Page 121 of Too Old for This

“You bitch.”

Junior tries to spit on me but misses. I wipe the blade of the knife across his pants, cleaning it on his thigh. I lean down to the other ankle.

“No, no! Don’t!”

“Then tell me.”

He nods, takes a deep breath.

“You came down here to get Norma,” I say, leading him along. “Because she—”

“Wait. Go back.”

“Back to when your father told her to put a camera in my house?”

Junior shakes his head. He grimaces. The blood has slowed down, but it’s dripping out of the plastic bag and onto the rug. Though, to be fair, it’s improving the color a lot.

“Go back further,” he says. “Before Norma showed up.”

“Are you talking about Kelsie? Did your father have something to do with the money she needed?”

Junior rolls his eyes like I’m the problem. I might have to slap him again.

“No. I’m talking about Plum,” he says. “Didn’t you ever wonder how she knew about you? Or how she found you?”

My turn to blink. “Are you saying she found your father and he told her where I was?”

“No. I’m saying my dad foundyou. Then he contacted Plum, told her all about your case and where to find you.”

This takes a minute. Being stunned into silence is real.

“He thought you knew,” Junior says. “He was sure you’d figured it out.”

I don’t respond to that, neither confirming nor denying anything. But thinking back on it, maybe I should’ve known. Or at least suspected. Instead, I assumed Plum had known somebody or bribed someone. There are a lot of ways to get information if you try hard enough.

Or maybe someone will call you out of the blue and hand it over.

“Why?” I finally say.

Junior looks down at the ropes again. I hold up the knife. We’ve already established a routine, and since I’m the one with the weapon, I win.

“He spent forty years looking,” he says. “Last year, he found you.”

“How?”

“Social media. Someone posted a picture.”

That almost takes the wind out of me. I have been careful about pictures for years, always making sure my head is turned or my hand is in the way. “What picture?”

“A really old one of you and Archie in Baycliff, in front of your big house.”

“My son did not post that picture.”

“It was the woman marrying your son. She’s named after a horse?”

—

No.No.