Chapter 12: Page Nine

"You shouldn't be here."

I turned around so fast that my phone's light swung across the lawn.

Blaine's mother stood at the bottom of the porch steps in a long grey coat.

She had parked at the corner with her lights off.

She must have been sitting there since before we came.

"I came for Birdie," I said.

"Birdie is asleep. Blaine is upstairs, and he will wake if he hears voices."

"Then I'll knock."

"Don't." She looked at the orange paper on the door and then at me. "Not tonight. Please."

I had never heard her say please.

She had said "you have no standing" to my face a week ago in a school auditorium.

Now her hand shook where it held the strap of her bag.

"There's a diner on Route 3 that stays open all night," she said. "Follow me. Not the girl in the car. Only you."

"My sister comes with me."

"Then she can sit three tables away."

I looked back at the car.

Carly had her window down, one hand on the wheel, and she nodded once.

The diner was almost empty.

A waitress in a paper hat poured coffee and went back to her crossword.

Carly took a booth by the door with a slice of pie and watched us the whole time.

Blaine's mother sat across from me and put her bag on the table.

She didn't take off her coat.

"I'll say this once," she said, "because I may not have the nerve to say it twice."

"Go on."

"The money is gone."

I waited.

"My husband's company closed two years ago," she said. "He died owing more than we owned."

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