Chapter 53
Back in the house, Anna showered until the water ran cold and then lay on her bed, where emotional exhaustion took hold and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When she woke, hair tangled and still damp, she was finally calm.
Empty but calm. She needed a smoke, and there was still more than half her salvaged pack left, so she went downstairs, slipping out front before Mom or Grandma spotted her and wanted to talk.
The sky was once again a wash of orange as day began the shift to night, the sun gratefully fading and sinking into the horizon.
While the air was warm, there was a welcome gentle breeze and Anna lit a cigarette and stared out toward the empty cemetery, the living having left Jamie to settle in to his new, dark forever home.
Maybe he was watching her from there. Don’t forget me, Anna.
Don’t forget what I said. If anything happens to me, they’re still out there.
She wouldn’t forget and she couldn’t. But was she making herself a target by asking questions?
Forcing the sheriff to look at the case again?
As night fell, she shivered, not liking the shadows stretching toward the house, hungrily reaching for her. Her cigarette finished, she grabbed her scooter to bring it inside and top up the charge, happy to be back in the house, even full as it was of its own tensions.
“Anna?” Grandma came into the hallway and smiled at her. “Good. You’re up. Can you tell Caroline dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes?”
“Sure.”
“Thank you, dear.” Grandma’s tone was perfectly normal, no admonishment in it, no are you all right, as if the dramas of the day hadn’t happened.
Anna wondered for a moment if maybe it was the Alzheimer’s and Grandma had forgotten already, but it wasn’t that.
It was just how they were. Brush everything under the rug and maybe it would go away.
Mom’s outburst had shocked them both. That wasn’t how they didn’t things in this family.
Why talk to each other about a thing if it can be repressed and ignored?