Chapter 10: Pancakes

I was down the stairs and out the front door in Terrence's flannel shirt before I'd made a decision.

The porch boards were cold under my bare feet.

The girl looked up at me with huge brown eyes and a nose that needed wiping.

"Hi," I said.

"It's chilly out here, isn't it?"

I crouched in front of her.

She was two years old, wearing a raincoat over pajamas with ducks on them, and her cheeks were red from the wind.

I unpinned the paper from her coat.

YOUR TURN, it said, in red pen.

Beneath that, smaller: HAVE FUN WITH HER, WIDOW.

I folded it once and put it in my pocket.

Then I saw the other thing.

Across the gravel lot, in the lilac bush by the fuel pump, something flashed.

It was a small, dull glint, the same size as a phone lens.

I kept my face perfectly easy.

I knew what that bush was waiting for.

It was waiting for the widow who couldn't stand her husband's other child.

It wanted the door shut in a baby's face, or a shout, or a call to the police about an abandoned toddler on the steps.

It wanted me to look like the villain.

"Well," I said to the girl, in a clear voice.

"You must be hungry."

"Do you like pancakes?"

She considered this with great seriousness.

"Pan-cake," she said.

"That's right."

I stood and held out my hand, and she put a damp fist into it.

She walked in beside me on her short fat legs, dragging the diaper bag.

Terrence was coming down the stairs, pulling a T-shirt over his head.

He looked at the girl, then at me, then at the piece of paper sticking out of my pocket.

"Taryn?" he said.

"Taryn," I said.

"There's a camera in the lilac."

"I'm making pancakes."

He thought for a moment.

"I'll get the syrup," said Terrence.

The kitchen was small and yellow, with a table by the window and a crooked drawer of mismatched forks.

I found flour, eggs and a carton of milk.

I stood at the stove in a man's flannel shirt and made pancakes for my husband's daughter.

She sat at the table on two phone books.

She had Prescott's chin and nobody else's eyes.

When I put the first pancake in front of her, she grabbed it with both hands and took a huge bite.

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