Page 48 of The Neighbor
He never calls. He just waits for her in the woods. I think it’s weird he never walks there with her. As my mother always says, “It’s just rude when a boy doesn’t come to the door to pick you up.”
One time I heard my father say that’s just old fashioned, but my mother disagreed. He said if she keeps that up, my sister isn’t going to want to bring anyone to meet them.
I watch her disappear into the woods as my mother yells for me to come down because it’s time to leave. My sister doesn’t know what she’s missing. I know I wouldn’t choose to hang out in the woods with some weird boy over going to the movies on a Saturday afternoon.
With one last glance out the window, I don’t see my sister anymore. I hope he’s worth it. She’s going to miss a great movie. I can feel it. Today, my mother will choose a good one for us.
Someone touching my arm tears me out of my memories, and I see Officer Murphy frowning at me. Kimmy takes my hand in hers and gives it a supportive squeeze before saying, “It’s okay, Caroline. He just wants to know what you and Adam talked about the other night.”
“Yes, ma’am. If you can answer the question, I’d appreciate it,” he says with more than a hint of impatience in his voice.
I shake my head to rid my mind of the last remnants of that day so many years ago and shrug. “Not much. He came togive me a housewarming gift, and I made tomatoes stuffed with chicken salad. We made small talk over dinner, and then he left.”
When I finish explaining myself, he stares at me like he doesn’t believe I’m telling him everything. I have to keep calm, but the look on his face unnerves me.
“That was it? It seems strange since he was single and you are too, Miss Townsend.”
Before I can say anything, Kimmy jumps in to protect me. “Please, officer. We’re all mourning the death of Adam. This is the second time that someone’s died that we knew. We don’t deserve to be interrogated. He was our friend. We’re going to miss him. Caroline wasn’t dating him or anything like that. She was nice to him, like the rest of us, and his going to her house that night wasn’t anything big. They weren’t close, so there’s no reason to treat her like she’s done anything wrong.”
Officer Murphy seems surprised by Kimmy’s strident defense of me, but he quickly says, “Oh, yes. Sara Nottingham.”
“Yes, and we knew her, not as well as Adam, but we met her recently, so now we’re dealing with losing two people we knew.”
Another policeman calls for Officer Murphy, and he tucks his notebook back into his pocket before telling the two of us that the police will likely need to speak to everyone in the neighborhood again when they find out what killed Adam. As he waddles away, Kimmy lets out a heavy sigh as I silently congratulate myself on using a poison that mimics a heart attack.
“Thank you for helping me with him,” I say to her. “I guess I’m just in shock. I can’t believe he’s dead. He was at my house and seemed fine. I was going to walk up to see him today to make sure he wasn’t mad at me since he left the way he did after dinner and hadn’t been out in the neighborhood since. I just can’t believe it.”
Sadness fills her eyes, and she nods. “I know. I can’t believe it either. I need to get Misty into the house. This heat is too much for her. I hope this heatwave breaks soon. I’d be happy to have even a cool breeze.”
“Go home and relax,” I say as I gently pinch Misty’s chubby cheeks. “Put this little one down for a cool nap and sit in the air conditioning for a while. I’m going to go inside and say a little prayer for Adam. My mother used to say when a person passed that even a little prayer helps them on their journey to heaven.”
“Oh, that’s beautiful, Caroline. I’m going to do that too. Call me if you need to talk, okay?”
I lean in and give her and Misty a hug. “I will.”
She hurries across the street, and I turn around to walk up my front steps, looking back at Adam’s house one last time. To hell with praying for that murderous bastard. I hope he rots in hell.
19
The chicken saladstuffed tomatoes turned out better than I hoped they would. It’s been so hot lately that I haven’t wanted to cook at all during this heat wave, but since I invited Adam here tonight, I thought I needed to do something more than set out a bag of chips or pretzels and say, “Have at it.”
Not really the kind of thing a proper hostess should do. My mother would be rolling over in her grave if I did that.
“I’ve never had anything like that,” Adam says with an appreciative smile as if he truly enjoyed my simple meal. “It’s perfect for a hot day like today.”
I stare across the dining room table at him as I nod and force myself to smile. Pretending to be some kind neighbor has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I slipped a few times in the beginning right after I first moved here once I found out where he lived. My mother used to say I never had an emotion that didn’t cross my face, but those first couple of times seeing him in person made pretending impossible.
He looks very much the same as he did all those years ago. The moment I laid eyes on him that terrible day fifteen years ago came rushing back to me. Not that I ever forget how it felt to findout my sister was missing and then a couple days later to find out she was dead.
Strangled in those woods she loved to spend hours every day in. Strangled in the woods where she met him every day.
I was the only witness to see them both walk up the street and into those woods at the end of our block. Since I was only eleven, I didn’t know if I should tell anyone. One time right after they found Amanda, I tried to explain to my mother that I saw him that day walking into the woods right before my sister did, but she started crying and I never got the words out.
Then it felt like there was never a right time to say what I needed to. I was too afraid to mention it to the police who were constantly around, day and night, turning our lives upside down. The local TV station reporter even asked me if I ever saw anything strange, but I simply shook my head and pressed my lips together, afraid if I didn’t that what I’d been holding in day after day would come out and no one would believe me or care.
I was eleven when Amanda was found dead, strangled by the man sitting right across from me at this very moment. I’ve waited fifteen years to repay him for the devastation he caused my family. For the misery that drove my mother to an early grave from a heart attack less than five years later and my father to kill himself by blowing his head off six months after that.
For ruining my life and the lives of everyone I loved.