Chapter 15: Fall Girl

I let the door swing shut behind me.

"Are you going to yell at me?" Shayla asked.

"No."

"You should. Everybody else is going to."

She pulled a paper towel from the dispenser and pressed it under her eyes. It came away black.

"A detective from financial crimes," she said. "She wants me to come in and talk about Riverside Holdings Two."

"Did you tell Brantley?"

"He said not to worry. He said he'd get me a lawyer."

She laughed, an ugly little sound.

"He hasn't called one. I checked."

She looked at me in the mirror again, waiting.

She wanted me to tell her it would be all right.

I didn't.

"Take off my mother's pearls first," I said.

Her hand went to her throat.

"He gave them to me. For my birthday."

"He gave you my robe too."

She stood there a long moment.

Then she reached back and fumbled at the shell clasp. Her nails were too long for it. It took her three tries.

She laid the strand in my open hand.

It was warm from her skin. I hated that, and I held on to it anyway.

"He said they were his grandmother's," she said.

"My mother wore them to marry my father. I wore them to marry him."

She looked down at the sink.

I put them on in the mirror beside her. The clasp closed the first time. It always did for me.

The door opened behind us.

Two women from the foundation board came in, saw us, and stopped by the hand dryers.

I didn't ask them to leave.

"Now listen," I said to Shayla. "I'll tell you what I'd do. Then I'm leaving, and you decide."

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