Shine - Lauren Myracle [78]
“I didn’t do it,” Tommy said. He looked exhausted. “Dammit, Cat, I already told your brother. I didn’t leave no note on your bed, all right?”
“It’s true, he didn’t,” Bailee-Ann piped up. She pressed her legs together, each of her hands cupping a knee. “Was there really a tongue on top of it? Eww, Cat. That’s so nasty.”
“It was a cow tongue,” I said, looking from Bailee-Ann to Tommy and back again. “Like from a dead cow? One that’s been to the butcher and back? You know all about that, right?”
Bailee-Ann shuddered. “I hate dead meat. I just hate it.”
Tommy gestured for me to come on in, so I did. I slipped off my backpack and perched on an overstuffed armchair across from the sofa. Daddy’s pistol, tucked into the back of my cutoffs, pressed against my spine.
Tommy sat down beside Bailee-Ann, who let go of her own knee and patted his. He found her hand and squeezed it. With his other hand, he lowered the ice pack, revealing a puffy eye with a rising bruise.
“Christian do that?” I said.
“No, it was Bailee-Ann,” he said sourly.
“Was not!” Bailee-Ann protested, and he shot her a wry smile, which then made him wince.
“Ow,” he said.
This was not how I’d expected things to play out. I narrowed my eyes, determined not to be disarmed by their helpless, lovey-dovey act.
“Yesterday, when I was at your house, I was there to see your brother,” Tommy told me.
“Oh, is that so? Then why’d you call out for me to come back instead of bike over to see Ridings, huh?” I looked at him hard. “Seems to me that when I didn’t jump at your command, you decided to leave your message another way.”
“You went to see . . . ?” He broke off. “Cat, I didn’t put that tongue on your pillow. You gotta believe me.”
“I don’t gotta do anything,” I said. I heard the words come out of my mouth, and I was amazed. I was talking to Tommy—I was confronting him—and I had yet to go up in smoke.
“You were at my house. You knew I was learning stuff you’d rather I didn’t, and then surprise, surprise, I came home to find a nice little present just waiting for me.”
He looked worn down. “It wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
“If I knew, don’t you think I’d tell you?”
“Well, no, I don’t, ’Cause from what I hear, you’re awfully good at keeping secrets.” I eyed Bailee-Ann. “And that goes for you, too, Bailee-Ann.”
She blushed.
But back to Tommy. “Beef told the cops you were home by one thirty the night Patrick was beat up, but you weren’t, were you?”
“Actually, I was.”
“No, and that’s how I know you’re lying, ’cause Robert told me—“
“I was home by one thirty,” he interrupted. “But Dupree crashed, so I went back out.”
“To Bailee-Ann’s house,” I said. “Who just happens to be Beef’s girlfriend.”
Tommy sighed. He looked at Bailee-Ann, who said, “It’s okay. It’s already out anyway.”
Tommy opened his mouth, then closed it. He focused on the floor. I stared at him, growing more and more impatient, until I had the dizzying realization that he was afraid to look at me. I myself wasn’t afraid. I’d expected to have to fake it, but I truly wasn’t scared to stand up to him anymore.
“Words,” I said. “Use words, Tommy, ’cause I don’t have all day. How long you think I’m planning on being here?”
He lifted his head. His eyes met mine, and I held his gaze. I could feel the heat of my blood.
“I went to Bailee-Ann’s house,” he said. “I picked her up, and we . . . spent some time together. Then I took her back before her daddy woke up, so she wouldn’t get in trouble.”
I turned to Bailee-Ann. “That true?”
“Yeah,” she confessed. “When you asked, I didn’t tell you, because . . .”
“Because we need to tell Beef ourselves,” Tommy said. “We don’t want him hearing it from someone else.”
“We feel real bad,” Bailee-Ann said.
Listening to the two of them was like eavesdropping on a couple of newlyweds, the way they finished each other’s thoughts and played off each other. Bailee-Ann patted Tommy’s leg, and he reached up and tucked