“I should take you back. I can still get to the store on time if I hurry.”
“Don’t take me back. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
Bebe gripped the wheel a little tighter, unsure what to do. Mitch was going to be furious if he found out she’d taken Sadie to the grocery store. What would he do? Certainly nothing violent. This woman, on the other hand, was more of a wild card. Suffering from various mental illnesses herself, Bebe was sympathetic to people struggling with inner demons. But Sadie needed a serious intervention. Preferably one that included a small, well-padded room. There was no telling what could happen if she or her growing delusions were challenged. The threat of Legion was starting to seem trivial compared to the fact that Sadie Hansen had access to sharp objects.
“Okay,” Bebe heard herself say. “What?”
Sadie smiled warmly. Claudia’s smile.
“Have you noticed anything weird about Mitch lately?”
They pulled out onto the paved road. “What do you mean?”
Sadie seemed a little uncomfortable, turning away and looking through the side window. “It’s a little personal.”
“Then we probably shouldn’t talk about it,” Bebe said hopefully. “You should go directly to him.”
Sadie ignored her. “It’s just that… Well, he won’t touch me. He’s been sleeping on the sofa, and it’s one excuse after another. Now he says it’s his back. But I’m starting to wonder if there’s really anything wrong with it. He’s never been like this before. Has he said anything to you? Is he mad at me for some reason and just doesn’t want to tell me?”
Bebe tried to stay focused on the road but couldn’t help noticing that Sadie’s eyes had taken on a glassy look. Was she going to cry? Over Mitch’s coldness to her? His coldness to Claudia? Which of the two women was in the car with her?
“He’s under a lot of pressure,” Bebe said finally. “He blames himself for all this. And he misses Anna.”
Sadie nodded and contemplated the floorboard. “Me, too. But what matters is that we know she’s safe.”
“You should stay in the car,” Bebe said as she pulled into her customary space on the eastern edge of the parking lot.
“No, I’ll come in and help you.”
“Mitch is already going to kill us. Let’s not make it worse.”
“Do you always do what Mitch says?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t,” she said, eyes narrowing in a way that Claudia’s never did. A fleeting glimpse of the real person behind them? Assuming there was one.
Bebe took three deep breaths and then used her shoulder to open the heavy door. Her only option was to get this over with as quickly as possible. “Take the bags. And don’t forget your hat.”
Sadie trailed her as they hustled across the lot and through the doors of the store. Shopping was simple because there was virtually no variation in their diet. Bebe had a vegetable and grain bowl three times a day with only slight modifications to distinguish breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mitch and Sadie had a full ham, egg, and potato breakfast every morning and grilled chicken for lunch. Their dinners rotated on a seven-day schedule. Tonight was Mitch’s favorite: steak, baked potato, and Caesar salad.
“I’ll push the cart,” Sadie said, grabbing one from where they were lined up. “What’s first?”
“Lettuce,” Bebe responded, walking past a flower display to the vegetable aisle. They were going to be okay, she told herself. There was no way Legion would be able to anticipate Sadie coming out that day. They were planners. The chances that they’d make some half-cocked move were precisely zero.
Zero, zero, zero…
When they came to the romaine, Sadie reached for one. Bebe moved to block her, carefully tearing off the canned food section from her list.
“Why don’t you take the cart and get this stuff?” she said, figuring the woman couldn’t mess up the assignment too badly.
As Bebe watched her retreat toward the back of the store, she took the opportunity to scan the faces of the people Sadie passed. All the employees were familiar, as were two of the customers—both long-term residents of the area.
She turned back to the lettuce, putting on a plastic glove and sorting through the heads until she found a uniformly shaped one with unblemished leaves. Once selected, she carefully placed it in a bag and set course for the meat counter.
About halfway down the aisle, a ping from her phone caused her to stop. She retrieved it and reluctantly looked down at the text. Apparently, Mitch had finished his errands and was back home.