AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Getting up, I walked toward the back door and poked my head out to find the night cleaner standing in the backyard. He looked surprised to see me, immediately tucking the cigarette he held between his fingers out of sight.
“Sorry,” I said quickly, closing the door behind me. “I saw the flame from your lighter and got nosy.”
“Ms. Perkins doesn’t like people smoking near the house, says it makes her nose itch,” he explained sheepishly. “I normally wait until a little later to light up, but I got antsy.”
“Yeah,” I said, stepping down to stand beside him. “Being in this house long enough is good for making anyone feel antsy.”
“She’s hell on wheels,” he said with a soft laugh, holding his pack out in my direction.
I shook my head. “I quit four years ago. I just like being around other people when they’re smoking.”
“My mom is like that, says she just likes the smell.”
“Yeah, it’s like smoking without actually giving in to it. The temptation is always there, though, and it’s ten times worse when I’m drinking.”
It was sorely tempting to take him up on the offer, but I shoved the thought aside before it could worm its way into the deepest trenches of my mind. My grip on my self-control had been slipping enough lately. I didn’t want it to go so far as to fall back into old habits…or addictions in nicotine’s case.
I peered out at the lawn, catching sight of the small building where the one-man security sat at the back of the property. From this angle, I realized there was another building on the property. It too was at the back, near the fence that overlooked a deep ravine. Unlike the security building, however, it looked less like a shack and more like a small cottage. It would be visible from the house, but I realized it was positioned so I’d have to be at specific windows to see it.
“What’s that building?” I asked, pointing at it.
“Oh, that’s Mr. Perkins’ private building,” the cleaner said, flicking ash into the grass and absently swiping it away with his foot.
“Private building?”
“Don’t ask me. I just know he spends a lot of the time when he’s home out there. Sometimes he sleeps out there, but I don’t know what’s there.”
I glanced at him. “You don’t clean it?”
“Nope, all the cleaning staff have explicit instructions to leave that part of the property alone. I'm told the gardeners don’t even touch the bushes around it.”
“Interesting,” I said, peering at the darkened building. “Makes me wonder what he’s got out there.”
He snorted. “Guys like that probably have some really freaky shit or even freakier, some poor girl locked up in a secret cellar.”
I snorted. “Well, that’s dark.”
“Eh, you know how these rich people are, they’re bigger freaks than the rest of us, but they have all the money in the world to hide it,” he said, smearing the cigarette out on the grass.
Normally, I might be inclined to agree with him. It wasn’t hard to turn the metaphorical corner and hear rumors or news of the latest human atrocity committed by the rich and powerful. The thing was, Shane seemed pretty open about his lifestyle and wasn’t bothering to hide it. Which either meant he had something even worse hidden away from prying eyes, or it was some other secret I couldn’t begin to guess at.
Then again, with a man like the one I’d come to know in only a few short weeks, who knew just what sort of secret would be considered worth hiding?
“I should head back in,” the cleaner said, nodding over his shoulder toward the house. “I need to clean the light fixtures in the den, otherwise Mrs. Perkins will chew someone out. The last girl she caught with a complaint ended up going home in tears.”
“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” I said with a chuckle. “Have a good night, Andrew.”
“You too,” he said, hesitating before walking off. I smiled, figuring he had probably never bothered to learn my name. I wasn’t offended, though. I’d heard one of the afternoon cleaners refer to him by name a week before. The poor man had probably only heard me referred to as Mr. McCully or Nurse McCully by Sophia or the staff.
I stood there in the silence of the yard for several minutes, gazing up at the sky. The property was enough on the outskirts of Cresson Point that the light pollution wasn’t terrible. I could actually make out some of the brighter constellations, and it didn’t look like there was an aura of light glowing in the sky. It was also isolated enough that I couldn’t hear the normal sounds of traffic and honking horns.
Before getting lost in the peace, however, I heard the creaking of the small deck in the backyard. After waiting a few seconds, I concluded that it wasn’t Andrew coming back. He had seemed nervous enough that he probably would have announced himself or said something once he found me in the same spot.
“Something I can do for you, Mr. Perkins?” I asked in a soft voice. “Does your mother need something?”
“My mother has no fear or hesitation in letting someone know when she needs something,” he said from behind me, drawing closer. “And she’ll let you know when you’ve failed to meet her expectations.”
“She’s certainly not shy about that,” I agreed, though I prided myself on the lack of judgment in my voice.
