Chapter 7: Ellis Is Home at Seven

Leigh was at our front door nine minutes after Jamie hung up.

She didn't use her key, because she had left it on the shoe cabinet.

She rang the bell.

I opened the door.

She wore the grey coat she had worn that morning, and she hadn't taken it off.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"At the table," I said.

"He's fine, Leigh. It's nothing, she just..."

Leigh walked past me.

In the kitchen, Jamie was still bent over his workbook, and she put one hand on the back of his head.

"Good job, bud," she said quietly.

"You did exactly right."

"Go upstairs and put on your headphones. I'll come up in a minute."

Jamie looked at Kendra, and at me, and went.

His feet were very quiet on the stairs.

Leigh turned around.

Kendra was standing by the stove with a wooden spoon in her hand.

She had put it down and picked it up twice since Leigh walked in.

She was taller than Leigh by three inches, and she had her chin up.

"You must be Leigh," she said.

"I'm Kendra."

"I know," Leigh said.

"It's nice to put a face to it."

She said it politely, with no edge at all.

I had never heard her sound so pleasant, and it made my neck prickle.

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