Free The Devil's Wire by Deborah Rogers Page B

crazy woman making this whole thing up?"
    "That's what he'll argue."
    Officer Rosen shuts the file and gets to her feet.
    "Get some evidence, Mrs. Blake, real evidence, then we can take the matter further."
    *
    Jennifer manages to make it to her car without falling apart. She starts the engine and tells herself to relax before she snaps the steering wheel right out of its column and McKenzie loses the one good parent she has left. Her mind spins. She thought the police would help, so now what? This was uncharted territory, with no point of reference, no just turn east and you'll hit land, no You Tube advice like there was for fixing a burred screw.
    The Leeston Avenue sign appears and Jennifer turns left and tries to put a lid on her rage because she doesn't want McKenzie to pick up on the negative energy – she was already dealing with enough.
    Jennifer had suggested that maybe it was better to take some time off school, let things settle for a bit, but McKenzie had been unmoved. There was nothing more to talk about, she'd insisted, she was going to school whether Jennifer liked it or not.
    So Jennifer had given in, but now, as she pulls up outside the entrance and sees McKenzie looking so upset, she knew that had been a mistake. McKenzie gets in the car and nods toward the enormous Sugar Maple near the school gymnasium.
    "It's Dad," she says.
    Jennifer follows her gaze. Hank is parked in his pick-up watching them. Her pulse begins to race.
    "Ignore him," she says, pulling away from the curb.
    "He's mad at me, isn't he?"
    "McKenzie, you don't need to worry about his feelings."
    Jennifer looks in the rearview, expecting him to follow, but he starts his car and goes the other way.
    "Why did he do that?" says McKenzie.
    "I don't know."
    "This is your fault," says McKenzie.
    Jennifer's phone rings. It's him. She answers on the second ring.
    "You bastard, you won't get away with this."
    "This is our family and this is our business and we take care of it."
    Then he hangs up before she can reply.

 
    15
    This was like the time with Alice Jackson. Hank could be out there watching just like that guy in the park, the guy who sprang from the bushes and hissed "little Yankee sluts" and chased Alice and Jennifer with a knife when they were thirteen and drinking cider bought with Alice's fake id and taking a short cut to the 7-11. He had looked like a netherworld goblin and he was fast and wily and Jennifer and Alice tore up the pathway to get away from him but they were deep in the park and it was a long way to the exit and it took forever and Jennifer could hear him pounding behind them, growling like a wild goat, and Alice grabbed at Jennifer's sleeve, trying to keep up, gasping wait, don't, please, wait , but Jennifer shook her off and kept running, half aware Alice was falling behind, but Jennifer couldn't stop, propelled by naked fear, she just ran and ran, until she finally made it out the gates and onto the other side.
    Jennifer looks out her bedroom window and wonders what Alice Jackson is doing now.
    Alice Jackson with her black Doc Martins and trench coat purchased from an army surplus store with rips in the cuffs where she could put her thumbs through. Alice Jackson who didn't like to wash because her stepfather had taken off the door to the bathroom. Alice Jackson who had looked at Jennifer and said "You were going to leave me behind" to which Jennifer had lied and said "No, I wasn't" but they both knew it was true – how she would have thrown Alice to the wolves just to save herself.
    As Jennifer surveys the streets and roads below, and over there, by the green and more green of the woods, she tells herself that was a lifetime ago. She's a different person now, a mother, with the fierce instinct to protect her own young and she would sacrifice her own life for McKenzie's if it ever came down to it.
    Jennifer hears the scrape of furniture against the floor next door and goes to check. McKenzie is on her hands and knees,