things I wanted to be, but instead I was standing in my fake pearl earrings, holding my peach cardigan.

“Hey, Elyse,” Dominic said as he followed through the window behind me.

“You actually showed up,” she said—her voice was different now, of course. Part of me was expecting her to sound the same. She would open her mouth and her shrill little eight-year-old voice would spill out.

“Yeah, I needed to get you two off my back,” he teased, shufflingin front of me. “These are my friends. The new friendsI am proactively making,” he accentuated for her benefit. “This is Porter…” Dominic gripped his shoulders and repositioned him to better reveal me. “And this is Gwen.”

Porter lurched forward with his hand and Elyse hesitated a second before obliging him with a handshake.

“Awesome,” said Porter, totally fanboying.

Dominic leaned over to assist Porter in letting go. I let him shield me from Elyse again. I wanted to see her without her seeing me.

From Dominic’s shadow I looked up over his shoulder and found her eyes waiting for mine. Everything stopped again. Did she recognize me? Did she already know who I was? Was she the one leaving me gifts? She parted her lips and I realized my lips had parted too—maybe not visibly, but I could feel the separation. What was she going to say? What did she want? To kill me? To torture me? What if she wasn’t involved at all and just recognized me from my face?Stop looking at me.

“Dominic took us on the tour today,” said Porter, bringing sounds back to the world.