Ed sat behind the wheel.
I felt fear like a suffocating breath near my face. Dad had said they’d run Ed out of town. They’d apparently done a crap job. I kept walking, my sandals clogging on the sidewalk, but the Chevelle crept along beside me like a shark.
“Hey, pretty girl,” Ed called out.
I’m ashamed that my knee-jerk response was to make sure my ear was covered so that he didn’t have to retract the “pretty” part.
“I don’t have time to talk,” I said, holding up the bag. “I have to get food to a friend.”
“Ain’t I a friend?” he asked.
When I didn’t answer, he stopped the car and started speaking loud. “You weren’t too good to talk to me after I landed you that show at the fair, or when you were smoking my grass around the fire.”
A screen door banged shut up the street. If I could hear that, that meant they could hear us. I walked a few feet toward Ed, close enough that we could talk without everyone hearing, far enough that he couldn’t grab me. I didn’t think he’d kidnap me in broad daylight, but if he’d given me the willies before I’d learned he might be a murderer, now he made me wish I could drop into the earth and disappear.
He pointed at the bag. “What kind of food?”
I held the crinkling paper against my chest, the thermos giving off heat like a second heart. “Soup. Sandwiches.”
“I like sandwiches.”
The bag contained two. I tried to think of a way out of giving him one, but I couldn’t, not without being rude. I reached in, tugged out a wax-wrapped sandwich, and handed it to him carefully, like a zookeeper feeding a tiger.
“Right on,” he said, grabbing it and unwrapping it. “My bologna has a first name, and it’s E-A-T-M-E.” He laughed as he shoved a corner in his mouth. “Who’s the rest for?”
“Maureen’s mom.” I started to point up the street before remembering what he might be guilty of.
“Damn, yeah, that’s some rough news about the kid drowning. I heard she threw herself in the quarries when she found out Brenda was dating Ricky.”
It felt like someone had tied a knot in my brain. “What?”
He shrugged. “It’s just what I heard.”
“But I thought she was dating you. Maureen, that is.”
“Naw, I don’t take nobody’s sloppy seconds. You heard wrong.” His lips smacked as he went at the sandwich.
I scanned all my memories of the past week. Sure, Brenda had been with Ricky at the party, but Maureen wouldn’t have cared. She was done with Ricky, if she’d ever even started with him. “I think you heard wrong.”
His face snapped toward me. It was flushed purple. “What’d you just say to me?”
“I . . . Nothing. I’m sorry. I’m upset is all. My friend is dead.”
He stared at me for a few more beats with those pinhole eyes. “Yeah, you best stay off my nuts.”
He tossed his half-eaten sandwich out of his open passenger window. It landed at my feet and came apart. I was staring at the Miracle Whip I’d made sure reached the edges of both slices. A rattle drew my glance back. Ed clutched the Anacin bottle, dropping white tablets into his mouth.
“Don’t suppose you have an RC in that bag?” he asked, his mouth gentle around the pills.
I shook my head.
“Well, damn,” he said, crunching them. He swallowed. “Why I stopped you is I wanted to ask if you’re interested in a double date.”
My head drew back. “With who?”
He laughed hard at this, so hard his eyes watered. “Ant,” he said, when he got himself under control. “The boy won’t shut up about you. I figure you’ll both need me for a ride. How about you bring that sweet little sister of yours?”
“Junie’s twelve years old,” I said, shock squeezing my voice.
He shrugged. “Looks a helluva lot older.”
“My dad’s the district attorney,” I said. I tried to make it sound like a threat. It came out sounding like I was asking a question.
“That’s what I hear,” Ed said, putting his car into drive. “You think about it. I know how to show a girl a good time.”
He took off so fast that the key ring on his dash fell onto the front seat.
“I can’t swallow bread, but I’m grateful for the soup,” Mrs. Hansen said when I explained why I’d come. She was clear-eyed, but her words were slightly slurred, and she smelled sweet, like she’d bathed in apple juice. She hadn’t yet let me in, but I could see an area of floor showing behind her, and light was streaming through a window on the opposite side of the living room that I’d forgotten was there, it’d been hidden by boxes so long.