Page 86 of The Intruder

“No,” I interject. “Lee is not fixing my roof. I need you to do it.”

Rudy doesn’t seem thrilled by this turn of events, although he quickly agrees since it’s his job. Truth be told, Lee would do a much better job on my roof than Rudy would. But all of a sudden, I am not eager for Lee to set foot in my house again—even on the roof.

60

After Rudy leaves, I can barely keep my eyes open. I didn’t sleep at all last night, and the night before, I was having those nightmares about being on fire. If I don’t get some sleep soon, I’m going to get sick. But just as I’m heading toward my bedroom, there’s a knock on the cabin door.

Of course, the first thought that again pops into my head is that it’s the police. How long is it going to be before my heart doesn’t start racing every time I hear a knock at the door? But when I get there, I see the one person who I want to see even less than the police.

It’s Lee.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hey.” He’s wearing his black beanie, and he puts his hand on it, almost ready to take it off but waiting for permission. “Can I come in?”

I don’t take a step back from the door. “Maybe we should just talk here.”

His voice is almost cold. “That’s fine with me.”

He has a strange stony expression on his face that is unreadable. Especially after what Rudy told me about him, the whole thing makes me uneasy. Why was he asking questions about me? How did he know who I was before I moved in?

He doesn’t look familiar to me. At least, I don’t think so…

“How is Nell?” I finally ask. “Did you tell her?”

“I told her.”

“How did she take it?”

“Lots of tears. But she seems okay now. I’m sure she’s got a lot of therapy in her future. We’ll get through it though.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“Yeah…”

He still has that funny expression on his face. I can’t quite tell what he’s thinking, and it’s making me nervous. “Everything okay, Lee?”

“Not exactly…”

My stomach churns, and I’m suddenly very glad I didn’t invite him inside. I quickly scan Lee up and down, wondering what I’d do if he attacked me. He’s a lot bigger than Rudy, and I get the feeling he’d be ready for any of the moves I learned in my self-defense class.

“What’s wrong?” I manage.

“So here’s the thing.” He cocks his head to the side. “The power came back on, as you’ve noticed. And Nell and I were watching some TV. And there was a news story about her mom being found.”

“Oh…” As if I needed another reason to hate television. “Wow, that must’ve been hard.”

“Yes…” He frowns. “Except in the news story, they kept saying that Jolene Kettering was killed today. Today. Not last night. Not yesterday. Today.”

“Huh,” I say, as if I find this perplexing. “Well…maybe she got stabbed yesterday but didn’t die until today?”

“You think?”

Lee and I stare at each other. As our eyes connect, my stomach sinks.

He knows. Oh God, he knows. He knows what I did. He knows everything.

But even if he threatens to turn me in, what can I do? Maybe I set my mother on fire and gave Jolene the same pain she dished out, but I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Lee. I’d never do that. Nell needs him.