The Intruder - 57

58

I drive straight back to Lee’s house.

Jolene will not be sharing our little adventure today with anybody else. Or sharing anything with anybody else, especially the lit ends of her cigarettes. All those cigarettes are gone now anyway. And it turns out those knives on the kitchen counter were useful after all.

What can I say? I am a sucker for child abusers getting what they deserve.

I spent the first half of my journey home checking my rearview mirror for the flashing lights of police cars. After I crossed back into New Hampshire, I relaxed a little. Nobody was following me. Nobody was coming after me.

Once again, I have gotten away with murder.

I spent the second half of the journey trying to figure out what I’m going to say to Nell. I have to be very careful. She loved her mother, and she might not realize yet how much better off she’ll be without her. I’ve done her a massive favor, but she might not see it that way.

I haven’t quite figured it out when I knock on Lee’s front door. He comes to open it a minute later, and he looks tired, though at least he’s changed out of his pajamas into jeans and a sweatshirt. “Well?” he says.

“She’s dead,” I blurt out.

His face falls. “Oh.”

“I…I’m sorry.”

“Jesus.” He runs a hand through his hair. “What did the police say?”

“Nell isn’t in any trouble.”

I pulled over at a gas station about five miles from here, which has one of the last remaining pay phones in the country, and I placed an anonymous call to the police. I’m not sure if they’ve discovered the dead body yet, but I feel confident Nell won’t get the blame. After all, she’s got an alibi: She ran away from home and spent the entire night at my cabin.

Also, who would believe that such a young girl would kill her mother?

He glances over his shoulder at where Nell appears to be fast asleep on his sofa. “We need to tell her. But…I hate to wake her…”

“Don’t wake her up. This is the kind of thing that can wait.”

“Right. I just…I don’t know how to…”

“Do you want me to tell her?”

He shakes his head. “No. I’m her uncle—her only family. It should come from me.”

I respect him for stepping up and taking responsibility, even though he hardly knows the girl. But he looks terrified. He looks more scared of this than he did of the storm. Funny how a twelve-year-old girl can do that to you.

“Here’s what you do,” I say. “Make sure she knows she’s not in any trouble. And that she has a home with you as long as she wants it.”

“She does have a home with me as long as she wants it.” His face turns slightly pink. “And I think it’ll be a better home than the one she had. Did you see her arms? I swear to God, Casey, if I were in a room with that woman, I…”

I’m glad he saw that. He knows what she’s been through, and maybe he can help her heal.

“That’s all in the past now.” I think back to twenty years ago, to the way I felt when my mother was gone and I showed up on my father’s doorstep. “Right now, you just need to make sure she knows you will be there for her no matter what.”

“I will.” He nods soberly. “Thank you, Casey.”

“Good luck, Lee.”

He closes the door and goes back to Nell. I hope that he lets her sleep a little longer. Because when he wakes her up and tells her that her mother is dead, her childhood will be over.