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But I was, and slowly I was putting the pieces together. Doing what I could. She definitely wasn’t helping.
Charlie was tense. I could feel it in the air. Her hands clutched the steering wheel a little too tight, her knuckles white. She bit the inside of her cheek as she drove—and it took me a few minutes to realize we weren’t driving in the direction of campus.
She brought us to the nearest town, and we pulled up to an ATM, where she then pulled out a wad of cash.
What the hell was she doing? My thoughts of dear Uncle Dave and how I didn’t like him or the way Charlie acted around him were pushed back by how weird she was acting this morning. I decided to break the silence of the car, “Charlie, what’s going on?”
Her lips remained zipped… that was, until we turned out of the bank parking lot and darted across the street to the much larger lot of a grocery store. She put the car in park and finally turned those big, brown eyes to me. The expression she wore called back to the one she’d worn when she’d told me to leave.
She handed me the money, but I didn’t go to take it. All I did was stare at her. We were locked in a stalemate for a while, neither one of us daring to speak.
Eventually, she said, “Take the money and go.”
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.We were doing this again? I literally just told her not too long ago that I wouldn’t leave her, that I didn’t want to go back to Eastcreek and finish my business because Charlie and everything about her had become my business.
Did she not learn anything? Was she not listening to me, or did she think I didn’t mean it?
“I’m not taking the money,” I told her. “And I sure as shit ain’t going anywhere. What’s this about, Charlie?”
“You and me, it’s not going to end well,” she said, still trying to give me the money. “I’d rather take the heartbreak now than later. Please, Brett, just take the money, go somewhere far away, and start a new life.”
My voice came out a bit harsher than I intended when I said, “If I’m going to start a new life anywhere, it’s going to be with you.”
At that, Charlie had to close her eyes and turn her face away from me, breaking our eye contact—probably because she knew just how stupid this was. The hand offering me the money fell to rest on the center console. “Stop,” she whispered. “Just stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop pretending someone like you can love.” She opened her eyes and looked at me again, her mouth drawn into a frown. “You’re a serial killer, Brett. You kill people. You killed my ex—”
“Yeah. That’s kind of why you enlisted my help in the beginning. Your stalker, remember? The person who’s basically haunting you. He came into your house and drew a picture of you while you weresleeping. He was in your room, Charlie, and you didn’t even know it.”
“I remember,” she spoke quietly.
I couldn’t help it. I was a little riled up now, so I said what was on my mind: “Speaking of, you said you hadn’t seen your uncle in over a year. A year and a half, give or take, right? When exactly did all this stalker business start?”
Charlie’s eyes widened as she came to the same conclusion I did: about the same time.
“Don’t you think it’s odd the timeframes line up so well? Your stalker seems to know you, Charlie, and he said it himself: you’re his favorite niece. I picked up on a bad vibe from him the moment he walked in—and you started to act different.”
“No, I didn’t,” she hurriedly said with a shake of her head.
“Yes, you did.”
She shook her head again, saying, “My uncle isn’t my stalker. There’s no way.” I opened my mouth to argue with her, because odds were her stalker was someone she knew and not some random college guy she happened to walk by and he’d suddenly become obsessed. No, it was just like kidnapping or abuse. Odds were the perp was someone she knew.
And my radar was going nuts, flashing bright red lights when it came to Uncle Dave.
But I didn’t get the chance to say anything, because she said, “Please, Brett. The deal’s off. I don’t want your help anymore. Just take the money and go.” Her voice quieted. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
I stared at her for what felt like an eternity, and then I took the money out of her hand. Doing a quick count, I had two hundred dollars in my hand. Wouldn’t really get me far—if I listened to her and actually left.
Here’s the thing: I’d meant it when I’d told her I wasn’t going to leave again. She could try to tell me to go all she wanted, but I wouldn’t. How could I leave her when she was so vulnerable and alone without me? She needed me; she just didn’t want to admit it to herself. She was scared to.
“You’re sure about this?” I asked. Anyone with ears would realize I’d turned too calm, way too calm given how frustrated I’d been mere moments ago. One could say I was lying, in a way. If she wanted to lie and tell me she didn’t need me…
Well, I guess I’d have to convince her she needed me.
All Charlie did was nod, so I said, “Fine,” and got out of the car. Once I was on my own two feet, I shut the car door and stared hard at the girl inside. She didn’t so much as look at me, not even as she pulled away and left me there, in the parking lot of a freaking Wal-Mart.
