Page 87 of The Intruder

Will he rat me out to the police? I have no idea. I don’t know Lee at all, even if he apparently knows me.

“I’m not sure what you think happened,” I finally say. “I know I was gone for a little while today, but I was at the police station.”

He blinks at me, knowing very well how easily this lie will unravel. It would be easy enough to prove I was never at the police station. My alibi is nonexistent.

“You never went to the police station, Casey,” he says. “I know you didn’t.”

Any hope that I might have misread him flies out the window. He’s really doing this. I keep my voice even. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” he says in a slow, pointed voice, “you were with me and Nell all afternoon at my cabin, so you couldn’t have gone to the police station. Or anywhere else. How could you be in two places at the same time?”

What?

That was the last thing I expected him to say. I stare at him. “Lee…”

“Nell and I were both with you all afternoon,” he says, more firmly this time. “We both agree on that. You were never out of our sight except to use the bathroom. So like I said, you couldn’t have ever been to Jolene’s apartment. And if there’s ever a police officer asking about it, I’ll make sure they know that.”

“Thank you,” I say softly.

“I’ve got your back, Casey,” he says. “I hope you know that.”

“I…I appreciate that.”

“Also,” he says, “it’s just my opinion, but anyone who could do what that woman did to a little girl doesn’t deserve to be alive.”

When he says it, his eyes flicker down to my arms. At some point, he must have seen my own burns. I’ll have those forever—a reminder of that awful woman. I’m glad he doesn’t say the words though. It’s the last thing I want to talk about.

“Anyway,” he says, “I better get going. I don’t want to leave Nell alone for too long.”

“You’re going to do a great job with her,” I tell him. “And if you need any help, I’ll be here. Anything bra or period related, I’m your woman.”

He cracks a smile—the first I have seen from him the entire day. “Thanks. Believe me—I’m going to need all the help I can get. What the hell do I know about raising a teenage girl?”

“Well, the first thing you need to know is that it’s going to be horrible,” I say, “but it’s also going to be great. And I’ll be over all the time to help. You’re going to be completely sick of me.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, Ella.”

I smile back at him. For a second, I allow myself to feel a surge of happiness, which lasts for exactly two seconds until something very unsettling hits me:

He called me Ella.

A smile has never vanished so quickly from my lips.

“You called me Ella,” I spit at him. “Why?”

Lee’s blue eyes widen. “I’m sorry,” he says quickly. “But…that’s your name, isn’t it? Your first name? I…I saw it on a letter on your kitchen table.”

“My first name is Elizabeth, actually.” The name Ella wasn’t on my letters. Nobody has called me that in years.

“Well, I’m sorry.” He drops his eyes. “I guess I just…”

He doesn’t complete that sentence, which is just as well, since I can’t imagine what bullshit explanation he could possibly come up with.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Do we know each other?”

“Sure. You’re my closest neighbor.”

“No. I mean from before you lived here.”