Page 15 of My Girl

I grit my teeth, then head back to my car. I start the engine, roll down the window, and wave.

“Have a good day, Officer!” I say, my insides mocking him with everything I’ve got. He nods curtly, then clicks the padlock shut over the gate’s loop, already dismissing me, too self important to care about what I do now.

I smile through clenched teeth, in case he turns around. “Fucking asshole,” I mutter. Then I park in my normal spot.

The shift at the boutique inches on. Mothers push their strollers by, and a few teenagers spill a trash can in the food court. The janitor is on break, so Ned makes the mall cop clean it up. Serves him right.

Ned strolls by the boutique. I race out to the walkway to meet him.

“Hey,” I say. Ned swings around, his styled blonde hair perfectly coiffed above him like streams of sunlight. “What’s up with the gate around the Galloway House?”

“There was some trouble last night,” he says. “Noise complaints. Surveillance caught teenagers sneaking in. We didn’t find anything though.”

My fingers twitch at my sides. Teenagers sneaking in? The murder victims didn’t lookthatyoung, but they were also in the dark. Is that who he means?

Did the surveillance cameras catch me too?

“Don’t worry,” Ned says. “It’s a routine safety thing. Overly precautious, in my opinion. I told my dad we’d put up a fence years ago. Might as well now, right? Better late than never.”

Noise complaints. Not murder.

Teenagers. Not me.

I stare at the heathered gray tile beneath us. If I go back to the Galloway House, I’ll have to jump the fence now.

What do I think I’ll find there anyway?

I should tell Ned what happened. It wasn’t teenagers. It was me and three other adults. Two of which were murdered.

“What’s wrong?” Ned asks. His hand grips my shoulder. “Are you okay, beautiful?”

I lift my shoulders.Beautiful.He always likes complimenting me. My mother loves men like that. She especially loves it when they’re older. It’s the daddy figure she always liked, the daddy I probably needed.

But when men like Ned call me “beautiful,” it’s a lie—sweet words to get someone to like you. It’s what I do too.

I could tell Ned the truth, that there were no teenagers. Just me, two bodies, and a masked murderer.

Then the house would be a crime scene again, and I wouldn’t be able to go back by myself.

“I’m fine.” I wink. “You can cheer me up later though.”

He grins. “You going to let me eat your cake?”

“Hope you’re hungry.”

“You know I’m starving.”

Once my shift ends, Ned goes down on me in his office, and I quickly fake an orgasm. Then I drive to my apartment, my mind running in a million different directions. I have to decide what to do about the Galloway House.Now.

I can do the right thing and tell the police I was there last night. I can help them find the culprit…

Or I can do something else. Something that will helpme.

My father’s death—his real cause of death—wells inside of me, boiling over the edges of my sense of self. I need to know. I need to find out the truth, with or without anyone’s help, to prove to my mother that I’m notthatbad. And until I uncover the real story, I can’t let the Galloway House go.

Those mesh-screened eyes fill my head.

Don’t killers come back to their crime scenes?