The Jealousy Game novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: On Her Step
Casper's POV
I went to her back door at nine on Friday morning with nothing in my hands.
No notebook, no folder, no photographs.
She had every page of it, and I wanted her to see me with nothing left to hold up.
The bakery smelled of burnt sugar and yeast.
I knocked on the steel door, and a long time went by before the bolt turned.
She opened it as far as the chain allowed.
Her eyes were red along the rims, and her apron had a streak of flour across the front.
"Dean says you came to him twice," she said.
"Yes."
"He says you had a folder."
"I did."
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"Because it made me sound like I'd tried hard," I said. "I didn't try hard enough. I tried twice with Dean and once with you, and then I stopped and wrote it down instead."
She looked at me through the gap.
I could feel the cold from the alley coming up through my boots, and I did not move them.
"Rule three still stands," she said. "You don't speak to Brett."
"I'm not here for Brett."
"Then what for?"
"I'm here to ask if I can make a phone call. On your step, with you listening, and then you can shut this door."
She said nothing.
"It's Brett's mother," I said.
The chain slid off.
She did not open the door wider, but she did not close it either.
I sat down on the concrete step with my back against the rail, and took my phone out of my jacket.
I had Brett's mother's number on a business card, soft from the toolbox.
She had come to the shed two summers ago, in a linen jacket, to ask what it would cost to restore her late husband's runabout.
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