Free Love Lies Bleeding by Meghan Ciana Doidge Page A

with her foot. While she looked around, she tossed the keys in her hand in a gesture oddly reminiscent of Shep and his knife. It was a subconscious mimic. The windows, swathed in curtains, provided only dim light. The air was stale. The side tables were dusty. Karli tucked the house keys in her purse — she was still wearing the slut outfit — and turned back to Pamela. “It’s cool. Come in.”  
    Pamela, once again clutching the laptop to her chest, reluctantly entered.
    “You’ll be safe here,” Karli said.
    “Yes, but I want —”
    “To go to Grady, to kill yourself. I don’t know why you even bothered in the forest, or coming back for me.”
    “I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you. And my … death, I want on my terms, with Grady.”
    “Listen. Various people, obviously, seem to think that Grady might have sent you sensitive information. That info needs to get into the right hands.”
    “Your agency’s hands?”
    “They’re the good guys.”
    Pamela, not wanting to continue the conversation, placed a hand on her jaw and exhaled all the pain she was holding at bay. She was utterly exhausted.
    “Wait,” Karli said, and then hustled down the hall farther into the house. Alone, Pamela glanced around, seeing a sparsely and impersonally furnished space that made it rather obvious no one lived there. Then Karli returned with a pill bottle for Pamela. “For your tooth.”
    Pamela hesitated. Karli sighed and then shook a couple of pills into her hand. She dry swallowed them, then opened her mouth for Pamela to see. She held the bottle out to Pamela, who took it.
    “Who lives here?”
    “For now, you. Take two of those pills now and give me the bottle back.”
    Pamela nodded obediently, then crossed through a far doorway and into the kitchen.  
    •••••••••
    Clutching the laptop to her chest with one hand, Pamela palmed some water from the sink tap and swallowed two pills.
    Karli leaned against the counter that ran between the stove and fridge. “I’ll be gone, tops, one hour. You take a shower and a nap and I’ll be back with a doctor.” Pamela stared at the water still running out of the tap and didn’t answer. Karli reached over and shut off the tap. “If we get through this and you still want to kill yourself, I’ll drive you to the cemetery myself. Okay?”
    Pamela looked up at Karli as if to verify the truth of her words. Seemingly satisfied, she nodded. Karli held out her hand and Pamela, a little reluctantly, gave her the pill bottle back.  
    Karli turned to leave the kitchen but then paused at the door to the living room. “First door in the hall to your right is a bedroom with an en suite.”
    Pamela nodded. Karli, completely hesitant to do so, exited through the living room to the foyer.
    •••••••••
    Back in the foyer, Karli paused by the front door and looked back to see Pamela watching her from the kitchen doorway. “Promise. We’ll go over everything when I get back. Promise.”
    Now it was Pamela’s turn to hesitate.
    “Trust me. Just a few more hours. Promise?”
    Pamela finally nodded. Karli turned away, but then turned back. Seemed she was doing a lot of second guessing herself this particular day. “I need to hear you say it.”
    “I won’t kill myself here or attempt to get to Grady’s grave while you are gone.”
    Somewhat satisfied Karli nodded, exited, and locked the door behind her. Pamela, still cradling the laptop, wandered off down the hall.
    •••••••••
    Outside the bungalow, Karli leaned back against the front door. She stared pensively out at the street for a moment, and then, sighing resignedly, she opened her hand to reveal two pills.
    She looked at the pills as if she loathed the sight of them, then, shaking her head, she dropped the pills back in the bottle.
    Turning back to catch sight of Pamela wandering down the hall through the door’s sidelight window, Karli then hustled over to Erwin’s